ALBINAL

Change a life with a loan

2012-01-05T04:59:00.001-08:00

Sometime last year I attended an event run by the Media Trust. At that event I met representatives from a charity called Deki, which is based in my glorious home town of Bristol.

Deki empower people living in poverty to create sustainable livelihoods by providing access to microloans and they were keen to see if we could explain this process using animation.

We came up with something which hopefully ticks all the boxes and encourages people to invest a small amount of money. Just a tenner could go a long way to helping a lot of different people and you can always claim it back at the end. Quite frankly it’s a brilliant idea!

Vashti Seth, Deki CEO and Founder, said “We are really pleased with the animation that Ian created for us. Ian came up with the concept by himself and kept us informed with his progress at all times. The animation explains what www.deki.org.uk does in a simple and informative, yet witty manner. We have had many positive comments and use it in all our presentations, as well as on the website – thank you Ian”.

And that’s not all... Deki held a re-launch event in October and showed the animation to a few people including their new patron… who just so happened to be none other than animation ultra mega-don Nick Park! I managed to grab a quick picture before Nick’s radioactive energy enveloped the sofa – just look at it glow!

Penelope's Poor Choice

2011-12-03T01:29:00.000-08:00

I was commissioned by the local NHS to make a short animation about emergency contraception. The problem being that too many people are panicking after they've "done the deed" and are turning up at Accident and Emergency departments for the morning after pill. Emergency contraception is freely available from most pharmacies as well as other places like NHS walk-in centres so there's really no need to go to A&E.

Communications and Marketing Manager for NHS Bristol, Lawrie Jones, said; “We gave Ian a blank canvas, outlined to him our problem and asked him to come up with something ‘creative’. Ian attacked the problem from a unique and innovative perspective, creating a piece of work that was witty, challenging and effective. Working with Ian has been pain-free and we will definitely use him for future campaigns.”

Super Moo Stickers

2011-11-22T01:22:00.000-08:00

I’ve adapted the Super System to make stickers… Moo stickers.

If you’ve not heard of Moo then they’re a printing company who offer a unique technology called “printfinity” – Which lets you print a different image on every item in a pack. You can print business cards, postcards, greetings cars and stickers.

Conjuring up 50 different images for a pack of stickers can be quite a challenge, until now. The Super Moo Sticker System does all the hard work for you… creating a completely unique Super Hero sticker in a single click.

This system also generates names but sometimes a name like “The Yellow Spirit” won’t match a hero with a purple costume so I’ve included an option to change that… or hide the name completely. You can also over-type it with a name of your choosing.

Note: The resolution is quite high so if your screen isn’t big enough to cope you’ll have to use your browser settings and zoom out a bit or scroll to see it all.

How to defeat crime…

Generate some stickers
Print them with Moo
Stick them in some dodgy areas
The awesome power of the stickers will scare criminals away – helping to reduce crime and clean up your neighbourhood!

Alternatively, you could buy some ready-made…

The Super System

2011-11-21T13:05:00.000-08:00

Inspired by films like Super and Kick Ass as well as real-life heroes like Phoenix Jones and The Dark Spartan I've developed a system to generate Costumed Crimefighters!

Ideally I'd like to become a super hero myself but I doubt very much if I could strike fear into the lawless without some serious weaponry... and, sadly, I'm not as wealthy as Bruce Wayne.

Instead I've devised a system to help would-be heroes come-up with appropriate costumes and names. Have a go - make a hero now... (requires Flash, a-ha Savior of the Universe)

Note: The resolution is quite high so if your screen isn’t big enough to cope you’ll have to use your browser settings and zoom out a bit or scroll to see it all.

Giclée Super Prints

To celebrate the release of the super system I'm selling off 10 limited edition A2 Super prints at the super special price of £35 for a limited time only. Since that price is clearly criminal it won't stay that low for long. So don't delay, order today...

Here's some images. Enjoy!

Junction Jeopardy

2011-11-17T04:55:00.001-08:00

I’ve completed another animation for the Keep Your Wheels project. ‘Junction Jeopardy’ is the forth installment in the series and advises riders to slow down and adjust their road position when approaching a junction.

Bristol City Council's Tom Southerby said; "This fantastic animation helps inform young moped/scooter riders on the issues they face at junctions in a humourous and informative way. Ian's work is always great at getting our key messages across to young riders and I would highly recommend his work for others targeting this age group".

Make minions from home…

2011-09-30T04:33:00.000-07:00

Following in the footsteps of the Pimpatron I decided to make another character system… this time in 3D! The idea being that you can rotate and render a 3D character from many angles; making more and more individual images for an army. And what better than an army of minions?

The system uses AWAY3D and Flash. I made the minion models in Blender.

Make a multitude of minions now...

The Treacherous Tarmac

2011-07-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

I’ve just completed another animation for the Keep Your Wheels project. ‘The Treacherous Tarmac’ is the third installment in the series and deals with the issue of road surface conditions.

Bristol City Council’s Tom Southerby said “Our aim was to educate young moped riders, living in Bristol, about the dangers of various road conditions such as oil spillages and weather conditions. We commissioned Ian to design a fun, engaging and humourous short film as his original, off-the-wall style is perfect for our target audience.”

Epiphany Flyer – July 2011

2011-05-28T06:41:00.001-07:00

I’ve got the drawings and design work done on another flyer for Epiphany… with a little help from the Pimpatron.

A plethora of pimps

2011-05-18T04:56:00.000-07:00

I recently made this Flash-based character creation system which I’ve called ‘The Pimpatron’.

The Pimpatron allows you to switch up the appearance of a pimp like character and save your creation as a PNG with a transparent background. I did this over 50 times and then put all my pimps together on a single page… making a pleasant pimped poster. Here’s a couple of wallpapers; Widescreen and Standard.

So each pimp could be saved at a decent resolution the Flash stage size is pretty big; 1300 x 1700 – So if your screen isn’t big enough to cope you’ll have to use your browser settings and zoom out a bit or scroll to see it all. Or, if you can rotate your screen (but have never found a worthwhile use for it) then now’s the time.

Produce a pimp now…

Generator upgrades

2011-05-11T05:51:00.001-07:00

I've added some upgrades to the Drawing Generator... most notably the ability to connect to Kuler and generate artwork in any colour scheme of your choosing. To do this I used the ColorMunch classes provided by Ben Kanizay.

There's also a few extra features like having outlines only, multiplying the overlay and generating objects at the position of your mouse pointer using the space bar.

Here's some artwork generated using these new features:

Drawing generator

2011-04-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

Generating images with flash is nothing new but following some recent client work I discovered the very powerful JPG and PNG encoder classes. The PNG one in particular allows you to save your flash creations with a transparent background. I put this to use by making a simple image generation system:

http://www.albinal.com/Generator/

The interface needs a little work but you’ll get the gist.

Even with some basic drawings you can get impressive results, but be warned; I decided on a high resolution (1748×1240) to enable a decent A6 printout. If your screen isn’t big enough to cope you’ll have to use your browser settings and zoom out a bit or scroll… but once you ‘SavePNG’ you’ll have an impressive image to use as a background, wallpaper or whatever the case may be.

At the moment you can choose to generate five simbols using five different colour schemes from Kuler but I will probably try and enhance this over time.

Computer Arts Magazine

2011-03-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to have my work reviewed in this months Computer Arts Magazine (issue 185) - and it seems as though I'm on the right lines. :-)

‘Beatbox’ Bill vs ‘Sinista’ Steve

2011-03-17T06:02:00.001-07:00

The Ridiculous Rap Ruckus is back; this time with a mega-match between two titanics from the technical territory... Has Bill got the skills or is Jobs the man with the golden gob? Vote below...

Super vs Luthor

2011-03-11T14:01:00.000-08:00

Kool Clark Kent takes on Big Daddy Lex in the next episode of the Ridiculous Rap Ruckus... beats made by Mr Monk.

Who’s got the finest freestyle? Vote now...

Epiphany Flyer - April 2011

2011-03-08T04:49:00.000-08:00

I've just finished doing the drawings on another flyer design for Epiphany. Epiphany is a regular drum and bass club night in Bristol. Enjoy...

Ridiculous Rap Ruckus – Doctor Octopus vs Spiderman

2011-03-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

Half man, half machine.. he’s orange and green: Doctor Octopus takes on the arachnid rhymer Spiderman in the Ridiculous Rap Ruckus… Beats by the V.O.C.

I wanted to start a series that combines my love of animation with my love of rap music. Who’s next for the disrespect? Tune in next time.

Who's the righteous rapper? Octavius or Spidey...online surveys

Big Joe vs Gattuso

2011-02-21T02:13:00.000-08:00

I grew up watching a Bristol City team managed by Joe Jordan. I was therefore quite upset following last Tuesdays game between Tottenham and AC Milan in which Jordan was attacked by a rabid Gennaro Gattuso. I really wish 'big' Joe would have decked him... but admire his restraint. For some reason I felt compelled to make a quick cartoon in which Joe gets his revenge in several different ways...

Keep Your Wheels illustrations

2011-01-25T13:43:00.000-08:00

I’m just working my way towards completing some spot illustrations for the Keep Your Wheels project. There are loads of them, probably about a hundred! Here’s some of my favourites…

Keep Your Wheels aims to encourage safer riding and reduce the number of road collisions involving young riders of powered two-wheelers.

New website

2010-12-03T08:55:00.000-08:00

My old flash site, although extremely cool and slick, has had it's day. Difficult to update, small on the screen and not very SEO friendly I decided it was time for a change. The new site (pictured below) is 'proudly powered by WordPress', has more room for expansion and is (hopefully) a better projection of my style and where I want to go with my business.

Please have a click around and provide some feedback; http://www.albinal.com

Planet Culture flyer

2010-11-30T13:56:00.000-08:00

I did the illustration work on a flyer for 'Planet Culture' in Brighton. Planet Culture is a charity fundraiser event which aims to raise money and awareness for the poverty situation in Africa. They've got support from Oxfam, Africa Now and Water Aid. See the event page on facebook for more information:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=171271762898849

Epiphany Flyer - December 2010

2010-10-20T04:53:00.001-07:00

I've finished the illustration and design work on another Epiphany Flyer. Epiphany is a regular drum and base club night in Bristol. Enjoy...

Here's the original drawing. I messed up a bit on the middle Kings mouth so had to get the Tipp-Ex out!

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells...

2010-10-19T05:01:00.000-07:00

The other day I read about a Charity Christmas Card Competition on the LCS. I just couldn't stop myself from entering a card based on this adaptation of Jingle Bells... it's a classic!

The road to £100

2010-10-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

I've completed work on another animation for Bristol City Council... this time it's an introduction to the Keep Your Wheels project and an explanation of how participants can get their hands on £100.

Keep Your Wheels aims to encourage safer riding and reduce the number of road collisions involving young riders of powered two-wheelers.

Here's the animation, some screen-shots and storyboard images... enjoy.

The Graphic Canon - Candide by Voltaire

2010-09-22T04:53:00.000-07:00

I while ago I was asked by Russ Kick if I would be able to contribute illustrations to The Graphic Canon: The Definitive Anthology of the World's Great Literature as Comics and Visuals. The book is being published by Seven Stories Press, a respected independent press specialising in literature and politics.

Russ was looking for a sequential adaptation or one or more full-page stand-alone illustrations for several literary works including poetry, novels and plays... many I'd never even heard of! With that in mind I needed a bit of guidance and Russ decided that my style would lend a really interesting dimension to Candide by Voltaire.

I didn't have much free time to invest in actually sitting down and reading the book but luckily I found LibriVox - acoustical liberation of books in the public domain. So, I just downloaded the mp3s and enjoyed Ted Delorme reading it to me. In fact, I feel as though I've struck up a bit of a personal friendship with Ted having listened to his relaxing voice over the course of several weeks.

In the end I did a piece on the syphilis passage from Chapter Four and a scene from Chapter Five; A Tempest, a Shipwreck, an Earthquake...

Since Voltaire wrote Candide in 1759 I wanted to do something on old paper with gothic lettering. I tried staining some white paper with tea but this didn't work out very well so I ended up drawing everything on brown envelopes.

Show me the animation

2010-09-01T12:03:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended another one of the "show me the animation" nights at the glorious Hen and Chicken. I thought it was worth sticking up a post highlighting some of the great films that were on show including, ahem, Brenda's Poisonous Pastime...

Peter Peel (http://www.peterpeel.com)

The Eagleman Stag (http://www.mikeyplease.co.uk)

Isaac and Quincy (http://www.teaandcheese.com)

Brenda's Poisonous Pastime (http://www.albinal.com)

Modern Martin (http://www.matinai.com)

Fly (http://www.aardman.com)

Blind Date (http://www.aardman.com)

One of a kind (http://www.aardman.com)

There was also an episode of Grime City by the Evil Genius, which I can't find on-line. And an episode of HorseCat.

Jostens Ad Campaign

2010-08-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks and months I've been working on illustrating (and animating) an ad campaign for Jostens. The work is being used to help promote their high school products (class rings, yearbooks etc).

The brief was initially for 10 posters but this extended to a few extra pieces and lots and lots of clip art! They were really keen to have the flexibility to move things around and include illustrations in catalogues etc... so mutli-layered Photoshop files were the order of the day.

The project then turned to animation when they asked if I could "bring my characters to life". So I dug out my Dr Frankenstein electrodes and got to work. The scripts, voice-overs and editing were all taken care of by Multimedia Inc so I literally just provided animated scenes.

I haven't actually seen any of the final videos and they may not be released on-line so I've put together a little promo that shows some of the scenes. Comments and feedback are welcome as always.

Here are some of the early versions and spec work. As you can see, I gave them as much as I could!

Here's some of the animation:

Cobey Rouse, Jostens Brand Experience Manager, said; "Working with Ian on our 2011 High School brand campaign has been amazing. From helping us realize our vision in small and large format print collateral to bringing the campaign literally to life in video animation, Ian has consistently gone above and beyond to produce brilliant work in a highly professional manner. We can always rely on Ian to bring creative flair to our direction and to deliver his work on time, even under some extremely tight deadlines. We can't wait to continue working with Ian as our campaign evolves over the next couple years."

Futuristic Fish for my Facebook Friends

2010-07-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of computer work recently and I'm starting to stare with a pair of square eyes. So, I've been making more of an effort to ditch the digital and do drawings.

Keep an eye on my Facebook page for more of the same and if you're interested in purchasing some of this pleasant paperwork then pop along to my shop.

Epiphany Flyer - July 2010

2010-06-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

Another Epiphany Flyer... this time for the St Pauls Carnival after party. Comments and feedback welcome.

Keep Your Wheels Flyer and Bike Tag

2010-05-06T07:57:00.001-07:00

I've just finished polishing off a flyer design and a bike tag (which, I'm told, the council will attach to parked scooters). The work is to promote the Keep Your Wheels website/scheme which I've done a few bits and pieces for now.

Epiphany Flyer - May 2010

2010-04-17T04:35:00.000-07:00

Another flyer design for the popular Bristol club night. Find out more about Epiphany here:http://www.myspace.com/bristol_epiphany

Doodle Swap #5

2010-04-06T12:37:00.000-07:00

I've finished off my swapsies for round 5 of the Doodle Swap Project. The theme was hand-drawn lettering and typography.

My first thought was Graffiti... so I drew little train carriages with my name on the side. But remember kids; Criminal Damage is a crime!

I also plotted the destination of my trains on a map... just because it seemed like a good nerdy thing to do! Enjoy...

View Doodle Swap #5 in a larger map

Octopus King Thing

2010-03-11T07:36:00.000-08:00

A few weeks back I checked in on Shapeways and discovered they were now printing coloured models! This is a seriously cool development so I had to give it a try.

I quickly knocked up this strange eight-legged object for the purposes of testing the new material. I put some small detail on the legs and back, the legs are reasonably thin and the crown is quite low-poly (a sixteen-sided circle).

The material it's printed in is called full colour sandstone which is said to be quite brittle. Now that I've got the model (which is 5cm tall) it actually feels quite tough... even the legs/tentacles.

The texture map has come-out reasonably well but it is quite fuzzy looking and the real-small detail like the web address on the back is not great. The colours are quite dull too but I just sent RGB textures instead of CMYK ones. I guess it might be better if you just stick to pure CMYK too. I also had shadowy effects baked onto the texture which was probably not a good idea... I always like that look-on screen but don't like it on this print.

The only other thing I don't like is that it's quite a rough surface and still has very small bits of the powder still on it... but maybe I'm just being picky.

I wanted to send a smaller model but Shapeways have a minimum order of $25 (£17)... so I had to up-scale him a bit.

All-in-all it was a worthwhile exercise as 3D printing is only going to improve and the possibilities for making custom stuff are infinite.

I've provided some images which show what it looks like on-screen and in the real world.

Keep Your Wheels InfoGraphic

2010-02-17T05:06:00.000-08:00

I was asked by Bristol City Council to design an InfoGraphic that represents the Keep Your Wheels project. The scheme offers young moped/motorbike riders the chance to earn £100. In exchange they have to learn a bit about road safety and keep a clean licence for 12 months. Bargain or what?

Here you can see the InfoGraphic in all its glory and close ups of some of the characters and rough drawings. Enjoy.

Wayne's Worse For Wear

2010-01-07T07:03:00.000-08:00

I've made a new animation aimed at young moped/motorbike riders who don't dress correctly for the conditions. The animation was commissioned by the Bristol City Council Keep Your Wheels project.

Wayne wears next to nothing so coming a cropper isn't going to be pleasant. Enjoy!

As part of this project I was also asked to redesign the keep your wheels website (www.keepyourwheels.com) - I did the front-end/HTML work while the guys at Sandbox Media hooked it up with Wordpress etc. I'm also working on promotional illustrations for the site and made the "make a mint moped" game. Hell, I even recorded a radio ad for them that can be heard on Kiss FM!

Creative Review - January 2010

2009-12-31T01:45:00.001-08:00

My work appears in the January issue of Creative Review Magazine... twice! :-)

On page 16 you can see snippets of my entry for the E Stings competition and on page 18 there's a little bit about my involvement in the NHS Choices cartoon competition with a screen shot from "Brenda's Poisonous Pastime".

It's nice to have my work shown in a major design publication but it's a bit of a shame that I didn't actually win either competition... although both provided me with valuable funds so I can't be too upset.

Hopefully it's not a case of "always the bridesmaid, never the bride" and I might actually win something next year!

Happy New Year!

What I did when I was a kid...

2009-12-21T05:15:00.000-08:00

My lovely mum was having a clear out the other day and she found a folder packed full of my early "work". Worryingly I had a bit of a thing for drawing pictures of Hitler, war, death and destruction. :-/

If my kids were doing stuff like that I'd probably get them in for some psychological profiling... but it just goes to show that kids can draw some awful things and still turn out to be alright! Assuming I am actually alright?!? Everyone had to go and see the school nurse right?

Anyhow, I also found many pictures of Chad... which gave me a bit of a laugh. What was I thinking?!?

First up... it's the classic "just Chad"...

Then, dead or alive you're coming with me... it's Chad Cop...

Bad Chad... ?

Choss... which is Bros, but Chads... dating this stuff to the late 80s/early 90s when I was 13/14.

Chad the Barbarian. Awesome.

...And my personal favourite... Michael Chadson!

Then there's the dark side of drawings, including a picture of Hitler which shames me! Unfortunately, there were several pictures of Hitler in the stash and some of them were mounted meaning I must have done them at school... but I can't remember being questioned about them!?!?

Having said that, clearly I'd seen Robocop and played Barbarian on the Amiga... both pretty gory affairs for a young lad. I blame the parents! ;-)

E Stings awards night

2009-12-07T04:56:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday (the 3rd) I attended the annual E Stings awards ceremony at Channel 4 HQ in smoky big London!

Luckily, this time, I was not one of the people to go home empty-handed as I managed to bag £500 in the form of a runners up prize! The other prizes were awarded to Cyriak Harris (winner) and Gareth Sayers (fellow runner up). So, congratulations to us all!

A few people were interested in seeing the entries for round two, which were not made public but I've provided mine for anyone who wants to have a gander. I also scanned in my prize (what a nerd)!

Download my submission for round two (PDF)

But perhaps more important than this or any other award for work I've also put-up a copy of a certificate I received this morning for recognition of my services to the moustache. Now that is an award!

Don't do drugs!

2009-11-19T05:08:00.000-08:00

I've just finished two animations about the perils of taking and dealing drugs! The animations were required for the ACPO Drugs Conference but also for use on the Avon and Somerset Constabulary youth website: www.craniumcaviar.com

I was rather embarrassingly presented with an ACPO commendation and a Bristol Blue Glass decanter for this work, which came as a bit of a shock. Not least because some of these awards are given to police officers who have made a big difference tackling dangerous drug dealers on the dirty streets of England! Anyhow, I am very respectful and appreciative that my work has been recognised in this way... so thank you very much!

As usual, I've provided a few screenshots, storyboard roughs and, of course, the videos! Enjoy!

E Stings competition

2009-10-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

I've been short-listed in the final 15 of the E Stings competition with "Dizzy Dave". Yee-haa! This is my second time in this competition but last time out I didn't win a sausage. So, fingers crossed for better luck this time!

In order to win one of the big prizes the finalists had to submit their treatment for another sting about Thursday Night Comedy on E4.

Below you can see my original submission (which will also appear on TV) and my scribbles and character designs for round two...

You can see all the finalists here: http://www.e4.com/estings/2009finalists.html

Dizzy Dave from Albinal on Vimeo.

A statement from Bob

2009-10-22T08:36:00.001-07:00

Good afternoon. My wife and I would very much like to congratulate the Brothers McLeod on winning the NHS Choices Cartoon Competition. We are, of course, sad that we didn't win but we very much enjoyed making our films and can't complain at losing out to "The Brothers" as they are indeed amazing animators... So jolly well done!

Unfortunately, Brenda hasn't taken the news quite so well and has gone on a bit of a bender. She's now drinking surgical spirits out of the clinical waste bin at the back of the Bristol Royal Infirmary.

I think it's time I checked her into the Alcoholism Recovery Program at the Clifton Clinic and started my new exercise regime.

Chow for now.

Bob

Find out more about the competition here:

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Cartooncompetition/Pages/Healthanimationhome.aspx

Mail Me Art 2

2009-10-01T01:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't done any artwork for ages so the second Mail Me Art project provided me with a great excuse to do some good old fashioned drawing...

I decided to do one multi-coloured drawing on the back of a cereal box... chop it in half and post the pieces in two differently decorated envelopes on different days from different locations.

Whoever unites the pieces will open a portal and awaken the Ogdru Jahad; The Seven Gods of Chaos... or maybe not, we'll have to wait and see.

Find out more about Mail Me Art here:

http://mailmeart.com/going-postal/

Epiphany Flyer - Nov 09

2009-09-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

Another Epiphany Flyer for the Drum & Bass club night... Find out more about Epiphany here: http://www.myspace.com/bristol_epiphany

Brenda's Poisonous Pastime

2009-09-02T02:00:00.000-07:00

Here is my shortlisted entry for the NHS cartoon competition. I was asked to come up with a short animation aimed at middle-aged female habitual drinkers... like Brenda!

Poor old Brenda gulps the grog like it's going out of fashion... and suffers the ill effects. Luckily there's a curious contraption that can cure her!

ESting...

2009-08-18T05:08:00.000-07:00

E4 are running the EStings competition again so, after a minor success last time, I decided to have another go... I haven't done any 3D animation for a while so this was a perfect opportunity to do something random that wasn't too long or complicated. Enjoy...

Make a mint moped

2009-07-20T02:39:00.000-07:00

The moped. Chosen chariot of the urban imp... and imps like their bikes to look the business don't they? Well, with this game I made for Bristol City Council you can have fun fashioning your own righteous ride that'll be the shizzle on the streets of Brizzle.

Make your own mint moped here: http://www.albinal.com/moped/

Choose the chopper handles, multi-mirrors and side mounted mini-guns to make a moped that is most magnificent and marvellous.

The game is 99% done, pending any useful feedback following testing, and will appear on www.keepyourwheels.com soon.

Update

2009-07-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

Well, there's hasn't been a whole lot of blogging going on recently, but that's because I've been buried in my burrow busying away on some BIG projects. I'm just waiting on client approval before posting about one and the other is very nearly done so hold-on to your hats!

In the meantime you can take pleasure in these pictures I did for the police. Peace out!

Matryoshka Army Dolls

2009-06-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to be given one of the 26 sets of Matryoshka Army Dolls to customise for the Bristol Design Festival... this is what I did to them with various pens.

You can see, and buy all the dolls at the festival this weekend.

Find out more here: http://www.matryoshkaarmy.blogspot.com/

And here: http://www.bristoldesignfestival.com/

Frankenstein’s monster!

2009-05-26T01:17:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back I got asked if I’d contribute an image of Frankenstein to this project: http://apatchworkofflesh.blogspot.com/

The guy in charge said this: “I am attempting to amass a large collection of portraits of Frankenstein's Monster in as many different styles and in as many different media as possible as an ongoing art project. The only stipulation is that the size is 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches (standard artist trading card size) and that each card has name, date, title and anything else you care to add on the back.”

Each to his own I thought… but I’m always happy to do some drawing so I sent in two little pictures; one with a nose and one without… ?

If you want to send something in then I’m sure your card(s) will be most welcome. Make sure you follow the instructions above and send your version of Frank to A Patchwork Of Flesh, 45 Silversea Drive, Westcliff on Sea, Essex, SS0 9XD, United Kingdom.

Glastonbury Neighbourhood Watch ticket

2009-05-21T01:36:00.001-07:00

If you're going to Glastonbury this year keep your eyes peeled for one of these. It's a Neighbourhood Watch ticket that you can tie to your tent and proudly proclaim you're part of the Neighbourhood Watch movement! The idea is that you and your neighbours join the watch and keep an eye out for each others stuff... making sure the festival is crime free.

The tickets are available in red, blue and classic Neighbourhood Watch yellow. Each colour relates to a different camping zone... or so I am told.

Epiphany Flyer - May 09

2009-04-09T01:09:00.000-07:00

I've just finished off this Flyer Design for Epiphany. I hope the Drum 'n' Bass Massive like it. Find out more here: http://www.myspace.com/bristol_epiphany

Moji War

2009-04-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

I found out yesterday that one of my characters, Feeny Nawny, is involved in a Moji War battle over at http://www.mojizu.com/

First off he faced up to Zombie Piggy and only just managed to "pork" him out of contention with a slender 75-72 victory.

Next up was Nelson. He got nailed 207-111. Nice.

Round 3 saw Feeny run right into Revoltage's "oOtaque and the oOburs" ??? The result? Feeny ran out the winner: 177-138.

And then... the Super Match. Unfortunately Feeny is not strong enough and is getting a bloody battering by Broccoli the Stardust. At the moment it's 87-162. Congratulations to Kozak who is beating me... It looks like Broccoli is going on to the hall of fame and imortallity... and Feeny to the great graveyard in the ground.

What can I say? Vanquished by a vegetable. The shame of it.

Colour Your Own Competition!

2009-04-01T05:15:00.001-07:00

I can’t seem to sell any artwork at the moment so I’ve decided to give it away… I’ve started my very first compeition (Colour Your Own)! - The best colour job gets the prize at the end of the month! Have a go here: http://www.albinal.com/art/ColourYourOwn/

NHS Animation Competition

2009-03-19T05:32:00.000-07:00

I’ve been shortlisted in an animation competition for the NHS. My characters are called Bob and Brenda. You can see what got me on the shortlist here: http://www.albinal.com/nhs/

I’ve now got to come up with another animation based on a brief they are going to give me. There’s some top people on the shortlist so it’s going to be tough to win but I’ve got this far so you never know right?!?

Obesity Animation from Albinal on Vimeo.

Mail Me Art

2009-03-06T06:52:00.000-08:00

I've just got a copy of Mail Me Art - Going Postal with the World’s Best Illustrators and Designers (thanks to my lovely wife)... and my work is on page 89! Awesomeness! Many thanks to Darren Di Lieto for organising and running what sounds like a very time consuming, space-saping project! Well done Darren.

All the pieces from the project will be available to buy at the Red Gate Gallery, 209a Coldharbour Lane, London between the 3rd and 9th of April. Why not go along and check it out hmmm? And buy the book of course! ;-)

http://mailmeart.com/going-postal/

Stock heads...

2009-03-04T05:13:00.001-08:00

You can never have enough random people up your sleeve when it comes to illustration work so here's some of my new army!

Mojizu Daily Special...

2009-03-03T02:15:00.000-08:00

Every now and then I just make a character to keep the skills sharp. One of my recent characters is today a daily special on Mojizu. Well done Feeny Nawny! One day I'm gonna have a war champion... come on!

www.mojizu.com

MiniMini

2009-02-13T07:55:00.000-08:00

I did this last night for the Spraygraphic MiniMini exhibition... He who unites the pieces shall know eternal power!

If you don't know Spraygraphic it's "a community for creative minds".

Find out more here: www.spraygraphic.com/albinal

Mini Mini 4x4 from Spraygraphic on Vimeo.

Sculpture: Alan... Geek Bust #1

2009-01-26T05:36:00.000-08:00

I was quite good at pottery when I was at school but since you couldn’t do art and pottery I chose art… and instead of pottery I had to learn French!

Needless to say my French skills were soon found wanting when I developed a Bristolian twang and... never went to France!

Luckily my pottery skills have stayed with me enough to embark on a basic sculpture project.

For some strange reason I’m drawn to drawing geeks (!) and I’m quite a fan of the sculptured busts you get in Forbidden Planet...

Combining the two I decided to make a Geek Bust… he’s called Alan. Or is that tu t’appelé Alain!?!

Make your imagination...

2009-01-13T02:34:00.000-08:00

Drawing is one way of bringing the inside of your brain outside... communicating your thoughts through your hand and into someone else’s brain via their eyes… another way is to shoot yourself in the mouth with a pump-action shotgun... but I recommend the first option.

But what if you want to make something more real than a drawing? Well now you can… www.shapeways.com will print your 3D models into real-life objects. You need to know a bit about 3D modelling but that’s pretty much it… then you can literally make whatever you can imagine.

My ability to sculpt something by hand is not that great and if you’re looking for something perfect and symmetrical then this is a great option.

I think this site is the cheapest thing around for what it does but it’s not 'cheap as chips'! However, they recently had a huge discount on the black material meaning I could get a 9cm tall figure made for just £28 including postage… totally awesome.

Welcome Afro Cyclops… you are indeed very beautiful.

My aim is to mould him and produce more which I can paint and maybe sell… meaning that producing a short run of vinyl toy type ornaments is now within the grasp of daydreamers everywhere. Hell, with enough money you can build your own army!

Since you can make anything then there really is no-limits. In the future we will all have a 3D printer in our own home and when you snap the plastic battery cover on your remote control you can simply download and print a replacement… happy days.

In the beginning…

2009-01-05T05:51:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I didn't have a blog and some people were asking "where is your blog?" – so I’ve followed the only logical course and have started a blog! It's a New Year's resolution! Yee haw!

To kick off the first post I’ve made this commemorative drawing… enjoy.

Fat Club Music Video

2008-11-05T04:44:00.000-08:00

I made this music video for the mighty Fat Club - Local hip-hop heavyweights. It was quite a big project due to the length of the song and the number of artists involved. They also wanted me to draw likenesses which I wouldn't say is one of my strong suits. However, the video has had a great response and it prompted one person to say; "Some guy should give you a tv show or big pile of money to do this all day I hope..." - Well, I hope so too.

You can find out more about Fat Club here: http://www.myspace.com/properbristolhiphop