It is almost five years since I made my first Video on YouTube. I set up a camera on a tripod and stuck a couple of lights onto it, hoping to increase the light levels, but the lights fell off half way through, much to everyone’s amusement. It never crossed my mind to edit or reshoot!. I’ve learned a lot about lighting and white balance since then!

The video was about how to use pencils and I showed how to draw the Ginger Ninja.It took me a year to gain 1000 views on that video. Now I sometimes do that in a day. Ginger is still the book that people remember me for best. If you have an iPad, you can get the first three books on the ibooks store and you can also get a free Ginger Ninja story if you sign up for my newsletter – add your name an email on the box on the left hand side of the page.

If you click the image below, you will be taken to the original 1999 Flash animated website – it’s still a lot of fun!

I was asked once to give a talk in assembly at a school. As an afterthought, the head mentioned that it was Maths week. I had just come across Godel’s incompleteness theory which star (putting it simply) you can’t get all the answers using one mathematical system. It made me think about the way I draw Ginger and Tiddles. They are such different characters. Ginger is simple and based on Euclidian Geometry he is all circles, ellipses and tangents and angles. His fur pattern is simple because he combs it every day! His character is nice and happy and uncomplicated too.

Tiddles, on the other hand is a wild, mixed-up bully. I draw him entirely differently. He could be created out of Chaos Theory! I also draw him a lot faster.

As with all things, there is a middle way. When Ginger and Tiddles become friends (What!? Spoiler Alert!) Tiddles calms down. He’s still drawn quickly but in a less hectic sort of way.

I think that session in the school assembly confused a lot of people! But is made me think more about Euclid and how learning geometry has changed – children don’t get to construct complex shapes because health and safety worries over the sharp point od compasses. This led be directly to making my Euclid videos and eventually the book and iPad iBook.

More info…

Euclid, the Man who invented Geometry
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