Bitter update news

I'm was very wary of this already, but I guess it was always going to happen to me at some point being a freelancer. But I got stung.

Over the past few days I've been investing a lot of time and effort working on some designs for a cul-de-sac of a animation project. There were early warning signs that I probably over looked, like when the agent consulting with me wouldn't give me the name of the agency he represented, the way his accounts were new and without any traceable content, and the unprofessional way in which he was discussing the work program.

Basically he kept asking for re-designs, and was very shifty about the process of payment. I think in the end he said that he wanted me to flat out copy / trace the design from another artist's artwork. So I decided to call it a day at that point and not waste any more time on it.

I had a lot of fun doing the drawings regardless, I had the chance to mess around with a complete mix of different styles, and  I thought it was a shame to waste them so I decided to throw them up on here.

2 thousand no hundred and 14

As always assume that no news is good news. I've been happily busy since my last post, and I've set myself a few goals for the new year, one of those being to churn out at least one project a month on-top of all my other paid commissioned animations.

I've landed a job working alongside a great sound editing guy from the UK, and together we're going to be working on a 12 episode web-series which will hopefully get started this month, I'm already about 80% done with the first episode. This is going to be a big project for me, and a nice ongoing job that should last at a few months. Keep an eye open for that :)

I've also been working on putting together a 2013 showreel, I'll be posting that up here once it's done.

Other vague ambiguous promises of work in the pipeline include getting my website pretty and functioning this month, at the moment, let's face it, it's minimal bordering on Ikea - samw.co.uk

Aaaaand a project that I worked on last month has finally come online, this was a university project that I worked on with a bunch of people from Santiago, Chile. It was a lot of fun to work on, and I feel like the final production turned out great. I'd say this was my favorite job of 2013.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9rgA1dUhZLZOVBMOFpxb0g5YW8/edit?usp=sharing

Happy Moanday

Just a dumb drawing I did in rough yesterday, I might redraw this in neat if I have the time. 

You're right, it's vitali kiltschko and Larry merchant.

November round up

It's been over a month since I last posted anything, from now on I think you will have to assume that if I don't post for a while it means that I'm just too busy doing fabulousness.

I think I put the nail in the coffin with the Deontay Wilder drawing, it's finally up on Form&Glory so go and buy it for your Nan for Christmas ;) I also tweeted it to Deontay on Twitter so we'll see if he gives it any extra clout.

- http://www.formandglory.com/collections/boxing/products/bronze-bomber

Also I was hired to work alongside a UK / US collaborative platform game. I drew some of the characters' action sequences and the credits. I'll get a working link for this when I can.

I've also made some moves with a personal project I'm working on called 'Slackman' the superhero wiho has amazing powers of flight, speed, telekinesis, and super strength, except he can't be bothered to use any of these powers. I've roped in a team of brilliant voice actors / actresses for this, so hopefully it will turn out well. I couldn't say how long it will take me to finish but optimistically I hope to get it done within a few weeks.

Here's a sneaky peek.

- http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/acbae98ae4ecee929a0f23c85a12638d

Finally, and I'm working on a very slick production with some 3rd year animation students in Santiago, Chile. I honestly feel like this is the most professional animation I've worked on, and the best quality animation I've worked on. It's also given me the opportunity to learn more about working with ToonBoom which I've never got round to playing with before. I'm in no doubt that when it's released it will be incredible, and I'll definitely put it up on here when that happens.

Here's something to wet your appetite

Annnnnyway. I'm still alive!

Next blog update will have more (moving) visuals. Until next time, remember to have a happy Christmas and a merry new year!

Deontay Wilder

I've spent the last few days sketching and designing a submission for the form&glory sport and design project - http://formandglory.com/

Deontay is one of my favourite boxers, and to be honest I was looking for an excuse to draw him anyway.

Orange is the new Black

I got into Orange is the new Black this week, and by that I mean I watched all 13 episodes in about 4 days.

It's helping me get over my Breaking Bad comedown, I enjoyed it so much I drew the main character Piper Chapman played by Taylor Schilling. If I find time I'd like to draw a collection of all the main characters.

September Round Up

I've been meaning to do this for a couple of days, but I've been busy, I'm very sorry.

September has definitely been a crazy month for me. There's been some personal setbacks, but nothing I'm going to bother moaning publicly about, more importantly I've made some major moves and been involved with some brilliant diverse stuff as well. Hopefully I can keep the momentum up.

I probably use blogspot too much to waffle, and I bet nobody except me is genuinely interested in my rambling so I'll get straight down to what I've got up to in September:

1. I painted some shutters.

before..

...AFTER!














This was inspired by an interview I watched of a guy called Steve Powers, the man with the best wig in Brooklyn. He mentioned how it important it is to do something with that your art that is positive and intrinsic to your community, I'm a big fan of The Village Store in Levenshulme, and I got to know Rahman who runs the shop by himself Mon-Sun so it was great to spend some time with him improving his shutters and promote his business a little more, he's a top banana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKd6HmIzvyY
http://www.village-stores.com/

2. Scanned sketchbooks

Not much to say here, besides I've been meaning to scan all my sketchbooks for a while and I finally got round to it. Also my scanner sucks and doesn't pick up pencil very well / at all.

I'll probably put the decent ones on my website at some point.

3. Animated a rugby run cycle

Based on a quick doodled below. IN PENCIL

This was purely for practice, it's not going to be in a full length animation or anything, I need to do more of these run / walk cycles. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/e3a97ee53a0194541ab2994a3d13ba0c

4. 48 hour Independent Game Run 2013

A jam for independent game makers, I worked in a trio alongside a programmer from the US and a musician from Germany to create a game to be entered into the Indie Speed Run 2013, everything used in the project had to be created within a 48 hour window. There's a prize for the wining game, but I'd never made a game before this so don't hold your breath. Voting on the submissions began yesterday, so you can check out the progress of all the games on the website.

http://www.indiespeedrun.com/

Even though in my opinion the whole project could have been put together a little better by the programmer, this was still a good experience to be involved with, and I'm pretty impressed with what we managed to create within such a tight time-frame.

You can check out the game here.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/content/indie-speed-run/?game=393

5. London &/@ Not A Drop

Stalkers among you will remember me mentioning on this blog that I had applied to take part in a exhibition called 'Not a Drop' in London. I've never put my work on at a professional art show before so it was a genuine honour to be accepted and be involved in something like this alongside some amazing artists. The whole thing was great, they had some amazing 2d/3d/performance art across 3 stories, they also boiled some live crayfish in a bowl for some reason.





packin up packin up (left)



on display (below)

6. lil poddo

This is what's been keeping me from doing an update on this ere blog, I've been paid to create an animation to go with a podcast show by some guys in Australia. Considering this is the first bit of paid animation I've done, I'm extremely pleased to be involved. Below is an example of what they have been using. Not to brag, but I feel that mine is an improvement ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-kOVu61Zbk

My animation should be up on their youtube channel pretty soon, the title will be 'Computer Girls' by the time you read this it should be online.

http://www.youtube.com/user/LilPoddo

More like this next month!