BIOGRAPHY
1986 – 1987 Worked for an archaeological team as site artist where I created impressions of finds in the stippling technique. Finds included a Roman sandal in Tamworth Castle and finds found at the demolished Handsacre Hall, Armitage Staffordshire. The old hall existed before the Domesday Book in the 11th Century.
1989 – 1991 Gained BA (Hons) Graphic Design at Humberside College of Higher Education
1991 – 1997 Worked at Pearly Oyster Productions on numerous animated productions including the Kings of Siam and the Queens Monastery.
1992 – 2002 I worked for other animation companies like Bermuda Shorts and MTV mainly art working on animation productions such as a Dire Straits pop promo and Busch Gardens; two amusement parks in the US.
1993 – 4 Attended the British Animation Training Scheme, Museum of the Moving Image London.
1993 – 1998 Worked as a freelance illustrator between illustrating flyers, greeting cards and book illustration working for companies like Crechendo and Flix Originals.
1993 I got the chance to become an animator and director while working with Suzanne Cohen, another graduate from Humberside College. We co-worked on a pilot film for Channel Four TV on our 2D animated film Ice Cream and Jelly and a Punch in the Belly by working at the Museum of the Moving Image (now the London Film Museum) through their Animator in Residence Scheme for 3 months.
1996 – 1998 We made the rest of the film at Stan Hayward’s (creator of Henry’s Cat Cartoon TV series) studio Newfileds Animation.
1997 The film premiered at the NFT and was first screened on Channel 4 in
We continued to work at Newfileds animation.
1998 Made short animated films written by Stan Hayward one of which can be seen here Facts of Life. We then collaborated on an animated TV commercial for soft drink El Picu. The following year we made short animated inserts to explain how the biological clock works, for the BBC Science documentary What Makes us Tick broadcast in 1999.
1999 I started delivering animation workshops at various young people’s workshop centres like the Cartoon art Trust, The Roundhouse, Southwark and Tower Hamlets Summer universities. This then lead onto working with Stan Hayward again in 1998 on a Millennium Award funded project to highlight the benefits of animation in education. Drawing from these experiences I set up my own animation project the following year; the Family learning Project, a Millennium Award funded programme working with refugee families in the London borough of Brent.
2000 Shortly after this I stopped working free-lance as the lecturing work took over. I had already been working as a part time lecturer at Southampton University 1996 on a BA course. After that I stated working at various London Colleges such as Tower Hamlets College and Lewisham College delivering mainly animation, art and design and contextual studies on various BTEC courses in art and design.
2003 Exhibition within Lichfield, Staffordshire library centered round Lichfield City; an on-going graphic novel which chronicles the ups and downs of the Skinner family. This is a family saga reminiscent of The Walton’s, an American family growing up during the depression years of the 20th century.
2003-2013 I gained a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE).Then continued to lecture but in spare time working on Lichfield City a graphic novel series based on my childhood growing up in a cathedral city.
2012 Designed a game for the website kidscrackcrime.com.
2013 I took part in a group-project, Exquisite Corpses by members of the London Animation Club. ‘This is an animated version of the old Surrealist game of the same name: each contributor makes a four-second animation, making sure that the last frame of their animation becomes the first frame of the next contributor's’. I got to do Jaws.
2014 Collaborated with Stan Hayward who wrote Cybertots while I did the illustrations. A children’s book centered round an adventure in space available both as an e-book and a printed book.
2016 Wrote and illustrated Pumpkin Head; a graphic novel concerned with a boy obsessed with the colour orange.
2017 Illustrated Durrell (based on My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell) the Lichfield Library tortoise as part of Lichfield Festivals Hare and Tortoise Trail.
Illustrated Sci-fi banner for Oxfam book shop.
Exhibition within Lichfield, Staffordshire library displaying some of the pages from Cybertots.
2018 Words Alive logo for Samuel Johnson Birthplace and Museum’s children’s weekly Saturday activity centered around bringing words alive!
Two contributions within the Wellbeing & Recovery College Autumn 2018 Prospectus.
2019 Lichfield Re:Cycle’s mascot Spires for Lichfield Re:Cycle is a volunteer run project based in Lichfield helping people become more confident about riding, maintaining and repairing their bikes…read more at https://lichfieldrecycle.org.uk/
Three contributions within the Wellbeing & Recovery College Spring 2019 Prospectus.
Two contributions within the Wellbeing & Recovery College summer 2019 Prospectus.
Three contributions within the Wellbeing & Recovery College Autumn 2019 Prospectus.
2020 Logo design and animation for Kids Home Care.
Design for two of the 25 1.5 meter's tall swans for the Burton Swans trail https://www.burtonswans.co.uk/. The swans were sponsored by local businesses and organisations and placed in different areas of the town for just 10 weeks during the summer; then auctioned off later in the year.
Animated Christmas eCards all available free at: https://lesleybushell.weebly.com/animation.html
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