Mark Farrell

northern lights

2012-02-21T19:27:00.001+01:00

northern lights, a photo by M Farrell on Flickr.

Also wanted to show some of was it late January or early February's display of the northern lights - theyre my best yet

sketchbook project

2012-02-21T18:58:00.002+01:00

sketchbook project, a photo by M Farrell on Flickr.

I have mentioned my sketchbook project before in previous posts and I wanted to post a link so more people can have a chance to view it ( I cant remember if I digitised it or not)

2012-02-21T13:58:00.000+01:00

We are just about approaching the end of the second month of this year 2012. I am currently working on an older project tidying it up. It was a video I created for the Doritos competition in 2010, I remember animating it in a very short space of time.

I wanted to clean up what animation I can, including the sound because a lot of things didn't fully go to plan at the time. I know no matter how much I tweak the animation etc, it is never going to be 100% perfect.

This was the first time I had used flash - I do like flash butI do not think it is the most user freindly programme for an animator. I enjoy the stylish graphical animation that I have seen and which can be created if using it created, but Id really like to make a 2d hand drawn animation.

I would also like to give after effects a go sometime

Sketchbook project 2012!

2012-02-01T19:39:00.001+01:00

Finished on sunday afternoon which was great two days before the postmark deadline so I had good time to check over it make sure the pages were glued ok and also some time to scan and photograph my skecthbook for document.

heres a couple of pics:

Sketchbook world tour 2012! (twirl IF)

2012-01-26T08:39:00.001+01:00

Yay! I officially started the Sketchbook Project yesterday! I think at first I was afraid to draw in it if you know what I mean maybe with I it being a new sketchbook and I think I spent to much time thinking, thinking how it should look, what should I put in, what are people going to think about it.

The best thing is to just enjoy it! Really it is, I just need to spend the next few days up till Sunday working on up to 5 pages now. I just hope it's good that's all, at first I was fighting over doing 'finished pieces' but it is work in progress random thoughts a sketchbook. It took a while to adapt to working on something small but I got used to it. Ill keep ya posted!!

one day at a time

2012-01-24T19:15:00.003+01:00

These are from my small mole skin sketchbook to get the wheels turning again...

what do you think?

Hello 2012

2012-01-22T19:09:00.000+01:00

Hi this was not meant to be my first post but it just so happens it is, so HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I just just got back from New York and it was excellent I still need to let it all sink in I think I'm still a bit jet lagged which isnt helping living up in the arctic as the daylight is not very long at the moment hehe.

Anyway I have a sketchbook project to work on now for the Brooklyn Art Library and the deadline is less than 10 days away so I better get cracking!

here are some ideas I was experimenting with yesterday:

Going over developing old sketches and trying to come up with new ideas too.

Round

2011-11-29T22:33:00.003+01:00

heres something else thats round too I thought id showI put him in my last post, I dont think you will be able to see this with an ipad as it is an swf file

2d dragon interactive test

2011-11-17T15:42:00.004+01:00

I dont think you will be able to see this if you are veiwing this post on an Ipad as I believe they do not show flash video swf.

This is a character I created and have used to test some basic Action Script 3.0 so move your mouse around to guide him on its quite simple.

Scary? IF

2011-11-03T00:28:00.001+01:00

Maybe if you see Alfred Hitchcocks film Birds then you might find them scary

Its just a matter of perception

Scattered IF

2011-10-20T09:02:00.002+02:00

freshly made late last night for Illustration Friday, enjoy.

Hibernate IF

2011-10-01T22:30:00.001+02:00

A preview of things to come.....

2011-09-19T00:18:00.001+02:00

Hi You might recognise this cheeky little character form my title screen at the top. I have started to take him into illustrator previously he was a drawing coloured in a 2d package, I have an overwhelming desire to animate him in the near future.

As promised I added some drawings from the viking Images I posted previously

The next stage is to update my portfolio blog with recent images from some animated shorts and designs i have worked on

Ando some more vikings

couple more vikings IF Ferocious

2011-09-12T19:23:00.001+02:00

couple 'o extra vikings just drawing away for fun storing 'em away for later

In my next post I will put up some original drawings of these two

viking (prepared if)

2011-08-28T23:59:00.002+02:00

Prepared for a fight maybe

IF disguise

2011-08-28T21:54:00.003+02:00

here he is again a little more developed now you can see earlier concept sketches of him on my previous post
I was thinkng that would be great to animate too(something simple but fun) but for now its a design illustration

disguise

2011-08-27T21:25:00.002+02:00

hey its kinda work in progress at the moment I was sketching out some ideas to start of with and all along the i had the "rocket man" song in my head by Elton John

sketchbook project

2011-08-26T11:13:00.001+02:00

yay I will be taking part in the sketchbook project 2012 world tour
and my theme is tell me a story. looking forward to taking part.

sillouette from a character using photoshop

obsession?

2011-08-03T20:07:00.005+02:00

just an older sketch hopefully some newer stuff coming soon after this month

foxes

2011-07-31T20:40:00.004+02:00

Inspired by the foxes ive been seeing on my numerous bike rides too and fro the city I decided to start sketching out a picture of a fox I wanted to do a rapid water colour drawing something nice and loose I found it quite hard to get it looking like a fox so I decided to do some reaearch on google images for reference these are my attempts so far the water colour then some drawings

At some point ill g back to these as things start to come together

IF gesture

2011-07-17T21:02:00.006+02:00

I stayed up late last night and played around with some colours and having some fun first time I have had a chance to experiment for a long time :)

beginning

2011-05-09T22:19:00.004+02:00

I'm at the beginning again....

IF - Toy

2011-03-27T22:40:00.010+02:00

IF Warning

2011-03-07T17:54:00.004+01:00

Final Warning

IF: Swarm

2011-02-28T22:02:00.001+01:00

IF: layers

2011-02-23T10:59:00.004+01:00

This is purely just a test

IF: Layers

2011-02-21T23:29:00.001+01:00

madonna caricature

2011-02-18T20:44:00.000+01:00

boney finger

IF - Surrender

2011-01-28T18:35:00.000+01:00

freshly sketched today for illustration friday "surrender" my first entry for the year of 2011, hope you like it : )

a little nostalgia

2011-01-28T01:24:00.001+01:00

I was looking through some work to enter this weeks title illustration friday 'dusty' http://www.illustrationfriday.com/ I found some sketches I did around 2006-7 when I often sketched loose illustrations with a pen, I still do sometimes but probably more back then. It was quite inspiring for me to see them again. I ll be doing a few sketches again this year in small sketchbook as I go, hopefully will get to share them with you throughout the year ;)

Hey

2011-01-18T14:42:00.001+01:00

This is a pic I did quite while back inspired by Tim Biskups work heres a link to his site http://www.timbiskup.com/

Hey just a quick update to say that I might be having one of my animations shown on Italian TV just working throough the details now also possibly I might be shown on the big screen. I will be announcing this later - stay tuned

Hello 2011...

2011-01-16T22:43:00.003+01:00

...and happy new year to all thats reading

This is screenshot of a character I created from a rough sketch on note paper, do you like him? He was knocked up pretty quickly using illustrator it is from a rough sketch.

I am currently living abroad learning a new language and meeting many interesting people, and I am also available for freelance work so if you may have a project in mind please feel to get in touch.

IF - Savour

2010-12-02T00:25:00.004+01:00

Feels really good to be doing a some drawings again. The image that came into my head at first was to have some sort of creature or animal dangling or playing with its little prey, savouring the moment before it is eaten.

IF - Sneaky

2010-11-19T17:12:00.006+01:00

A character I have made for a very important project in the very near future.

This week, Sneaky

P.s I thought i'd 'sneak' one more in too, hope you dont mind just this one time :)

*he'll also be part of the same project ;)

New Blog idea!

2010-11-15T15:56:00.003+01:00

Quite soon i will be creating a new blog to host a protfolio for greetings cards
its an area I'd really like to get into, it is something I definitely think I will enjoy
producing. here are some ideas from some photographs I did last year, actually when I drew on them I did it purely for fun I never intended to use them as a greetings card but hey im going to to give it a go now, why not?

ill anounce it on here and twitter as soon as it is created, hope you enjoy :)

Burning IF

2010-11-12T23:56:00.002+01:00

This Weeks Topic 'Burning'

Something I created earlier on this year a dragon hopping along possibly hot coal.

Xmas Flash Game

2010-11-12T13:28:00.006+01:00

On Friday I created a new background for a Flash Game which is currently in development, if I get a link for it Ill put one up on a post this is how it looked although it has been slightly tweaked since then.

Starting to get into the xmas spirit a bit now, might finally get to make my xmas pud tomorrow yay - I also think I have an idea for this weeks illustration friday 'burning' stay tuned.

Illustration friday - afterwards

2010-11-05T10:52:00.003+01:00

Hey this illustration is something I did prbably around 2-3 years ago I thought id put it up for 'afterwards' . maybe a bit early but its getting into the seasonal spirit now,

I havent made a post in gaes i have been very very busy and I have also maoved home to

Im hoping in the new year I will be able to work on a website for myself and some new animations gonna be ver exciting stay tuned :)

Illustration Friday - Atmosphere

2010-08-23T21:56:00.002+02:00

I think I might have posted this ealier in my blog, its one piece I have right now I think best fits the subject :)

illustration friday - caged

2010-08-07T14:30:00.003+02:00

illusstration friday Caged

rushing off to go on holiday for a nice week off see you soon ;)

dragons den

2010-07-28T15:31:00.004+02:00

Some recent initial idea artwork, for a potential project to create an animated alternate universe/alter ego of the dragons den

IF- Double

2010-07-26T00:17:00.003+02:00

This weeks topic Double

Sunderland Software City Project

2010-07-25T23:08:00.004+02:00

been putting together some pre-production art together today from the project I worked on for Sunderland Software City.Hopefully by next weekend I should have a bit more time to upload a little bit more and mayve talk about the process I went through.

finished project and image dumpage

2010-07-23T00:36:00.006+02:00

The other day I watched eastenders on bbc iplayer, dont ask me why but I did, I dont watch alot of tv these days for various reasons but when I did the other day i thought I might aswell start drawing from it as there were some interedting characters in it.

As you can see Im not much of a caracature artist but this was a good excersice for me testing my memory and observational skills aswell

I may make this a regular thing if I set some time aside for myself, maybe a Sunday afternoon

- Certainly I will do my best to post more regularly on herehopefully at least once a week now. I have actually finished a project I was working on recently.

It took around 5 weeks to complete includint all character designs animation, backgrounds and storyboards, but I got it in and I am quite happy with it - Ill post some artwork on here soon and a link to hopefully the final export

till then Ill leave you with a screenshot and an early design from the car featured

2010-07-10T02:32:00.002+02:00

I have a deadline coming up for around the start of next week so there is a lot of work that needs to be done for monday, after that I hope I may have a bit more time to myself to start working on some projects I have put aside for myself :)

quick work in progress post :)

2010-06-29T20:09:00.002+02:00

sunderland software city animation bcg

if - slither

2010-05-30T15:19:00.001+02:00

IF - Equipment

2010-05-15T21:06:00.006+02:00

Illustration Friday - this weeks topic "Equipment"

taken from a frame from an abstract animation I made

Illustration Friday - Cocoon

2010-05-04T23:10:00.002+02:00

This weeks topic Cocoon

"I still want to do a further post on my doritos entry will be getting to that soon :)"

Doritos Ad entry

2010-05-01T16:27:00.000+02:00

will do a post, with a bit more detail shortly

london Book Fair Update...

2010-04-26T11:53:00.002+02:00

Hi, it has been a very busy weekend for me, creating a proposal for some potential freelance work so I had to put the doritos ad temporarily on hold - I have found most of my storyboards and will be scannin them in today :)

I have got in touch with some people from the London Book Fair, and have some positive responses so I am looking forward to work together with them on some future projects - cant wait

Ill psot my storyboards later and will be emailing htem to the people that requested them :)

London Book Fair

2010-04-22T12:58:00.006+02:00

Hi just yesterday, I went down to London to visit the London Book Fair in Earls Court, I met a lot of great people down there and I have some fresh new ideas on what to focus my work on:)

At the moment I have just started designing some character for a short animation to enter into the doritos king of ads competition I ahvent got alot of time as things are quite hectic at the moment but I intend to have a pieve ready to enter even if I have to work all night at it near the deadline, as I may not be able to start the animation until a few days before at the moment.
To the people whom requested samples of sequaential art storyboards - I will be scanning them in very soon, hopefully to post them on here but certainly I will be sending them to your emails :)

image drive by

2010-04-07T11:18:00.003+02:00

Illustration Friday - Dip

2010-04-03T17:37:00.002+02:00

This weeks topic Dip

kids stuff

2010-03-25T23:24:00.004+01:00

Few rough Ideas, developing childrens drawing to possibly used for futue flash animations

Flash creature

2010-03-22T15:01:00.009+01:00

thought I would embed my most recent piece of animation this time it is in flash

animation and I learned alot playing around with him took around 3-4 hours to animate hope you enjoy :)

this weeks topic - subterranian

2010-03-14T13:10:00.003+01:00

brave illustration friday

2010-03-10T19:22:00.004+01:00

his is a quick sketch Id like to submit as an idea for illustration friday

flyingdragon

2010-02-02T15:41:00.010+01:00

Use your mouse to move him around, have fun :)
The animation was based on my design for Kuro Dragon obviouslyu I changed the colour as he is not black this was an interactive animation test :)

#edit you will need to have flash player installed to interact with and use to fully enjoy you can recieve a free copy here http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Kuro Dragon

2010-01-27T21:01:00.005+01:00

Wow this is my first post this year

here are some character designs I was working on.

I did 3 test animations in flash they are a bit stiff but it was to test out the wings
Ill put a post up later hopefully something interactive :)

Merry Xmas

2009-12-20T15:45:00.003+01:00

Hi this has been my first post on here for quite a while, over the next few weeks/days I am going to be making quite a few changes on here. I will leave my portfolio on here but also move a copy of it to my production blog as an archive for now - so that I can start posting on here more often

More cool pictures more cool ideas etc If you havent noticed I have been playing around with the layouts and the blogger tool gadget thingies see what they do, I just have not been online much these last few days to sort them out I have opened another blog too more on that later
Incase I dont get to post again

Have a great christmas everyone take care of yourselves hope its a good one :)

Images

2009-07-22T10:24:00.007+02:00

life drawing

2009-07-22T09:55:00.013+02:00

Showreel

2009-06-23T02:04:00.001+02:00

My second blog http://Productionwork.blogspot.com

2009-05-18T14:35:00.000+02:00

http://www.productionwork.blogspot.com

2009-03-11T18:28:00.000+01:00

Above: Very Early concept drawings of the Pilot
Originally in my mind I was set on creating the pilot with a brown bomber jacket

Below: Final Pallettes, out of curiosity I coloured his jacket and helmet witht he same colour as his scarf and instantly I loved it. I think he has more of a charismatic appeal nown than the brown pallette.

life drawing 2

2008-11-03T22:39:00.004+01:00

Red Baron - Sort of

2008-08-12T17:05:00.000+02:00

This is something I am currently working on I finished the animation around November last year, I have tried to clean it up and improve on it as best as I can. I'm quite happy with it so far so I think I am going to have to leave it for now or else I think I could end up working on it forever.

Later on I will post some images of the process I went through for it

Jimmi Hendrix Potrait

2008-08-12T16:34:00.000+02:00

A picture of Jimmi Hendrix I did a while back. I got the reference from a music magazine I think it was Mojo.

rough bck with character test sample

2008-04-16T01:57:00.000+02:00

I just have to see and exhaust all colours like i did with the design of the character, see what works best, i know I can play it safe with green blue and maybe yellow I just want to try something different. If I am to go with this then the sky will need to be darker (maybe a pink colour to make the character stand out more.

background colour sample tests

2008-04-12T21:05:00.000+02:00

background colour chart tests im trying to use as little as 2-4 colours this is just to get an idea of the colour not the finl design

ill need to put both element character andbackground to finish off

2008-03-20T19:12:00.000+01:00

early concept for a background for my third year film

which is all still work in progress

Brian Blessed - Grandpa Crow

2008-03-20T18:53:00.000+01:00

This is the character Brian Blessed Voices

I was lucky enough to do a little bit of animation on this

character which I was also lucky enough to design :)

2008-03-20T18:45:00.000+01:00

These are the guys I published in my first post just a little bit more finalised

Black and Whites

2008-03-20T18:42:00.000+01:00

I Really love creating a moody piece especially in black and white

FATTY

2008-03-20T18:31:00.000+01:00

Currently My 3rd Year Major Project 1 of 3 characters which will be featured in a short 2d animation (using Animo & Photo Shop)

city

2008-03-20T18:23:00.000+01:00

2008-02-27T16:17:00.000+01:00

early concepts for some characters using markers

I cant wait to use some of these guys for some of my later projects its gonna be fun