A Fantastic Fear of Everything, Animation Sequence

Allow me to present to you the tale of two hedgehog brothers as they journey through insanity to rediscover the meaning of family. Narrated by Simon Pegg. Designed, built, animated, shot and edited in Bristol x

hedgehogs, serial killers and underpants

A Fantastic Fear of Everything is available to own on DVD and Blu-Ray from Monday! A chilling tale of hedgehogs, serial killers and underpants certain to be the perfect entertainment to snuggle up with under the blankets during this, the month of shadows and secrets.
Pre-order yours by clicking this link.

A Fantastic Fear of Everything

Here it is folks; the trailer for A Fantastic Fear of Everything is out, featuring the animated hedgehog puppets I designed and made for the film! This is the secret film project I may have mentioned that I was working on last summer.
Release date is set for June 8th in UK cinemas, we can't wait! x

link to the IMDb page
Hollywood Reporter review ("disturbing-looking hedgehog"!)

The Birthday of the Infanta

Last autumn I was invited by the lovely director Emily Gray of Trestle Theatre Company to their arts base in London to discuss my ideas and inspiration for a stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Birthday of the Infanta, after having spent three months earlier on in the year developing my take on the bittersweet fairy tale.
Watching the one-woman whirlwind that is actress Georgina Roberts in rehearsals, I could tell this was going to be an exciting show to witness. Georgina is a superb mistress of transformation, moving from her portrayal of each character to the next with such ease and imagination that makes her performance an absolute delight to behold.

Trestle Company's 'The Birthday of the Infanta' is now touring at various venues throughout London, Bath and others from the beginning of March right up until May. You can book tickets here

Nor was he alone

'...It was a monster, the most grotesque monster he had ever beheld. Not properly shaped, as all other people were, but hunchbacked, and crooked-limbed...'

Character Design

'...The little Dwarf looked in wonder all round him, and was half- afraid to go on. The strange silent horsemen that galloped so swiftly through the long glades without making any noise, seemed to him like those terrible phantoms of whom he had heard the charcoal- burners speaking--the Comprachos, who hunt only at night, and if they meet a man, turn him into a hind, and chase him...'

Both characters are based on those found in Oscar Wilde's 'The Birthday of The Infanta'. With my interpretation of the story, I have been playing around with the idea of the 'Comprachicos' or 'child-snatchers'. According to Spanish folklore (and wikipedia), these were woodland dwellers who bought unwanted babies from whores and then physically mutilated them in order to sell them as entertainment to the popular freakshows...

Hence, playing with this idea of 'made' freakism - the first character, the little Dwarf of Wilde's story. He is found running wild through the woods and brought to dance before the Infanta, who leads him on by throwing her white rose at him and fluttering her eyelashes, so that by the end of the dance the little dwarf is madly in love with her. But he doesn't realize the tragic truth about his own hideous appearance until the end of the story....

The unnaturally conjoined monkeys are based on the gipsy monkeys who make a brief appearance in the story, also performing for the Infanta.

In progress...

Currently working on a self-directed project for my final few months of university, based on Oscar Wilde's short story 'The Birthday of The Infanta'. I love this story and have wanted to illustrate it since i first read it.  The dark undertones running through Wilde's stories make for a perfect twisted fairy tale....

Grand Guignol

Commission for an upcoming 'wrong rockabilly' event from Devil Kicks Dancehall, inspired by fin de siecle back-street Parisian horror theatre.

Sissies Stay Home!

Clockwork Dog

...And with the serendipitous finding of a lost lorry ratchet, Steam Dog was complete! And forget chihuahuas in handbags or pampered pugs, Steam Dog wears the handbag! Two of them actually...