The Mariner's Revenge Song

"We are two mariners
Our ships' sole survivors

In this belly of a whale"

So begins the tale of one of my favorite songs "The Mariner's Revenge Song" by The Decemberists. I would have loved to make an animation based around this song, but that's an ambitious personal project I can't afford to tackle right now.

Instead I'll have to settle for this illustration. If you are unfamiliar with this modern day sea shanty, then please do yourself a favour and check it out here. It comes in at a whopping 10 minutes, but its well worth it.

Enjoy me hearties!

Illustration Friday "Opinion"

"Your opinion matters to us". Yeah, right.

Illustration Friday "Pretend"

This is my first submission for Illustration Friday. It's something I've wanted to be involved with for a while now, but have never seemed to find the right moment. Until now.

My first thought for the subject "Pretend" was of a boy pretending to be like his Dad. I found this to be quite a nostalgic notion, so I decided to give this a real period/retro feel. Also its a style I'm really very fond of.

Hope you like it.

Phone Doodle

This months Mass Apeel topic is "Doodles". I did this sketch of an Angry Donut for no apparent reason, while on the phone and I thought it might make a good submission. Then I decided to go and colour him up a little, again for no real reason.

I'm not entirely sure why he's so angry. Maybe it's because he was made with pink icing and feels the need to over compensate somehow. Or maybe it's because he's gradually lost most of his chocolate sprinkles over the years and his wife no longer finds him attractive. Either way this dower doughball has "issues"

Bedroom Pictures

Seems like I'm always doing something or other for my kids, or promising pieces for them to hang in their bedrooms. This is no exception. The difference with these particular illustrations is that the kids actually got a say in what they wanted AND, more importantly, I've actually followed through with my promise. Looks like Christmas has come early to the Kennett house.

Guts and Puns

This pathetic joke came to me in that period of brief delirium, just before you fall asleep. So I quickly scibbled it down this morning when I woke up. This would have probably been better suited for Halloween, but what the heck!

Sleigh Ride by Relient K

I recently had the great privilege of working with Tom Bancroft and Rob Corley on an animated Music Video. Gotee Records hired their company Funnypages to come up with a clip for the band Relient K's version of the classic Holiday song "Sleigh Ride". Tom and Rob are ex Disney Feature Animators and Character Designers, so when the opportunity came up I didn't really have to think too long and hard about it.

I was basically responsible for animating the final 3rd of the clip (except for the parts where the snowman fires snowballs and captures the girl). For those of you playing at home, my work begins at the 2min 10 mark. I hope you enjoy it.

Relient K - Sleigh Ride from gotee on Vimeo.

Finally a big THANK YOU to Michael Foster who put me in touch with Tom and Rob for this project and gifted me this great opportunity. Please go check him out.

EDIT: Two of my Fav websites Cartoon Brew and Cold Hard Flash have both featured this video. Cartoon Brew even gives me a credit, which is nice.

Sam 5

My Son is a massive Ben 10 fan and with his 5th birthday coming up, I thought I'd make him a special party invite where he's the star of the show. I copied the pose from existing Ben 10 artwork (thanks google) but did my own take to make the face and hair resemble Sam.

My first sketch had him looking a bit too old, so for the final version I enlarged his head to more 5yo proportions. I really wanted this to look like Sam could exist in the Ben 10 universe. I'm pretty happy with the result.