My name is James O'Neill, I am an animation student at the London College of Communication (LCC), and this is what I do.
Gary Oldman as George Smiley.
Patrick McGoohan.
Alan Rickman.
Matt Smith.
Albert Finney as Poirot.
A wealth of other sculptural excursions on my sister site http://frasierdalek.deviantart.com/
What I do, essentially, is thus. I enjoy sculpting and have done for quite a very long time, or atleast it feels as such.
All started back in the early to mid-1990s when I was a small child and obsessed with Wallace and Gromit (by Aardman Animations). I got my hands on a block of plasticine and it kind of escalated from there. Making models of Wallace and Gromit became somewhat of an obsession of mine through those years, making models and watching the existing adventures in the form of "A Grand Day Out", "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave", which I adore still to this day. Indeed it was probably these three animated "shorts" that got my mind working in Frames....a bit of Animation jargon for you non-Animation people perhaps reading this. It inspired an interest within me for films with a more hand-made feel. Animated films that had a "hands on" feel to them, indeed Wallace and Gromit would usually have finger-prints and thumb grooves pressed into them unintentionally due to the animation process. This kind of charm is something I feel very warmly for to this day.
Another film that caught my attention during the mid-90s was "Flatworld", a stop motion animated short film constructed entirely from cardboard, reveling in the fact too. It's wordless charm grabbed me from that young age and is still engrained in my memory. Since then I've become enamoured with television and cinema, them becoming more influences on what I do than any other medium. I do, I admit, feel guilty in that. That I don't draw on more classical sources of inspiration, but that's just the way I'm built unforunately. Growing up I fell in love with Doctor Who for example, which is to this day a massive trend in my work, one way or the other. I get inspired by things I see on television and try to reflect this in what I do. Actors influence me too, as do writers and directors and sculptors and, yes, sometimes, even artists.
I enjoy the haptic experience of sculpting something so small and so intricate, the sculpts highlighted above are all 1/6th scale, i.e. to scale with a 12" doll, not sure why I work at such a scale, just works nicely I think .
What I do is fuelled really out of an obsession in trying to get things right. I wouldn't say I'm obsessively obsessive in my wanting for detail and accuracy, but I just can't stand seeing something fall short when it comes to looking right. I've had many sleepness nights following sculpting something or someone that fails to work the way I want it too, many times I've gotten up late at night from a slumber-less slumber to make a final adjustment to a sculpture that's been niggling at me for hours, and that slight tweak ruining the sculpt making that night even more frustrated and furious than it was before. I never seemed to learn that it was never a good idea to work on something after 9pm, as I just make mistakes and get sloppy after that blasted hour. I hope other people understand and sympathise, if not, I suppose this could just be an artistic quirk of mine. If that doesn't sound too pretentious. I hardly consider myself an artist, just someone who sculpts what he sees, or, put another way, a man who sculpts what he wants.
For those interested in my more animated work, this was my final major project for the end of the first year of my Foundation course, called Purple and the Penguin.
It was a collaborative project, made in partnership with Paul Freeman, a sound student who provided the (in my opinion) pitch perfect soundtrack and musical score.The puppets, props, and film in general, was animated by myself.
I wanted to create an animated story in the style of the warm, quaint, charming children's animations made during the 1970s, drawing on the works of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, then giants of animation who created the immortal Bagpuss, Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog, and the dear Clangers. Characters and series each which contributed to my growing up amid a swamp of Anime and CGI. Things I never truly understood.
In all, I'm jolly proud of this little thing and adore the job Paul did with the soundtrack and owe him much.
Something else that might be worth a look.
Wheels of Progress was another final major project I produced a few years ago which has a warm place in my heart.
A tedious story connected to filming this. It was frustrating and tiresome, as indeed is much of the process involved in making stop motion animation. One instance that springs to mind was the very setting up of the set and preping the train, getting it ready to move. It was working fine, and then the very, *very* instant I turn the camera on, the train dies and stops moving. So I had to shuv it along with my barehands. Tiresome stuff.
Well that's but a glimpse into what it is I do as a creative person, if I term myself that, which I rarely do. I hope it's atleast caught an ounce of your valuable attention, and hope that you will stick with me as I update from time to time what I have going on, including more head sculpts (my equivelant of doodling), drawings and another animated short I am currently working on.
Be gentle. Please.
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