Catching a Drift, part 2

2014 started with promise, crumbled in the middle, rose again, then sank again rather steeply but shot right back up amid tears of Joy and Sadness.

It was a challenging 12 months of setbacks, achievements, cultural highlights, influences and revealing truths. My passions have directed me along this creative journey. I want to thank everybody who were part of it for helping me understand how this insanely tiny world works.

January-March

• Sherlock bounced back into our lives with Series 3. Illustrations and Oscar memes were hugely popular with Speedy's Cafe and fans.
• (pictured) Beren's Cat tries and fails to catch the mice.
• Tour of BBC Broadcasting House
• Animated Women UK MPC Showcase, Moving Picture Company
• The Image Is the Servant, Hansom Hall
• Designed the logo for Animated Women UK
• 3D Creative Summit, BFi
• Attended my first Animgather networking event: introduced to Bournemouth students, VFX pros, and other creative cats who are campaigning to save the Doodle Bar from redevelopment.

April-June

Source: Bubble_Fun_Tea

• Fargo made our Sunday evenings a little more sinister. Eventually we would binge-watch the first series of Happy Valley.
• Submitted a project proposal to LCB Depot - rejected, but...
• A collaboration with Mini Productions on the Acting on a Dream campaign begins.
• (pictured) Gok Wan, Miss GB and Leicester's Strongest Man appeared during the launch of the Fun Tea brand in Highcross.
• Godzilla, despite a triumphant return, started to haunt my dreams.
• The period when things kind of went…eh.
• Friends and family, Smod Co podcasts, Glen Keane's short film Duet, Days of Future Past and the Moving Together Dance show made me feel hopeful and less lonely. Also, this song(s):

July-September

• Watercolours and cooking slowly brought me out of my slump. Confidence grows but business is still very slow.
• Started designing illustrations for a Jurassic World fan project.
• Everybody's Music attracted more views via Toon Boom Showcase.
• The folks at somewhereto_ helped me run workshops and a market stall; neither attracted enough attention but they gave me bags of popcorn and a lead or two.
• Completely starstruck by Jenna Coleman and Richard Madden on the way to Animgather Summer Edition, Regent's Park.
• The popcorn was warmly received with fellow animators. I recommended a young man to seek Prince's Trust and somewhereto_.

• Danced like Star-Lord around Cardiff after attending the Doctor Who World Tour/Series 8 launch (pictured) where I met lots of lovely fans including Lizzie George, Michael Crumpton and Peter Capaldi.
• Fresh from Guardians of the Galaxy and Deep Breath, this video blew my mind:

• Attended Frank Gladstone's Visual Storytelling Masterclass at the University of Wales, before logging into Nik Ranieri's master lecture over at Virtual Animators.
• In September the bright spots of a frustrating holiday included a filmmaking lecture by Don Hahn, closely followed by Listen, Pride, Aunt Susan, and return to Caswell Bay.

"Keep Drawing"

• (pictured) Making of Duet, Curzon Soho: Glen Keane has seen 40 seconds of Everybody's Music.
• Revisiting Keane's classic movies helped improve my animation drawing skills.
• MADE Festival Conference in Sheffield; highlights include Michelle Mone, Levi Roots and bumping into the Seed Creativity guys.

October-December

• Stephen Fry replied to a tweet about making a fool of yourself in front of your heroes: …"I overslept [and] missed tea with Al Pacino. I mean you just don't stand up Don Corleone or Scarface…"
• I painted another watercolour of a scene from Kill the Moon.
• (pictured) Brand Licensing Europe at the Olympia, where I felt out of my depth, but I saw some exclusive footage and networked.

• (pictured) Opening Gala of LFF: besides some decent photos, the evening was a shambles. Came home later than planned. Wrecked by the ordeal and the death of our beloved Austin.
• My sister Emily, who was also going through hard times, encouraged me to draw The Midnight Beast fan art for her.
• Doctor Who + Virtual Animators (with drawing demos by Andreas Deja)
• UK Young Artists Festival, highlights: the Hermes Experiment, Jo Kelen, Gurdain Singh Rayatt, and Annlin Chao's Phantom on the Cliff.
• Interstellar rocks the Showcase in XPLUS, thanks to Christopher Nolan's championing of large screen formats.
• Doctor Who DVD Launch, Ham Yard Hotel
• Installations: Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, Paddington Trail
• The Imitation Game brought me to tears
• Leicester for Business Awards, Y Theatre
• Tour Jurassic World and trailer were both revealed
• (pictured) Aberavon sunset + chips + Paddington
• The Greatest Adventure came to an end with The Battle of Five Armies. I do love spending time in that world, whatever Age.
• AWUK networking (missed out last time when I got lost in Bloomsbury)
• Best Christmas Day Ever

Resolutions

• Tidy room
• Lose weight
• Sketch every morning
• Purchase Oyster and Young Person's coach card
• Get a business account
• Spend wisely
• Save up for Sherlocked Convention
• Read more books
• Sharpen pitch, selling and marketing abilities
• Improve communication skills
• Launch an art auction; donate the profits to the Glasgow School of Art Development Trust
• Make that film

Hello 2015! please be a good one for us all.

Related articles:

Doctor Who appreciation post

Catching a Drift part 1

Rocking my world in 2013

Career highlights

• Graduating from De Montfort, before moving on to freelancing. Sod's Law that I got the worst flu in my first week of work
• I was a runner up of the Business Venture Competition at DMU
• Prince's Trust, Spring and Startup Loans supported me with starting up, marketing and finances. I used the loan to purchase software and communication tools. A proper website, at last!
• Somewhere to_ teach young people to draw from life, capture and observe what they see at the SkyRide event. With the O2 Think Big grant I also bought an HD camera which is great for wildlife footage.
• I was a student of Michael Morgan's Summer Animation program, improving my skills in 3D animation, nailing down the weight and balance. That reel was ready to be shown at...
• Escape Studios' VFX Festival. It was amazing to meet so many folks who were pumped for the industry. The panel debate. The Gravity presentation. The afterparty was like the party I missed at uni. But better, it was proper networking!
• If there was anything that could beat that occasion, it was the reaction on Georgina's face from showing her the result of pencil tests I had taught her to do, and the final animation. It was to be part of our Gold Arts Award participation. Emma of Enter Edem made the recommendation; I then met Georgina, which overall led to a very lovely experience, sharing each other's art practice. How wonderful it was to see her and other talented artists take to the stage!

Film/TV highlights

• Many of us dressed in green in support for VFX professionals, after Rhythm N Hues, despite winning accolades, signed for bankruptcy.
• On the other hand, traditional animation is once again cooler than bow ties, merging with old/new tech to produce anything from Paperman to the Bear & Hare ad campaign.
• Talking of beautiful works of art, it was a good year to be a Cumberbabe. Even when the Benedict was playing Big Bads, you couldn't help but feel aroused, and I still get warm and fuzzy seeing his name in the credits. It's been that way for nearly 10 years since Hawking.
• Last year I made a promise to see any big movie in IMAX 3D. Any day I was in Cardiff Bay, I caught Pacific Rim and Gravity on opening weekend and day respectively. The latter was the best presented. Things would fly slowly or rapidly into you. It evoked something that few movies have given me of late. WONDER. I hadn't felt that way since Coraline. If it's playing in IMAX, imma hit that thing again...Promise.
• Ironic that I bought my iPad right before watching The World's End, if you know what the themes and twists are. Possibly my favourite of the Cornetto trilogy - not just because I love mint flavour above all else - it was nuanced, deeply affecting, funny as hell, and aims higher with social commentary on "Starbucking". Most were quite taken aback by the ending, but it's damn perfect.
• The Last of Us, though I didn't get to play it, grabbed me and never let go. Likewise, World War Z had one or two nerve-shredding sequences and a sense that was almost on par with Jurassic Park.
• Shortly after that, Peter Capaldi was announced as Doctor 12. We realised he played "WHO Doctor" and all of us laughed for a good 5 mins. Even I initially pointed out, W.H.O. based in Cardiff? Love how my favourite city gets name checked in a Hollywood film.
• Summer for me was dominated by catching up with Breaking Bad. Every season is a daring mix of humour, character development, twisted morals, beautiful cinematography, career-defining acting, moments that shake you. Ozymandias even made me yelp loudly on a coach; Felina left me beaming, elated, satisfied and grieving.
• The 50th anniversary of Doctor Who was another lovely communal experience shared with the world. Whereas An Adventure in Space and Time was profoundly more moving, Time of the Doctor had the mother of all fangasms. It was impossible to frown upon.
• Mum was obsessed with The White Queen, which inspired me to sketch an iPad drawing of Richard III. That was then retweeted and favourited by Aneurin Barnard, spreading over his fan community for a little while. Wasn't expecting that, neither did I expect Peter Serafinowicz to Follow me. He was praising Princess and the Frog; myself and the director of Flushed Away joined the chat. That was a great evening.
• Out of the only three fully-animated feature films I saw theatrically this year, Frozen is my firm favourite. Love the design; the sister's relationship is ultimately, genuinely moving; Let It Go, so spine-chillingly good! Prepare yourself for it is a proper Disney musical, and I'm a sucker for that.
• Desolation of Smaug - Hobbit 2: Big Ass Spiders - finally took us to the fireworks factory Milhouse was itching to see. Even though it felt like the mid-section of the Greatest Adventure, and the aura of advance Royal Premiere buzz was nonexistent at the two screenings I caught, there was so much pleasure in the detail, set pieces, the world PJ and co have visualised. An Unexpected Journey gave me anticipation from its bookends alone. This one gave me exactly what I wanted, including Inside Information. Bloody marvellous. That would make a terrific survival game. The stuff of nightmares. Just started reading Alex Alice's Siegfried graphic novel. Tolkien found plenty of influence in The Ring of Nibelung, no doubt about it.