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In 2013, filmgoers in the United Kingdom and Ireland watched more animation than any other type of film, according to a new report by the British Film Institute.

Animated Fragments is our semi-regular feature of animation tests, experiments, micro-shorts, and other bits of cartoon flotsam that don't fit into other categories.

The Lonely Crow

written by Paul Stillabower

illustrations by David Johnson

Book Guild Publishing         5/29/2014

978-1-909716-18-6

Age 5 to 7      32 pages

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“It’s bedtime and Crow is searching high and low for the perfect place to sleep. He finds a comfy looking perch . . . But a scowling owl sends him on his way! He sees a cosy pile of hay . . . But a trumpeting elephant won’t let him stay! Will poor old Crow ever find somewhere to rest his weary head?

Opening

“The night was icy and the sky was dark

When Crow flew high

over Regent Park.

His wings were tired and his legs were old,

So he looked for a place

to get out of the cold.”

Review

Poor Crow, he was tired and cold. He flew the London sky looking for a comfortable and safe place to sleep. He tried a nice looking branch, but a mean owl threatened Crow as he told him to scat. That owl looks terrifying. I am surprised Crow even landed, yet he did land, and that grouchy old owl took a swing at Crow. Not a dumb bird, Crow left for safer accommodations. (Oddly, the next illustration has Crow back on a branch, from which he then flew off.)

Crow being a pretty smart bird, decided the London Zoo would be a safe place to find a spot to sleep. The London Zoo is nothing more than, according to Crow,

“A place for animals . . . a great, big farm!”

Zoos are fun and safe places, but maybe not for crows. Crow tried several warm, cozy spots, but each time another animal claimed the spot and Crow had to leave. In fact, two animals look like they might want Crow to stay, as long as he is their midnight snack. Ouch!

The bright illustrations give Crow bold coat of blue feathers and a nice light yellow beak. As the story progresses, Crow’s eyes close with sleepiness, until they are almost shut. At last, Crow is so tired his wings barely hold him up. It is easy to empathize with Crow. It should not be that hard to find a place to sleep. The characters all look a tad cartoonish, except for their eyes, which carry a great deal of emotion. The baby elephant, a cute little guy, shows expresses himself with his huge, bright smile. Crow left, thinking the little guy’s trumpet was a warning. The baby elephant looks like he wants to play with Crow, not get rid of him.

Written in rhyme, the story is an easy read. The rhythm is not completely smooth, with some lines having extra beats. My tongue tangled a couple of times trying to maintain the rhythm. Overall, Stillabower did a pretty good job writing the story in rhyming poetry. Poetry is very difficult to write correctly. It involves much more than simply finding words that rhyme.

The nicely produced hardback contains a great looking credit page. Many non-traditionally produced books forget this page, so it is nice to find one that has nearly all the needed information—for librarians (and fussy reviewers). The illustrator’s name is missing.  Having both names on the cover is best, yet it is understandable why the author wants only their name after spending so much for the illustrations. Still, credit the illustrator else, it looks like the author was also the artist.

Crow finally sees an empty nest high up in a tree. I don’t think Crow should land. It could be another owl ready to show him the fictitious door with a reality swing of his wing. Crow is very tired at this point and lies down in that empty nest. His eyes are barely open. Will Crow sleep the night away, or be shooed away once more?

The Lonely Crow tells a nice bedtime tale. Crow becomes more tired as he travels from place to place. All he wants to do is sleep. The same message parents try to tell their children. “Sleep, please go to sleep.” By the time Crow does find a place to sleep, the listening child should be ready to close their eyes as well. Young children will like Crow’s story. He is a likable character. The illustrations do a great job enhancing the lovely story. The Lonely Crow may well help many young children find sweet dreams.

THE LONELY CROW. Text copyright © 2014 by Paul Stillabower. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by David Johnson. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Book Guild Publishing, Great Britain.

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Purchase a copy of The Lonely Crow at Amazon—Book Depository—Book Guild Publishing—at your favorite bookstore.

Learn more about The Lonely Crow HERE.

Meet the author, Paul Stillabower, at his facebook page:

Meet the illustrator, David Johnson, at his website:

Produced by Book Guild Publishing:   http://www.bookguild.co.uk/

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Turns out The Lonely Crow is a popular title. Here are some others, all titled The Lonely Crow.

Photograph by Danielle Wortman @ saarchiart.com

Illustration by Pikoia @ pikoia.deviantart.com

The Lonely Crow a poem © Joshua McCaw

a story (not yet available) by Mike Miles

The Lonely Crow Game by Tapp.com

Bunker is a London-based design and art direction agency with a focus on work for the fashion, music and arts industries.

(Via Creative Review)

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Aardman's first star, Morph, has returned in a new series of Kickstarter-backed YouTube shorts.

I love Accept & Proceed’s recent rebrand of the Eastern Electrics music festival. Working with illustrator Matt Johnstone, they created a campaign that is youthful and fun. The dense and highly detailed scene features a colorful cast of characters from past EE events as well as the likes of Kerri Chandler, Four Tet, Ellan Allien and Roue 94.

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I’m excited to discover the work of UK-based artist and illustrator Deanna Halsall. Inspired by her love of nature and nostalgia, she composes charming imagery brimming with color and texture.

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It was 9:54 when I decided to leave... Read the rest of this post

Vicki Turner is a British Designer, Illustrator and Maker with a passion for the natural world.  From her new studio in Devon she crafts whimsical works exploding with repetition and rhythm.

Also be sure to check out her lovely store.

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Animated Fragments is our semi-regular feature of animation tests, experiments, micro-shorts, and other bits of cartoon flotsam that doesn't fit into other categories. To view the previous 25 installments, go to the Fragments archive.

This short animation of a seemingly CG bear climbing stairs is garnering a lot of attention on the Internet because it's actually a CG bear printed as 3-D models and then animated in stop motion.

The elaborate "Simpsons" couch gag directed by Sylvain Chomet ("Triplets of Belleville," "The Illusionist") now has a making-of video courtesy of the production company that produced the opening, London-based th1ng.

There are big developments in the UK animation industry in the wake of a much-heralded tax break received by the British animation industry that went into effect last year. Sarah Smith, the former creative director of features at Aardman Animations, is setting up a studio named Locksmith Animation. She bills it as the UK’s "first high-end CGI feature animation studio," and it is focused on creating a long-term slate of films for worldwide distribution.

Dolphin Burger Studios, a workshop for disabled artists and animators in Brighton, England, has produced a fan-remake of the memorable stop-motion music video for Peter Gabriel's “Sledgehammer.”

The season my first daughter was born, Kentucky won the NCAA championship. Two years later, along came daughter number two and, lo and behold, UK hoisted another banner. I joked with my lovely wife at the time that with all of the rich basketball fanatics in my home state, we could surely find a patron who would sponsor future babies if Kentucky kept cutting down nets. Alas, no such luck with numbers three and four.

You’d have to know my wife, though. She loves babies. She would have started looking for real estate in Lexington had they won with our third. Her baby wanter gets turned on just by the smell of hospital soap. If she gets to hold one, I practically have to pry the child out of her hands. I came home not too long ago and she was holding a baby I had never seen with a contented smile on her face. I looked around…no one else in the house. For the briefest of moments I truly thought she had finally stolen one. (It turned out we were babysitting a teacher’s baby for a night.) Me, I like ‘em okay. I liked watching a game with one sleeping on my chest, but they always felt too fragile in my oversized mitts. I preferred the toddler years where we could wrestle and play.

Much to my delight, my beloved Wildcats have made it to the Final Four again this year. I said at the outset of the tourney that I wouldn’t be surprised if they got beat in the first round and I wouldn’t be surprised if they won it all. It’s been just that type of up and down year. I don’t keep up with sports like I used to, but I still watch my Cats when I can.

I’m sorry Cats. I love you and want you to win with all of my heart. But my baby days are behind me. I won’t do that!

(A little Meatloaf just for fun!)

Good luck to the Wildcats this weekend. I hope you cut the nets down on Monday. You just have to do it without my progeny this time.

♦

Speaking of my progeny, I was set to post this yesterday until we got news related to the health of our youngest. We haven’t gotten an exact diagnosis yet, but have further tests next week. I appreciate the prayers and words of affirmation from my friends here. We’re hanging in there and she has meds now to make her feel better…  

Solid packaging and editorial work from Chloe Galea, a Designer /Junior Art Director based in Berlin.

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In the first comprehensive monograph of FHK Henrion, Adrian Shaugnessy highlights the work of this highly underrated designer. Originally trained in textiles, Henrion would later go on to become a skilled poster artist, a noted design educator and quite possibly the father of modern corporate identity in Europe. FHK Henrion: The Complete Designer hits the shelves in November, but is now available for pre-order.

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Interesting animation is being produced everywhere you look nowadays. This evening, we’re delighted to present animated fragments from six different countries: Chile, Iran, UK, US, Japan and Spain. For more, visit the Animated Fragments archive.

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“Against” by Yukie Nakauchi (Japan)

Meet Peter Grundy and Tilly Northedge, the creative collaborators behind Grundini. Working with bold colors and simple shapes they create informative illustrations that perfectly marry form and function.

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Meet Paul Belford, a creative agency out of London who focuses on advertising and branding. Their approach to design is admirably simple, resulting in pieces that are clean and easy to appreciate. Check out their work here.

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Our semi-regular roundup of interesting, creative and original animated music videos.

“Birthday” directed by Renata Gąsiorowska (Poland)

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“Been Too Long” (“Duurt te Lang”) directed by Job, Joris & Marieke (The Netherlands)

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“G.O.D.” directed by Tom Bunker and Nicos Livesey (UK)

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Several years ago we featured the Philographics poster series by UK based Genis Carreras.  We just received word that the popular series will soon be available as a book as well as a postcard set. Currently Genis is raising funds to being print production. You can support this effort here.

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Two Times Elliot is a London-based studio, whose focus centers around print, identity and web. Their style is a mix of typographic elements, clean lines and bold color palettes, bringing each design to life with its own personality. I’m also impressed by their ability to incorporate mixed media into their work without disrupting the flow of the design.

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Flying Eye Books is the latest branch in Nobrow’s budding empire. The imprint will strictly focus on Children’s titles while retaining the same quality and curation that you would come to expect from Nobrow.

For their first release, they worked with award-winning UK-based illustrator Viviane Schwarz to create an awesome robot book - literally. The aptly titled Welcome to Your Awesome Robot provides you with everything you need to design, build and test a robot from cardboard.  With instructional comics and Vivienne’s charming sense of humor as your guide, the book is fun to read and makes for an excellent family activity.

Details:
Welcome to Your Awesome Robot
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Pick up a copy at Amazon, Nobrow, Flying Eye Books or your local book shop.

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Our weekly roundup of the most interesting, creative and original animated music videos.

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“We Can Be Ghosts Now” directed by Tom Jobbins (UK)

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“Magdalena” directed by Lucas Borras (Spain/US)

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“Separated” directed by Mark Borgions (Belgium)

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