Firenze!

Back from Florence, at least 3 kilos heavier. One of the best experiences of my life, teaching and drawing in front of 150 people- if you can call what I did 'teaching'. And meeting many wonderful people- artists, designers, teachers, even the president of florence, briefly. He gave us a prize, which seemed a touch surreal...we ate the best steak in florence at a restaurant called 'perseus'- the chef ambles out of the kitchen, grabs a lunk of meat from the overloaded cartful in the middle of the restaurant, lumbers back in and crafts the tastiest bloodiest steak I've had...mmm. Drawing and sculpting in front of an audience was nerve wracking- in a fun, productive way. Alex and I did sessions on story, animation, character design- and when we stopped doing that we ate and were carried around the city by our Florentine host Luca with aplomb. What a delight. Luca, you're a star- I'm coming back. and to you students out there- you were great. JP

being a dad

This picture, taken by my two year old, kind of sums up why being a dad is so cool.

I'm off to Florence for five days to 'teach' animation...first time in Italy and I'm as exited as a juvenile spaniel. No posts for a few days. x JP

Wide snorkeller

Hello, Illustration Friday! I enjoyed this piece a lot- I've been hankering to do an underwater scene, and adding a buoyant snorkeller with ample dimensions seemed to fit the bill. this lady is becoming a recurring theme in my work...this is an earlier piece.
This particular girl had a ten second short made for her, which you can see here:

I've also added a work in progress GIF. It's charcoal, pastel and photoshop. XJP

Octopus

This octopus was inspired by a coupla things; Oktapodi, what looks set to be yet another phenomenal student film from Gobelins Ecole D'images (what do they serve in that canteen?) and James Jean- see links in sidebar- I obsess about what materials I should use to do my art- I'm the kind of person that picks up a brush pen in an art store and decides it is the future, and the very next day doing a charcoal sketch and swearing to give up all other materials. It's also wrapped up in a bit of a quest for a distinctive stamp of my own in the work. My conclusion is that I should just relax and learn to be a mixed media guy. This is something that you see in James Jean's work, taken to extraordinarily skillful levels. This combined with a visionary imagination, well.

So this is my octopus. Watercolour, ink, pastel, coloured pencil, all made invisible by some heavy photoshopping. :-)

ruler of the jungle realm

I've long planned to draw while I tell my kids their story at night, illustrating it as I go- it has the desired mesmeric effect on kids that is useful to a parent at bedtime. I don't do it nearly enough. Tonight's sketch story involved a tiger with concussion, and I thought I'd draw him in technicolor after the kids finally crashed out.

OM

Was researching Sadhus this morning...man those dudes get up to some crazy stuff! Mine is just taking it easy. Perhaps he's thinking about the next way to bend his legs around his head. I've got to get myself to India- go and explode with colours on the sketchbook.
Have a great day.

Illustration Friday- Seed

Another seedy deal. I aimed for as much of a sense of suspicious activity on the rabbits as I could muster.

charcoal, Photoshop

toucan

What is wrong with this toucan? why is it so concerned? My wife told me I only draw characters that look perplexed, confused, surprised, or lost. I guess they are just funnier that way... Have a nice night- or day, wherever you are :)