Thursday, April 26, 2012

"How is that Being Free?" (Draw Closed)

I gave myself the luxury of having a restful day off last saturday by going to Life Drawing at La Grande Chaumiere (I had a basketball match in the eve which wasn't so restful - but any day that has Life Drawing and Basketball in it is a good one :P).


It was the first time I'd returned there since last summer, and happy memories came flooding back - but even when you revisit a place you once knew, it doesn't quite feel the same unless the people you shared that place with are there with you. Soon enough though…
 

The film is progressing……… lol
I'm cleaning up my shots at the moment. But it's starting to get pretty hard (that's what she said) - I'm as cool, calm and collected as ever… It's just, I did hit the proverbial wall this week for maybe 20 minutes where I paced up and down the corridor in the sudden realisation that things were looking bleak. When I say paced, it also included me jumping up and down on the spot (as I've found that moving quickly seems to detach any bad thoughts that seem to be clinging to me - I sometimes sprint from the metro back to the apartment to achieve the same effect - to bizarre looks from passers by :D)

Buuut… the following day, with nothing to distract me, I put my game-face on and busted out another shot. Bim!! 4 down, 6 to go!


And THIS is my Game-Face, as drawn by Joël Corcia during Journées Portes Ouvertes. JPO being like an Open Day for the public to come in and look around the school..... but that's a whole other story which I won't go into!
(Along with such stories as; 'Robert Valley and The Shameless Sell' & 'The Mysterious Recruiter: Who the 'BEEP' are You?!'



But speaking of Journées Portes Ouvertes, I have a gift for one lucky reader. Each year for Gobelins' open days, the 1st and 3rd Years put together an Artbook - an image from each student. The only way you can get hold of one is to come to an open day and hand over your hard earned cash (or any other kind of cash for that matter - we ain't fussy yo).



Well, I have 1 copy to give away to one of you. Anyone who leaves a comment in this post will be put into a draw, and the winner will be chosen at random (method still to be determined :D) at the end of May and announced in the next post.




The book will be sent to you along with this drawing of a camel I did on a post-it at the zoo last month n.n










So there you go. Things never stop changing hein. And then again, some things never change. Strange that.

As always, I hope everyone is well - forgive me if I haven't been in touch with those of you whom I should have!
'Till the Next,
L

Aussi – J’ai vu qu’en fait, il y a pas mal des gens qui visitent mon blog de France..... Du coup, je pense que je vais commencer à écrire dans les deux langues. Comme ça, tout le monde sera au courant ; ) Et ça me force à améliorer mon écriture en plus :P Mais je vous demande pardon d’avance – il y aura des erreurs!!!

24 comments:

Chris Cormier said...

As always, a beautiful, meaty post. I love that first drawing; just perfect lines. That's an amazing prize to the lucky winner! Gobelins is always full of incredible talent, and you're a great example of that, man. Can't wait to see your film!

James Woods said...

Sweet drawings as ever Laurent!
I'm liking the venture into paint washes in the second figure as well! Your Gobelins experience is sounding incredible and I'm gonna be stoked to see your shots after the school has pushed your creativity so far!

Good luck with the final lap man!

P.s. I want a copy of that zine so freakkin baddd ha!

Ben Ho said...

Mr Rossi! These are ace! I am excited to see what you come up with in your Gobelin days.
Hope to see you in a few months. Yes, I mean Annecy!

Marguerite Dumans said...

Cheers for the adv on Pedro's, Sophie's, Marion's & my page :P hehe we are lucky guys + a review from u ! :P & as far as the time off is concerned, u won't believe me, but... I'm looking forward to come back to the school !! :D But I am enjoying my home sweet home :} Do u miss Bomo ? inbetween 2 clean ? :P

messytimbo said...

lovely work as always man! can't wait to see your grad film. I'm gonna be in Paris for a couple on days in june. we need to hang out!

Anonymous said...

OH SOOOOO SOOOONN!!! :D:D:D::D:D:D:D:D::D:D:D:D:D:D
also yay contest! >:3

Mapie Demessant said...

Oh oui du français! En plus tu te débrouilles à merveille!
Tes chameaux sont magnifiques, ainsi que tes nus!

L Rossi said...

@Chris
Thanks man, that's really kind of you!
That was my favourite drawing from the session - it was a 5 minute one. It's funny, 'cos out of a 4hr session, I've put up 35 minutes worth of drawing :S

@James
Thank you! :')
But I'm gonna be more stoked to see what YOU do next year (though I have a while to wait :P) - I don't think Bournemouth has ever had someone with your skills!
You want the 'Zine huh?! ha ha, well it could be you!

@Ben
Hey sir! Thank you kindly!
I will see you there my friend! n.n I'm there from Wednesday to Saturday - be good to see ya! ;)

@Anne
Ok - I understood most of the text - your abreviations are crazy! :D
Glad you enjoyed being back home, but as you say, we crave a rest and then when we get it, we can't wait to get back into the action!
J'espere que les marches vont bien! :P n'hesite pas venir pour les montrer n.n
Ouais, quand j'ai dit fini, ils sont FINIIIiii! :D Interval et clean. Que les couleurs et ombres a faire.
Oui ca me manque des fois :) Mais Paris est pas mal!

@Tim
Awesome! Will be good to see you dude! I'll have to show you around!
Give me a shout!

@Chloé
Funny, I'll be sad when my one year at Gobelins is over, but at the same time, I'm looking forward to finishing so summer can start n.n

@Mapie
Reeallly?? :D
Merci Mapie! Tu es trés gentille n.n
J'espère que tu as passé des bonnes vacances!

Frankie Swan said...

ah master rossi need i remind you of your awesomeness?!love the kid in in socks and sandals!
hang in there man and push on to the very end!i cant flaming wait to see your film!!its killing me man!
spinting to free the mind? i will try this.

Santiago Alarcón said...

Great blog you have here! I stumbled upon your youtube channel and was impressed to know that you worked on l'illusionninste. Is awesome to see that 2D is still strong in Europe. America doesn't appreciate the art enough, my University just got laid off our awesome 2D teacher, and all we have is 3D now...
Hope to be a regular here, you have awesome skills, Keep up the awesome work!

Kristian said...

Laurent. I simply love the wash sketches. The line drawing of the reclining figure is so beautiful. I wish I were coming to Paris in June with Timbo. I especially cant wait to see the final film. It's gonna be incredible.

L Rossi said...

@Frankie
Cheers man :'D Thanks for the support!! It's cool to know I got peeps counting on me!
Yeah - I mean, I guess it depends how fast you can run :D But there's something about sprinting as fast as I can (I used to do 100m, and still do bball) that just, for that instant, empties your head. Let me know if it works for you! :D

@Santiago
Thanks for a leaving a comment! :)
I'm glad you like what you see.
I'm sorry to hear you teacher got laid off - I think it's a shame because the title 'animation teacher' is self explanatory.... you teach 'animation' - and animation isn't defined as 2d, 3d, stop motion, paper cut-out, Digital etc etc it's the principals, the ideas, the acting, the analysis and observation.... after that it just becomes about the medium.
A good animator who doesn't know anything about 3d can teach someone doing 3d about animation, just not about 'how' to use the program to do it - then you need someone for that :')
But good luck with the rest of the course!

@Kristian
Thanks K! And thanks once again for your help! :)
Yeah it is a shame! But I don't think it's as simple as just a 1hour train ride for you is it? :D

J Lou said...

Aww those characters are cute! And that post-it sketch is pretty awesome, oooo and yet so small? :3

Say wuuut?!?!! Another give away! I'm a fan of the animation work from your school, so it would be inspiring to own a copy! Oh man, fingers crossed XD

sarah said...

I haven't stopped by your blog enough recently. As always your work is so lovely and has such a carefree feel too it. I want to have a day where I play basketball and do figure drawing! That sounds fun! :)

Unknown said...

Great works as usual, Luca!

Ken said...

Awesome post dude, love the kid standing looking a bit dazed :D keep pushing on man! You can do it! And see u in annecy :D

Oh... And the camel post it note thing? Wtf that cracked me up lol

sKELLz said...

Gobelins is an amazing school I always see their ANNECY shorts on youtube, love the creativity in these films, crazy how your making one I've yet to come to know a person who's made one, many beautiful pieces they've had though.

And I feel you on the weird method of getting yourself back into the feeling of your film we all have our weird ways to get fired back up wen where feeling down about our work.

One time I just had to draw my story boards in the bathroom so I could feel like my environment was different lol.

I hope to see whatever your working on somewhere in the youtube universe among all the other amazing gobelin short films I've encountered.

L Rossi said...

@jLou
Cheers Jamie! Yep, the camel is pretty small... so wouldn't be much good for carrying people across deserts :P
Fingers crossed! ;)

@Sarah
Thanks n.n and welcome back!
If you can, I would heartily recommend it :)

@Claudio
Thank you very much!

@Ken
Cheers dude! Wait, what? What's so funny about a camel on a post-it huh? huh?
Yep, not long now! Get the suncream ready! :P

@sKELLz
Thanks so much for your comment!
Loved the story of you drawing in the bathroom! It makes sense though - environment has a big part in determining your level of focus... I guess it's why some people choose to go to the library instead of staying at home... puts them in the right frame of mind. Except instead of a library, for you it was a bathroom :)
We are almost there! I'm guessing the video will be up in August... so not long :P

Hermit said...

Just discovered your blog after watching Gouken. Your work is great! Keep it up! :-)

Dana said...

Agh! You updated! Awesome stuff as always. That camel is soooooo chill! xD The finished film is gonna be posted online right? RIIIGGHHTT??

aahhh in our school studio we have this thing where whenever someone wants to leave or enter the digi room they have to do 10 push ups. So it keeps us both focused AND BUFF haha. I've tried doing what you did and sprinting around but then I get distracted or embarrassed and those weird 'walled in' feelings don't go away ;3;

Glad to see you're still alive though yeah!

Emmanuel Briand said...

Yeah laurent j'ai hâte de le voir ce nouveau gobzine , bravo pour ton taff je ne sais pas encore si je vais à annecy cette année mais on verra si on peut se boire une bière qq part .

L Rossi said...

@Hermit
Hey, Thank you n.n I'm glad Gouken is still doing the rounds :P

@Dana
:D Yeah the film will be posted, I'm guessing around August n.n
I think the majority of people in the year need to start turning on the afterburners if they wanna get the films done though u.u
10 Push Ups! :D That's awesome! But I'm sure some cheeky people try to slip away whilst no one is looking, right? :D

@Emmanuel
Merci pour ton commentaire! Ça sera cool si tu vas à Annecy - j'aime bien rencontrer des gens dans animation.. c'est vraiment une grande famille n.n

Ty Carter said...

Life Drawing and basketball definitely make a good day!!!! Beautiful sketches! I think I might barely have missed the contest!

libra bear said...

Jesus man, your a machine. Yeah I know the comments are late. It was great hangin' out with you man. Same time next year?