• Yesterday I went up to visit my Publishers in London but in the afternoon I visited the Cosmonaut Exhibition in the Science museum.

    It was wonderful to see the hardware that I’d only ever seen before on grainy newsreel footage.

    Sputnik 3 was probably my favourite. It must have had some influence on the design of Dr Who’s Daleks! I never understood what the curly metal appendages were for – apparently they were radio antenna.

    So many risks were taken by the Russians to get one step ahead of the Americans in the Space Race. Some of their technology was pretty crude compared to the Americans, but with a bit of propaganda and subterfuge the Americans were led to believe they were far more technologically advanced than they really were.

    I was amazed to see the Lunakhod lunar landing vehicle. I didn’t know anything about that. It has a very similar design to the LEM but is more chuncky and uses they iconic Russian Sphere shape.

    A wonderful exhibition. Well worth seeing and thanks to all those who organised it and put it on.

    Yesterday I went up to visit my Publishers in London but in the afternoon I visited the Cosmonaut Exhibition in the Science museum.

    It was wonderful to see the hardware that I’d only ever seen before on grainy newsreel footage.

    Sputnik 3 was probably my favourite. It must have had some influence on the design of Dr Who’s Daleks! I never understood what the curly metal appendages were for – apparently they were radio antenna.

    So many risks were taken by the Russians to get one step ahead of the Americans in the Space Race. Some of their technology was pretty crude compared to the Americans, but with a bit of propaganda and subterfuge the Americans were led to believe they were far more technologically advanced than they really were.

    I was amazed to see the Lunakhod lunar landing vehicle. I didn’t know anything about that. It has a very similar design to the LEM but is more chuncky and uses they iconic Russian Sphere shape.

    A wonderful exhibition. Well worth seeing and thanks to all those who organised it and put it on.

  • 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.