Cloudy

Last week we saw CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS in 3-D!! After those ugly early screenshots & near ZERO publicity my expectations of this picture were pretty low. But it's got a lot going for it. The design is pretty eccentric for mainstream Hollywood animation but refreshingly different. In 3-D the characters have an appealing, vinyl-toy aesthetic, especially the policeman (hilariously voiced by Mr T.)

There's a lot of fine animation too-particularly memorable is the posing & facial expressions on the greedy Mayor (a perfectly cast Bruce Campbell) and the nimble little moves of the monkey.

In general it seems a lot of artistic decisions that may have been watered down at other studios survived the process. There are story points towards the end that are just plain surreal but funny as hell. Congrats to my Aardman colleague Kris Pearn who was head of story on the movie. Check out some of his boards over on his blog.

Avast!

Last week I joined the story crew of the other feature being produced at Aardman - 'PIRATES!'. On my first day Pete Docter & family came in to visit & posed for a photo with us briny rogues in story.


We have Captain Lord & Midshipman Rej Bourdages either side of Pete Docter. That's me with thumb in air next to able-bodied seaman Ash Boddy. On the right are Andy, Dave, Mike & Victoria.

Later that day Docter did a Q&A at the studio with Nick Park after screening UP.

Aix

While in France recently I visited the charming city of Aix-en-Provence. It's right in the heart of Provence with good access to all the nearby places of interest-Les Baux, Rousillon, Gordes etc. Marseille, Nimes & Arles are not far either. I drew the land mark fountain from the Cours Mirabeau and a nearby manège.




I was in town to hit the Picasso trail. I checked out the Cezanne Picasso exhibition at the Musee Granet. There were some excellent examples on show-including Picasso's own collection of Cezanne paintings. The Spanish artist often cited Cezanne as his artistic master- Cubism was hugely influenced by Cezanne's work. I got to scrutinize works that I had only seen previously seen in print-including Cezanne's academic life drawings.


Next stop was a visit to the second to last home of Picasso. Towards the end of his life he purchased the imposing Chateau de Vauvenargues, in the foothills of the Mont St Victoire-the famous mountain that dominates the Provencal skyline & which featured so often in Cezanne's work.

This summer, for the first time, it has been opened to the public. I woke at the crack of dawn to queue for a ticket & later that day got to join a small tour around the whole building. We saw the living quarters, the studio & the large dining room where Picasso & Jacqueline entertained guests.
They are both buried there too, beneath a grassy mound outside the front door, the monumental bronze Woman with a Vase serving as a headstone.



The last house Picasso lived in was a villa close to the Notre Dame de Vie chapel in the hills above Mougins and Cannes. It took me forever to find the place. The artist must have enjoyed the privacy this location afforded him in old age. The villa is privately owned & inaccessible so I could only draw the ramshackle old chapel now in a state of disrepair. Picasso died here & after the Mougins authorities refused permission for a burial in the village his body was taken back to Vauvenargues instead.


There's one address Picasso lived at on the Cote d'Azur that I'm yet to see-the villa La Galloise at Vallauris. It holds special interest for me as the name translates as the Welsh house! Next time I'll find it . . .

La Haut

I finally saw UP-it still hasn't been released in the UK but I caught it last weekend while in France. It's one of Pixar's best-had me crying with sadness & joy. The (beautifully) stylized design of Carl & Russell must have proved awkward to pose but the animators worked wonders wringing emotion from their stumpy limbs! As others have noted the flights of fancy give the film a Miyazaki quality. To enjoy the picture you do have to buy into the conceits of the floating house, canine thought vocalizers, giant birds & dogs piloting aircraft!

On a side note did anyone notice the similarity between Muntz and the Kirk Douglas inspired character from the BIG STORY? I' m not implying any plagiarism but it was great to see the Douglas physiognomy applied to a CG design too.


As usual with Pixar movies the French dub is excellent. Charles Aznavour voices Carl in the version Francais.
I can't wait to see the film again in English & in 3-D!



At the cinema I learnt there's a live action Lucky Luke movie coming soon starring Jean Dujardin. Watch the trailer here. It's only been a couple of years since the last animated version.

Life Drawing pt.11

Final session of life drawing until the new term begins in September.

Warm up sketches of the other artists, students and colleagues.




1 min. gesture sketches.

Bristol environ

Bristol is an interesting city to live in with lots to sketch. I had the pleasure of sketch-crawling with my talented French colleague Monsieur Zebe. We passed a couple of lazy Saturday afternoons sketching people & buildings around town.



The Llandoger Trow pub is apparently where Stevenson was inspired to write Treasure Island & Defoe came up with Robinson Crusoe.


Check out Zebe's version.


Now the summer is (sometimes) here the riversides are full of people relaxing & drinking in the sun.



Around the harbour close to Aardman there are lots of stationed train wagons, cranes & crusty old boats to sketch.


See Zebe's sketch of the same crane here.





The Bristol Mod-Squad often bring their customised Lambrettas down to the harbourside to show off. One of them has the Godfather theme as a horn tune.


You can't beat some good old traditional Morris dancing!




On a day trip out of Bristol I visited Wells and drew the famous Cathedral. Later that afternoon I climbed up to Glastonbury Tor.


Bath and Wells are very close to Bristol & both towns offer great architecture to sketch.

Life Drawing pt.10

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Managed to loosen up a bit this week. I worked at A3 size with an assortment of brush pens and dried out calligraphy pens.


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By the final few poses I was having fun and exaggerating the proportions. After 10 weeks we're starting to see the models repeat their 'stock' poses so caricature can help liven things up.

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Life Drawing pt.9

Today's Nude

Last week several of us took part in the life drawing initiative tied into the Channel 4 series Today's Nude. Free life classes were staged across the country to encourage people to start drawing & of course we couldn't resist going along to the Bristol class as it was just down the road from the studio.










The first episode of the series is online here. It features Maggi Hambling talking about her approach to & philosophy of life drawing. She's a terrific artist & it's fascinating viewing.

Those of us in the 'Arthur Christmas' story team have started a blog dedicated to the life classes we've been attending.


I've added some recent sketches to the Urban Sketchers blog here. There are more here too.

I've also put up the first part of my report on my last visit with Ronald Searle.