Truffle Pig v. Triceratops

After a day working on the book, I feel like something a bit lighter this evening and I draw eight pen and ink cartoons of this Truffle Pig character, which I originally drew as a cartoon on family holidays in France during my schooldays, and cobble them together into a little animated loop in Photoshop/Image Ready.

I'd like to do more of these because I like the idea of a simple drawing springing to life. I have much to learn and I try it so infrequently that I've always forgotten the technical side of the process by the time I get back to it. When I've time, I'll write-up a simple animation workshop about it and put it online, so that, the next time I want to try it, I'll know where I can find the instructions. The Photoshop/Image Ready manual is almost impossible to follow.

Cut-out Animation

The Triceratops was a cut out animation which I produced using my scanner some years ago. I drew head, jaw, tongue and body on separate bits of paper and hinged them with those little brass fastenings which you can use to keep a few sheets of paper together. Again, an animation workshop on this technique would make a useful web page, and I'm sure someone, somewhere, has done one.

I've just spotted that the eye of the Triceratops moves too!

What a Difference a Page Makes

I've been working on a new and much-improved version of this page from my garden book today. I had a new estimate from our printer this morning and I'm delighted that a longer book - 128 or 160 pages instead of the 96 pages I'd envisaged - is a possibility.

The book is a about ways of looking at the garden, of experiencing it, and part of all that is not to rush but to take your time to look at things. I've found it so difficult trying to work out how to fit that into a mere 96 pages (sounds a lot, but I've got so much material that I'd like to put in). 160 pages, 48 of those in colour, would be a delight because I'll be able to include the full range of experiences of seasons, drawing, moods, incidents . . . and cartoon spiders . . . in the back garden.

No wonder I felt like doing something animated this evening.

Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk