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'.

John Currin

The painting in the background of one of the life-drawings below is HONEYMOON NUDE by John Currin. I came across his work a couple years ago at a show at the Whitney in New York. He's a fine painter & his odd, big-boobed, long necked women look like porn stars painted by Botticelli!

TATE life drawing Pt.11

Last night 3 members (Sean hayden, Boris Heistand et moi) of the European Chapter of the Animation Blogging Community went back to TATE Modern for another session of life drawing in the NUDE/BODY galleries of the collection. Here are my results from the evening.

BATMAN

Over on his blog,Sandwich Bag, Elliot Cowani has recently been exploring a Batman & Penguin theme. Partly inspired by him I present my version. I recently happened upon a blurred image of a 60's BATMAN comic in the background of a photo of 60's model Twiggy which you can see at the bottom of the page. I re-interpreted the imagery in the drawings above it.

Science Fiction

I recently designed & art directed a couple of jobs that both happened to be sci-fi in theme. Here are some colour keys & sketches from those projects.

Trafalgar Square

The fourth plinth of Trafalgar Sq. is currently occupied by Marc Quinn's sculpture of Alison Lapper who was born without arms or legs. She sits up there in all her pregnant glory, supposedly controversial. I think she's majestic.
Quinn once had sculptures of Lapper installed amongst the classical works in the V & A's sculpture room. It worked marvellously. Amongst the ancient, limbless Venus's & Aphrodites they didn't look out of place at all. In fact it makes you reconsider traditional notions of classical beauty & aesthetics.

Voutch

Another recent discovery is the art books of French cartoonist Voutch. His style looks like Gary Larson painted by Kiraz. Thanks to my belle Raja for the scans.

Another Night Before Christmas

Came across this superb new children's book by Carol Anne Duffy & illustrated by Marc Boutavant. Boutavant's painted pictures are blindingly gorgeous & it can only be a matter of time before an ad or short film is made in his style.