A Bit Sketchy

Another Reaper

2012-01-24T22:52:00.000Z

More deathly doodles from my brain

More doodles

2012-01-17T22:07:00.001Z

Another "concept art" scribble for an idea I'm working on...

Tuesday(ish) doodle

2012-01-11T07:37:00.002Z

Em, so I forgot to post this last night, but it's still tuesday in many parts of the world, so that's my excuse and I'm stickin to it!

This is a little bit of 'concept art' for a short film script I'm writing. Hopefully I'll get it done, and then made, of course...

Searley doodle...

2012-01-03T21:43:00.003Z

The cartoonist Ronald Searle passed away today. He was, most agree, a cartoon http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifgenius and he was a huge influence on my work. One of those artists who not only drew brilliantly, but drew funny.

So to honour the maestro, in my own tiny way, here's a vaguely Searle-esque doodle. He may no longer be with us, but his influence will live on through the countless others he's inspired over the years...

Crisp Monster

2011-12-27T22:55:00.003Z

Todays Tuesday doodle - a monster struggles to open a packet of Irish "Tayto" crisps...

Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T20:19:00.002Z

Season Greetings everybody!! (I know this is a few days late but hey, it's Christmas!

Tuesday Noodles

2011-12-13T14:03:00.006Z

No Popcorn this week - been busy at work, so I'm afraid it's notebook doodles for this Tuesday...

Blues Popcorn....

2011-12-06T13:24:00.000Z

More Tuesday Popcorn scribblings....

Holy Popcorn Batman!!!

2011-11-29T12:55:00.001Z

So it's Tuesday and Popcorn is back after a short break with more corny nonsense - enjoy...

John K Talk

2011-11-22T13:10:00.008Z

So, last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Bristol Animated Encounters Festival. I was on a panel at the wonderful DepicT! competition and presented this year's Audience award. Good times! I also got a chance to see a talk by animation legend John K.

He talked a lot about his influences - particularly early animation, 1940s classics and 1940s live action acting. He also screened several shorts including Tex Avery's "Bad Luck Blackie" which I've included below. He here's a few o the notes I took away from that lecture...

On Cartoons

Animation works best when it does what live action cannot do

Cartoon vs Animation
Animation = to bring things to life
Cartoons = FUNNY drawings/animation

On His Influences

Tex Avery created contolled choas - there was always a well structed story underneath the cartoony mayhem - eg. Bad Luck Blackie (1949)

Bob Clampett had the cartoony craziness, but more importantly had characters with strong, identifiable personalities

Live action influences
- 1940s film noir acting had intensity eg Peter Lorre & Kirk Douglas
- 1950s - 1970s American sitcom acting for strong perosnalities eg All in the Family

1940s cartoon mayhem + 1940s intense acting + 1950s sitcom personalites = Ren & Stimpy!

More flippin' notebook doodles?

2011-11-15T08:01:00.003Z

Yep, sorry about that. Still got lots of things going on with work and variuos projects, nothing I can blog I'm afraid, so it'll have to be some of my patented notebook doodles ...

Redecorating the studio....continued

2011-11-04T08:44:00.002Z

Stale Popcorn

2011-11-03T13:39:00.006Z

So this one is a bit late...and it's halloween themed....after halloween - so doubley late - I should be ashamed of myself...

Notebook Doodles

2011-10-25T17:23:00.005Z

Apologies for the lack of Popcorn this week - I've been busy with work, writing scripts and preparing a 'guest lecture' for the Irish School of Animation tomorrow, so I'm afraid it's just a couple of sketchbook doodles this week. Tune in next week for another corny comic strip though...

Surprise Friday Post (its)

2011-10-21T16:49:00.002Z

Brightening up the studio walls....

American popcorn

2011-10-18T17:08:00.001Z

Fresh Tuesday Popcorn

Metal Popcorn

2011-10-11T17:05:00.001Z

Tuesday pop corny goodness....

Introducing "Popcorn"....

2011-10-04T12:07:00.008Z

So, as of today, the Tuesday Doodle will come in the form of "Popcorn" - a single panel cartoon featuring hopefully funny, but probably corny pop culture based gags.

Here's the first of what will hopefully be many!

Cheers,

Aidan

PS If you enjoy it please feel free to pass it on!

Tues-zilla

2011-09-27T12:49:00.002Z

More Godzilla type poses from some upcoming nonsense...

More Notebook Nonsense

2011-09-21T12:15:00.004Z

Here's a few more doodles that stalk the notebook corners.
PS Yes, I know it's Wednesday - I'm off to right 100 lines now - "I will not update the Tuesday Doodle on Wednesday"

Tales From Notebook Corners

2011-09-13T07:58:00.004Z

An early morning Tuesday doodle this week with a few very doodly doodles from the far flung corners of my work notebooks. Usually filled with to do lists, retakes notes and scribbly "instructive" drawings for the animators, every so often a cartoon head will pop up....

More-zilla

2011-09-06T18:22:00.002Z

A few more Godzilla type concepty doodles...

Tews Day Du Dle

2011-08-30T21:04:00.002Z

More Tuesday nonsense of the slack jawed cowboy variety....

Godizillarrr!!

2011-08-24T07:23:00.001Z

A couple of deisgns for a very short somethin somethin I'm working on at the moment. (Yes I'm also aware that it's Wednesday, but we still haven't got internet connected in the new place). Cheers

Late Tuesday Doodle

2011-08-17T07:17:00.002Z

So it's Wednesday morning, not technically Tuesday, but I finished moving house yesterday, so that's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it. I've also been pretty busy over the weekend, so now for your viewing pleasure I present a "classic" doddle I did a while back for a project about a kid who wants to be Elvis....

Toosday Doodlay

2011-08-09T21:17:00.002Z

Nosferatu-y evilly doodle....

Doodleday....

2011-08-02T21:09:00.001Z

No fancy wordy nonsense this week - ust scribbley doodly nonsense - normal service has been resumed...

The Tuesday... notes?

2011-07-26T18:35:00.003Z

Last night I had the opportunity to see the new Pixar movie (Cars 2) and a Q&A with the wonderful John Lasseter, thanks to IFTA. So no doodle this week, instead here are a few notes I took on what Mr Pixar said.... Enjoy

John Lasseter Q & A Notes

On Storytelling

3 things for a great film
1) A compelling & unpredictable story
2) with memorable characters
3) in their own believable world

Trust the original idea & trust the process
- when boarding a sequence again and again – think of it like live action
“coverage” (shooting different angles)
- it's the only way to find out what works

Everything we do at Pixar serves the story

What is the 'emotion core' of the story

In sequels, never just tell the same story – always make it different

“Every Pixar film, at one point, looked like the worst movie ever made”

On the Business of Animation

Quality is the best business plan

A studio/company makes withdrawals and deposits with your audience – good movies
are deposits; bad movies are withdrawals – always have money in the bank

On Animation

What is the character thinking?
- 'Aiming' – character always anticipates by looking first then doing

In computer animation, you must respect the integrity of the material – you can
get away with more squash and stretch in 2D animation.

Photo copyright IFTA 2011

Wizardly doodle

2011-07-19T21:59:00.001Z

Tuesday liney wizardy doodle....

Weekly doooodle

2011-07-12T21:59:00.001Z

Don't ask....

It's Tuesday....

2011-07-05T20:26:00.003Z

A lazy gentleman's contraption - with apologies to Heath Robinson

Tuesday DoodleS (!)

2011-06-28T21:03:00.003Z

A monumental TWO doodles this week as I missed last. Sketches with some questionable photoshop nonsense on top! Enjoy...

Tuesday Sketch

2011-06-14T20:55:00.001Z

This weeks doodle after a travelling gap of a few weeks - this guy is a megadude!

One from the Road

2011-05-10T20:45:00.004Z

Doodling on the train from Quebec to Montreal...The Devil (in disguise)

Tuesday Dune-dle

2011-04-20T05:16:00.002Z

Watching Dune and doodling - this be the result....

Also, I would like to state, for the record, that it IS still Tuesday here (Pacific Time), no matter what date blogspot decides to put on this post!

Tuesdee Doodlee

2011-04-13T16:46:00.001Z

eh, slightly evil beardy man...?

Tuesday Doddlé

2011-04-06T00:06:00.004Z

What happens when you watch Mad Men and doodle at the same time...

Do you feel lucky...

2011-03-24T03:43:00.003Z

First attempt at some photoshop painting....

Death Star Doodle

2011-03-22T04:29:00.002Z

Death star doodlin'

Brush Pen Bandito

2011-03-16T00:36:00.001Z

Playing about with some grey toned brush pens....

You must be jokin....

2011-02-04T04:57:00.001Z

Playing about with some photoshop brushes. Fun!

Happy New Year

2011-01-04T04:00:00.003Z

Sorry this is a bit late, but hope everyone had a happy chrismtas and a great 2011.

Halloweeners

2010-11-12T20:48:00.003Z

A few late halloween sketches - Drac, his butler, scary monster lady and, of course, zombie Abe Lincoln...

The Gentleman's Guide to Villainy

2010-09-02T02:32:00.004Z

So I've been working on a short little film for the past few months (inbetween doodling and moving the ponies around), and I've finally finished it - so here it is, for you're viewing pleasure. Featuring suitably villainous music by Mr. Kevin MacLeod...

Food court quickie...

2010-08-08T21:02:00.002Z

Another quick sketch of a random unsuspecting Vancouverite having lunch. Quite like this little one...

More Aul fellas...

2010-08-08T20:59:00.003Z

Another couple of old man drawings. It appears that I have a problem. I guess it's interesting to draw all the wrinkles n stuff...

I don't know....

2010-07-25T19:41:00.001Z

Random old man?.....

Cafe Drawing

2010-07-05T01:59:00.004Z

As I've mentioned before I do like to spend an afternoon or lunch time doing some observational drawing in cafes and restaurants. Here are some more recent efforts most done in a food court in downtown Vancouver.

Monsters!

2010-06-27T01:29:00.003Z

Here are a few monsters I did for the Art Show at Studio B this year.

Elvis Project

2010-04-02T10:46:00.003Z

Here are a few panels from a short film idea I'm working on at the moment. "Karma" has been put on the back burner due to story issues - I'm not quie happy with it yet. In the meantime I'm working on this little short about a kid who wants to be Elvis and goes to an Elvis Impersonator Contest....

Hmmm...pencilly

2010-02-02T12:30:00.002Z

He's a pencilly little villain.

more Karma

2010-02-02T12:21:00.002Z

Here's a quick cast of characters - now finally in FLash for the short I'm working on. See older posts for more concept designs.

Belated...

2010-02-02T12:17:00.002Z

Belated Happy Christmas, Happy New Year and while I'm at Happy Easter, Summer and Halloween. Seen as I haven;t already, I thought I'd post 2009 Christmas card. Here ya go...

Immediate Drawing Club

2009-10-25T17:53:00.003Z

A few of us at the studio had our first "drawing lunch" on Friday. I was slightly self-concious as we were all drawing random passers-by together, but this it was a very pleasnat experience and hey, any excuse to do a bit of drawing.

My results were mixed - but I got one or two presentable sketches (presented here) out of it. Thanks to James, as the driving force behind the newly formed "Immediate Drawing Club"!

Gettin to grips with the z axis

2009-10-25T17:48:00.003Z

After year's of chatter about it, I'm finally taking a Maya course. Here is my first test, it's fairly rough and took me ages, but it's a step in the right direction.

Mariscal

2009-10-25T17:41:00.004Z

Here a couple of phots I took on a recent trip to the Design Museum in London. They're of the Mariscal exhibit.

Mariscal is a famous Spanish furniture/magazine cover/font/everything designer - he's most high profile stuff is probably the logo guy for Barcelona Olympics 92 -he's also recently done some logo stuff for Framestore in London.

His mantra, that adorned the exhibit was "Don't think, do things!" Can't argue with that!

New Reel

2009-08-21T07:14:00.001Z

Must be finishing a job soon - i appear to have put a new reel together.....

Secret of Kells

2009-08-16T10:44:00.007Z

Finally got my hands on a DVD copy of the brilliant Cartoon Saloon's 2D drawn feature The Secret of Kells. It's an excellent piece of work - with particularly outstanding art direction, design on, of course, animation. Well done to Tomm and everyone involved!

New Life Drawin

2009-08-16T09:51:00.004Z

Over the summer, one of the lovely animators at ABD organised a six life drawing sessions for us off her own back (thanks Karen). They proved to be lots of fun and I even managed to get one or two decent drawings out of them! We did plenty of one and two minute poses. Here are a couple examples (most of these are short poses)

Vampire

2009-04-09T21:46:00.003Z

Another topic, I've always been keen on is vampires and the Dracula story. I've had some Dracula story/film ideas knockin about my brain for a long time. They may see the light of day (or night) sometime...

Quick Cowboy

2009-04-09T21:43:00.001Z

I've always liked drawing wild western nonsense - here's a quick one...

Feelin Optimistic

2009-03-28T16:36:00.002Z

In a fit of optimism, I've decided to enter the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Here's my effort. IF selected, the picture will be one of the few (1000) that gets to grace the walls of the Royal Academy (in London) for the summer months.

Bad guy

2009-01-22T21:33:00.003Z

Happy New Year! First (of many) post(s) of 2009! I'm working on some villain ideas for a few bits and bobs and hopefully a bit of a website overhaul at some point soon. Here's a quick early sketch.

Merry, merry Christmas, baby

2008-12-19T07:47:00.003Z

Here's my slightly strange lookin Christmas card for this year. I reckon Santa is an Elvis impersonator in his spare time. I mean, aren't we all? Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009!!!

Evil Samurai Old Lady ?

2008-12-14T18:12:00.000Z

Another quick sketch done while waiting for a scene to render. I've been doing alot of red pencil and black pen over the top type doodles recently.

Exhibitionism

2008-11-23T20:43:00.003Z

I just wanted to post a quick pic of my pieces from the Vaguely Christmas show. It was a huge success and once again a big thank you to Isabel, Minuca and all those involved in organising the show!

Vaguely Christmas

2008-11-02T11:10:00.002Z

Hello there. Here's a quick preparation drawing that I did for one of my pieces that will be exhibited at the Vaguely Christmas show that I'm taking part in, in November.

The show consists of 26 animationy artists and takes place in the Waterloo Gallery from Mon 17th November to Sat 22nd November - if you're around London town at this time, please pop in.

Bigs thanks to Isabel and Minuca (links to their fantastic work can be found on the side bar) for organising the exhibition. More info is available at http://www.waterloogallery.co.uk/

Mocked up film still

2008-09-18T21:02:00.010Z

A quick mocked up still using an old character pose (before I'd properly defined the proportions etc), drawn directly into Flash and a 50s stlye BG created using Photoshop. I reckon if I want to keep the character in black and white, I need more contrast in the background...

Train man

2008-09-18T21:02:00.006Z

Quick memory sketch from the 8.45 to Paddington

Even more short film nonsense

2008-09-18T21:02:00.004Z

More hids and expressions for the main character, Gene (named after Gene Hazelton - great comic/layout artist who worked on Flintstones and many commercials in the 50s ).

More short film character

2008-07-21T22:10:00.007Z

Here's a few more sketches and designs for my 50s styled animation.
I'm currently trying to get some boards done and hope to start animating in August.
Stay tuned...

Short film character

2008-07-06T19:12:00.004Z

As you may or may not know, I'm currently working on a lil project of my own in my (not excessive) spare time.

I've been doing a lot of sketches to get something a bit 1950s while remaining slightly in my own style.

You're fired...

2008-07-06T19:09:00.002Z

Here's a quickie of Alan Sugar's Apprentice sidekick - Maragret Manford

Commuting

2008-04-29T21:27:00.003Z

At the moment I don't have the longest commute in the world - which is good - but being stuck on public transport for any length of time is not really a pleasurable experience. Without the space to draw, I've taken to doing "memory sketchs". This guy was on my train this morning...

Character Design

2008-04-29T21:21:00.005Z

As I mentioned I've just finished an online character design course with Steven Silver. It was a great course. Below is a lowly thumbnail which we developed into a (much stronger) cleaned up character design.

Old babies?

2008-04-20T10:49:00.007Z

More doodles. I'm in the process or (amoungst a million other things) clenaing these drawings up and redrawing them a bit prettier - so watch out. But for now here are two old men, who are babies - a bit weird, but hey. There just geometric shapes, with heads and limbs, which was kinda fun to do...

Memory Sketch

2008-04-08T21:15:00.003Z

As part of his character design course, Steven Silver recommends memory sketching - find someone in the stret or whatever - study them for a less than a minute and then draw them when you get back from wherever it is you saw them.

Here's the result of one of my early attempts...

I'm Back!!

2008-04-07T22:43:00.008Z

So hello there! And a special hello to anyone who has stopped by since (ahem) August 2006 and has had nothing new to view. Sorry about the brief (!) break, but rest assured, the ol blog is up an runnin again - better than ever.

I've been doing lotsa good stuff over the past (cringe) 20 months - including recently finishing the very talented Steven Silver's online Character Design course and coming up with various short film concepts including one which will probably feature quite heavily here in the future, concerning the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Anyway, to get things started - here's a mish mash of nonsense that have escaped from my brain, since last we spoke.

Thanks for stoppin by,

Take it easy,

Aidan

Sketch O The Week - Weeks 3 - 9

2006-08-05T12:30:00.000Z

Well hello there. It seemed that my glorious return to blogginh in the form of Sketch O the Week was short lived! This was, however more to do with scanner issues than lack of me drawing stuff... and so like some sort of animation phoenix rising from the proverbial ashes, I'm posting a little catch up - more to follow. I should really colour some o these too - place is looking a bit monochrome - anyway for those who left comments here you are - and thanks for the updates telling me what month it is !!!

Sketch O The Week - Week 2

2006-04-23T22:25:00.000Z

Evenin' All. Well it's Sunday night which means I've managed the incredible task of producing a whole sketch this week. Playing round with a black fineliner - these guys appeared. It's an ol life drawing habit of mine to not really lift the pen off the paper when drawing. Tends to make everything look a bit old and wrinkly - what with all those lines, but I sorta like it none the less.

So tune in next week same bat time, same bat channel to see if I make it in another thrilling installment of Sketch O the Weeeeekkk!

Mexico Calling...

2006-04-16T16:20:00.000Z

I'm just back from a two week trip to Mexico. Pretty amazing place - dolphins, Mayan Ruins, sunburn, dodgy moustaches and really big hats.

We travelled all over the Yucatan peninsula (down the bottom of Mexico where it borders the rest of Central America) and had a great time.

We even managed, with a complete lack of any planning and a good helping of sheer fluke, managed to visit the main Mayan city - Chichen Itza - on 21st March - the Spring Equinox. As you can see from the photo, the sun casts the shadow of a serpent on the Great Pyramid for only a short time, only on that day.

Here are a couple o snaps - our camera broke half way through the trip - turns out that sand and digital cameras don't really mix - who knew?

Sketch O The Week

2006-04-16T16:08:00.000Z

Right.

As you may or may not know, I'm working mostly on the computer these days - using a nice little piece of 2D animation software called CelAction. This is bucket-loads of fun, but I really ain't doing as much drawing as I'd like. have also been more than neglecting my poor aul blog.

So, in attempt to kill both birds with one stone - I have launch the incredible (drumroll) SKETCH O THE WEEK!!!

Okay, I hear by solemly swear, to do at least one roughly presentable sketch every week and post it hereon, probably on a Sunday evening, so help me God.

Great eh? I know what you're thnking - wow, you mean ONE whole sketch per week, I'm sure the pre production dept of Pixar will be knocking your door down to give you a job when they hear about this.

My response to that is, bog off you sarcastic b*stard. I'm a busy man. Anyway, enough of this guff. Week 1 - "Cowboy in Blue Biro"...

From the vaults...

2005-08-30T01:03:00.000Z

So here are a few older drawings to give you an idea of what I do...

Scribble

2005-08-29T20:22:00.000Z

Just yer run of the mill, common or garden mad scientist...

Hello there !!!

2005-08-29T16:36:00.000Z

Welcome to my Blog site.

Let me introduce myself - my name is Aidan McAteer and I'm working as an animator in London/Dublin. After four years of hard graft at college and a further couple of years or even harder graft out in the big bad world, I hope I've developed some sort of skill for drawing - I've definately developed a love of it anyway!!!

I've set up this Blog to record any doodles, sketches or other nonsense that somehow gets from my brain onto paper via my hand.

So here goes nuttin....

Hope you see something you like. Take it easy.

Aidan