Summer life drawing

I’ve been heading to a few life classes recently, warming up that sketching muscle! Here’s a selection from a duo workshop in Manchester, U.K and two other classes with a male and female model.

Annecy Animation Festival 2019

It’s been a few weeks now but I’ve finally got a bit of time to sort my post-Annecy notes and sketches. I haven’t been for a while, this being my fourth trip. It never fails to inspire you and re-ignite your love for animation! You come away wanting to DRAW haha!

The ticketing system is a bit more high tech than when I last went…all QR code scanning and app booking. It took me a few days to get the hang of this as I seemed to have missed booking ANYTHING. Luckily I bagged an additional screening of ‘I lost my body’ (j’ai purdu mon corps) which was being produced at the last studio I worked at (Pipangai) on Réunion Island.

This film was EPIC. Exactly the kind of animation and storytelling I love to see in a feature at the moment, as it felt very fresh and engaging. It was a bit of a downer of a film. I mean, it’s French so of course it’s moody 😉 But it is beautiful in the way it was executed and blows the socks off anything else in the independent circuit right now. The first 5 minutes are sooo cool. It’s not the sort of shot choices you see in a 2D animated film (probably because of the directors background and the combining of 3D and 2D tools). Here’s a trailer:

I got my head around the ticketing eventually and saw a load of great short films (for me, these are the best bit of festivals). The range of styles and forms the storytelling takes is the big THING that inspires me. I wrote a bunch of notes along side sketches, hence why the long decode time as I’m often writing in the dark..! I met many lovely people there including old friends, which is always a big highlight. I got to chat away to many folks at Toon Boom whom I’ve never met in person, but I’ve recently completed some promo work for as part of their 25th anniversary. You can watch that below:

There’s a whole section of the Annecy festival called Mifa, which is sort of the business area. You can have meetings here, go check out companies who make software, studios who are recruiting, and so on. You’ll often get some freebies too! I did a fair amount of chatting here, so the week was quite busy all in all. I DID manage to squeeze some sketching in though. I’ve also got a collection of sketches from my half day in Geneva before I headed home, which I’ll aim to post soon. I’d like to add some colour to more of these, as the scenery was so bright and often I didn’t get time to paint on location. The storms rolled in for a few days, which meant there was a real contrast! Could’ve just spent a week there sketching and painting, never mind all the films! Here’s a gallery of sketches and many more photos (iPhone is just a bit too easy). I took a disposable black and white camera that I bought in the airport on a whim. When I get those developed, I’ll post a few! I met one of my heroes, Ronnie Del Carmen there. He as a lovely chap and I’ve been a fan of his work and comics for years. We have a lo-fi selfie, so I’ll be sure to post him one when the roll is finished 🙂

Trips in America

We arrived back from a 16 day U.S.A experience yesterday, going from Chicago, into Wisconsin, marriage things and then to New York for a final bit of fun. It was a GREAT holiday and we crammed in so much. The weather was everything from warm, sweaty and sunny to windy, stormy and tornado inducing (no really, we had an alert whilst in Chicago..!) I played golf at some amazing courses, met a lot of ace people (and dogs) and watched my brother get married. The U.S.A is always great fun for me, as for all its faults, it still holds this feeling of freedom for a little boy from old England. Maybe it’s all the Americana I grew up on, but you can’t help but share in a little excitement at the novelty of it all.

Sketches & photos

I made a few sketches amongst the madness, many of which were in New York when there was more time to reflect on things. I did snap a fair amount of pictures, practising with the new camera (low light settings ALMOST mastered!). For now, here’s a snippet of those things.

Unexpected moments from the trip

– Finding out that Sheboygan, WI is a beautiful town with a strong creative vibe (who knew).

– Williamsburg is cool. It was expected, but it was even cooler than I imagined and we had a great time there. The independent shops are awesome.

– Friendly New Yorkers. We met many helpful, kind people there just in passing on the street, at night, etc. Not the stereotype! Mainly off Manhattan island, it has to be said.

– Playing some of the best golf of my life at Whistling Straits G.C. That day will forever live in my memory and I shall not let anyone forget my long game prowess.

– Discovering that Dexter has a rival for the cutest dog in the world. Meet Katrink, of Old Town, Chicago.

Sketching flowers

sketching flowers

I’ve been doing a bit of The Artist’s Way as part of some creative discovery. Admittedly there have been some breaks in completing the 12 week course, but when I do get around to it, I love the little tasks!

It makes you look at the world with fresh eyes and be a bit more playful with your art. It’s easy to end up just doing ‘work’ when creativity becomes your job.

Flower watercolour sketches

Some watercolour sketches of the flowers in the living room. Thistles were a nice touch!

If you’re looking for a great book that’ll have you exploring your creative side, I can’t recommend The Artist’s Way highly enough! It’s really top class and as a bonus, the 12 week course structure is easy to follow and very inspiring. Even if you don’t draw, it’s a lovely 3 month side project 🙂

Nexus film fest and Nottingham’s scene

I’ve been entering the (free) festivals with my little film ‘Who Moved My Penguin?’ since it was finished in February this year. I’ve been lucky enough to get in a few too, which is very nice! I love watching things on the big screen, and one of those was in my hometown of Nottingham. The festival was called Nexus and took place at the swanky new arts venue, Metronome (new to me anyway…think it’s been there a few years now).

My film was in a session of animation, music videos, documentaries and comedy. It was a brilliant display of variety and talent, and I came home very inspired! Some of the highlights for me included a short film about ghosts from their perspective and some great music videos for local bands.

The film is also showing in the USA, Russia and of course lovely old England. It was the first time I’d seen it on the big screen though, so a brilliant milestone. Now I’m looking forward to making the next short, and of course working on this comic / graphic novel that is taking form. More to post in a few weeks, if I get chance before my brother’s wedding..! Best man speech to write and all… 😉

Nexus film festival

A true to life capture of myself trying to find the front door to Metronome in Notts.

Penguin film alliance!

Boggle Sox alliance

I have some exciting news: as of last week, my recent short animated film, Who moved my Penguin? is screening exclusively through Adastra’s channel, BoggleSox. The channel also screens such properties (fancy word for stuff, tangible or not) as Grandpa in my Pocket, Bounty Hamster and Spider! Funnily enough, you can see my fiancee, Josie (as of Feb 14th!) in the show Ha Ha Hairies on there, too!

It’s really great to get the film seen by such a large audience (50 million channel views and counting!) with the bonus of being around the brilliant shows mentioned above. I’d LOVE to create more of these little films but it’s all down to funds to do so. They’re not expensive (I can actually make them quickly, in animation terms) but I still need money to live 😉 If you are looking to fund some new short animated series work, LET’S TALK! 😀 I’d love to hear from you.

Here’s the film again, updated to it’s new place on the web. As of last week it became inactive on my Vimeo and YouTube accounts, ready for this launch. At that time, it had amassed over 40,000 views. I’m chuffed with that! My last proper short film was during university and with the internet not being the beast it is now, it garnered nowhere near as much eyeballing. Festival submissions and DVD posting ruled back then! Ahhh sweet 2007…

 

Spring sunset

Today apparently marks the start of Spring here in the U.K plus there’s something called a super worm moon whatever that is! The days are getting warmer and the rain has lifted, at least in Manchester, for the time being.

I was wandering around town today, looking at all the incredible development that is going on in this city. It’s like something out of a sci fi novel, except when I read about Hyperloop it makes me think we are actually IN a sci fi novel. It’s very cool but also maybe moving a tad fast. Capitalism doing its thing I guess! Just to be clear though, no Hyperloop in Manchester, just lots of cranes and shiny glass 🙂

Whilst contemplating life in the big ‘Northern Powerhouse’ I saw an ace sunset out of my window. I’ve sketched and drawn this numerous times, but it never gets boring, as the clouds are ALWAYS different. you notice little changes in the tree/building silhouettes, too. this sketch was digital (Krita again) whereas the others are normally in a sketchbook with mixed media. tonight had these wonderful, silky ink clouds that almost dripped across the gradient skyline. Here’s the sketch:


stretford-spring-sunset

Anyway, enough about skies! A little side note: my short film: Who moved my Penguin? recently got accepted into the Lift Off screenings run by Pinewood Studios. So here’s to the film’s first laurels..! There’s a few other festivals that it’s looking likely to get into due to its theme, so I’ll post updates when I get some 🙂 The work on the new film is going good now too, made some progress today! The trick I’m finding is balancing the time between different projects, keeping all the plates spinning, as it were. Oop, one’s about to drop, no more blogging distractions from me…

LiftOffLaurelsSessions

Athletic lizards

Okay maybe not lizards that run track or anything, but bear with me…

When I was working away last year I used to see these funky lizards on the wall below the studio window. They’d be sitting out in the scorching midday sun practically frying to the concrete. There were two distinct types, green lizards and the grey/black ones with orange heads. Some of them were a foot long and could move very quickly when bothered! My favourite thing they did was their ‘push up’ routine. When they saw another lizard, they’d immediately enter into a push up contest, bobbing quickly up and down until one clearly gave in due to lack of muscles 😉

He’s a sketch of the triumphant winner. I gave him the name Limmy as he was the most frequent wall visitor and also the one who was most likely to get squashed by a car, judging by his road safety choices. This has absolutely no linkage to why he’s called Limmy, he just felt like one.

The sketch was made in the brilliant (and FREE) Krita software. Support them with a donation if you like what you see, and don’t forget to feed back on your experiences or wish lists! I do love the brush selection but often wish the handling of masks was a little more straight forward. But maybe I’m just used to a different method 😀 Can’t complain for free eh?

push up lizard

Sepia life drawings

sepia life drawings

Time for another life drawing post! This outing onto the paper was great as I actually felt I captured more of what I was going for in each image. The model had brilliant figure and structure for drawing, with the outside orange street lighting casting an unusual fringe glow. I was using a slightly sepia paper already, so started sketching in a burnt umber/dark sepia charcoal stick pastel thing…I’m not exactly sure what it was! It definitely helped me loosen up though and focus on what I was drawing a bit better. I try out different styles when I’m doing it, mainly to have fun and experiment, but also sometimes it gives me these happy accidents 🙂

Who moved my Penguin?

Who moved my Penguin

Here it is! The short film I made about basically being kind to one another, no matter where in the world you come from. It’s around 2 minutes long and you can watch below (note: this video is now playing from BoggleSox’s channel due to a streaming partnership with them).

Where does the story come from?

The story came about from watching all this news on refugees trying desperately to get away from their homeland, and the very mixed reception that people gave them. I didn’t want to make a film that was preachy or too political, as I feel like there’s enough depressing things out there already! My aim was to tell a lighter version which can be viewed by all, with a core message of kindness and empathy.

The picture pin board sequence works around the idea that circumstances affecting the movement of people are often out of their control. This is shown through the easy life of a young Westerner, with details of their affluent life scattered around the photos. The actual pictures are representative of the exotic holidays that rich tourists ‘take and tick off’ on their individual road to self affirmation. the only interaction with the world outside their bubble being a throw away, filtered photo or an ‘awareness’ post on social media. These are just fleeting moments to them, like the worldwide, disaster news they scroll through online everyday.

But I believe people are still fundamentally good! And so this is the end to the story. So be kind to one another people 🙂

Original sketch for the film

One of the first sketches for the film

How was the film made?

The film was made in Toon Boom Harmony using Adobe Premier, After Effects, Audition & Photoshop for certain parts. I started the film as an exercise for rigging demos (a hand drawn character that is rigged up like a skeleton) but it evolved past that, probably because it took so long to finish! I actually believed that the Syrian refugee crisis would be ‘over’ by the time I finished and no longer in the news, but alas… The film was started in 2016 but often was put off due to work commitments and other projects. I finally came to the realisation that I needed to be brave and just finish it towards the end of 2018, when my girlfriend and I were robbed in Mauritius and I was also reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron…but that is story for a different post!

There’s an original score by Richard Hunter (it was great to work with him too..thanks Richard!) and assisting direction from Josie Cerise…saving me from moments of madness 😉

Who moved my Penguin promo image

If you have any questions about the film or the process, just send them over from the contact page. I hope you enjoy it!

Copyright © Adam Oliver 2025.