Here is a logo I did for Little Chef Big Chef web site. An online store for kids cookery.

Sadly it has nothing at all to do with the slightly faded motorway eatery. Sadly?, well Little Chef commissioned Michelin starred Big Chef Heston Blumenthal to revamp their image and menu. Which he did – despite them. You can see the results in the documentary Big Chef takes on little chef on 4OD.

We almost ate in the pilot restaurant but missed the turning. That wasn’t very clever was it?

No Chef!

John, Paul, George, Ringo and the original member (who the band was named after) – Gustav.

Gustav was keyboard player with the band in the early days and was responsible for the tight black trousers. He left the band citing artistic differences and the fact that he was much more at home in undergrowth than in caverns.

This is a still from some animation sequences I did for a medical video. It was a fun job to do and I found out a lot of useful information. For example: My migraines are probably caused by big pointy red arrows.

Ever wondered what the inside of your brain looks like?
Me neither, but here are a couple of illustrations to show you anyway.

Back in 2008 I directed 3 short films for the the Peace Charity Elan Vital.

This is the second – The Two Parrots. The music was created and produced by John Adorney (who made the whole project feel way bigger budget than if actually was) . I was responsible for the design and animation. No Parrots were harmed during the making of this film.

Well, that is the new bit out of the way so on to the old.

The video below is one of the first jobs I did when I left college way back in 1988! It was for a pop video production company called M ocean. I was handed a bunch of photo print outs and asked to make them look like the LP cover.

The whole thing was very lo-tech in those days. The backgrounds were rejected photos that I sandpapered and smeared with cel paint. Enya and the foreground objects were cut out and her edges coloured with marker so the white didn’t show and put on top. Over that was some cells smeared with cell paint to get that messy, just painted look. Finally all the layers were shot on a rudimentary video rostrum with blank sandpapered animation cells animated over the top near the lens so they were out of focus and looked like clouds.

Sadly I very much doubt whether you could get away with anything like that today.

Kids today, don’t know they are born!

]]> http://www.squeakypics.co.uk/blog/2011/01/something-new-something-old/feed/ 1 http://www.squeakypics.co.uk/blog/2010/06/the-sun-comes-out-hurrah/ http://www.squeakypics.co.uk/blog/2010/06/the-sun-comes-out-hurrah/#comments Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:33:15 +0000 Squeaky Dave http://www.squeakypics.co.uk/blog/?p=202

Just finished updating the Illustration section of my portfolio site. This is a background detail from a piece that didn’t make the cut.  I really liked how the light on the icebergs turned out and every loves Penguins right?

Check out the updated site here.

Goldfish ready for his holiday

I’m currently trying to update my portfolio site. It is curious how much work won’t make the cut. Not because they are bad Illustrations. Quite the reverse. They fill their briefs very well I think but that often doesn’t make for an appealing Illustration out of context. This fish is a tiny detail from one such illustration. I hope he is off to a bigger bowl in the sun with slightly warmer water.

Eko goes to the Zoo

Found in the same geological strata as the last post. This sort of thing always messes with my brain a little. I mean, why isn’t the lizard in a cage. If your main character was a lion that ate Zebras and another one of the characters is a zebra and they had to sit down to a meal together what would they eat? Luckily Gecko’s and Toucans live on biscuits so that isn’t an issue here but still…

Eko builds a tree house.

I am currently trying to spring clean my portfolio site and I came across this Illustration. Back when I first started using a PC for artwork my only software Fractal Design Painter. It was always a challenge working at print resolution. I usually ended up having to record myself drawing at low resolution and playing back at high.  The results were pretty good but Painter was always a little temperamental and it didn’t always work out. It was a relief when I finally switched to vector drawing  and could see clearly what I was doing at any zoom resolution.