Monday, July 31, 2006

First month in Paris . . .



I'm back from the Riviera! We spent 4 all too brief days in the sun on the beaches of Nice, Cannes & Monaco. Beautiful part of the world - the coastal train ride between these towns is just unreal. C'est dommage a retourne a Paris dans la pluie!






C'est tout pour maintenant, je vais a la Cote D'Azur pour le weekend.


More Parisiennes.





Public sculpture.




Through the guys I work with I've been introduced to the work of some amazing artists that I'd never heard of before, some of whom work at the studio & some who are dead!


Look at the illustrations of Georges Beuville - link on the right.




Rembrandt Bugatti had a great first name, a great surname, a famous brother & was a GENIUS of animal sculpture too! Missed this great exhibition of his work in London a couple years ago but there's a book & I intend to find it.





Superb, dynamic sculpture & drawing by Michel Lauricella, Professor of anatomy at Les Gobelins. I'd love to take a class taught by this maestro. Link on the right.




http://www.cyberie.net/michael/
This is the website of an animator I'm working with here, Michael Bataille - he animates directly on a Wacom in ToonBoom & makes incredible line tests! No paper, no pencils - they do everything a little differently over here!






Personnes sur la rues et le Metro de Paris. . . et un pigeon.



Last week a French colleague told me that with his limited English & my poor French it was easier for him to converse with a DOG! A German one!! So to improve communication he's learning German & I'm learning Alsatian.



Paris street graphics.



Musée du Quai Branly
is Paris' brand new museum dedicated to tribal artifacts from African, Asian, Oceania & the Americas. I spent an afternoon in here but you could easily draw for a week & still find interesting objects to study.





OK, here come the sketches. Had some trouble adapting to French scanners which are disguised as photocopiers or fax machines & getting to grips with Photoshop in French! Anyway, here's the first, another from Les Buttes Chaumont

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Ronald Searle



Writer, broadcaster & animation afficionado Brian Sibley got in touch with me recently to tell me he's a fan of my Searle blog. Links on the right.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Fee Fi Fo Fum . . .


This is my entry to the latest EVAC theme. Link on the right.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

CARS



Saw CARS last week & really enjoyed it. Blown away by the animation - the range of expressions they put into these limited bodies is extraordinary. Must have been even more of a challenge than animating fish for FINDING NEMO. The world they create for these characters is entirely credible & dispels any worries that this one has 'gone too kiddy'.
My favourite scenes were the 'cow tipping' & when the pimped up cars harass John Ratzenberger's character (he also gets the best end credits sequence of any Pixar flick). The little VW bugs are a great touch too.