First Ever Digital Art.

So I joined the digital age and bought myself a Wacom Bamboo tablet. I mainly wanted it for post-production - stuff like deleting rigs, etc. Of course, I wanted to try out drawing on it too. I found it quite tricky, with things not doing what I wanted them to do. I definitely prefer the traditional method of creating art. It's much easier! Maybe I just need some practice. I used the bundled software - Art Rage 2.6.

So here's my first attempt! I quite like it, though there's not a lot going on. It's meant to be a dark, war-tortured landscape. Concept art for the monkey film.

Also, managed to get some pretty nice short fur. This taupe colour (pictured below) is for the General (he's old). I need to order some brown for the younger soldier. I wrapped some around the plasticine face just to see what it would look like. Finished heads will be latex.

Looks like an 'Eskimonkey' ;D

The Monkeys Learned To Build Machines

This is my current project. If I get finished in time, it'll be entered into the animateclay monthly challenge for May (which ends June 6th) - the theme being 'Broken'.

I put the witches on hold for now because it was merely puppet-building practice.

Below, you can see early sketches, ideas and development, and a couple of face sculpts of the 2 main characters. Repeating the 'mask technique' I have used previously, they will be slush-cast in liquid latex. Bodies will be covered in short fur fabric (possibly held firm with a matt glue to avoid 'boiling'), and fitted out with some kind of military uniform. Cool or what?! :D

 Oh, and while I'm here. CHEESECAKE! Of the lemon and lime variety. Baking is art, right.... :)

Gelatin-free. Suitable for animal-lovers.

Which Witch??

I was planning on doing another time-lapse drawing, but when I sat down with the paper deciding who to insult attempt, I went into day-dream mode and commenced doodling (like most of us do). Turns out, my inner-self wanted to sketch some witches. Well, that just put me in the mood to get a couple of witch puppets made. Sisters, probably. Cliché, of course.

Here are the roughs:

"Hello boyssss!"

Found some kiddies pencil crayons...

Gollum-esque.

I think I know this person...

The original doodles.

Gonna finalise designs today, so (hopefully) should get the puppets made this week. Progress updates to come...

Time-lapse art.

Inspired by the beautiful, and talented Lana Del Rey.

Biro on paper.

I had to mirror the image because the camera was up-side-down. I'm not actually left-handed. I wanted to try out some time-lapse software, which turned out to be pretty useful :)

Fantasy Painting

The fisherfrog waits. Patient. Hungry. Alert. Experience tells him, his favourite meal - the cave-dwelling pondpig - cannot, itself, resist the sweet, zesty flavour of the common dusk-faeries. Unmissable as the sun falls, and the day ends, the timid faeries light up the forest floor with a gentle lilac glow. Easy to catch. Easy for bait. However, one bite from these tiny beings can shock a creature 10 times their size into a day-long paralysis. Don't let one sneak up on you...

Acrylics on cheapo (now wrinkly) paper.

In other news, it is the middle (maybe nearing the end) of winter and I find a giant wasp in my workshop (attic)! Is this normal? I have some animating to do this week so it better clear off! Here's a photo of another giant wasp I had in my kitchen a few months ago.

Click to ENLARGE at your own risk...

And... 

For anybody that doesn't know Jeff Lafferty - the extremely talented illustrator and artist. And now, stop-motion film-maker. You can read about his exciting new film on its own blog below:

Curse Of The Wolf's Heart

One of the puppets in progress.

But Jeff needs your help. It's not easy making and funding your own film, so he put together a Kickstarter campaign to get things moving. There's not long left, but let's hope for a final push to the goal. You can help him get there if you take a look at the rewards on offer for donating to this fantastic-looking film:

Jeff's Kickstarter.

Until next time :D

Playing with anagrams.

Also an anagram of Dean Bycroft.

It might not be immediately obvious, but 'Beyond Craft' is an anagram of Dean Bycroft - hence the name change on the blog. I felt it was far too appropriate to ignore.






I used black card to cut out the letters of my name and animated them on a whiteboard. A few digital effects later and I've got some kind of cheesy branding logo. The light-ray effect taking the cheesometer off the scale... :D

I can't figure out what kind of sound it should have, so at the moment it's mute.