Creating things and bringing them to life has always been a passion of mine. I’ve been an animator and freelance illustrator/cartoonist amongst a whole range of other jobs, which include the manager of a pottery decoration department and a tread technician for Michelin.
In 2001 I won a studentship at Staffordshire university where I studied my MA and helped to set up the Animation department. In 2004 I was taken on full time to teach on the award. The course was then split into 3 different awards and I was put in charge of the 3D Character Animation and Special Effects. Then in 2010 the opportunity came to write the new award Cartoon and Comic Arts. The course since then has gone from strength to strength starting off with 10 students in the first year to almost 100! We were the first university to offer a BA course in Comic Art!
Professional memberships and activities
Work closely with the Cartoon and Comic Museum in London and their lottery funded bid to broaden the knowledge and understanding of the Comics industry within the UK.
Academic qualifications
MA BA(Hons) PGChpE Member of HEA
Expertise
Animation, Special Effects in Films, Comics, Star Wars
Research interests
Visual storytelling in different demographics and countries.
Enterprise and commercial interests
Help organise and run StokeConTrent
Erlangen – helped to run the twinning events between the two Cities.
Helped to run various events around Stoke for drawing classes and comic creation.
Teaching
Comic Arts – Fundamentals of comics, Drawing skills, Enterprise and entrepreneurial skills.