Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

The first four segments of Alex Dron’s FOT: The Next Big Thing (starring Flight of the Conchords‘ Rhys Darby) are now online. Here are parts one and two. (Visit the FOT site for the rest)

Previously: FOT

I enjoyed the first FOT short from New Zealand animator Alex Dron (previously blogged here), but this trailer for the next short, The Next Big Thing, is pretty great. Flight of the Conchords fans may recognize the voice of Rhys Darby, aka Murray.

Enjoy this stylish animated short from Kiwi animator Alex Dron.

Geek Freeks are the team of artist/animator Xander Leighton (previously), and tattoo/plushie artist Karla (that’s her work above) from Auckland, New Zealand. They have an Etsy shop as well.

You’ll want to check out more of Xander’s new work too, like this sweet painting of Autobot Jazz:

Another beautiful example of public historical archives being returned to the people through the Internet.

The National Collection of War Art is composed of about 1,500 artworks, including portraits, battle scenes, landscapes and abstracts, depicting those who served New Zealand in times of war, and the arenas in which they served.

It includes both official pieces of war art, by artists formally commissioned by the New Zealand government, and other unofficial art works that were acquired by or donated to the collection.

The featured lithograph is called On the railways – engine and carriage cleaners, 1917 by by Archibald Standish-Hartrick.

Also of interest:
Willie & Joe, by Bill Mauldin

Those nutty Kiwis at Mukpuddy have created a short pilot for an animated show about a family that’s raising a, um, poo alongside their human daughter. Plenty of, er, crappy production sketches at the Mukpuddy blog.

Ectype’s End is a stylish 10 minute animated short film by the New Zealand animation studio Rhubarb Zoo. The full film has been released to download for free. You can catch it on YouTube, but do yourself a favour and download the higher-res version direct from the source.

The Sparkle Friends are back! As you may know, Sparkle Friends (previously featured here) is produced by New Zealand’s own Mukpuddy Animation but what you may not know is that each episode is turned around in one week. Does that make you tired? It does me. Rest up while you watch “Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Gunge”, an episode from the new season.

Recently, as part of a month long dental hygiene campaign, New Zealand kids show, Studio 2, announced a special contest to all kids: make a comic strip featuring the Colgate Taste Buddies and the winner would have their strip animated by New Zealand’s own Mukpuddy Animation (previously written about here and here). The submissions came in and were looked through, but in the end Liam and Rachel Thompson were declared the winners. From there Mukpuddy had only two weeks to get the short designed, animated, and out to the masses. Read the official account, along with the winning entry and character redesigns, over at the Mukpuddy blog and watch the finished version of the short below.

(story via Cold Hard Flash)

And for another dose of daily inspiration, look no further than New Zealand’s Mukpuddy Animation. The flash based studio has produced some gorgeous work, both commercial and original content, as well as a number of illustrations. Their original series, Sparkle Friends, is currently being shown on New Zealand’s children’s program, What Now. Check out this interview at Cold Hard Flash or pay a visit to The Mukblog, Mukpuddy’s blog, to learn more about the studio.