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 :)

Redhead

Last night's late doodle. I'm going to switch to clay now, so I can watch TV and sculpt at the same time. Bonus!

evolution?

Now this is one of my stranger doodles.... this grandma certainly does seem to have chimps in her heritage.

Charcoal, ink, digital.

By the way, if you don't know her stuff already, please check out the work of Annette Marnat-
Her stuff is so good it made me want to break my up pencils and go back to serving cappucinos for a living.

I'm over that now.

Illustration Friday- Wrinkles

Welcome, if you're here from illustration friday :) Here's an elephant, in charcoal and digital.

something cheery

Thought I'd post something I'm exploring lately, for a comics project. It's about a happy rabbit who has a party! Actually no, it's a story about demon possession from the new testament- you know, light entertainment. Anyway- just playing. I tried to beat the snot out of the paper with charcoal, watercolour and pastel, hoping to aim for an intensive, layered mixed media feel. Trouble is, the more you mix in, the more you can lose control. Anyway, a lot of fun. I think my demons are waay too cute, which could be a problem.

good morning, robot

Your local friendly scrap drone.

Bug it

Sketched this little dude out, and got into bed. Thought about it, got out of bed, and coloured it. Something is wrong. My wife is not impressed. Anyway, here it is.
JP

You talkin' to me?

Ongoing works in charcoal...getting into it. Nothing like a gnarly crab. It's a holiday day for us Israelites, so I enjoyed a chilled mosey with the kids on the beach by Jaffa today. It's superb sketching fodder out there, so I think our next sketchcrawl will be in the area. Will keep you posted. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!