David Kemp

Animation

Button Eye

An old woman longs to have a child of her own, but her abusive husband says no. So she decides to make one anyway...

This was my first student project whilst studying in Bournemouth. Set in and around a remote lighthouse, its a 9-minute mixed-media animation that tells a fairly bleak story, though is well worth watching for the ending!

Originally shot on 16mm film way back in 1996, it's not a great copy but hopefully the story holds up! It was shown at various screenings including the British Animation Awards (BAA).

Dr Gladpole's Machine

What if I could take living organisms - and extract their uniqueness, their inner music?

This was the second of three films that I had the chance to make as a student. It was based on a short story written by my friend, Adam Say. It was made using painted cels on top of blue pencil drawings. But hey, I like blue pencils - it's an animation thing.

There's not much colour in the whole film - and not a lot of animation either to be truthful, as I wanted to tell the story in a 'Jackanory' kind of way, using just simple camera tracks - like a moving picture book...

The Corner People

High up in the corner of a long-abandoned room live The Corner People - a race of tiny creatures who seem to have very little going on between their ears. They live happily until the day that damp is spotted creeping up from below...

This was a student film that I wrote and directed in 1997, The Corner People was intended as both a stand alone film and also (with further development) as a pilot for a possible children's TV series.

Unfortunately this isn't the best copy - transferred from a VHS copy, but hopefully it will make you smile.

The original was shot on 16mm film and made with a 'back to basics' style of animation, using just a pile of A4 paper and 6B smudgy pencils.

Clients & Screenings

My work has been screened / on show at:

• The British Animation Awards (BAA)
• Annecy Animation Festival (France)
• Krok Animation Festival (Ukraine)
• BAFTA
• The Empire Cinema, Leicester Square (London)
• Children's ITV
• Discovery Kids Channel
• Aspex Gallery (Portsmouth)
• Kings Theatre (Portsmouth)
• La Gaite Lyrique (Paris, France)

Clients I have worked with over the years include:

• Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• We Are Psuedonym
• Sifer Design
• Portsmouth City Council
• The Learning Skills Council
• YMCA Portsmouth
• Honeycomb Animation
• King Rollo Films

Projects that I've been involved in include:

• Love Your Bike, Portsmouth
• Southsea, Deck Your Chairs
• Love Albert Road Day
• The Puzzle Piece Project
• Art for Autism
• The Pictoplasma Missing Link Project

Exhibitions

2013

'No Place Like Home'
A group exhibition by the PCM at White Elephant

2012

'Villains!'
A joint exhibition alongside Mimic and Stu Linfield at The Gold Room, Room 237 Comic Shop

'Pictoplasma - Post Digital Monsters'
A group exhibition of monsters at La Gaite Lyrique in Paris

Web Design

Front-end development with a keen interest in design.

I work under the name Tiny Engines.

HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap5, JS6 (the basics), GSAP3 + UX, UI

Portfolio projects

Southsea Skatepark

https://southseaskatepark.org

Sea Dog Print Studio

https://seadogprintstudio.co.uk

Tempus Wealth

https://tempus-wealth.co.uk

Glitter & Twisted Jewellery

https://glitterandtwisted.co.uk

Personal projects

Artsmouth

https://artsmouth.co.uk

An online gallery, started during lockdown to help showcase some of our brilliant local artists who for obvious reasons weren't able to exhibit their​​​ work in public venues. It began as a one-year project (26 exhibitions) but has recently been relaunched.

Aims: To drive traffic/visitors to 'like', 'share' and 'follow' the artist's social networks and hopefully help sell some prints, originals and commissions - as well as some t-shirts, mugs and flip-flops.

Feedback: A really positive response (including local press coverage) with a good following to the project itself.

Urban Puzzle Trails

https://urbanpuzzletrails.com

An interactive family-friendly puzzle trail set in Portsmouth. Launching soon!

About me

I am an Illustrator, Animator and Coder who has worked on many different projects over the years - from animated children's TV series to illustrated educational packs of flashcards.

Welcome to the portfolio site of David Kemp (or just Mr Kemp as I'm known to friends). I'm a published illustrator with a background in children's TV animation, storyboarding and cartooning.

I'm a bit of an all-rounder who over the years has worked on all sorts of projects - posters, leaflets, stickers, t-shirts.

I've also designed and built websites, apps and e-books.

I live in sunny Southsea in the UK.

I'm an illustrator with a background in animation.

I have a friendly, colourful, cartoony style.

I trained as an animator and storyboard artist

I trained at Portsmouth College of Art and Design (now part of the University of Portsmouth) followed by a very strange year in Newport studying at Gwent College of Higher Education, before settling at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design.

My style

I have;

• Solid drawing skills, although I do love 'wonky', naive illustrations
• A friendly, colourful, cartoony style - often on white backgrounds
• A strong interest in character design and children's publishing - especially picture books and chapter books
• A friendly, cartoon style - often on white backgrounds
• No sense of colour
• I often work in blue pencil before tracing with a soft pencil, scanning and coloured / collaged digitally

How I tend to work;

I often sketch ideas in blue pencil before tracing with a soft pencil, then scan and colour (or collage) my work digitally.

Over the years I've been a bit (to say the least) obsessed by sketchbooks.