Thursday, December 17, 2009

American Odyssey pt.1 Los Angeles


Demonstration on Hollywood Blvd-sketch made on location below.

I've recently returned from an epic 3 week trip around the west coast of the States. The first week I was in LA to speak at the CTN-X animation conference about Ronald Searle. Then I went on a week long road trip to San Francisco via Portland & Las Vegas! I went with 2 colleagues from Aardman-Kris & Jess. Together we drove over 2000 miles, ingesting 65 burgers, 1600 gallons of fuel, 12 packs of Camel cigarettes, three yard long margheritas & killing one pigeon!


Uli Meyer came to the expo too. He knows LA very well & was a perfect tour guide. First stop- Bob's Big Boy Diner!


Uli, Harald & I toured the Warner Bros. lot where we saw the soundstages & a fake town.



My old pal Leo Sanchez gave me a tour of his workplace-Disney Feature Animation where we ate Thanksgiving lunch, saw 'Princess & the Frog' & met Glen Keane.


The expo was a roaring success & my presentation on Ronald Searle went down well. Later that week we went to a special screening of Don Hahn's documentary on Disney animation during the 90s 'Waking Sleeping Beauty'-a riveting exposé of the 'golden' decade preceding the Lion King.

Colour pics by Uli Meyer. B&W by Jamie Bolio.

I tried not to be a fanboy at the expo but I couldn't resist asking some of my favourite artists to draw in my book



I spent an afternoon at Disney Consumer Products with Stef Kardos. That evening I was honorary guest artist at the French Society of Animation Artists-LA chapter, chez Guenoden.





On our last day in the city Kris took us down to the beautiful beaches of LA. After a relaxing afternoon we hit the road to Vegas . . .

19 comments:

JP said...

Wicked post- the traveller resurfaces! I had breakfast at big boy's too- yum! Are you in Bristol in Jan or is that it for you?

Matt Jones said...

I'll be back late January- weather permitting.

limbolo said...

Hey, Matt,

It was good to see you last week.

I completely forgot to ask you how your Searle lecture went.

I guess you didn't have time for Venice Beach - full of wonders for your perspicacious pen - poodles with ray-bans, muscleros on skates, simply the best fat people etc.

Love the Spaghetti Western shot of Uli and Harald.

Matt Jones said...

Thanks Neil-I did make it to Venice actually & saw all the freaky folk you mentioned. The Searle lecture went well-i put up a report on it over on my Searle blog.

Colin Jack said...

Great drawings!

memi said...

Matt, I don't know why our USk connection did not make sense to me at the time, but I was really looking forward to hearing you speak about Searle, one of my heroes at CTX. I fell ill and could not fly out there, but
am enjoying reading about your adventure here...

Dave 'Diamond' Merritt said...

Hey Matt. Enjoyed exchanging comments with you this year. Always enjoy your posts. Have a great Christmas and one hell of a good New Year.

max said...

Wow, what a trip, and ever more spectacular sketches.

Elliot Cowan said...

Was lovely to have you in the country.

Richard Mitchelson said...

brilliant post as always... and thanks for the url recomendation. I hope all goes well for 2010 and you had a nice christmas...

Rochelle Burrows said...

I don't think you know how much I wish I was there! You're incredibly lucky, and talented! AND from England! Whoop! We need more people like yourself blogging. I'm glad I found this! Glad you had a great trip. :)

Toni Reyna said...

nice pics!

limbolo said...

Happy New Year, Matt.

Give my love to the Bay of Angels.

Matt Jones said...

Merci Limbolo, I'm looking at as I type!

A. Riabovitchev said...

Happy New Year Matt!
Looks like you have very busy last Year.I love shot where you seeting in the "car".You look cool, not like storry artist!:o)

Luispa Salmon said...

Hi Matt!...you write with a lot of passion in your blog (very inspiring)
Have a great new year and keep going with the cool sketches!

Anonymous said...

Have a great New year and thx for your comment!!
est il possible de voir en plus grand ta maginfique baniere?

in french cause my englis sucks.

Matt Jones said...

Thanks for all the comments everyone!

Karien Barnes Art said...

Great blog and love your artwork.