CAMERONKIMJONES: SKETCHPAD

We've Moved...

2010-08-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

It is with tear-filled eyes I type this final fairwell to all things Blogger. Things weren't working out between us that great and when I found out Blogger was posting stuff on the internet with my best-friend, well, enough was enough.
Please find my new and improved blog here.
Thanks for the goodtimes Blogger.

Crown House Part 01

2010-04-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

Lucky me, I got contracted to work up some neat little cartoon characters for Crown House Surgery, who I recently did a logo for. This is one sheet of many, many drawings.

Are You & the Environment Friends?

2010-02-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

I know this is on my illustration blog all coloured in, but I like the original so much I decided to post it here.

While you're having a glance through my blogs, why not pop on down to the link below and see how environmentally friendly you really are. It's not there to make you feel guilty, but rather make you look at what small things you can do each day that help out.

www.reducereuserecycle.co.uk

Old Toys VS New Toys

2010-01-14T22:33:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, you could give me a brick and a piece of blue lint I'd be happy for a month. Gimme some red lint and I'd be too hyper to sleep for week. Nowdays though, kids want everything. They want it shiny, flashing, sugary and they want it now. Give a modern child a toy truck and he'll want to know where the controller is. Toys are apparently not fun unless they are made in China and need batteries.

"So what?" I hear you say. Maybe we had to use our imagination a bit more when we were kids to have fun. Maybe we played with the kid next door a bit more. Is it all really that bad that kids nowdays spend more time strapped to screens? Well, according social researchers, child psychologists and childcare experts it probably is.

The thing is, you need play at a young age to develop your imagination, learn social skills and problem solving skills. The common childhood game of Doctor or Monopoly doesn't just need to be seen as fun, but as a chance for necessary life-skills to be developed at an early stage. Just because it may be fun for the children involved doesn't mean it's not important, as play seems to be a much better teacher than most people think.

As a side note, if you're nearing your thirties and still spending hundreds of dollars on Star Wars Lego every year, then this isn't a justification.

References & links...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1562673/Modern-life-is-destroying-childrens-play.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1497905/Too-much-learning-and-not-enough-play-stunts-childrens-development.html
http://www.learningchild.com.au/ccd/play

ZAP MAN!!!

2009-07-03T04:27:00.000-07:00

Faster than a hungry lettuce, stronger than your mum, zappier than four cups of lukewarm tea and a half eaten gingernut....it's the amazing, awesome, polite, snap-tastic ZAP MAN!!!

ZAP MAN!!! appears courtesy of Cheese & Chives Records.

Drumming

2009-06-03T07:46:00.000-07:00

I love drumming. I have this annoying habit of air drumming all the time. Tapping my feet, the table, chairs, the top of bins, small children's heads and anything else. People usually hate it on public transport and especially on their coffee table while I'm waiting for them to get tea., but I'm not too sure I can help it. My favourite beat is to do that bit from In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins , everyone knows it. Only good song I think the guy actually ended writing.

The Way Kids Play

2009-05-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

When I was a child loved Lego. We had a huge box of it with everything from pirates, police, space and lame girly ones with animal heads. I didn't like them. Even the one with the alligator head man looked sissy. I would spend hours making stuff, building up an imaginary world void of proper gravity and serious injury. It was fun and I'd do it without anyone telling me to. In fact, if I was in trouble one of the first things I wasn't allowed to do was play. It was pretty pointless sending me to my room.

Probably didn't know it at the time (in fact, I didn't at all) I was learning some of the most important lessons of my life. Dexterity skills, co-ordination, colour basics, organisational skills, lay-out skills and what to do with those annoying thin flat pieces. Lego is the Master Yoda of childhood education. Why? Because playing is the best way to learning. Most people know this, but for some reason it's only acceptable for children to lear this way. I mean, I don't remember learning how to speak English. Some would argue I still don't, but I'm not bad and I learnt it somehow. So if there ever was a time in my life to thank a bunch of plastic blocks sitting in a cupboard somewhere, now would be the time. Thanks for the memories Lego, except for you alligator head man.

Graham Coxon

2009-05-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

There was a time when I though army clothes were pretty cool. When I thought that Chemical Brothers were the most cutting edge dance music and that no-one was into hip-hop. A time when Y2K was a probably a real threat to safety of the world and that an Hyundai Excel was better than my lemon yellow 1978 Mitsubishi Sigma. Those days are gone now, but it was when I drew this. I still think it's pretty good, took me a very long time. Plus, I still like Blur.

Monsters Mash

2009-05-03T14:24:00.001-07:00

One day I'll get around to aphabeticalising my DVD collection. One day I'll get around to repaying my brother the $500 I owe him. One day I'll work out why Jack Black is white and why Barry White was black. One day I'll finally read all of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. One day I'll also get around to learning German properly and maybe even backpacking round South America. One day I'll delete all U2 songs from my iTunes. Around that time I think I'll also get around to finishing this picture and adding some colour. One day.

Parachutes. Not Just a Coldplay Album.

2009-04-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

No matter what you do in life, there's always someone there to point how things can really, tragically go wrong. Whether it be learning to drive, swimming lessons in a pool or simply sharpening your pencil. I vaguely remember back to Primary School, of our teacher warning about us running on the paths. From what I recall we got told about a boy only a few years older than ourselves who was running, tripped and his legs fell off or something. Actually, I don't think it was quite that drastic but the teacher made it seem that way. Even holding the pen wrong seemed very, very dangerous.

Funny thing is, there's always that kid in your group of friends, mine was called Harrison, who takes it the extra mile and says the kid died. Or that his nose got knocked into his face. And then when you ask how he knows this, he says he knows the kid and he lives on his street. In comparison, my street always seemed very boring.

Then, one day we were talking about people who's parachutes don't open. All sorts of fantastic stories started popping up. According to Harrison someone once landed on our own school oval and died and that his friend knew him. No one could really top that. That is until I remembered a family friend of ours had skydived and the parachute didn't open properly. According to my Mum he started spiraling and hit trees then the ground. He broke both his legs and but survived an improperly opened parachute jump. Later we went and saw him in his wheelchair once he was back from hospital. But more importantly than that, Harrison said nothing and I held everyone's deep respect for the entire of that lunchtime. I think it would have continued too, but apparently Harrison saw a Alien spaceship from his bedroom that night.

Super 8 is Super Great

2009-04-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

I love Super 8. The timeless, scratched flickering, quality that the ridiculously expensive method brings about. Amazing tones, grainy textures and uncertain luminousity. I can imagine thirty years ago film studio engineers sitting around pumping hundreds of dollars into trying to work out how to make their videos cleaner and crisper and less dirty. Funny then that nowdays film studio engineers sit around in similar ways with similar budgets trying to work out how to make videos less clean, blurrier and more dirty. Hours of fiddling about with new editing equipment and late night coffees recreating things that were once a problem. Make up your minds people and let these editors get a good night sleep in, huh? If it weren't so expensive it'd be funnier.

The World of Pete McAllen

2009-03-07T16:02:00.000-08:00

Another pic put together for Pete McAllen. Although it's super realistic, it isn't actually based on a real place. Several people were instantly disappointed at hearing that. However, it would be great to see a building in the shape of a guitar and a few more hot-air balloons around wouldn't it. I think large concrete letters would be going a bit too far...unless maybe it was a giant swear word. That'd be pretty hilarious in a high school kinda way. Anyway, link below...

www.petemcallen.com

Barny Vs Winnie Vs The 80's

2009-03-02T17:05:00.000-08:00

Nothing says 'ROCK!' more than a quasi-Barny/Winnie character playing 80's keyboard in a funky hat. Well, that's what I was thinking when I drew this. The next day I thought nothing says 'WHAT?' more than a quasi-Barny/Winnie character playing 80's keyboard in a funky hat. Perspective's a funny thing. I mean I'm sure what Prince was wearing in the 80's was mind blowing at the time, but if I wore that to work on Monday the fashion police would be called post-haste and a journey to the bosses could be due.

Pete McAllen Mobile

2009-03-02T16:55:00.000-08:00

Another drawing done for Pete's website, but also for his tour of Poland. The truth is, Pete's real car doesn't look anything near as cool as this number. A nice retro late 60's VW Combi, ideally baby blue with a white roof and one of those nice smelling vanilla scent tree's hanging from the rear view mirror. In reality I think he's actually got a Nissan Pulsar or something and it definitely doesn't have his initials on it or anything. Maybe in marker pen.

Pete McAllen New Website

2009-03-02T12:55:00.001-08:00

Here's some work I did for the one and only... Pete McAllen. Actually that's a bit of a lie, according to Google there's another Pete McAllen who's a structural engineer in Kent. But, the Pete McAllen I'm talking about is a singer/songwriter from Norwich. You shouldn't get the two mixed up though, hiring this Pete McAllen to supervise the installation of a hydraulic lift could be a bit of a disaster. But, he writes good songs, so check him out...

www.petemcallen.com

Wobbly Contoured Style

2009-03-02T11:01:00.000-08:00

This is the first in a series of freaky looking guys from bands. I'm starting to now work in this wobbly kind of perspective with thick lines which I colour in later. But, what do you care? Not really your business either. If I was you I wouldn't even keep reading this. In fact I would have already scrolled further down the page. Hopefully you have, but if you haven't, you should have because the last couple of sentences have quite honestly been a waste of time.

Playtime at Disney

2009-01-06T18:22:00.000-08:00

Here's a piece I put together for Disney London illustrating some of the different play patterns of children. They were later cleaned up combined with the power of words to make marketing people understand it. But these are the original sketches. I did a lot of work for this project. Best project I ever worked on. Apart from the time I got paid to sit in an Advertising Agency for a week checking my facebook. I wouldn't be calling that a 'project' though.

Jemaine. Man or Legend.

2009-01-04T18:13:00.000-08:00

You know I've often been compared to Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Concords. I don't know if it's my good looks, musical talent, acting ability, brilliant comedic mind or combination of all these. But it is nice to be occasionally reminded of the special connection that we both share. Pity they come from New Zealand and not Australia though, they'd be a lot better if they did.

Why Did I Draw This?

2009-01-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

Honestly, I'm not too sure what was going on in my head. Why did I spend 2 and a half hours on drawing this and I don't know why. It seemed cool at the time. I think I was reading about Ancient Greece. Now I'm faced with the dilemma of spending 2 and a half more hours into developing it into something or just leave it as it is and walk away.

Kredit Krunch. Low in Income!

2009-01-04T17:32:00.000-08:00

For the benefit of everyone out there who is sick to death of the media's favourite new catch-phrase. I haven't seen a copy of The Metro without Credit Crunch in there somewhere for about 6 months. I've got to the point where it'd actually be nice if they wrote a cover story about Amy Winehouse accidentally snorting crumbled parmesan. Actually that might have already happened.

Will Stoker Poster

2009-01-04T17:13:00.000-08:00

I drew this as a preliminary sketch, it became the final. Will liked it as it was, words and all. He lectured me on not relying on the use of modern technology. On how computers are making us more and more skill deficient and the beauty of the simple methods of the past. Then he told me e-mail it to him so he could go print it.