A naked man thinks about his home.

There are life drawing sessions some lunchtimes at work now. I really struggled to get back into the life drawing part so just did a stupid story instead.

Tales of the Spiffing book!

Slightly late news! The other day an art of Aardman book was released! It's called Tales of the Spiffing and is a collection of mostly comics but also some illustrations from various people in and around and under Aardman. You can see my page up there ^ the lovely cover by Luis Cook below and more stuff (including info on how to get to hold a copy) on the website here http://talesofthespiffing.blogspot.com/

Ronnie on the London Underground

Ronnie, the ultra mega-famous director of the The TATE Movie Project, has been snapped by the papz on the London Underground! I didn't believe it either but here's the evidence! (Thank you Douglas Ray for the evidence!)

Tate Movie Project wins at the BIMAs

Last week the Tate Movie Project website (which I'm doing the animation/character design and occasionally some writing for) won an award at the British Interactive Media Awards for the website and microsite category. The trophy was very heavy (about the weight of a bag of sugar) and red - it's nice. Here's a photo (taken by Gavin Strange, the wonderful senior designer on that same project). I think this was Aardman Digital's first award so it's a special one!

Ronnie, the TATE Movie director, on CBBC!

Here's a little clip from CBBC today of some animation I did of Ronnie promoting the TATE Movie project! This is a project I'm working on with lots of pretty clever people at Aardman with the TATE gallery to help any child in the U.K. be part of a film that will be shown in cinemas across the country. Have a look at www.TATEmovie.co.uk/

I didn't get a Blue Peter badge

There's going to be a thing about the TATE movie on Blue Peter on Tuesday 14th! Andy Akinwolere came into Aardman the other day to do some filming and talk to Sarah (who's directing it all) and I spent a few days animating Ronnie, the director, saying some stuff to the presenters; to find out what he says make sure you tune in at 4.30 to watch it! I will watch it... even though they wouldn't give me a Blue Peter badge.

Toronto Zoo Polar Bears - be sure to see them ads

Last month, maybe the one before, I spent a couple of days working on a commercial directed by Matthew Walker for Toronto Zoo. There were four spots in all but you can see the one I did below:



Was a lot of fun to do especially because it's a bit like Matt's short film John and Karen which I really like and which you can see a clip of here: http://vimeo.com/1922334

Directed by Matthew Walker, produced at Arthur Cox for Aardman animations for Lowe Roche for Toronto Zoo.

The TATE Movie Project!

For a few months this year I've been working away on the character design and animation for the TATE Movie Project website. Today is the launch day so you can go see it all and have a look around the virtual film studio at www.TATEmovie.co.uk!

To find out more about what it is all about there is a good article on Creative Review - will be interesting to see how it all turns out!

It's directed by Sarah Cox of Arthur Cox Ltd; Robin Davey did the backgrounds; and it was all put together by lots of clever people at Aardman Digital who are hopefully resting their brains for a little bit now.

Why Music Matters - Sigur Rós

Before Christmas I made a short film at Arthur Cox Ltd, produced by Aardman, for the Why Music Matters campaign. The idea was to pick a musical artist from the big long list of EMI artists and say why music matters. I chose the band Sigur Rós because I had a friend in university who kissed a girl on an A-road over-pass in the rain one night, and he said it was so incredibly emotional he imagined a movie camera spinning around them both while the sparkling rain fell in slow motion and Sigur Rós played. I found that funny and wanted to show how people match their surroundings and experiences with music, and vice versa.

Here it is:

You can join the music matters Facebook page, follow them on Twitter or read more about it on the BBC, Telegraph, Guardian, MojoMusic and Rough Trade Records websites.