BBC’s new crime drama/thriller, THE CAPTURE. I had the pleasure of working with Director Ben Chanan on this amazing new show.
With the world of fake news that we now live in this one will strike a nerve. It has so many topical aspects to it while still at heart being a great tense and taut thriller. If you missed it, catch up on iPlayer.
I seem to get all sorts of amazing and fun things to do as a Storyboard Artist. One that came up last year and which I have just seen the results of is an episode of the new BLACK MIRROR series called SMITHEREENS. The part that needed boarding was a car accident. I seem to have done a few of those over the past few years. There were particular shots that the director, James Hawes needed to get across to the stunt crew and those that would be doing any FX in post-production. Always nice to see that what was done on the board turns out pretty much shot for shot in the final version. Here are some of the key shots. Oh, and if you haven’t seen it yet, do. Not for my part in it but for some stellar acting by Andrew Stone.
No not like that. This week is Oxfordshire Artweeks. CNarts have a group show in the gallery at Chipping Norton Theatre. 15 of us are showing a variety of work under the theme of INTO THE WOODS. We are also taking it in turns to sit in on the exhibition and chat to the visitors. Today has been my turn so in the quiet moments I have been looking at OXYGEN again. Writing more if it and doodling layout thumbnails. I don’t get much opportunity to do it so it is time well spent. What seems to have occurred is that it is naturally breaking down into six chapters of 21 pages each. So… do I release them as I go? Or wait until it is one complete piece?
Some of the work I am most proud of was a series of ‘forest’ drawing. These will be shown at the upcoming ‘Into the Woods’ exhibition 
I created this ‘journey’ through a landscape a few years ago and exhibited it. It’s been sitting in a drawer since then but is now going to get another airing as part of the ‘Into the Woods’ exhibition. The show is a CNarts event as part of Oxfordshire Artweeks running from 18th is – 27th of May. It will be alongside a host of other amazing work by Chipping Norton area based artists. 
I guess a lot of you will know that I am and have been, for a long time, a Marillion fan. Who? Marillion. Look them up. Amazing band. (And anyone who mentions Fish gets a slap) 😉
About 16 years ago I came up with an idea for a graphic novel. It was designed to feature the lead singer, Steve Hogarth, as one of the main characters. It was in its early stages and I pitched it to the band and presented them with a sample page of artwork. Those early conversations went well. They invited me to their studio for a chat about it and Steve sent me some of the (in progress) lyrics for the new album they were working on, called MARBLES. The idea for the new album very much fed into the narrative of the graphic novel and it was going to feature many of these lyrics. Anyway, time moved on and in the end, we decided not to collaborate on it. I did eventually develop the book into something slightly different and self publish it and the book continues to do well. I was interviewed about it a while back for the Marillion fan magazine, THE WEB where I spoke about its development and how certain themes remained. In the opening pages, there are visual acknowledgements to the bands early influence. They published some images from the graphic novel in that magazine article but one thing I wanted them to include and that I searched high and low for, but could not find, was that original sample page. Today… I FOUND IT! Sitting in a box amongst a load of my artwork from my days working on books for Marvel Comics.
So, for those interested in this kind of thing, or comics or Marillion, below is a copy of that sample page followed by an image of the book that eventually (after a number of years) got released. Originally to be called The Uninvited Guest, the book ended up as Horizon. You can find out more about Horizon HERE.
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