Flash Experiments

27 05 2009

axperimentsiteI often make little flash toys and experiments and they always end up just lying around on my hard drive.  I figured I could make a repository to store all of these little timewasters, and so I have!

The axperiment website is a dumping ground for all my flash experiments.  You can view all the items at : http://www.tenfiftyfour.com/axperiment/ or you can view individual items via their own urls ( ie : http://tenfiftyfour.com/axperiment/experiments/02_mouseshooter/ ).

I’ve also added a cool little timewaster game, which I think I might extend in the near future.  Something to keep me occupied while I’m not working on my rad new upcoming entertainer project ( more on this within a week or so – after I’ve got some work done ).





Second star to the right, then straight down.

13 05 2009

The past few days have been so wonderful, I thought I’d celebrate by putting together a new entertainer for you all! And what better than a young adventurous lad with too much black powder lying around.  I give you …

Not So Impressive Entertainer # 27 : Peter Blam – The Boy Who Will Never Grow Up

Peter Blam - The Boy Who Will Never Grow Up

Peter Blam

“Due to an unfortunate incident involving rapid acceleration and lack of adequate foundation undergarments, Peter was the only child of Eric (Mr Mortar) and Cindy (The Human Torch) – “The Flying Blamovichs” – a famous circus family.

Being brought up amidst an itinerant lifestyle and enduring home-schooling with very limited exposure to classic literature, he developed as a very lonely, some would say fixated and delusional pre-adolescent. Peter loved J. M. Barry’s classic work, one of the few books in his parent’s library. He was obsessed with “Neverland”, often dreaming he was there – gleefully running amongst the tents and cages with his wooden sword, living the life of a lost boy. Having few acquaintances of his own age, he would often be heard chatting to his imaginary Wendy, or arguing with Tootles about marbles, but everyone was too busy to notice how close he was to losing his own.

Magda, the bearded lady, often suggested that Peter’s conversations with “Tinkerbell”, his bottled glow worm, bordered on schizophrenic and that 2 out of 5 voices in her head were worried about him. She barely noticed the morning Peter slipped away from the communal breakfast table heading for the big top and his first grand adventure. Kitted out in his favourite Pan pyjamas, he climbed into his father’s cannon all the while thanking Tinks for the fairy dust, and launched himself towards the second star on the right, without realising it was merely a tear in the canvas that had yet to be repaired.

The subsequent kerfuffle and tragedy that ensued cancelled the matinee performance. The coroner ruled that the target sponge was not sufficiently wet; Peter’s trajectory was slightly miscalculated because the sight was calibrated for his father’s body weight meaning he would have missed his damp target anyway. Further it was determined that the explosive charge he had inexpertly packed into the cannon was not tamped down sufficiently to prevent flash burns and he was not wearing safety goggles or fire-retardant clothing all of which culminated in a record number of workplace health and safety violations.

Few will forget the unbridled joy of a crackling adolescent voice, exclaiming in jubilation at the top of his voice, from the top of his parabolic flight path “You will believe a boy can fly!” or the totality of the silence that followed the landing. During the remembrance ceremony, a final touching tribute was unveiled – the epitaph on his cremation urn read “Peter Blam – The Boy Who Will Never Grow Up”.”

– Biography by wonko.

I’ve had some suggestions on what to do with the entertainers eventually.  My favourite idea is a pack of 52 cards.  Each entertainer on a single card – could be a wonderful little idea, I just have to get to 52 of them first…

- a.





Who ? What ? When ? Where ? Why ? If ?

23 04 2009

And so as Felafel enters its final two weeks, I’ve moved on from the illustrations, and done a bit of work on a personal project of my own.  That’s right, Not So Impressive Entertainer #26!

NSIE 26 – “Inconsequential Question Boy”

Inconsequential Question Boy

Inconsequential Question Boy

“Little Timmy Thalbutt approached a Broadway agent with an idea for an act, along with a note from his mother saying that he had her permission to enter the world of show business so long as he was home by 6 and stayed away from “loose women”.


“IQ Boy” was billed as a genius, a modern day Aristotle and premiered during intermission at a mid-day matinee of an experimental production of “Cats”.
In a stroke of theatrical suicide, Timmy broke the fourth wall and began asking oddly compelling but totally inconsequential questions. What baffled the audience most was the fact that he picked on particular spotlighted impromptu members of the audience with these questions, waiting patiently for awkward and wildly incorrect answers before moving on, as if not actually listening to the responses. What’s and Why’s and Wherefores flowed thick and fast before the curtain could be hastily drawn and Timmy whisked backstage for a brisk dressing down to the strains of the jug band tuning up for the overture to Act 2.

Timmy’s career was over as quickly as it had started, he had learned a valuable but none the less painful lesson – no one likes a smartarse. Timmy’s agent waived her usual exorbitant fee, writing it off as a tax deduction, delighted her venture into musical theatre allowed her to secure a dinner date with “The Rum Tum Tugger” supposedly due to an apparent compassion and empathy with kids and nothing at all to do with how he filled his leotard.” – biography by wonko

- a.





“I am the Giant Green Iguana”

15 04 2009

Some more felafel designs for those who are interested.  The play is still running at the Brisbane Arts Theatre for a few more weeks – so I recommend all in Brisbane attend!  I’ll have some photos of the printed merchendise sometime soon as well – It all came out rather well if I do say so myself

"I am the giant green iguana!"

"I am the giant green iguana!"

For those who have seen the merch, then you will have seen the ‘Green Iguana’ T-shirt.  Although the Green Iguana T-shirt looks great as-is, You probably havn’t seen the original iguana design which unfortunately was too many colours to be printed.  I thought I would show you how the image started.

Original Tshirt Design

Original Tshirt Design

In other news I have a new project I’m currently working on – I’ll let you all know how it goes soon.

- aA.





He Died with a Felafel in his Hand

30 03 2009

Felafel Program So it’s been a bit quiet here lately, mainly because I’ve been quite busy as of late putting together some sketches and drawings for a Brisbane production of ‘He died with a Felafel in his hand’.  I was asked to do a series of sketches for the program, to possibly go up around the foyer, and to bet put on some merchendise.  The play is based on the book by ‘John Birmingham‘, and is directed by the lovely ‘Natalie Bochenski’.

Opening night was on friday night, and it was absolutely wonderful.  They had a great audience, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it (I know I most certainly did, and will be heading back this week to check it out again ).

I highly recommend anyone in brisbane to head along to the lovely little theatre on Petrie Terrace, and check out the play.  It runs a total of 18 shows from now until the 2nd of May ( Usually Thurs, Fri, and Saturday nights ).  If you do go, not only will you see a wonderfully hilarious show – But you’ll also see such fabulous* artwork such as this :

deb_fridge_13_noline

popovserinafinal

largehouse_a3

And of course, there are more artworks there, and more to come! I’ll post some more here in the coming weeks.

- aA.





Portfolio Update

22 03 2009

I thought it was about time I updated my portfolio.  I’ve changed the boxes to nice little circles, added some more personal information, and also added some new content – including some never before seen Felafel drawings.  So head on over and check it out if you haven’t already.


Anthony Massingham : Exhibition Website
Anthony Massingham : Exhibition Website





I am not Will Bu

23 02 2009

I do love the way WordPress tracks incoming URLs.  Having a look at them earlier tonight, I found this : 

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1183283151

And I was presented with a familiar little picture.  Hello Mr Will Bu, I love your hat.  I have one just like it

To answer your question. No Mr Emerson Kirk-Burnnand,  I have no connection with Mr Bu.  Whoever they are, they seem to have just taken my image and used it as their display picture.  I am sorry I can’t enlighten you any further.

I’m watching you, Mr Bu.





General Update

14 02 2009

Hi everyone,

I thought I’d post a quick update !

I’ve got a lot on my plate at the moment.  Work is fairly busy, on top of that progress on parasite is going well, and I’m working on some illustrations for a upcoming production of “He Died with a Felafel in his Hand”. As well as some more illustrations for a competition.  So it’s all bit crazy.  I thought I’d share a few pages from one of my sketchbooks, just for those of you who like seeing these.  Various things in this.  Early concepts for NSIE’s, Early Concepts for Parasite Characters, Random Sektches, Concept sketches for the competition images… 

040209_sketch011

040209_sketch02

There was also a new ( albeit fairly simple ) Parasite video which was uploaded a few days ago, which you’re more than welcome to view below : 

I’ll do another post in a few days time, hopefully with some nice digital sketches, and a possible new NSIE who is in early sketch form at the moment.

 - aA





Flipped Parasite

18 01 2009

Evening everyone, I thought I’d post a new update on parasite.  Ben has added some new features to the code, and I’ve been working on design related things.  I’ve posted a quick video up on vimeo using my new toy, a Flip MinoHD.

Essentially It’s just a progress report – I hope to do more of them as time goes on.  We’re starting work soon on the first level which we’re then going to use as our testing ground to get most of the mechanics in place.  Hopefully I’ll have more news for you within a week or two.

 - aA.





The Making of Doctor Innoculator

12 01 2009

I’ve had a few requests from people asking about my process when it comes to my illustrations.  So I thought I’d post this quick work in progress timeline of my latest entertainer “Doctor Innoculator“.  

 

Making of Doctor Innoculator

Making of Doctor Innoculator

There are actually more stages here, these are just the few that I saved as I went through.  Essentially all the drawings start off as a sketch.  Either really rough usually just enough for a guide, midrange quality ( this level ), or high quality ( Claude was originally a high quality sketch – where everything is pretty much laid out and there isn’t much variation from the two ).  From there I take the image into flash and do the basic linework.  After the intial linework I do basic detailing as well as modifications to the sketch.  From here, block colours are added, then I go to work doing shading.  After all the shading is complete I usually head through and make changes to poses, props, anything that doesn’t seem quite right, as well as adding extra detail ( in this case, I added some equipment to the bag, and changed the scaling on a few of the items ).

So there you go, the anatomy of an aA Sketch.

 - aA