We just went to see the NY premiere of Martin Scorcese's HUGO (Academy member perk!) and I have to say, it's a beautiful film. Watching it was a little bittersweet for me though, having been briefly involved with another film version of the same story a couple of years ago. That one was to be directed by a good friend of mine but for reasons I may never know, it was not to be. And while I am certain his Hugo have been absolutely wonderful, I have to hope the very best for Scorcese's. It's a children's film that doesn't pander to current trends in this genre. No sidekicks, wisecracks or fart jokes. Magic and Wonder serve just fine here.
HUGO is also a love letter to cinema and it's easy to see why Scorcese was drawn to it. At the story's center, is the early twentieth century film pioneer, George Melies, who is credited with being the first director to see the inherent power of film to create truly fantastic imagery. The image of a rocket crashing into the eye of the man in the moon from his "A Trip to the Moon" is one of the most famous icons in cinema history.
My job on that unfilmed version version of Hugo Cabret was to design the automaton in the story; a nineteenth century mechanical man made of metal and clockwork and magic.
By the way, before running out to see the film, first do yourself a favor and get the original story written and illustrated by Brian Selznick. It's a gorgeous and unique hybrid of text and illustration which in itself is a very c
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By: Peter de Sève,
on 11/22/2011
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By: Peter de Sève,
on 11/14/2011
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By: Peter de Sève,
on 11/10/2011
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Arthur Christmas is a combined effort from Sony and Aardman Animation. I haven't seen it yet, but enjoyed shifting gears and drawing characters without fur for a change.
Or at least, not a lot of fur. 
22 Comments on Arthur Christmas, last added: 11/12/2011
By: Peter de Sève,
on 11/2/2011
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Apparently, scientists have unearthed fossils of what CNN has rather dubiously described as a saber-toothed squirrel.
If they can use it for their blog, I'm damn well using it for mine!
By: Peter de Sève,
on 10/25/2011
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As an art student back in the late '70's, fresh from Long Island and slowly becoming more and more aware of artwork outside of comic books, I soon found myself introduced to the work of Ed Sorel. There was an energy and fearlessness in his line work that was irresistible to me. How could anyone draw so loosely and yet so sculpturally at the same time? His pictures looked as if Giacometti had discovered spectacles and a sense of humor.
In so many ways, Sorel's work has been a kind of life raft for me. As I groped to find my own style and fought the temptation to render things to a rigor mortis finish, his illustrations were always a reminder to me of the beauty in errant lines; the ones you have to put down on the page while you search for your subject. I have always loved drawings that reveal that search. You can see it in Kley and Rowlandson in their finished work and of course in Daumier's ,but you will find it in just about everyone's preliminary drawings. The difference is that too often, those beautiful mistakes are sandblasted away in the final product. I always took the presence of those lines in Sorel's work as an act of bravery and it took me a long time to forgive myself and embrace the imperfections of my own drawings. In truth, I am rarely satisfied with my finished pieces but if any of them do actually retain a heartbeat, there is a good chance that I pulled a book of Sorel drawings off the shelf to help me find my way.
All of this is to say that if you are in New York City before November 5th you have a unique opportunity to see a huge retrospective of Sorel's work. I think you will be dazzled by it and hopefully emboldened, too.
There's a lot to be said about the fact that there is no "command z" in pen and ink.
For more info, go here.
2 Comments on Edward Sorel, a retrospective, last added: 10/27/2011
By: Peter de Sève,
on 10/7/2011
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By: Peter de Sève,
on 10/6/2011
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By: Peter de Sève,
on 9/23/2011
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I've always had some difficulty with the term, "master class", as it is often a little too liberally applied to instructors who might not be quite so masterful. Well, for once, I can use the appellation with utter conviction when I talk about John Kascht and his film,"Funny Bones". It's a short, incredibly incisive deconstruction on the art of caricature. And while it has plenty of delightful time lapse sequences of John sketching, painting and even sculpting, the piece is not about technique per se. It's really a rumination on the art of capturing a likeness and more importantly, the essence of a subject. He reminds us that caricature is not distortion for distortion's sake, but rather an amplification of those features that reveal what is unique about that particular person. There is plenty to learn and marvel at in Funny Bones and if you are trying to learn something about capturing a personality on paper, go here.
By: Peter de Sève,
on 9/21/2011
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As I thumb through books of old photos, I can hardly resist a quick drawing of some of the long-gone faces I see in them. This time I didn't. The sketch is based on a fragment of a larger scene depicting Londoners enjoying an afternoon on a merry-go-round, sometime during the 1920's. She's having the time of her life.
I wonder how the rest of it went.
By: Peter de Sève,
on 9/15/2011
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By: Peter de Sève,
on 9/11/2011
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Here's another peek at the Dickens series. It's not much, but it does mean I don't have to post anything for another week, and that's good enough for me!
By: Peter de Sève,
on 9/9/2011
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Two smart guys, Gerald Guerlais and Dice Tsutsumi are chatting one day and think: Hey, let's have a beautiful blank sketchbook made and then send it our artist to artist, country to country until the damned thing is filled with beautiful drawings! We'll call it Sketchtravel and go to a top flight publisher and have them publish a limited facsimile of the book! Oh, Oh! Then let's auction the original sketchbook at some high dollar auction house in Brussels and GIVE ALL THE MONEY AWAY TO CHARITY!!!
They're very excitable guys, but when they have an idea, they get it done.
Check out their website here and take a look at the fabulous roster of artists they wrangled to appear in the book. Here's a sampling off the top of my head:
Carlos Nine
Carter Goodrich
Ronnie Del Carmen
Rebecca Dautremer
Hayao Miyazaki
Follow this link to a snappy little video about the adventures of the book itself!
By: Peter de Sève,
on 9/7/2011
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Here's one of eight pieces I am working on, showcasing the main characters from some of Charles Dicken's most famous works. They will appear on new paperback editions being published by Random House sometime next year. It wouldn't be quite truthful to call this work, given how much I am enjoying doing them and although the drawings will be used rather small in the context of the cover design, I think the whole package will make a handsome series.
Above is Josiah Bounderby from Hard Times.
By: Peter de Sève,
on 9/6/2011
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So sue me. I was on vacation!
By: Peter de Sève,
on 8/24/2011
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Apparently we had an earthquake here on the east coast today. I missed it.
In fact, the first I heard about it was from a friend in California.
Oh, and the New Yorker had already put their issue to bed, so I missed that, too.
By: Peter de Sève,
on 8/21/2011
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I had forgotten how much I loved The Hobbit until this weekend when I finally picked it up again and was transported back to the very first time I read it. My sister, Paula, had loved Tolkien's books ferociously and from time to time would try to get me to draw an accurate hobbit based on her detailed description which was already seared into her teenage imagination after having read the story countless times. She loved me very much and was a staunch supporter of my work even back then, but I never could draw a hobbit that she liked. I'm certain if she were to see this drawing, it would be no exception. Sadly, she passed away a few years ago but I think of her as I read every page and it's made this reading that much richer for me.
But that's the beauty of this book and all books I suppose. When we read them we paint our own landscapes and cast our own characters and woe to any fool who thinks he can just whip out a sketch and say "here's your hero!"
It's doomed to failure, really.
On the other hand, I did promise a sketch a week.
By: Peter de Sève,
on 8/10/2011
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I began this sketch, as I often do, with the eyes and it led me here.
Where exactly "here" is, I'm not sure.
By: Peter de Sève,
on 8/3/2011
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As I've said before, I am not a Star Wars geek.
By: Peter de Sève,
on 7/27/2011
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I wrote a tiny little fable called The Ugly Fisherman, and someday I may just illustrate it. In the meantime, here is the drawing that inspired it.
By: Peter de Sève,
on 7/26/2011
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I've been pretty lazy about posting in the last several months, so in an attempt to keep me honest, I am going to try and post something at least once a week. For the most part, I'm sure they will just be sketches, but even that will be a vast improvement over my track record of late. So here's a sketch, "Brought Low" because to quote Dylan, "the first one now will later be last".
By: Peter de Sève,
on 6/24/2011
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Despite my best efforts to push through the limited edition of "Easy Being Green it is Not" it looks as though the print may never see the light of day. According to my contact at Acme Archives (the folks who would handle production and distribution), LucasFilm is reluctant to grant permission for it's release. It might have something to do with the fact that Kermit is in the scene and he is not part of the Lucas Empire, which I suppose could be a copyright issue. It makes no sense to me, since THEY HAVE ALREADY PUBLISHED IT, but there you are.
By: Peter de Sève,
on 6/1/2011
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Despite the fact that it has produced some of the most successful animated films of all time (the Ice Age franchise, Robots, Horton Hears a Who and Rio), Blue Sky Studios has toiled in relative anonymity compared to it's giant cousins, Pixar, Dreamworks and Disney. For whatever reason, 20th Century Fox, Blue Sky's mothership, has chosen not to showcase the Blue Sky "brand". But maybe with the advent of a well deserved retrospective at the Norman Rockwell Museum, they are finally changing their minds.
By: Peter de Sève,
on 5/23/2011
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I was certain that the End of Days was going to prevent my finally having another New Yorker cover published, but in a case of divine non-intervention, I get to blag about it after all.
By: Peter de Sève,
on 5/5/2011
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Next week at the Society of Illustrators, my friend Chris Wedge and I will be joined in a conversation about our careers in animation by a fellow named Joe Strike. Chris, as I'm sure you already know, is one of the founders of Blue Sky Studios and director of the animated features, Ice Age and Robots. Joe is a journalist with a particular obsession for animation. He is both connoisseur and geek and a pleasure to chat with. If you're in town, please join us next Thursday, May 12th at the Society. Go here for further details.
By: Peter de Sève,
on 4/15/2011
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Above is one of many designs I created for the recent animated/hybrid film, HOP, which has been enjoying some success at the box office lately. The drawing is also decidedly European which makes it doubly useful as an announcement for a talk about my work that I will be giving on April 20th at the Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU) in the city of Utrecht.
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Extraordinary drawings--the one at the top blows me away!
I have read the story - fantastic stuff and trust Scorcese to have done a great job. I'm so glad you mentioned the magic as that's the feeling I came away with from the book.
Thanks for sharing your drawings - they look really in-keeping with the magic
wow, this is so amazong... i love it
genial!!!!
Your draws always made my day and give me the sparks I need to take my pencil and try over and over again to find something new. You're truely a great inspiration in all senses. Thanks a lot for sharing master
beautiful!