Commuting

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

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?

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

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!!

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

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

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...

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

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...

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

Scribble

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

Hello there !!!

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