• On my new Storytime Channel – http://bit.ly/StorytimeSubscribe – I’m making animated stories. The animation is pretty simple as, for me, the story is the most important thing.

    This video shows how I go about making the Laser Bunny and Snip-Snap Wolf story with Watercolours, photoshop and Final Cut pro, all on a mac.

    click here to see the finished story https://youtu.be/nDURoFb-G-A and please like and subscribe for more and, if you like what you see, tell someone else or tweet or Facebook about it. many thanks in advance.

  • Sputnik-3smallI was mad about space when I was a child. I was just old enough to be aware of the excitement of Yuri Gagarin being the first man in space. My early years were dominated by Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Telstar, zoom ice lollies, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

    In amongst all the National Geographics, the books I read, programs I watched and bubble gum cards I collected there were tantalising glimpses of there Russian space program.

    We were given so little information that it seemed both glamourous and crude at the same time. The Russians always managed to be one step ahead of the Americans. The Cosmonaut exhibition explained much. By keeping the program secret, the Americans were pushed to keep innovating. Many of the Russian “advances” were in fact risky and crude propaganda missions aimed mostly at wrong footing the Americans.

    When the Americans introduced the Two seater Gemini craft, the Russians removed the ejector seat from Voshkod and squeezed three people in the same tiny space – most uncomfortable!

    Sputnik 3 was my favourite exhibit. It created wonderful, moody shadows across the walls, which I was compelled to paint. It also looks like a proper space craft, with all the wonderful design of it’s time, which I always felt was an inspiration for the Mercury capsule.

    I also learned about Russian Cosmos which a sort of spiritual philosophy that was at the beginning and heart of the Russian desire to reach out into space. The visionary Tsiliovsky’s sketches were entertaining and prescient too.

  • Gabrialla Sanders asked me if it is normal to feel scared and intimidated by a blank canvas.

    The answer is YES. For some reason I was unable to answer here comment so I ‘m making a video for her.

    A Canvas is expensive and easy to ruin. It’s also a statement. It says, I’m painting something special that deserves a frame around it so it can hang on a wall for ever.

    If you are confident that you are ready to make that statement, you will not feel intimidated but enthused and ready to get painting.

    Build your ideas in sketchbooks, learn your craft. learn how paint works on canvas, experiment and be prepared to make a lot of mistakes along the way. many of those mistakes will become the foundation of your own unique style as you learn from them and begin to become an original.

    But don’t expect to stand in front of a blank canvas and have inspiration descend upon you from on high, it doesn’t work like that. You have to build your ideas and techniques until you are ready to make that big statement.

    Good luck 🙂

    Everyone asks about the tools I use when I’m out using my sketchbook.

    The Pentel Aquash Brush is here in the Uk 
    and here in the US 

    Rotring Tikky Graphic in the UK here 
    in the USA 

    The Cotman sketching watercolour set is here in the UK http://amzn.to/1gNpZ8s
    and in the US here: http://amzn.to/1gaG6qA

    The Seawhite of Brighton a5 travel journal is here in the Uk and here in the USA