Lucky Gardener

Dancer/Assassin

This is the same life model as below. The great thing about the lifedrawing they run at Aardman is that they get a real life actress. This one was particularly good at getting into character, so with this the attempt is to capture the pose but at the same time capture the caricature. Unlike the one above which is closer to her actual appearance. This was one assassin I wouldn't mind coming across . . .

Snooty Business Women

The life drawing sessions were geared towards telling a story quickly. The sketches below were taken from 10 second poses, which is a pretty healthy time, just enough to get the essence and not get too fiddly . . .

Life!

Not sure what I can and can't show from the course due to Aardman Studio policy. So until I figure that one out, bring on the entertainment . . .

My Pen Loves Wrinkles

I was making notes on David Mamets "On Directing Film" and took a sketch break. These old women were sad that day, maybe I should have tried to cheer them up, but their frowns were very appealing to the eye.

Mamet has pretty strong views on films, some of them I struggle with. He's all for telling the story thru the cuts, not a fan of fancy angles and floating camera moves, like his writing he's pretty minimal. It's tough to not want to stick in the camera move or the flashy editing on a job, but I always have a tiny Mamet on my shoulder shouting "Nice shot smart ass, but is it helping the fucking story!!" Of course there's a tiny Welles on the other shoulder . . .

"Just Design it well, a film is a design" - David Mamet

King Crustoid

Frank's background was stop-motion so he really got a buzz at Aardman, but equally it was great to hear his 2D tales of Shrek and Lion King, of life in the big Hollywood studios and his take on what makes a good Story Artist. His love for films is infectious and we started everyday of the course by watching a scene from a classic movie, although didn't get a whole lot done the day we watched the shower scene from Psycho . . .

Every film has progress and regress, good things happen then not so good etc. Frank enjoyed a Birthday whilst on the course, pretty good!

"Class of 08"

Back in April Frank Gladstone came to Aardman and ran a class on Feature Storyboarding. It was 8 weeks of pure bliss and a lot of drawing! We boarded on a cintiq, studied lots of films and even had improv classes, so needless to say where all pretty funny now, look how funny we are . . .

From Left to right, Dave B, Dave P, Jess, Theresa, Big Ols, Frank (aka,teech, aka The American), Ashley, Gabriel, Jimmy, Yours Truly, Helen and the wonderful Katie who made sure nothing bad happened.