2010

On December the 1st I opened the bedroom blinds and thought I'd woken up in Russia. Thick snow in London is rare, especially in early Dec. I spent the morning sketching onto the Cintiq, and then rendered up the final image. I don't normally work directly on the computer but it was far easier to look out of the window and study it directly. That's my little shed in the middle, looking bleak and cold. There's a few details I really like, the deserted birds nest now revealed in winter and the wandering bird prints on the roof.

This will be my last post in 2010 so I hope this image serves as a Xmas card of sorts (hope it's not too depressing!) Thanks to everyone who visited Ye Blogge this year. The start of 2011 begins in furious fashion so I hope to post sometime soon!

Happy New Year!




10 days in Los Angeles.

L.A proved to be an excellent trip. The jet lag was uncompromising at times but the experience was well worth it. We arrived on the Wednesday and headed to Dresdens for a few beers. Thursday morning I was up early to sketch Todd & Liz's cat, and to avoid the pillow talk from Boris.

We headed up to the Getty and spent a great day amongst the permanent collections, the Cacti and the view!

The next day was the CTN-X. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting other artists face to face. There was some formidable talent on display. I have huge thanks to pay to all the interesting people I met both in the halls and in the bar, and shall do so in due course. Matt Jones snuck down to the event in a large DVD box, and it was fantastic to hold a hairy welshman in my arms again. Highlights for me included meeting Ronnie Del Carmen, Noah Klocek, Scott Watanabe and a memorable night on the tiles with Alberto Mielgo and Co. Both Noah and Alberto gave excellent presentations on their work the following day. I even attended a gesture class in the hallway to draw a cowboy.

There was no time to rest after the event as we headed over to Manhatten Beach on the Sunday for a viscious volley ball contest with Tim Watts and his family. Fuelled by 6 large pancakes each battle commenced for at least 15 minutes.

I spent 2 memorable days with Wilbert Plijnaar relaxing in the sanctuary of his incredible garden. I was daunted to learn that he wanted me to add something artistic to his garden. With only 1 day to hand I began to paint a witch doctor onto one of the posts of his outdoor hut, hoping to return one day to continue it.

Wednesday was a chance to see old friends and faces from Disney. Thursday was Thanksgiving and all my plans went belly up. I traveled solo over to Santa Monica just in time to see the sun drop into the North Pacific. Walking down to Venice I found "The Other Room", a bar I visited many moons ago. I sat at the bar and drew on the matchboxes from the bowl. One thing led to another and I ended up at a giant house party until the small hours, ending my last night In L.A with a bang. Small things do matter!

And so it was all over. I'm hugely indebted to Todd & Liz, Wilbert Plijnaar, Sally Umstead, Jim Fielding, Stephane Kardos, Jeff Shelly, Tim Watts and whoever the hell I met at the aforementioned house party for your outstanding generosity!

The last day I went from the 69 degree heat of L.A to the minus 3 degree warmth of the Hammersmith bus terminal!


















My solo November "Sketchcrawl"

I spent a breezy afternoon in the town of Barnes. The devastation was hard to take. One bike had fallen over and one man had a plastic bag attached to his foot. Next time I'm inviting Oscar Grillo for moral support.




















































Ibsley

I visited The New Forest this weekend to see friends and family. I had one morning free to take a country walk around the area I grew up. These are the results.


Cards/Prints

I'm thinking of ideas for a card or print to leave behind at the CTN-X next month. I'll post some ideas here and see if there's a popular one. If not sod it. I'll be selling prints illegally in the car park along with Boris's body.

To create extra excitement and tension, the poll to vote on your favourite closes in 30 seconds......

















Geisha Girl & Pinocchio

Last few sculpts for a while, it's way too cold in the shed. A sure sign of insanity is sitting on your own painting wood to make it look like.........wood. I'm 99% sure I'll be awoken in the middle of the night by a falling proboscis!

New sculpts, warts and all.

Here's a Witch. And also the ghost of Monty, who hit the plonk too hard and is sadly no longer with us. I keep photographing them all together because they're like alcoholics, they need each other.

Elephant

Man paints elephant:



















Elephant paints elephant:

Philip and the Stove

The books arrived this morning-43 pages of colour! I shall be taking these to the CTN Animation Expo in November.

Peter Parr tribute book

My animation tutor retired recently and ex-students have been invited to submit work for a tribute book. This is my submission. Be sure to check Peter's blog via the links to the left- a wonderful man and artist!


"Open Kimono"

Illustrations for a phrase I'd not heard previously.






















Jamie Oliver Illustrations

Illustrations for an article in Jamie Oliver's magazine.

Wooden letters

Made from off cuts of wood. I only had enough for 8 letters. For some strange reason they're very nice to hold and touch.

Just another day.

The first image may have been a false start! This is an old image/story I started a while back. My aim is to add to it little by little from left to right in an erratic and non timely manner.



Elektricity

The moving graphics are a lot smoother on the original quicktime, but this is my film on Vimeo. It seems to run smoother if you let it load completely before playing. Play it loud on your headphones!!

This was my first stab at After Effects- a huge thank you to Marc Iserman at Red Central for helping me post it.

Elektricity from Matt Cruickshank on Vimeo.

More Oldies.

Preparing presentations recently I've stumbled across old work which I've either shared before and removed or not shown before. Here's an eclectic mixture of images, concepts, life drawings and themes. I'll add to this post over the next few days.....