A Garden In My Pocket: Magic Frames

I am still very busy working with children in Kirklees on the Magic Frames film project funded by First Light Movies. Over the past few months myself and Fabric Lenny have been at Ashbrow School working with children to create a short animated film celebrating the magic of planting seeds and bulbs and growing fruit and vegetables in your own garden. The children have been using the pixilation animation technique and have created their own animation set to look like the inside of a potting shed. They have developed very precise animation techniques and have been a joy to work with.

The children have also worked with musician Nick Lewis to create their very own soundtrack. Well done everyone!

The Pirates of Rabbit Doll Island

I am busy working with children at Battyeford Primary School in Mirfield on the production of their animated film - The Pirates of Rabbit Doll Island. Check out the Magic Frames website for more information.

Magic Frames Begins!

Today was the first day of Magic Frames, an exciting filmmaking project I am working on with Fabric Lenny across four schools in Kirklees, funded by First Light Movies.

During our first day myself and Fabric Lenny worked with Y3 children at Battyeford Primary School to develop their story ideas, design the sets for the film and begin to construct cardboard props including a huge pirate ship. At the same time, Dan Mallaghan was working with children at Crossley Fields to help the children turn their amazing ideas into a script. There is a real buzz in the schools already and the children are fantastic! Please follow the Magic Frames website for regular updates from the children...

Lydgate Vikings Animation

I have just finished delivering an animation project at Lydgate School in Batley alongside artist Fabric Lenny. Together we worked with 31 Year 3 children in the creation of a Viking Animation film. The children developed fantastic imagery, created animatable characters and built huge sets, along with writing and recording the narration and animating all the characters. The children were a joy to work with and we had great fun. Here are some images captured throughout the process. More can be found on the Kirklees Arts4All blog, along with the final film.

Arts4All - Sharing Oustanding Practice: Projects featured in NSEAD EUpdate

The recent educational work I have delivered through the Kirklees Arts4All Scheme is featured in the latest NSEAD (National Society for Education in Art and Design) E Update via a powerpoint document created by Natalie Deane. My projects include Photography at Scholes J&I School and Crowlees J&I School, plus animation at Hyrstmount Junior School alongside Fabric Lenny.

Hanging prints at Scholes J&I School, Holmfirth

Extended Drawing at Crowlees J&I School, Mirfield

The Habitats Animation set at Hyrstmount Junior School, Batley

Magic Monster Machine

I have spent the last 24 hours working on a wonderful project at Elsecar Heritage Centre with Fabric Lenny and James Brunt. We were commissioned to work with 20 children to design, construct and animate a life size machine that will appear as an installation at Elsecar Heritage Centre to celebrate the launch of the Newcomen Beam Engine Restoration Project. It was a real challenge to complete all this work in just one day, but the children from St Helen's Primary School were fantastic and produced some amazing work. We documented the making process through stills photography and timelapse animation and have just completed the edits of the film "Magic Monster Machine" and the 'Making Of'. Phew!! Well done everyone!!

Hyrstmount Habitats - What a great project!

Last week I had a fantastic time at Hyrstmount Junior School in Batley, working with children to produce an animation called "Habitats". The children were fantastic - very enthusiastic, hard working, full of fun and a joy to work with. Within a week they completed their animation from start to finish and were involved in every aspect, including research, drawing, painting, writing, character designs, background designs, set building, animating and sound recording! Here are a few images I captured throughout the project. For more information on this project please visit the KirkleesArts4All Blog.

154 at Gallions School, Nehwam

After visiting children at Birdwell Primary School I travelled to Newham with Fabric Lenny to deliver 154 workshop with children a Gallions Primary School, Newham. The children were fantastic and produced some amazing artwork including continuous line drawings, pen and water wash portraits and mini canvasses. As well as drawing, the children also worked with me to produce a series of photographic portraits which will be part of a montage piece I am creating for the 154 Exhibition in June. I also produced a short film of children drawing using timelapse animation. For more updates on 154 please visit the 154 blog.

Habitats - Animation Project

I am currently working on an animation project with children at Hyrstmount Junior School in Batley based on Habitats. The children have created some amazing artwork already and the characters and sets look wonderful. Here are some images I have captured along the way. Please visit the Kirklees Arts4All Blog to find out more about the project.

 

Horse Drawn Journeys - a new and exciting project

I am about to begin a very exciting project which will see myself and Fabric Lenny using a range of professional filmmaking techniques, digital media, new technologies and visual arts to capture the journey of a horse drawn canal boat traveling from Leeds to Saltaire, along the Leeds to Liverpool Canal. This is the first time in 60 years that a horse has pulled a canal boat along this stretch of canal and I am very excited to get the opportunity to document it and produce creative works in response to the journey and the canal environment. Whilst investigating the route last week I could not resist taking pictures on my iPhone and I thought I would share a few ahead of the project....keep checking back for more images and further information on the project and the exhibition of produced works.

Fib And Archie's Monster Machine

I am currently part way through an exciting animation project working with Year 9 pupils from Carlton Bolling School, Bradford and Year 2 children from Fagley Primary School. The pupils are working together to produce a short animation based on the Fibonacci Sequence. The Fibonacci Sequence is a series of recurring numbers starting at 0. Each Finonacci number is the sum of the previous two numbers in the sequence and begins as follows... 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 etc The pupils have developed a script which cleverly incorporates these numbers in a shop and factory setting run by Mr Fib and Dr Archie. Here is a still from today's animation set - the monster making machine. I will upload more as we progress through the animation which is looking great!

Mr Fib and Dr Archie's Monster Making Machine

The Rainforest

I have just finished working on an animation project at Benjamin Adlard Primary School in Gainsborough with a fantastic group of young children. In a week they made an animated documentary film based on animals from the South American Rainforest. All the characters were made out of cardboard and were animated using the replacement technique. The children also wrote and recorded the narration along with some amazing animal sounds. Here are some images captured during the making process...

Howler Monkey on set

Toucan and butterfly on set

Replacement characters: Howler Monkey, Red Tree Frog and Sloth

Replacement Characters: Red Tree Frog, Toucan, Howler Monkey and Sloth