Monday, August 21, 2006

Riviera

Here are some pics from my recent break in the South. Unfortunately the Musée Picasso Nice is closed for a year but the Musée Matisse made a fine second choice.



The museum is housed in a beautiful 17th century villa where Matisse lived.




Sketches I made of sculpture by Matisse.


Cannes is dotted with buildings that have enormous cinema themed murals painted on them.







These sand sculptures were drawing crowds on the beach at Cannes.

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.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Rejects


Some cartoon characters just don't make the grade.

Life studies















Adieu!

I'm taking this blog across the Channel. Tomorrow I'm moving to Paris for the summer to work on a pilot for a TV series. Elliot, John Q & Andrei, regretfully I won't be able to meet you guys in London but if any of you hop across to Paris let me know & we'll hook up. Likewise, if there's any French bloggers who would like to meet up in Paris drop us a line too.
I guess I won't be updating this blog as regularly as usual but here's some sketches from last week to be going on with.


Sunday, June 18, 2006