BART

Based on my fellow Bay Area commuters and your friendly neighbourhood BART police.

Jacked! part 2

Just before the Christmas break we staged the 2nd Annual Pixar Story dept Mean Caricature Night. We had a much bigger turn out this year including special guests Pete Docter, Ricky Nierva and Michael Johnson documenting the event with his keen camera.  Thanks to Ronnie for rallying the troops, securing the table and keeping us fueled with beer!





See last years' character assassination here

This time my eyes got beadier, my brow more furrowed, my teeth wonkier, beard beardier and my hairline receded further- alas, the cruel truth of caricature.

However, I did get the bastards back-the names have been changed to protect the innocent!

I got warmed up with an easy target

Usually caricaturing girls always ends in tears. Luckily the female Pixar Story Artists dish it as mean as they get it!

This comrade is so pretty I had to draw him twice!

Inscrutable

These Phillipino boys are a handsome bunch

This chiselled adonis was hard to crack!

Vampyre

Gesture Drawing

Here are a couple of exercises from Gesture Class that Alex throws in from time to time to keep us on our toes.

1. Silhouette 

2. Extrapolating animal characters from a human model

3. Regular 30 second warm ups

4. Some fun stuff!

A Monster in the UK!

'A Monster In Paris' is unleashed today in the UK.  Big Picture Studios, the promo company handling its UK release, featured me on their blog.

The French Oscars, the Césars, have just nominated 'Un Monstre a Paris' for Best Animated FIlm and Best Song.  Here's a good resolution clip from the film . . .

The art of Urban Sketching

I'm published! I think for the first time some of my sketches have been published on real paper in a real book in the real world-woohoo! (although my carbon footprint just got a little bigger I guess?)

I'm very pleased to be part of Gabi Campanario's collection of all the artists' work from his Urban Sketchers site which has gone from strength to strength since he founded it in 2008.

There's a nice 2 page spread on my drawings around San Francisco -I just wish I cleaned up the rain drops in Photoshop. . .

My old chum Stephane Kardos is featured too.  Available now on Amazon

For Ronald

The great Ronald Searle passed away last week - my correspondence with him will be sorely missed but his influence on my work will remain.  We didn't meet often enough that I would consider him a mentor but I was able to show him some of my drawings and get advice from this master of reportage. He was always encouraging and positive about my work-the fact that he was even interested was astounding to me!


Out and about over the holidays I managed to make some quick location sketches around Portland, Oregon.  These were done rapidly, on the hoof, as it was a lot colder and wetter up north!

Vignette views of downtown Portland

Free standing wall in the Pearl District

'The Steel Bridge'

'The old oak'

Native American lodge recreation at Ridgefield

Back in San Francisco I passed a couple of days in and around Chinatown where I was able to make longer studies.  I've learnt a lot from studying Searle's location sketch work and always have him in mind when I'm drawing.  The example he set of sheer discipline and prolific output keeps me going on the days when I think I suck or can't be bothered!

Grant Avenue

Fruit & veg market on Grant & Pacific

Washington & Grant

Cable car intersection at California & Powell

McTeagues on Polk St.

Merry Christmas

'Arthur Christmas' was a difficult show to work on but the movie turned out great!  It looks quite different to other cg movies released this year and its British humour gives it a unique charm.

Back in 2009 I was at Aardman in Bristol storyboarding the opening elf 'invasion' and several other sections throughout the picture.  I'll post some more in the New Year.  Happy Holidays!

(All material copyright Aardman/Sony Pictures Animation)