BOOK - CONCEPT ART

It's been a while since my last post - My current job as Animation director for the animated series The Legends of Chima is keeping me extremely busy. I do try to do personal stuff on my weekends - given the chance - This is a painting experimenting with the central character for a book project I have planned. - A full colour illustrated Children's story book- I will post more experimentations as and when I produce them!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY CARD!

I cannot believe that I have been married for an entire year! I decided to do something special for my wife and draw her a cute cuddly bear anniversary style card - only this time the bears really would be based on us. I am delighted to state that she loved it - I have included the original photos that I used as reference to make the card.

Ranting Ralph Tells it like it is! : Valentine's Day

Meet Ralph - An ill tempered straight talking bloke who loves to rant. He will vent his frustration upon just about anything! Today's topic; Saint Valentine's Day. Ralph has a Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/RantingRalph  



A Valentines day card with a difference!

The Rejects!

With the end of the year just around the corner and my blog activity being non-existent over the past few months, I decided to post something before the new year of drawing commences!

 The subject matter relates to a character design commission that kept me busy for a short while on a project that I am unable to disclose. However, these drawings were not selected for the final designs and exist now as redundant rejects on the scrapheap of character creation. Forever doomed they shall remain as jpegs in the commission’s folder on my desktop. Thus their disclosure is quite fitting for an end of year post as in out with the old, in with the new - Hey they made it onto my blog at least!

First bit of animation in a year or so!

After publishing my first ebook AMB's Advanced Animal A to Z I have been hard at work making a short online commercial for it. I decided to revisit my traditional animation days of old and put into practice my rusty traditional animation skills that have been sadly neglected in the past few years whilst working as a storyboard artist. The line test above is only a small taste of the commercial which will be a minute long - though most of the animation will be at the start in the form of the above character. The animation was done entirely in Adobe Flash CS6 using my new Wacom Cntiq 12 WX tablet - I decided to get the smaller model for portable purposes as I need to take it abroad often. I put on my very best Brian Blessed impersonation and voiced the entire commercial...I experienced a little trouble syncing it up in the final comp as Flash slowed the audio down by 8 percent or so thus I think I will break the audio manually in a dope sheet next time as opposed to animating whilst scrubbing..I will post more updates on the developments of the ebook commercial as and when they happen. My book is available for Kindle reader and Kobo with an iBooks version to follow. The links are below for those interested.

Amazon USA http://www.amazon.com/A-M-Bs-Advanced-Animal-ages-ebook/dp/B0096FNINQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-M-Bs-Advanced-Animal-ages-ebook/dp/B0096FNINQ/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

Kobo Store http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=arshad+mirza+baig

Animal Alphabet book!

Those of you who regularly follow my blog posts may have been able to deduce through all of the cartoon animal images which I have been posting of late that I was working on an animal alphabet project! I am pleased to announce it to be complete! After a short self-taught course in e publishing I have assembled it together so that it is available for the kindle reader that has applications on mobile devices also. I am currently developing a version for other e book devices and it will be available for them shortly. You can read more about the book and sample a few pages here http://ambartist.blogspot.co.uk/p/ambs-advanced-animal-z-for-ages-3-to-8.html

Here is the front cover art!

GET - UK PAPERBACK      GET- UK KINDLE 

GET -  US PAPERBACK     GET - US KINDLE

Here are some reviews from people who purchased the book from amazon.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely book - lots of talking points 10 Sep 2012

By Justin Dowling

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I recently purchased this book for when I visit my nephews; I loved the Disney-style of the drawings and wanted something to read along with them.

Aside from the lovely illustrations, this book is constructed in such a way as to have multiple tiers of talking points - so you can initially talk about letters of the alphabet, then animals, then adjectives like "angry" or "clever" and then on to more complex concepts.

I firmly believe that at this young age, kids are taking in a huge amount of information - so there is no point in limiting that process. If a kid needs to ignore something, they will.

In this way, the author has designed as book that can be used again and again in different ways.

It's fun to walk through the book, looking at the pictures, asking the kids to say the words, describe the drawings and their relationship to the words - it really opens them up to talking about their experiences and helps them to tie their experiences in to the language they are learning.
As your child grows concepts like warm blooded animals, reptiles, mammals, omnivores, nocturnal etc. are there for the discussion. So I've genuinely had fun reading along with my hyperactive 8 year old nephew Kyle and my little 5 year old princess nephew Shania.

I don't think you can go wrong with this book - the drawings alone are worth the price; but the opportunity to expand young minds is priceless.

Well worth it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant 24 Dec 2012

By Frenchie

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I know there are a lot of Animal Alphabets around, but this one is really above the rest. The drawings of the animals are very well done, very professional and the child might even associate a few of them with the animals from the movie Madagascar, which gives them a sense of recognition and familiarity.
I bought it for my little girl who wants to be an artist. She is nearly 10 and she wanted it for the drawings, to try her hand.
Also, you have some little snippets of info on each animal, which I thought was a nice individual touch.
I think this book has a place on your Kindle but it must be viewed on a tablet or a computer, because of the colours. I think this book is very inspiring and a .... happy book!
My only wish is that it would be available soon as a paper book, there is definitely a place for it on my book shelf and my budding artist could refer to it anytime.

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Stunning Illustrations and great way for kids to learn their A to Z 27 Jan 2013

By Christopher Gillott

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a beautifully presented and illustrated ebook for children, helping them to learn the letters of the alphabet in both lower and upper cases - which is really useful.

Excellent value and provides additional words against each letter to assist with letter recognition and a short description, so it more than just a letter and a illustration...like you can find in some other alphabet books.

A must buy for parents - can't recommend it enough!

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderfully illustrated!! 17 Nov 2012

By freaky veg

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

What a wonderful book! Certainly an ideal gift for the little ones who will love the fun, quirky, colourful illustrations, and help them with their school work as they grow- a must have for all those children out there who love to learn and have an inquisitive mind!

5.0 out of 5 stars A.M.B's Advanced Animal A-Z 10 Nov 2012

By Muppett

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

A beautifully illustrated guide to the alphabet.
My little girl loved going through this again and again, making me play the part of each animal.

Animal Update!

This instalment of cartoon animals contains a cartoon Zebra, a Vixen, an Umbrella bird,  a Skunk, an X-ray fish, a walrus, a Tiger and a Yak! They complete my collection of animal character concepts for my forthcoming e book and application. I will post more information when the products are at a completed stage!