Miniatures? That's 'ard, man.

It's already nearing the end of March, and I meant to write about the latest stop-motion offering from English geniuses Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham and Will Becher back in February! I am of course talking about the award-winning studio Aardman...

I was lucky enough to attend a pre-screening of 'Early Man' here in LA, and then a panel with the creators the very next day at the fantastic Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra. Like all their work, it's exceptional. Aardman is of course the creator of Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Creature Comforts, so it's no surprise that this prehistoric comedy adventure has the same wonderful look, emotion and brilliant sense of humour. There's just so much to love about this film and I know that my readers of this blog and fans of Tall Tales on Facebook will go crazy for it.
Oh, and did I mention the Bronze Age city sets they built.... youch - so wonderful. I'll have to get this on DVD and do a lot of pausing and rewinding. What an art form. Aardman really are the masters of claymation.

Here are some photos I took of the miniature 1:6 scale (so they're twice the size of most of my work) puppets from the film which the creators brought along with them and showed us. One of them is cut open so that you can see the armature inside. Aren't they fantastic?! I love Ardman's distinct character design.

Do go and see the film, if you haven't already. (Trailer here, and very funny clip here), and until then I have one last recommendation to make; you ought to buy this book - 'The Art of Aardman'. You can get it from Gallery Nucleus or from Amazon here, among other places. It doesn't include their latest - Early Man, but it's still a goldmine of miniatures, puppets and exciting glimpses behind their curtain. I loved getting mine and if you already follow Tall Tales of instagram then you'll know I already flicked through it and raved about it here.

Will pop back with Tall Tales news soon...

Voice of Claymation

I was a little girl when I first discovered 'Wallace and Gromit'. It was magic. If it didn't exist then I wouldn't be where I am now. I would probably have found my artistic outlet in a design agency in London or be illustrating books. But I would not work in miniatures. So that's how much influence it had on me.

A few days ago we lost Peter Sallis, who had given Wallace his original voice. He died peacefully at the age of 96. A talented, brilliant actor who made the only speaking character of the duo so remarkably endearing and funny by the smallest utterance.

Sorry to blog about something so sad, but I just wanted to say something here to honour Peter Sallis and then also point you towards a much better tribute by Nick Park here.

Thank you all. I'll post something else soon.
claymation, clay animation, wallace and gromit, nick park, caroline mcfarlane-watts, miniatures