Back in 2020/2021, I was commissioned by the NHS Deaf CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) to animate a short film. The brief was make a film to raise awareness of what language deprivation is; how it effects deaf children, and the associated issues. It had to convey some difficult concepts in a visual, […]
I was commissioned to design an illustrated map for the Forest-to-Forest Trail, a temporary trail that runs alongside the existing Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail. I love drawing maps, and I love art too. And trees as well. So I enjoyed doing this.
Here’s some (sort-of-animated) illustrations I’ve been making for BBC See Hear’s cookery strand, over the past 2 years. I wore my “Bake-Off” hat for these. The recipes are not my own of course – I’m a terrible cook.
I’m enjoying playing with the new Adobe Illustrator on the iPad. I’m still only scratching the surface, but it’s really nice being able to do Illustrator-y sort of stuff away from the big computer desk (ie; in the garden, down the park, or on the sofa in front of the telly). The iPad version seems […]
I’ve just drawn another tree! A very sketchy tree. This is the tree where they do the speech at the local Saturday morning Parkrun – or used to before the lock-down anyway.
I don’t really understand the appeal of sitting in a hot tub, when I can just have a quick shower – but that’s just my own weird quirk. It does mean that the occupants will sit still enough for me to try and sketch though. Yay for hot tubs then! (Hope they won’t mind me […]
I’ve been trying to sketch this tractor for the past two days, but people kept putting their tents up right next to it. I didn’t want to be the weird awkward guy standing there, staring at a tractor, right in front of the campers’ tent personal spaces. Finally, I got my chance this afternoon, while […]
I used to think that if I could ever get myself a DeLorean, I could just leave the doors open, and it would be able fly around like an aeroplane. It doesn’t seem to work so well on a Ford Focus though.
I’ve been meaning to make a correction to the coffee image, but I ended up doing the whole alphabet instead. Mainly because I probably just need the practice. I’m thinking it might be nice to make a font out of this eventually – so I can type-finger-spell. (I’ve probably still managed to get some of […]
These Slushies from Costabucks cost a fortune – and this one didn’t even get finished! So I decided I may as well try to get some value out of it by drawing it instead. My ellipses are always going wonky.
I found a box containing the drawings from my BTEC Foundation animation, along with a good whiff of air left over from the mid 1990’s. I would have been 17 or 18 years old when I made this. It was originally shot on a roll of Super-8 film – which is now long lost to […]
I made an animation about my partner and her friends’ ongoing legal case – to get sign-language access at entertainment events and venues. They have a Crowdjustice funding page over here – it’s a great cause; go and give them loads of money!
Recently we went on holiday to France. It was great! The highlight, for me, was Nantes, which seems to be a really quirky, fun little city. I loved following the green line and finding all the art installations and exhibitions that were going on. In fact, I almost want to run away and start my […]
I’m running in the London Marathon tomorrow. To try and calm my nerves a bit, I’ve been drawing some of the things I have to take with me. I’m running for National Deaf Children’s Society. Massive thanks to everyone who has sponsored me – I never expected that I’d be able to raise the amount I […]
The Latest, in a Very Occasional Series of Interesting Posts About My Exciting Marathon Training
It’s less than three weeks to go to the London Marathon, for which I have been training since November. This should be the start of my tapering, but I’ve actually been on a sort of involuntary tapering programme now, for the past 3 weeks, due to mashed knees. I’ve decided to transfer most of my […]
In 7 weeks time, I shall be running in the London Marathon. Eek! With the snow interrupting my training regime this week, I decided to draw a picture instead, to try and motivate myself. I’ve also been re-reading Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic recently, which might explain the Death character popping up. (p.s. I’m […]
BBC See Hear were kind enough to let me to draw all over their stuff again. 🙂 Here is a poster I made for their See Hear Weekend in Bristol. (The itinerary looks amazing and I wish I could go. Especially the Aardman workshops!)
I am now three weeks into my OFFICIAL London Marathon Training Programme. As you can see from my diagram below, I’ve been working very hard. I am running mainly for self-serving glory, and mid-life-crisis reasons, but I am also going to try and raise some money for the National Deaf Children’s Society. I have a […]
I was lucky enough to be allowed to design and animate the title sequence for BBC See Hear’s new mini-series; See Hear On Tour. I had loads of creative freedom, so it was great fun to work on, and, given the fast turnover, I’m actually quite pleased with the end result too! ( The non-title-sequence […]
Having failed in my attempt to catch up on last month’s, “Inktober”, I shall now attempt to fail at, “30 Comics November”. Here’s my first attempt out of what might well turn out to be one. In other news, I’ve cut my Indian ink with a cheaper brand, and it seems have gone really runny.
I’ve only just finished doing last the Inktober, and it’s already happening again! I haven’t had time to do any until now, so I thought I’d try and do the whole lot in one night. I only managed the first 4.
Rubbish animation, but this is just 30 minutes into using Autodesk Sketchbook. I didn’t know it could do animation before! It’s quite nice too. Responsive, pared-back interface, nothing but the timeline, onion-skinning and brushes… hasn’t crashed yet… not too expensive either… (I might hate it by next week)
Yay! I’ve done them all now. “Burn”, is possibly a bit not-so-good, and “Friend”, is maybe a bit cheesy and un-halloweeny, but I’ll live with it. I did two, “Surprises”, too. Surprise! So, now I need to catch-up with the Bestiary!
More catch-up. I have really had no time at all for drawing this month until now, so I’m trying to draw these as fast as I can. Some of these drawings might be a bit messy and tangential.
Here’s a partial catch-up on Inktober. I’ve just been informed that I’ve been doing Inktober all wrong, and I’m supposed to be following the Official Prompt List. Whoops! So here are Inktober numbers 2,3,4 and 5.
I’m coming a bit late to the party this year… but here is my first #Inktober drawing! Yay! Woo! I cycled past this scene on Lower Thames Street, near Tower Bridge, a few weeks ago, and it’s been stuck in my head ever since.
View Over the Great Courtyard at the British Museum, from the Members Room
Last night I ran around the British Museum in a blind panic trying to find something to draw before closing time. There’s too many amazing things to look at! I can’t make up my mind! So I went and had a beer in the members room to try and calm myself down for a bit, […]
I’m helping to illustrate Hana Videen’s new blog, Dēor-Hord: A Medieval and Modern Bestiary. Woohoo! I’m completely fascinated by any kind of history, so I’m really excited to be involved with Hana’s new blog. It’s about how medieval artists had to try and visualise exotic animals based on travellers’ (possibly exaggerated) descriptions, without having actually seen […]
“C”, is for, “Cat”, of course. And, “Castle”. And, “Cream”. And, “Cushion”. And, “Crown”. And, “Chain”. And, “Claws”. It’s hard to stop thinking of things that begin with a, “C”, now.
Witch! Or Wand? Or Worm?… So many potential Ws. This is a pertinently Halloween-themed sign-letter drawing. W is the most difficult letter of the alphabet to draw. It’s all those fingers sticking out all over the place. Here’s another witch, but I didn’t think she was characterful enough to make the final cut.
Not sure about this one…. I’ll sit on for a bit and see what I think in a few days time… I did try a more “anatomically correct” version of the octopus (below), but everyone in my family seem to prefer the octopus with the silly mouth. Boo to anatomically correct(er) octopuses!
If one tries to add alligator scales to human hands, they start to look like they belong to the Creature From the Black Lagoon (sans webby bits). Who knew this would happen?
Ok, I know I’m going to have to come back and re-do this one, in order to shave Sailor Bob’s Beard off. Also binoculars might be a bit over-ambitious. Maybe it really needs to be something else that begins with a B (a bee?). I’ll let it go for now though! Here is an earlier, […]
Cate and Ben are on the kitchen floor, drawing a giant map of everywhere they’ve ever been to, EVER. I managed to get this far before they ran off with all my inks. #inktober 27
Not sure about this one… I think it’s probably one of those classic cases of knowing when I should have stopped applying the blue ink. Oh well! Anyway, it’s a camera. #inktober 25
#inktober 15 By the swimming pool. Finally managed to get my Ada Lovelace reference in, two days late. I’m not sure how recognisable she is, but hey, it’s a Friday night and… well, I’m going to have a glass of wine.
I’m killing two birds with one stone here. Here’s #inktober no. 14! Which is also my response to this article in today’s Guardian. #mydaemon My personal daemon is a Remembering Dodo. He helps me to remember all the things that I normally forget when I leave the house every morning. Unfortunately he has a lot of […]
Another attempt at analogue animation. I’ve forgotten just how fast this sort of thing burns through pencils… Beginning to wonder if it might work out cheaper if I just invest in a big Cintiq and a TVPaint, or Harmony…. It is nice working on paper though.
Here are some wine label designs I made for a competition. I’m not expecting any winnings to be honest, but I’m glad I gave it a shot. Now I just need a large glass of wine. Here’s some of the working-out sketches.
It was a 4 hour flight from Gatwick to Heraklion. I managed to while away some of the time by practicing perspective from my seat. I didn’t get to draw that much in Crete, mainly because the children kept dragging me into the swimming pool. I think there might be a market for waterproof […]
Super-8 film, shot using a 40 year old Canon Auto-Zoom 814 ‘Electronic’ camera and a reel of Kodak Vision 3 500T Super 8mm Negative Movie Film. I got some strange looks from some of the other tourists.
Here’s an absolutely true story about what actually, really happened the other night. Rendered in actual, real colour inks! (black and white version below if colours are too painful to look at)
In the Maxis version of Sim City, I’ve never been able to find out how to build giant space-elevators in the middle of my dystopian-nightmare cities. This issue has slightly vexed me over the past 25 years or so.
I did some animations for this Thinking Development crowd-funding video. Donate if you can! [iframe src=”http://www.zequs.com/campaign/the-thinking-girls-school/embed” height=”487″ width=”370″ frameborder=”0″]
I really enjoyed drawing this picture for the Bloomsbury Festival. Here’s an earlier version with the British Museum. This was before I was informed that the museum itself wasn’t actually part of the festival, and I hadn’t got the local demographics quite right. Oops! I’m still quite pleased with it though.
Exporting Art-boards From Illustrator As Separate Files
There is a really useful button, hidden away in the “Save As” dialogue, in Illustrator. If you have just been given an Illustrator file, with about a hundred-million art-boards in it, and you need to find a way to import it all into After Effects; then this can be good thing to know! (it took […]
Why is it Important to Correctly Prepare the Graphics? If the graphic elements can be supplied in way that makes it easier for an animators to use straightaway, then it can save whole days worth of animation time. An animator’s time can be wasted by having to wade through unfamiliar/unorganised Illustrator files, converting file formats, […]
Here is a drawing of a robot monster, which has just been dredged up from the bottom of my hard drive. Robot monsters are never not cool, so here is another one! This one is half victorian-robot, and half Jekyll and Hyde, and is also found to be lurking in a dark recess, on my […]
Bee Detective Teaser from James Merry on Vimeo. Newly updated, and slightly improved version of the Bee Detective teaser animation. Rejigged for the national tour.
My first attempt at making a zoetrope out of piece of mountboard, a paper plate, and some string. It’s a bit wonky, but then, as a wise old man once told me, “That is why you’re an animator, and not an engineer”. The earliest known zoetrope was invented in China by Ting Huan, circa 180 […]
Recently I’ve finished work on a series of animations for a live theatre production called Bee Detective, which is produced by Tin Bath‘s Gemma Fairlee, and Sophie Woolley. Gemma directed, and Sophie wrote the script, and performs the main character. I’m really pleased with the work I did for Bee Detective. It was all bit […]
More stuff saved from my laptop drive. These are from the year 2002! I think these are still some of the best life drawings I’ve ever managed to do. I remember having a great time drawing them, and learnt a lot about anatomy.
Just found this blast-from-the-past on my laptop; a scan from one of my old sketchbooks. Here are Sally’s feet, as drawn in a park in Budapest, on a hot and sunny day.
I’ve just finished work on the new teaser-trailer animation, for Bee Detective. Bee Detective is a new Cultural Olympiad funded interactive performance for children, written by Sophie Woolley, and directed by Gemma Fairlie. This is just a practice run though really. The real work starts now, for the animation to be included as part of […]
While working at the white-hot coal face of After Effects, I find that I am often asked by wide-eyed youngsters, just how I do I organise my projects? (NB; a complete lie). Being organised is important! As an After-Effects-er, you’ll find yourself dealing with so many files and comps flying around, that it pays to […]
Super rough test animation; My first attempt at rotoscoping in Photoshop. So far, my initial thoughts are that animating in Photoshop is nice, and works better than I thought it would. Who knew?
I’ve won an award! This is the Clin d’œil Award for Best Special Effects 2011, for my animation work on Hands Solo. Massive thanks to Charlie and Billy for allowing me to draw pictures all over their films. 🙂
This was made in collaboration with Bump, back in…. 2002? I think..? A looooong time ago, any which way you look at it, anyway. For a Channel 4 TV pilot based on the infamous Shoreditch Twat periodical. Shoreditch Private Army from James Merry on Vimeo.
This film was produced and funded by the Channel 4 Mesh scheme, back in 2003. I’m still proud of it. A young girl’s adventures through how I imagined the Russian Far East to be. This, being before I had managed to go there in person, it’s a fairly embellished artist’s interpretation of what the Russian […]
I made this film all the way back in 1998, when I was an animation student at Farnham, Surrey. The idea behind the film was my own frustration at being deaf, and having to keep up in social situations full of hearing people, and the way that hearies just don’t, or can’t understand. It won […]
This was my RCA graduation film. Made in 2001. Thats ten years ago. TEN! Anyway, it’s based on the old fairy tale of the same name. This was my first foray into 3D animation, and I had to teach myself 3DS Max. I used my old PC with a Windows 98, which I remember liked […]
The ancient legend, retold through the traditional medium of second-hand television. This was made in 2000. At the time I was being inspired by Plunder-phonic music, specifically Negativland, and I wanted to see if I could create a visual equivalent. It was one of my student films at the RCA, and also one of my […]
Check out Charlie Swinbourne and William Mager’s new film about a deaf teenager caught in-between the deaf and hearing worlds. I think it’s great! [Disclaimer: I made the fake animated Facebook page sequences in it, and some of the titles. And the big spinning CD at the start 🙂 ]
The first pen and ink drawing I’ve done in a while… Now the summer is here, I’ve decided to make it my mission to draw as many trees as I can during my lunch breaks, before the weather goes all rubbish again. Here is the first tree of probably not that many…
It’s been a while since I’ve last looked at this on-going side-project, but I’ve finally managed to get round to doing another Stupid Bird. Only another million left to do now. Stupid Bird; No.83 from James Merry on Vimeo.
Keyed and auto-traced video footage, and converted into shape layer paths. Crazy-wide strokes, and thin dashes to cause glitchy Moire effect, and a fill layer on top with a difference transparency. Voila! Personally I really like the look of this. I’m not sure what a practical use of it might yet be though… Doodling with […]
Yup, I’ve drawn another pine cone. They’re good things to draw actually; Easy to get lost within their folds and shadows and crinkly bits, although it can be tricky remembering which sticky-out bit I’m drawing at any one time. Here are some photos of the drawing at different stages of completion…
I’ve been making a conscious effort to get away from the computer and do more drawings on, shock, horror, actual paper, using actual pens and inks. Photoshop, Illustrator and all the rest are great for doing very specific tasks, quickly, to meet deadlines, but I think they have actually become part of the reason I’ve […]
I’m trying to make more of a conscious effort to get back to drawing with non-digital media. At least to start off with anyway. I drew the the roughs out in pencil and ink, on actual, real-live, physical paper, did the final line-work really carefully with a dip-pen, and then scanned it and coloured it […]
I don’t know why, but I thought it’d be nice to draw a knight riding his trusty stead. Here are some of the progressive iterations I made while drawing this.
I’ve finally bit the bullet and laid down the cash for a new Wacom Cintiq to replace my ten year old Intuos. It’s terrifyingly expensive, compared, to say, a mouse, for example. I’m really happy with it though, and I’m glad I got it. Anyway, here is a short review of the Cintiq, and pros […]
I got commissioned to design a map for an exhibition about Southall, to be held at the South Bank Centre. I love maps so I jumped at the chance to do this. I’ve never actually been to Southall myself, despite having lived in London for a decade now. Now I feel I’ve been missing out! […]
I did this title sequence for a brilliant new BSL comedy series by William Mager and Charlie Swinbourne. It is called The Fingerspellers. Check it out here.
I’ve not been getting much time for drawing lately, which is always frustrating. Anyway, just to keep my hand in, I’ve started a drawing of me riding through Richmond Park on my bicycle. Its not finished though.
I thought I’d have a go at designing a t-shirt for Threadless. Well, actually, its an old drawing, but adjusted for t-shirt suitability. Anyway, if you fancy wearing a t-shirt with a dog, bras and knickers on it, please vote me high! I need all the votes I can get. Thanks! 🙂 And here’s the […]
I’ve designed a poster for my daughter’s Christmas present! Its a bus. With animals in it! It took me a while to come up with this. Apart from having to fit it in-between my day job, and my dad duties, at first I wasn’t sure what to draw. I had a vague notion of that […]
I thought it would be nice to kick off my new blag with some of the more successful recent attempts at life-drawing, that I’ve managed to do over the past few weeks. I draw all my life-drawings at the Doodlebar, which has an excellent regular life-drawing session every Tuesday night. I can’t go for the […]
I foolishly ignored the old maxim of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, and accidentally broke my old website while not fixing it. And then, to compound matters, my Macbook Pro broke down too! And that bit wasn’t even my fault! I blame Nvidia. Anyway, now with a new main logic board and graphics […]
