Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

Pencil and Adobe Photoshop

July 2013

The only comment I can make is - one episode in and I want to be part of this show.

The Red Wedding

This year, I got into Game of Thrones. The Red Wedding scene was particularly horrific, and it made me rather sad and angry, and yet I loved watching it play out! There is something about pure evil plans that go well that is just brilliant to watch. This is why I love and loathe the Lannisters so much.

This piece is inspired by that very scene. It captures the 4 main parts: the butchering of Grey Wind and Robb Stark, the deaths of his mother and his wife, and the smug Lord Walder Grey overseeing the plan.

And who are you, the proud lord said,

that I must bow so low?

Only a cat of a different coat,

that's all the truth I know.

In a coat of gold or a coat of red,

a lion still has claws,

And mine are long and sharp, my lord,

as long and sharp as yours.

And so he spoke, and so he spoke,

that lord of Castamere,

But now the rains weep o'er his hall,

with no one there to hear.

Yes now the rains weep o'er his hall,

and not a soul to hear.

Final Major Project: The Black Cat

This is an interpretation of Poe's The Black Cat,

This version tells the story of a drunk man who, after viewing a surreal chamber of an evil cat, slips back into reality, determined to hunt down the cat to end the visions. His wife attempts to stop him and ends up being the victim. In his sadness and guilt he immures her (and unknowingly, the cat). In the end, he is found out by the sound of the cat yowling behind the wall.

Watch in HD here.

Here are the stills:

Derwent Pencil Prize: Portrait of a Camel

Portrait of a Camel

Pencil on A2 heavy paper

May 2013

Invisible Cities: Clarice

This is my first year animation that was meant to go on showreel, but was sadly cut as the reel was far too long. It is based on Italo Calvino's book Invisible Cities, and I had the city of Clarice - a city that continues to modernise and grow, but the residents preserve the best parts under bell jars until the city is a mix of jars and decaying buildings. Some of my favourite drawings are in this little animation. Click through for HD.

Here are the stills:

Haunts of the Poets - W.B. Yeats

I re-did this drawing I did a year ago for my portfolio. It was a nice drawing, but I had slapped an unfortunate background behind it. So here's a much simpler design, and I like how it rather looks like a dip pen on parchment.

Under Milkwood (animated short)

(Click through to view in HD)

Under Milkwood is a (radio) play by Dylan Thomas and I was given a brief to animate a section of it. This is the finished version!

Come closer now.

Only you can hear the houses sleeping in the streets in the slow deep salt and silent black, bandaged night. Only you can see in the blinded bedrooms, the combs and petticoats over the chairs, the jugs and basins, the glasses of teeth, Thou Shalt Not on the wall, and the yellowing, dickybird-watching pictures of the dead. Only you can hear and see, behind the eyes of the sleepers, the movements and countries and mazes and colours and dismays and rainbows and tunes and wishes and flight and fall and despairs and big seas of their dreams.

From where you are, you can hear their dreams.

Here are the stills:

Aesop's Fables: The Cat Maiden

This is a retelling of Aesop's fable The Cat Maiden whereby a cat is changed into a woman who behaves like a human at first, but returns to her basic instinct upon seeing a mouse.

I reworked these and I'm glad I did because they look much better than the previous version, especially the first one.

Project 2: Editorial

This project was to take a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall article from The Saturday Guardian and illustrate it via drypoint or etching. I chose drypoint since it was a familiar technique and I could manipulate it much faster than with etchings. At first I did not like the sound of an editorial project as this was not my strongest point - but I do have a love for cooking and food, so this wasn't too troublesome. Plus I had to make these dishes so that I had something to draw from! This article is for 'Simple Sausage Recipes':

 

Project 1: Reportage for the Blue Plaque Society

This project was a simple one, but not without challenges. The first part was to go out, find buildings with a Blue Plaque on them, and then draw those buildings. The next was to make them into A2 posters that would advertise what they were. It was difficult trying to make such a simple image appealing, without drowning it in fancy, unnecessary design 'charms'. In the end I think I achieved decent results, limiting myself to pure tone and gradients: