Monday, October 01, 2007

La plage






It's been a long hot summer here on the Cote d'Azur & I've clocked up many hours on the beach. It's a great place to draw people -especially Nice because it's so popular & there's an endless array of diverse body shapes, ages, poses, activities etc.
I'll start to post some pages from my sketchbooks.

This is the Palais de la Mediterranée. A huge casino & hotel on the Promenade-it has interesting art deco architecture & relief sculptures.




The tattooed man really did have all the cliché images all over his body- a sexy girl, butterfly, desert island, sailing ship on his back, arms covered in twisting roses & a big dragon on his leg. He was a tall, middle-aged Italian guy. I imagined he could be mafiosi or an ex-con. When he came back from the shower he saw my drawings & grunted as he dripped water on me & walked back to his spot!




The people at the top of the page above were silly tourists throwing pebbles at jelly-fish or meduse as they're called in French. Trying to sink them will not make them go away!

















21 comments:

Oscar Grillo said...

In 1983 we had to excavate a hole in the pebbles to acomodate my wife's belly when she was pregnant with my daughter and needed to sun tan her back. Check if it stills there.

Matt Jones said...

Ha! It's still there! I use to accomodate my enormous, croissant stuffed belly!

MikeS said...

I really miss the Golden Cape beach in Croatia. Seeing these just reminds of that place and how I wish I were back there, though I don't remember seeing an excavator anywhere along the shores.

Jeroen said...

please don't write about long hot summers, when you know people from England read your blog

Matthew Cruickshank said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Matthew Cruickshank said...

I like the various women placing their towels on the sand, very nicely captured. There seems to be a seaman stain in the bottom right corner of the middle page.

Oscar Grillo said...

In the bottom page there is a picture of Patricia sunbathing.

Jampix said...

At least you had a summer...

great pages by the way ;)

Matt Jones said...

Smook-Crookie wears a Golden Cape when goes out.The excavator was used to dig Oscar's wife out of the pebbles!

Jeroen&JP-I was amused during the summer to see the news headline on Yahoo: 'UK basks in 2nd straight day of sunshine'-down here it makes the news if we have 2 straight days of rain!

M@-well spotted!
Oscar-i think i know the sketch u mean...

alberto mielgo said...

I CAN"T BELIEVE THAT YOU STILL IN SUMMER THERE! I THAT CASE I HATE THIS POST> WE'vE BEEN IN CHRISTMAS TIME SINCE JUNE!
Beautifull sketches

Elliot Cowan said...

It's still very summery here actually.
We are still using the air con.
Lovely drawings as always Matthew.

Scott Santoro said...

Thanks for the comment on my blog, Matt. I showed these drawings to Gary Dunn today; we were admiring your simplicity of line and your poses. Have you seen Dufy's electrique mural in Paris? I am dying to see it. It's clear to me that Dufy did influence the 1950s graphic designs; surely Mary Blair must have been a fan, as well as Ludwig Bemelmans. Say hello to Bibo for me.

Joe Corrao 4 Eyed Animation said...

excellent work...top notch hips!

Oscar Grillo said...

Getting better and better...........

sebtikh said...

coucou matt, yes it's me, in the other room, haha!
thank you!
nice blog you too, are you drawing when you sleep?

Lainey Schallock said...

Hi Matt - Finally getting a chance to check our your great blog! Love your sketches - they're fantastic and many of the descriptions are hysterical. Thanks so much for stopping by my page regularly. I'll do the same for you. Best, Lainey

Andrew Glazebrook said...

I love all these neat little doodles you do of people !! Super !!!

R.Dress said...

Pulled off some nice ass shots at the beach!!! Loving the economy of line.

Matt Jones said...

Thnx for the comments everyone-more beach sketches coming soon. . .

BEN said...

very great sketches!!!
I like so much the synthesis, you catch in fantastic way the single line that make the difference!
compliment!

Matt Jones said...

Grazie Ben!