Merry Christmas!

I wish the whole animation blogging community a Happy Xmas & New Year. Thank you everyone who checked out my blog this year & all who left comments, my Xmas present to you is a brand new blog dedicated to my favourite British caricaturist GARY. Check it out at garycatures.blogspot.com

Korper welten

Been meaning to post this for a while, since Drazen posted his sketche from the BODYWORLDS exhibition. Here's my version.

Recent sketches

Some sketches from & inspired by the colourful population of London town.

Voutch

My girlfriend took me to a gallery solely dedicated to Voutch which she had found on a street in the north west of the city. It's a small space but they sell many of his original paintings none of which I could afford to buy (they start at 900 euros) but it's great to see them for real. They're quite small too, most no bigger than A4. They also sell his books of course & posters & postcards too. Voutch heaven! The gallery is on Rue Guersant, Metro:Ternes.

Bestiaire Medieval

There seems to be a never ending amount of interesting exhibitions in Paris. Le Bestiaire Medieval at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France is marvellous. Dozens of ancient illuminated volumes from the library's archives are on show focusing on the way animals & mythological creatures were depicted in the middle-ages. The intricate, hand written/illustrated pages are mind-blowing and the way the animals are intepreted is often hilarious.

The Bibliotheque-musee de l'Opera currently stages an exhibition of designs & costumes from past operas curated by Christian Lacroix. The theme here is 'rouge' and Lacroix has basically selected every drawing & costume from the archives that is red.
It's great to see so many different drawings, styles & designs by such varied artists & fashion designers.

December in Paris

A selection of Eurostar travellers & Parisiennes in winter dress.

Sud America

In January this year I went on an expedition to Peru & Argentina with my Dad. I've started a blog dedicated to our trip which details our odyssey through the sketchbook I kept & the photos we took. It can be found here: southamericanjones.blogspot.com

Rousseau

Before life drawing at TATE Modern on Monday I spent the afternoon at the Henri Rousseau exhibition. The first room has an incredible sculpture by Emmanuel Fremiet. 'Gorilla carring off a woman' caused a sensation at the 1889 World Fair with its depiction of bestial savagery. It's a really dynamic piece - like a Frazetta drawing in three dimensions. Fremiet was Master of Drawing at Paris' Natural History Museum where Rousseau would go & draw plants & animals for reference. A google search turns up lots more of his dynamic sculpture. The animal sculptures look like Heinrich Kley's drawings.
The 'Senegal Lion attacking an Antelope' are stuffed animals that Rousseau used as reference for his painting 'The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on The Antelope'.