Cartoons

TRADITIONAL

Cartoons, according to the Internet, are simple drawings that show its subjects in a humorously exaggerated way. Humorous yes, simple no and that one statement kicks the legs out from the skills that underpins good cartoons. From the Simpsons to Snoopy, cartoons in newspapers, magazine and television are part and parcel of our modern day life and something we take for granted but grabbing a pencil and a bit of paper to try and make someone laugh is quite tricky indeed.

I'm not going to go through the history of cartoons, neither am I going to describe my cartooning processes as that would be crushingly boring, all you need to know is that I do it and it makes me get that little tingle of excitement when you realise you've created a 'funny'. So instead I have curated a collection of little vignettes for your viewing pleasure created as cartoons for individuals, calendars, cards and commissions plus a bonus section of UNSEEN ANIMATION tucked away at the end.

ANIMATION

Probably not something you expect to be on this site but we did spend over ten years working on several cartoon series with an estimated production cost of £24 million until Brexit absolutely devastated overseas investment in the animation industry bringing to an end a very exciting period for us that ran parallel to everything we did in the galleries. The animation series was shelved indefinitely and the ten years of work we put into this got popped into mothballs.

This is the first time we have allowed a lot of this work to be seen; it's not like anything else we had tackled previously to and we had to learn on our feet as we made our way through the animation industry and although most creations are Impossimal in feel the execution is radically different.

Below are some of the initial ideas and designs that went into the productions. Test animations were made at various stages and we worked with several high profile animation companies responsible for some of the worlds most memorable cartoons. Voice actors sent us samples, freelance writers and animators bombarded us with additional material and we were listed as one of the top ten most anticipated animation series in the world. Initial Ideas included scripts written by industry professionals which went from an Impossimal world based entirely on the paintings to secret agent Impossimals in a Simpsons environment through to Impossimal cows trapped in a world of fields. We created entire universes populated with fish, birds, dogs, cats, telephones and badgers. Forests filled with Cuddlehugs, baddies hell bent on warping time and a disco loving Frankenboogie. It really was a magically creative time at Impossimal HQ.

All the work was done digitally using some of the latest software at the time, Toonboom, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Premier and InDesign using the latest Wacom pen system was the studio favourite, leading to some wonderful creations to come out of Impossimal HQ.

WAIT...THERE'S MORE!

If you're reading this and are interested in licencing any of our back catalogue for products or have the ability to take any of our creations to a fully fledged animation series then please don't hesitate to get in touch.

You can find some of the additional spin-off creations below, all produced with full style guides and world creation which are ready to go as off the shelf licensed products looking for homes.

The Grumpits, a range of cantankerous retro stylised characters from the world of Peter and Jayne Smith, creators of the Impossimals® Let Lionel, Bert, Norman and Knobby take you through a world of cutting humour and put downs with a negative spin on everything they say and do aided occasionally by the unbelievable OMG Squad. A gang of egg shaped walking mouths that are permanently surprised or shocked.

Living in a dustbin deep inside a vacuum bag, these four Grumpits live, eat and breathe the 70’s and even though the world around them has changed they stoutly refuse to conform. In typical Grumpit fashion when strange objects enter their world through an old fashioned gramophone horn mysteriously suspended from the sky they greet it with varying degrees of apathy and despondency but ultimately each object brings them together in surprising ways!

Two younger creations that exist in the same world as the Impossimals but on opposing sides of the planet, both creations address common issues such as eco awareness, friendship, body acceptance and being different. A feature packed 30 fully developed characters exist for the Bimps, and 40 for the opposing Moppytops along with a complete land to live in. They were created to be part of a bolt on addition to the bigger brand but now stand alone in their own rights.

Always on the move Frankenboogie just can't stop getting into scrapes as his dancing boots catapult him through the crazy world of Otto P Pluffinfluff's prance studio. Otto tries tirelessly to find the perfect the boogie companion to Frankenboogies boundless energy but never anticipates Frankenboogies random approach to solving daily problems.

Created to help children embrace a healthy lifestyle through play, Frankenboogie is the sum of all his incredible dancing parts as the ultimate companion to fidgety fitness fun.