Introducing part I: Andy Vine

Hello. Andy Vine here. That's me up there. Or at least I used to look like that, nowadays I'm like a Proper Grown Up with a flat and a dog and everything. I don't tend to have puppets sat on my shoulder any more, but I do have more facial hair and wear tighter trousers. I do still drink tea all the time. I'm an animator by trade, illustrator more by instinct and make a living from neither of those things. I'm not here to talk about how I make my living though.

I came up with this excellent idea the other week, right, that we should all do a blog post introducing ourselves to the Big Wide World by showing off our best pieces of work. A greatest hits set, if you will. Turns out this is quite the undertaking, but I'm man enough. Yeah.

1) Everything Ever

Everything Ever is a project I've been working on for most of the year and have only just finished. I plan to get it printed onto canvas and would like to exhibit it somewhere, but I don't really know how to go about organising that so if you do, spill the beans.

2) The Dog Ate My Homework

My final piece at uni. Two years in the making, believe it or not. Need to get my animating hat back on, it's been too long.

3) The Clock

This is the reason I can't listen to Thom Yorke's solo album any more! It was made for a competition run by D&Ad.

4) Hugtober

Poster for the October '09 tour by Dananananaykroyd. They like hugging, hence Hugtober. This won a prize, hooray! VIP passes to every gig on the tour (we only went to one though). Super ace band, go and see them if only to experience the Wall of Cuddles.

5) Venus Fly Traps

This is my first attempt at a watercolour, composited with a line drawing. Might do some more stuff like this.

6) Caber Tossing

Poster for Everything Everything's gig at the Night and Day cafe in Manchester for last year's In The City. Cracking band, but I didn't actually go to this; my mate Mark was putting on a gig in Centro on the same day and his band Air Cav are better, so ner.

7) Wizard's Sleeve

Mr Phil brews his own beer. Coming soon: Dutch Rudder. I'm drawing a boat.

8) Sadness

Bit of a collaboration between most of us Dead Pheasant types and graphic design king Richard di Blasi. We had a couple of jars then went and drew on Andy Pearse's back, then I spent a couple of days hard editing. Then the band re-recorded the song so they didn't use this in the end. Still got a soft spot for it though.

9) Mechanical Tyrannosaurus Rex

This is a t-shirt design for a band called Kidnapper Bell (who, incidentally, have a song called Everything Ever, the name of which inspired my project up there ^. I hadn't heard the song when I came up with the idea, I just LOVED the name). They sound like firing rockets at T-Rex robots (a bit).

10) Just So You Know

Competition entry, a single sleeve for Just So You Know by Tripwires. As it turns out though, the song isn't about spacemen, so they went for a design with some tasteful lines on and stuff.

So, there we have it. I'm currently working on a few bits and pieces. Just finished a drawing of a mantelpiece for, er, Mantelpiece Productions, currently drafting a new beer label for Mr Phil called Dutch Rudder, and writing a film about a heist that goes badly wrong in a way that no one could predict. Too many ideas in the pipeline, foremost trying to draw in 3-D, and I don't mean like perspective, I mean like green and red glasses.

Other than that, I've recently aquired a taste for making electronic music (all of which can be downloaded for free by clicking on these words) which has in turn inspired an idea for an animated short film, a weird experimental thing where things happen in time with beats and bleeps. I really want to do more animating, not just weird shit but also a more traditional stop motion film about a man whose life is ruled by his teddy bear, which ironically may prove more difficult to make due to not having any time or studio space. I don't want to talk about my day job because it's less than relevant, except to say that I work with some of the most talented and creative people in Manchester.

Wow, that should have been an easy thing to do but was in fact very difficult. Your turn now. I'm Andy Vine, who the hell are you?