Je ne sais quoi

I look at a lot of blogs mainly illustration, comics and animation themed and so much of what blows me away comes out of France or is created by French speaking folk. There is of course the Gobelins school and the amazingly talented students coming out of the animation courses there. Many exciting artists producing 'Bandes Dessins' [French/Beligian comics] and some great illustrators.

There are so many that I will note a only few, chosen for there good links as much as their fine talent. Follow the links and you'll find lots and lots of inspiring goodness

Gobelins an ex student - sylvain marc who has a lot of other Gobelins stars in his friends links also Emmanuelle Walker is great (her reel has just gone up on the blog) and has lot of very talented people in her links many of whom are connected to Gobelins past and present


I'm not as clued up for Bandes Dessins but Thierry Martin is a good place to start and Vincent Mallie is also good and has some good links to others. Less 'traditional' and a current hero of mine Fabien M who is one part of the team responsible for the exceptional Lucha Libre comic.


Marguerite Sauvage is one of many illustrators who I find very refreshing also http://marnette.canalblog.com/Annette Marnat


also you don't have to look very far in Californian animation circles to find more French names. Nicholas Marlet who's kung-fu panda designs are still making me dizzy with awe is an obvious name but Luc Desmarchelier or Vincent Mallie also inspire and have links to many others

There are so many names I could have mentioned and perhaps some others would have been better examples but hopefully those of you who aren't already aware of this seam of gold will have found some good leads here

So the question taht remains is, what do they feed the boys and girls in France? Maybe I'll attempt to write a few ideas about this in a future post. Your comments might help me with that.

Glum

It's not been a great week and a half for drawing. Italy was great but was generally too exhausted from all the dancing to do much drawing and I haven't really settled back into my daily routines since then . . . maybe next week

Sketch update

Landscapes (from photos) and full body sketches (purple, from photos. sanguine, from life). I haven't done any landscape studies for a long time. Enjoyed these. Must try and do more. Off to Italy in a couple of days so plan to do loads of sketches in my new moleskine. Maybe I'll try some colour too . . .

Experiment

I struggled a bit with the last fourteennights. Not from a lack of ideas for once but perhaps a lack of focus. This is what I came up with. It's a bit overworked but it's ineresting I think and I learnt plenty. I haven't finished the third frame and I had planned more. Need to work out better how to write and plan for comics. I tend to start from the drawings rather than a script which is probably the worst of it. Have ordered a couple of books that might help.

More Pen Sketches

Two more pages from what has become my pen sketch book. Still a bit scrappy but getting more confident and aware of my lines.

Pen sketches

These are the first sketches I have done in pen for years. I am always worried about making a mess of pen work. It can so easily end up looking like scribble. Whilst these aren't anything special I am pleased with the results of these first pen sketches. I aim to do a lot more of these and think more carefully about my choice of lines and mark making. I might keep this sketch book exclusively for pen work or at least to experiment with media beyond my usual coloured pencil drawings in the moleskine. I usually carry a couple of books around anyway so it will be good for variety and stop me being too precious. Sketch book psychology is important stuff.

Some wonderful books

Today I received The Art of Kung Fu Panda in the post. I have been eagerly awaiting it's arrival since seeing Nicolas Marlet's beautiful character designs and following the posts over at the characterdesign.blogspot. I am very pleased that the book is even better than I had hoped the quantity of concept work within far exceeds what most of these 'Art of . . . ' books deliver. The quality of production is also very high. I'm not going to post loads of images take my word for it you want this book and its is currently very cheap at amazon.

Doomed Presents: Ashley Wood - I've been looking around for an Ashley Wood publication to buy. There are plenty to chose from. Too many for me to pick one. Until I got a look at this one. I think what really sold it to me is the quality of the stories. So much more interesting than most of the pap filling comics shops shelves. These four dark tales suit woods style so well. In most of the other stuff I've read attached to Wood story seems to be something of an after thought. Not such a dreadful thing when the eye candy is so sweet but this book feels well rounded a pleasure to read and look at. There is also a gallery of special work in this edition as well as all the original covers I will be looking out for further Doomed books and may poke around a bit more through Ashley Woods other books.

Buja's Diary - Seyeong O. This extraordinary collection of short stories really blew me away when I first read it. I picked it up in my local library as it seemed to stand out from the average manga stuff. Manga is not really correct as Seyeong O is Korean, which more correctly makes it Manhwa. Beyond labels though this is an amazing graphical 'novel'. I am generally sceptical of graphic novels and in fact comics in general very few have stories of any real merit and many are poorly draw to boot. It is a real pleasure then that this volume is expertly drawn and the fine stories are expertly told. Very poetic tales that genuinely engage with both emotion, humanity and humour. This book is special.

Less than super

Not so super heroes A-P
for Fourteen Nights