Portlandia

I got in some sketching over the Holidays up in Portland-one of my favourite American cities.

 View from the hotel window downtown

 The famous food trucks of Portland

 Cameron's Books-great for 2nd hand treasure hunting!

 Portland apparently has the highest number of strip clubs per capita!

Just visible behind The Living room cinema is 'The World's Greatest Bookstore'- Powell's Books

 The Art Museum had some impressive Greek sculpture in their 'Body Beautiful' exhibition

 The Modern Art section had a great range of sculpture; Hepworth, Moore, Rodin, Lipchitz

 And last but not least the people of Portland

Happy New Year 2013!

Happy New Year all. Here's a great sketch I received from an old animation pal in Paris, Mr Boris Jacq who spent Christmas curled up in front of the fire with my Gesture Drawing book.  I had some enquiries before the Holidays about purchasing copies so here's a reminder to email me at the address in my Blogger profile for more info.

Happy Holidays!

Storyboard Test

Almost three years ago, trying to find work at an American studio,  I did a story test for Dreamworks Animation. I was out of work at the time so I was able to devote myself to the task and threw myself into it.  I ultimately didn't get the gig but I had fun drawing those characters!

First of all I familiarized myself with the location of the sequence- Central Park Zoo.  I went through the first 'Madagascar' on dvd, freeze-framing the key locations and making layout studies & geographical notes.

Then reading through the script I start to jot down any thoughts, ideas for business and key images that strike me.

Then I thumb-nailed out the entire sequence-fleshing out the character business and camera angles

Lastly I worked it up on the 4x3 story board pads provided-I didn't get all the way through but had the end of the sequence covered in the thumbnails above.

The sequence as it exists here is not in the finished film although there is a climactic scene involving the animals being tranquilized.  (All characters are property of Dreamworks Animation.)

Berlin-SFO-L.A.

I've travelled far and wide the past month. First stop was several days in Berlin for a speaking engagement at a 'Culture Meets Science' conference.  The brutal East German winter hadn't hit yet so it was still possible to sketch outside comfortably.

 The city has an eclectic mix of modern and classical architecture and threaded throughout is a network of blue and pink piping!

 On my last day I made a beeline for the Brandenburg Gate-I couldn't leave without seeing it first hand.

This last picture is more impressionistic-my memories of Berlin.

While in town I looked up Deutsch-uber-wunderkinder Jakob Shuh and Uwe Heidschötter-they showed me around Studio Soi and drew in my book-danke!

Back in SanFrancisco I showed new resident Mr Cruickshank around-we mingled with the un-dead at Dios de Los Muertos in the Mission and hit Ocean Beach to draw the (wrong) windmill.

 Seal rocks are impressive but not as impressive as the Farallons!  In the spirit of high seas adventure we took a day trip out to the islands where humpback whales spout & breach, rare birds nest and great white sharks bite the heads off elephant seals! Not much drawing that day . . .

 Then down to Los Angeles for CTN-X 2012. We stayed around Venice Beach, soaking up the culture and avoiding the nutters.

Highlight of the trip was catching the spectacular Stanley Kubrick exhibition at LACMA

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gesture Drawing book at CTN-X 2012

It's an 11th hour decision but I'll have a booth at CTN-X this year with my book on Gesture Drawing.  I'll be sharing a table with the Happy Beaver himself Mr Jeff Pidgeon-come see us next week!

I've received really great feedback for my first modest publication, many thanks to everyone who bought it and wrote back;

"I've just received your book today! Love it! Thanks again!"
"Wonderful gesture book, Matt. Strong drawing, lively gestures, and all wrapped in a great presentation. Looking at your book is also making me look forward to my next life drawing class this week!"

"I just received the book. Awesome man! It's real nice to see what you are doing, how you're pushing the poses, etc. Thanks so much, I'm looking forward to your next book! -no pressure;)"

"This book is amazing. I read the Drawn to Life books… which was VERY repetitive… and well I wish I saw bigger drawings and less repetition of text. You answered that completely. Love these gestures… and most importantly you have cartoonish gestures, where most books cover more life drawing style gestures. Good stuff! Make more books!"

"I received your book last week and it rocks. It's really inspirational, as you said and I want to study every pose because I think I can learn a lot."