España

Along the drive through France & Spain I kept a 'journal' in the form of a map to keep track of all the places we visited along the way.  We were moving every day so after 3 weeks it was tricky to recall everywhere we'd been but my map helped.

Picasso

The inspiration for my trip to Spain was to see Picasso's Guernica in the flesh before I leave Europe later this year.  The painting is in the museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, I was so excited to see it I virtually ran through the gallery to find it!  It's scale is intimidating & the sheer power it emits is breath-taking.  Hanging opposite it is a fascinating series of photos Dora Maar took of it's evolution.  Picasso had made hundreds of studies in preparation of tackling this all important theme but the imagery changed radically even as Picasso worked on the final painting.  It looked completely different at the rough stage.

The gallery also houses an exquisite collection of Spanish Modern Art including more Picasso, Dali & Miro.

The Picasso museum in Barcelona primarily focuses on the artist's early years; training as an artist in Barcelona & establishing himself as an artist in Paris.  His later work is represented-there's a series of Cannes pigeons and also his well known version of Velasquez' 'Las Meninas'.  The current exhibition examines the relationship between Picasso & Rusinol.

Picasso: The Mediterranean Years 1945-1962 just opened at the Gagosian gallery in London. The show is outstanding covering my favourite period of Picasso's ouvre.  During my time on the French Riviera I often went on the Picasso trail-visiting the places where he lived & worked & the musee Picasso in Antibes; his chateau at Vauvenargues.  I've been working my way through John Richardson's epic 3 part biography of the artist -illuminating stuff.  It's Richardson who has helped curate this latest  show with Picasso's grandson Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, a follow up to their well received 'Mousqueteros' show in NYC last year.  Richardson has contributed an essay to the exhibition catalogue- an essential but hefty publication  (with a price tag to match).

The work produced during this period in Picasso's life is full of post war joie de vivre-it's his most playful & intimate work, based on Mediterranean tradition & mythology and his extended family.  Amid Amidi recently pointed out on Cartoon Brew that Picasso could be considered a cartoonist & it's this period that reflects that notion best I think.  A lot of what we do in animation these days is influenced by mid 20th century graphic animation artists (Kimball, Blair, UPA, Searle et al.)  all of whom were in turn looking at the work of the Spanish master.

Before leaving Europe for the US later this year I wanted to see Spain and in particular Picasso's 'Guernica'.  My old chum Will volunteered to be my travelling companion, my Sancho Panza.   We packed the car with all our camping kit & headed south for a 3 week expedition through France & Spain.  Will  navigated us across the continent with only a large scale roadmap & the stars, which may explain why we were so often lost looking for campsites.  But the "scenic routes" were better anyway and Don Quixote never had an i-phone with GoogleMaps either.

Student days

My old college chum Matt Cruickshank found his graduation film on Vimeo and mine is up there too. The 5000 Brains of Docter X was initially a 1st year group project between James Finlay, Mike Rooker, Dan Harrod & myself. In the 2nd year I developed it further with Darran Woods-we fleshed out the premise but it was too ambitious & we cut the whole thing down, animating just our favourite scenes. Max Tyrie came in near the end to help us out with the CG & compositing.  We animated our favourite scenes & strung them together in a spoof trailer format, the music is of course by Danny Elfman from the Mars Attacks! soundtrack (copyright Warner Bros. Music).


The 5000 Brains of Dr. X (1997) from ATRiuM Animation Archives on Vimeo.

I dug out some of the production artwork I made for the film.  We were influenced back then by Ren & Stimpy of course, Mars Attacks! and B-movies from the 50s, Luc Besson's The Fifth Element, Chuck Jones' cartoons and Leni Riefenstahl!

Darran built & animated all the CG elements & I did the 2-D animation.  I remember pulling many all nighters putting this together but we had a blast making it.

Renaissance Men

Last week Dutch interior designer/DJ Gur-B was in town.  Normally he likes to check out designer vinyl toys and graphic design bookshops so I thought I'd show him some real drawings for a change.















We headed over to the British Museum to check out the Renaissance Drawings exhibition.  There were prime morsels on show by all the Ninja Turtles; Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo & Donatello but I was more intrigued by a statuesque transvestite who was eyeing up the chiselled torsos on show.  S/he looked like this:












After we'd looked at 100 pictures of pretty ladies with their heads cocked to one side we headed to the Prints & Drawings room where we donned white gloves & dug out some dusty old boxes of original Ronald Searle drawings which were much funnier.

How to make a Cookie Crisp commercial

Over a year ago I designed the latest Cookie Crisp commercial for Uli Meyer Studios.  First task was to design Chip the wolf's latest invention for stealing cereal from innocent children; a home-made, pedal-powered helicopter from which Chip can hook cereal boxes with his fishing rod & plunger!

The sketches at the top of the page above proved the right approach so I worked up a detailed version in b&w.

Next step was a colour version for the agency to sign off on.  This would also be texture ref. for the cg team.

I roughed out a quick pass on the storyboard based on the agency boards.

Next I planned out a colour key set-up to sell the agency on 'the look'.

Last stage was some background colour keys used in the animatic and as a ref. guide for the finished ad.  Then I handed it over to Uli & his team to work their magic.

More on my work with Uli on past Cookie Crisp ads here and here.  Check out Uli's groovy new studio site here. 

Venice

 Visiting Los Angeles for the first time last year Venice Beach seemed similar to London's Camden Town-except everyone wears less clothes . . . and there's a beach!

More from the life room . . .

Latest batch from the Bristol Grammar School Life Drawing Course run by Will Stevens.  The poses range between 5-10 minutes.
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8   I wish I indicated the floor in this one-the model looks like he's hurtling through the air backwards!

Une vie héroique

While I was in Nice over the New Year the French media was buzzing about the imminent release of Joann Sfar's biopic of Serge Gainsbourg. Through the Gainsbourg: Le Film blog I discovered a project set up by Brit illustrator Jonathan Edwards- Draw Serge!  inviting illustrators to contribute their images of Serge.  Here are the roughs for the final above.

Life Class

 Latest batch of life studies from the Bristol Grammar School Life Class as requested by O. Grillo of Ealing and M. Cruickshank in Roehampton.

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Sketching at Henry Moore

London Exhibitions

Last week I re-charged my cultural batteries in London. I was reminded what an incredible centre it is for art exhibitions. In which other city could you see Michelangelo's 'Dream', read VanGogh's letters to his brother, marvel at Henry Moore's ouvre & scrutinize hundreds of Ronald Searle originals all in one day?!
In my experience only Paris has more top exhibitions simultaneously on the go (and London admission prices are catching up with the French capital too; for £12 a pop they should throw in a complimentary catalogue).  I was in town to see the exhibitions celebrating Ronald Searle's 90th birthday but also managed to squeeze in the big 3 major crowd-pullers.

First up, the Henry Moore retrospective at TATE Britain. I was somewhat disappointed by this- the Moore installation at Dulwich a few years ago was more impressive. It seems Moore's monumental bronzes work better outdoors. I realize there's only so many you can heave into the Tate galleries but the sculptures on show seemed to cancel each other out.

More interesting were the works on paper-several sketchbook pages are on display & for the first time I saw Moore's 'blitz' drawings in the flesh. These were records of conditions during WW11 when Londoners sheltered from the bombing in the tunnels of the Underground. I've never forgotten seeing as an art student Moore's 'sheep' sketchbook, impressed by his sculptural use of cross-hatching.

Later in the day I happened upon a Moore print in an antiquarian book shop window; a fine drawing of a rhinoceros, its form similarly expertly rendered.

Early next morning I walked along the Strand to the Courtauld Institute where temporary exhibitions are supported by a fine collection of Impressionist & post-Impressionist works, Dutch masters, numerous studies by Tiepolo & Tintoretto & that picture of Adam & Eve from the title sequence of Desperate Housewives (actually by Cranach the Elder). I was there to see some drawings by Michelangelo that I wasn't familiar with-a series of 'presentation' drawings made to woo a much younger man that the old artist was smitten with. (Were these part of the Michelangelo show at the British Museum 4 years ago?) The highlight of the series is the 'Dream'- it's unimaginable how the artist conjured up this masterpiece merely with chalk & his fingers-breath-taking stuff.

If only Vincent Van Gogh knew that even his hand-writing would turn out be so popular! His correspondence with his brother Theo is the major blockbuster this season with lines stretching the entire courtyard of the Royal Academy. I waited an hour to get in & spent 10 minutes shuffling along the glass cases peering at the fragile, brown letters before a power-cut plunged the galleries into darkness. We all stood murmuring in the gloom for 5 minutes before being ushered out the fire escape. In the confusion I took advantage of the disabled security alarms & slipped one of the priceless canvases under my coat & made for the exit. A ransom of this kind is the only way to coerce a refund from the RA beaureaucrats!