It was a challenging 12 months of setbacks, achievements, cultural highlights, influences and revealing truths. My passions have directed me along this creative journey. I want to thank everybody who were part of it for helping me understand how this insanely tiny world works.
January-March
- Sherlock bounced back into our lives with Series 3. Illustrations and Oscar memes were hugely popular with Speedy’s Cafe and fans.
- (pictured) Beren’s Cat tries and fails to catch the mice.
- Tour of BBC Broadcasting House
- Animated Women UK MPC Showcase, Moving Picture Company
- The Image Is the Servant, Hansom Hall
- Designed the logo for Animated Women UK
- 3D Creative Summit, BFi
- Attended my first Animgather networking event: introduced to Bournemouth students, VFX pros, and other creative cats who are campaigning to save the Doodle Bar from redevelopment.
- Fargo made our Sunday evenings a little more sinister. Eventually we would binge-watch the first series of Happy Valley.
- Submitted a project proposal to LCB Depot – rejected, but…
- A collaboration with Mini Productions on the Acting on a Dreamcampaign begins.
- (pictured) Gok Wan, Miss GB and Leicester’s Strongest Man appeared during the launch of the Fun Tea brand in Highcross.
- Godzilla, despite a triumphant return, started to haunt my dreams.
- The period when things kind of went…eh.
- Friends and family, Smod Co podcasts, Glen Keane’s short film Duet, Days of Future Past and the Moving Together Dance show made me feel hopeful and less lonely.
- Watercolours and cooking slowly brought me out of my slump. Confidence grows but business is still very slow.
- Started designing illustrations for a Jurassic World fan project.
- Everybody’s Music attracted more views via Toon Boom Showcase.
- The folks at somewhereto_ helped me run workshops and a market stall; neither attracted enough attention but they gave me bags of popcorn and a lead or two.
- Completely starstruck by Jenna Coleman and Richard Madden on the way to Animgather Summer Edition, Regent’s Park.
- The popcorn was warmly received with fellow animators. I recommended a young man to seek Prince’s Trust and somewhereto_.
- Danced like Star-Lord around Cardiff after attending the Doctor Who World Tour/Series 8 launch (pictured) where I met lots of lovely fans.
- Fresh from Guardians of the Galaxy and Deep Breath, OneRepublic’s Love Runs Out video blew my mind.
- Attended Frank Gladstone’s Visual Storytelling Masterclass at the University of Wales, before logging into Nik Ranieri’s master lecture over at Virtual Animators.
- In September the bright spots of a frustrating holiday included a filmmaking lecture by Don Hahn, closely followed by Listen, Pride, Aunt Susan, and return to Caswell Bay.
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| “Keep Drawing” |
- (pictured) Making of Duet, Curzon Soho: Glen Keane has seen 40 seconds of Everybody’s Music.
- Revisiting Keane’s classic movies helped improve my animation drawing skills.
- MADE Festival Conference in Sheffield; highlights include Michelle Mone, Levi Roots and bumping into the Seed Creativity guys.
October-December
- (pictured) Opening Gala of LFF: besides some decent photos, the evening was a shambles. Came home later than planned. Wrecked by the ordeal and the death of our beloved Austin.
- My sister Emily, who was also going through hard times, encouraged me to draw The Midnight Beast fan art for her.
- Doctor Who + Virtual Animators (with drawing demos by Andreas Deja)
- UK Young Artists Festival, highlights: the Hermes Experiment, Jo Kelen, Gurdain Singh Rayatt, and Annlin Chao’s Phantom on the Cliff.
- Interstellar rocks the Showcase in XPLUS, thanks to Christopher Nolan’s championing of large screen formats.
- Doctor Who DVD Launch, Ham Yard Hotel
- Installations: Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, Paddington Trail
- The Imitation Game brought me to tears
- Leicester for Business Awards, Y Theatre
- Tour Jurassic World and trailer were both revealed
- (pictured) Aberavon sunset + chips + Paddington
- The Greatest Adventure came to an end with The Battle of Five Armies. I do love spending time in that world, whatever Age.
- AWUK networking (missed out last time when I got lost in Bloomsbury)
- Best Christmas Day Ever
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