Troll update!

My entry to the NorwayYourway contest won!  I'll be the UK representative travelling with 'creatives' from France, Italy, Germany and Russsia through mid-August.  It is going to be a great opportunity to explore an amazing land and report back with lots of sketches.  Many thanks to everyone who voted for me.

Spain

Back to my trip around Spain.  The first stop in France was the Loire valley.  After driving down from Calais we spent a freezing first night in a campsite outside Tours.  It was late May & the camping season hadn't yet begun so we climbed the fence & pitched our tents out of view of the road.

Next day we visited one of the fairy-tale chateaus of the Loire;  Azay-le-rideau before setting up camp at a great site next to the river in Chinon opposite the impressive old fortress.

After lunch the next day in Angouleme we moved onto Bordeaux.  We explored the city on foot a little then drove around looking for a camp-site.  We didn't have GPS or internet access so looking for camp-sites became pot-luck.  Sometimes it took hours but often we found them by following our noses.  The further south we moved the warmer the nights became but of course that means mosquitoes too. The camp at Bordeaux lac had a huge pond full of croaking frogs, mozzies the size of pigeons, hooting owls & a mooing cow!  That was a restless night.

Onto Biarritz on the Atlantic 'riviera'-choc-full of casinos, sports cars & fab beaches, it's like Nice, St Tropez & Monte Carlo in one.  The campsite didn't measure up however- it was right next to the airport!  The pitch was hard & uncomfortable and we were harassed in the night by rampaging hedge-hogs!  Another tough night.

Next day we crossed the border into Northern Spain-first stop San Sebastian.

The North coast of Spain is really quite beautiful-as we drove onto Bilbao we passed through some stunning landscape.  On the coastal road at Islares we found a great resort campsite with an incredible  beach.

Our next destination was Bilbao . . .

The Guggenheim was our first major museum-the building is remarkable.

 Louis Bourgeois' 'Mother' and Jeff Koons' 'Puppy' are the key installations.

Lots of character in the faces of the Spanish people.

Send me to Norway!

Hey all-here's my entry for the NorwayYourWay competition, a campaign to promote tourism in Norway.  Entrants are asked to submit a piece of work inspired by Norway. The 5 winners will tour around Norway sketching, writing & photographing & blog their results along the way.  Please vote for me or enter yourself by visiting the site here

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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