Aard Life

Lunchtime sessions

2011-06-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

Apologies for going on hiatus for a while. Below are some quick brush pen sketches by Ash Boddy done during a lunchtime session. After the lunch sessions at the Aztec West site started, Jay Clarke down at the Gas Ferry Road site took up the mantle and organised a series of sessions. Results in the next post!

Ash Boddy // Minute sketches // Brush Pen

Last of the Bristol sessions

2010-11-07T15:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a selection of sketches from the last sessions I went to before leaving Bristol

Now I'm at Pixar I've enrolled in the Gesture Class & I've started posting sketches here and here.

Lunch session now open!

2010-08-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Rej Bourdages and Ashley decided to start a quick pose session during lunch break. It's a simple drop in, drop out so we have a few regulars and then others who join in for a week to see what it's about or just to brush up from time to time. What's nice to see is that it's not just those who are considered the artists at the company attending. All the poses are for 90 seconds or less with a few 5 minuters at the end. At the moment we're using nude models, but hopefully we'll be moving on to costumed in the near future!

Some efforts from the first few weeks:

-Ash

-Rej

Emilie

2010-07-12T09:29:00.000-07:00

2010-05-10T04:24:00.001-07:00

The Aardman story team has been scattered to the wind. Ash is still in Bristol working on PIRATES! at Aardman, Kris has followed the Arthur Christmas production back to LA & is continuing life drawing classes at Sony. Matt is installed in a windy garret in North Wales drawing sheep . . .

Ash Boddy has latest drawings here.

More from Kris Pearn here.

Recent figure drawings by Matt Jones

2010-04-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

Mike Cooper

2010-03-30T03:55:00.000-07:00

New Term 2010

2010-02-16T01:20:00.000-08:00

Story wizard Ash has his latest batch up on his blog here.
Matt's can be seen here.

Stateside

2009-12-28T22:32:00.000-08:00

Kris, Jess and Matt took a trip around the West Coast of the US in December visiting animation studios, friends & countless diners along the way. They covered over 2000 miles by road & did some drawing en route. Check out everybody's version of the story at their blogs.

Focus on: Kris Pearn

2009-10-09T03:11:00.000-07:00

New term!

2009-10-02T05:47:00.001-07:00

We started a new term of life drawing this week. See results at the blogs of Kris, Ashley & Matt.

Focus on: Woody Woodman

2009-09-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

Focus on: Stephen Hanson

2009-09-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

Focus on: Lei Chen

2009-09-08T07:19:00.001-07:00

Lei is a master of black & white stark contrast.

Check out Lei's film 'The Brush'

2009-08-24T08:09:00.000-07:00

Woody Woodman

Jess Jackson

Kris Pearn

Matt Jones

Storytelling

2009-08-13T03:18:00.000-07:00

Simple props, imaginary or real, can help add drama to a pose. In one session Will had the model assume 'action' poses. As animation artists we look for the 'story' in a pose so it helps when the model acts a little.

Woody

Matt

Kris took it all the way & added entire scenarios & other characters to these poses-

Jess turned this drqwing into an underwater session-

See more of Jess' drawings on her blog.

2009-07-29T03:24:00.000-07:00

Kris

Matt

Jess

Matt

Evgeni

Chiaroscuro

2009-07-23T09:00:00.001-07:00

Kris

Zebe

Lei

Matt

Kris

Quick Sketch

2009-07-17T05:19:00.000-07:00

Quick sketchesmade in 5 minutes or under. We're looking to capture the essence of the pose through its silhouette, line of action & attitude.

Zebe

Woody Woodman

Stephen Hanson

Paul Bolger

Kris Pearn

Helen Schroeder

Ashley Boddy

Matt Jones

Mixed Media

2009-07-08T06:40:00.000-07:00

We're all learning a lot from seeing how each of us approaches life drawing-none of us use the same medium.

Red conte crayon on newsprint highlighted with white conte by Kris Pearn.

Watercolour & pen by Stephen Hanson.

Stephen's approach is quite unique. His illustration sketchbooks are crammed with exquisite, tiny sketches of characters & scenes. He approaches life drawing similarly except he gives the drawings more room to breath on the page.

Woody added pencil shading to pen line work then finished the piece digitally back at the studio.

Lei uses black conte crayon on regular cartridge paper.

2009-07-03T06:31:00.001-07:00

Will who runs the life class has posted a feature on us over at his blog.

Multiple views

2009-06-30T00:49:00.000-07:00

We thought it would be interesting to compare drawings by different artists of the same poses from different angles. Notable too is the difference in approach & technique.

Matt Jones

Kris Pearn

Matt Jones

Kris Pearn

Woody Woodman

Matt Jones

2009-06-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the life drawing blog of the 'Arthur Christmas' story & art departments at Aardman Animation. We've been attending a class regularly at the Bristol Grammar School after work on Thursday nights. We thought we'd share a selection of the choice drawings to see how we all approach the same poses with different techniques & mediums.
Constructive criticism is welcomed in the comments section.

First up some warm up sketches by story artist Woody Woodman.

Nice loose pen lines with simple tone added with a grease pencil.

Most of us like to warm up before drawing the poses. As soon as we find our seats we start sketching each other, our class-mates & the models in their robes.

Matt Jones

Even during the break we continue to sketch. AFter warming up for an hour I always feel it's counter-productive to then stop drawing for 10 minutes. I draw those around me until the models return.