"We are like children," said illustrator Aleksi Briclot (second from left). "Give us a pencil and some paper and we are happy and quiet." Center is J-S. Rossbach, Gilles Francescano and J-B. Monge.
Mr. Briclot and Jean-Sebastien Rossbach, who collaborated on the fully illustrated Merlin, were drawing sketches as a team, one of them beginning the sketch and the other finishing it.
It was a great honor to meet artists like Leo, J.B. Monge (above, with me on his shoulder holding his pencil), Erlé Ferronnière, Didier Graffet, Manchu, Enki Bilal, and many others. 
I am touched also to meet students (such as Dmitri, above) and teachers from the art school Pivaut.
The people from the city of Nantes were very gracious and generous to Jeanette and me. Thank you to Marie Masson who arranged the festival, to Patrick Gyger who put together the the Dinotopia exhibition, to Mr. Paul Billaudeau and Mr. Jean-Marc Ayrault for helping welcome Utopiales to the Cité Internationale des Congrès of Nantes, and to Madame Agnès Marcetteau of the Musée Jules Verne.
Hi!!!! i want to cogratulate you!!! In france was Halloween or not?
ReplyDeleteLook here on my work:
http://dispatchesfromtheme.blogspot.com/2009/11/halloween-come-in-my-home.html
So great those portraits!
ReplyDeleteI Would like to thank you for your visit, and say that the Dinotopia exposition was just butterfly in the eyes and shoes-shoot on the back to work more and more.
Merci
Thank's for all !
ReplyDelete=D
Dimitri
Bilal is one of my teenage heros.
ReplyDeleteHis "The Hunting Party", written by Pierre Christin, who was also present at Utopiales I believe, is one of my top ten favourite comic books. Although not about the holocaust, it does tell the dark history of the previous millenium in (Eastern)Europe. Take one look at a single page of a seemingly relaxed hunting trip through what should be a beautiful winter landscape, and you can tell that doomsday is near. The landscape scares you and the hidden tension drips of the page.
His brilliant cinematographic 'camerawork', the way he uses white misty lines and colors as symbolistic visual messages to show the emotional state of a character or anxiety (the blue tears and the white mist) makes him to me the most effective expressionist of comic books.
Unfortunatly, I feel that with his latest work, he tends to want to lean towards High Brow art, but in my view is dangerously close to be indistinguishable from any moderately artistically talented teenage science-fiction enthousiast.
nice sketches, particularly the little guy on the shoulder... :)
ReplyDeleteMr Monge's illustrations are so beautiful, are they made with some water-based technique?
hello,
ReplyDeletehua that the beautiful world!! normal they are French hé hé ;)
it's always a pleasure to pass on
your blog
super touch, stroke of a pen (as usual)
thank
Hey James, I was at the bookstore a couple of hours ago and I unexpectedly saw your book just lying on the shelves. I immediately grabbed it and bought it!
ReplyDeleteI say "unexpectedly" because I didn't know it was already available here in the Philippines. Good art books like yours are hard to come by here :)
Thanks a bunch!
Team sketching (changing over midway)- that's a new one on me!
ReplyDeleteHey Jim, you met Aleksi! Hes a good friend of mine! Looks like you are having a good time. Cheers!
ReplyDeletemanny
Man, there must have been some insanely satisfying vibes in that room!
ReplyDelete(I really need to find some peers asap to go sketch with.)
Enjoying you vicariously.
ReplyDelete"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect, but by the play instinct -- acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves." -Carl Jung
Eric- thanks for the links. That 'Hunting Party' is remarkable. You are right tho, quite a difference from the sci-fi work. -RQ
It was an honor to meet you James!
ReplyDeleteIt was a nice event and thanks a lot for the portrait !!!
Wow. Stunning and brilliant sketches. How fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThe Dinotopia exhibition was amazing !!! It was really a great pleasure to watch closely all these details, admire your beautiful colors and realise the passion that made you create such a masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry i missed your talk...
Thanks again !
Anaïs (ex-student of pivaut school...)