Sonic Rituals 2 Images

These are the live drawing images I created while performing this Monday for the second instalment of Sonic Rituals.

Sonic Rituals is a live improvisation night between different musicians. A creation of Yumi Hara Cawkwell and Guy Harries, it has so far included a very diverse range of players from electronic musicians to more traditional instrumentalists. On Monday, we had Mark Hewins, Geoff Leigh and former member of Soft Machine Daevid Allen (now in Cong) come and join us.

My involvement is a visual one in that I react to the improvisation sounds by creating images that go with the moment and the music.

I am using now an IPad for these experimental nights as I feel such a device is more anchored for immediate and most effective broadcasting. I also like the IPad because it forces me to draw quite differently and not be so precious about doing nice pretty drawings- the idea of being freed in my expression of movement through the gesture of immediate mark making on a digital device is revolutionary for me. Last night I brought a clunky projector which in fact had great picture quality and everything went smoothly.

I had a good chat with the concert promoter and Jazz Servant Quarters owner (pictured above) who kindly agreed to pause for me for a portrait. All in all, it was a magical night; the music was excellent and the audience really enjoyed themselves. Feedback in my projections was really positive. There is much I want to do in terms of developing these experiments into a polished act and we will take out time and many more gigs to end up doing it.

Sonic Rituals 2 at Servant Jazz Quarters

I took part in this event last night at Servant Jazz Quarters in Dalston. I will post soon the live drawings that I made that night as well as videos. It was great fun!

 

Sonic Rituals at Cakey Muto

 

Last Monday, I took part in a live performance in East London entitled Sonic Rituals. The event, the first of many to come, was an improvisation night with five musicians playing experimental electronic sounds.

 

I was asked to come in and provide the visuals. I made my drawings on the spot allowing myself to be directly affected by the music and then draw what I felt.

 

What you see here are the fruits of these experiments in front of an audience. I like doing these because it feels direct, unmediated, and utterly liberating to try my hand at live experimental performance as a change from illustration. And as a complement to the more commercial pursuits.

 

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L'ile Aux Trente Cercueils- le Feuilleton

This is the trailer for the TV series that is currently infuencing my children's book (work in progress)  "Coffin Island". The story was very dark and even though I was not allowed to watch it, I would get out of bed, sneak behind my parents' chair to try and catch a few glimpses.

Image courtesy of Valerie Pezeron. Cpyright 2012. Do not reproduce without permissions.

Of course what I saw made a lasting impression and I believesome of my work fits in the fantasy horror genre with heavy religious connotations because of that series! It traumatised an entire generation of French kids!

Drawing for the Day

Illustration courtesy of Valerie Pezeron. Copyright 2012. Do not reproduce without permission

Work in progress- drawing for a personal project I am currently developping related to African Queens.

Books Worth Reading

 

I have a board on Pinterest entitles Books Worth Reading. I am a writer and I love to read a lot of books. I like to mix between fiction, biographies and facts or investigative writings.

Drawing of the Day- Swinging Apocalypse

Illustration courtesy of Valerie Pezeron. Copyright 2012. Do not reproduce without permission

Balck Models

I have updated my Pinterest account with a new board dedicated to Black Models. I am developping a series of portrait illustrations on black beauty and Afro-American queens and this board is the 1st step towards research.

Circus Acts Performance

Last Thursday, I took part in Circus Acts, an improvisation and collaboration  event between electronic musicians and a visual artist. I was the artist who provided the projection of images on the night.

I had made some loose preparations for the gig that was meant to be an informal experimentation among friends, with a small audience witnessing the happy incidents that sprung out of responding to each of the participants' sounds- mine were visual sounds!

The beauty of such events is that one has to be flexible and quick to adapt! I had never been to the Powerlunches venue before and had made provisions for several eventualities. Still, one has to adapt to the actual conditions- i.e the lighting making the projection yellowy meant that my colours lacked in contrast. I understood fast I had to work more in black and white or darker tones.

Another issue was the position of the screen right behind the musicians, so that might nicely crafted illustrations were not really easily read by the audience. I responded by adapting my designs to work around of and with the musicians, so that an elephant's trunk looked like it was wrapped around Luc Houtkamp's wind instrument!

After the intermission, I decided to respond more directly to the music and go more abstract and immediate. After all, I give my students that exercise and I think it is good to remind oneself of the good results that come from playing and challenging oneself every once in a while!

I ended up enrolling some members of the audience towards the end to come and stick their thumbs in the art materials. And it was good fun! I intend to develop the art band to take on bigger projects and this was a good successful first trial.

ELCAF- The Festival Review

Last Sunday, I paid a visit to ELCAF, the very first East London Comics and Arts festival. The brain child of uber cool graphic novels publishers Nobrow, the festival took place at the Village Underground in the heart of Shoreditch.

Which was a good thing! When I arrived at the venue at 4pm, the queue outside was really gigantic and not moving fast at all! I decided to go to Brick Lane and the market and come back later. I found out later a few of my fellow comics enthusiasts were put off by the crowds and did not go back. But I did, at about 6 pm. It turns out the queue had vanished and it was not a problem walking in. That said, it was still quite busy inside!

I am really pleased to see quality comics taking off in the UK. Being from France,  I have for a long time despaired at the quasi non-existent comic book scene here in England. Of course, the likes of Paul Gravett and Becky Barnicoat (whom I interviewed for Amelia's magazine a while back) have fronted the resistance and championed home-grown graphic artists' books for a while but much of what has always been selling here has been either from the US or the mainland. Or ir's been low quality fanzines and some good stuff. But that seems to be changing significantly now.

I was really pleased to see my friends the Fancy Butcher and Lord Hurk selling at the festival. You will be able to see them again the International Alternative Press fair. This is where we met last year, when collaborated on murals at the Sassoon gallery.

I bought a few goodies from Self-Made heroes and discovered a few new bookshops and artists. Plus there were the usual suspects at these sort of things. The evening finished with a free concert from the Dead Pirates and my photograph above does not do justice to their amazing animation!

More Travel Drawings in Valence

All images courtesy of Valerie Pezeron 2012. All reproductions without permission prohibited.

Location Drawings in Valence

 All images courtesy of Valerie Pezeron 2012. Do not reproduce without permission.

Over Easter this year I stayed two weeks in Valence, near Grenoble in France to visit coleagues at Les Beaux Arts and to fill up a couple of sketchbooks with drawings of the lovely pictureresque surroundings. Here are some of the results.