What a delight and honour to be drawing alongside Serge Bloch at the South Ken Kids Festival 2016! He is such an amazing artist across many genres, and not only for children. I first came across Serge's work in France when my kids were small. My son loved the Max et Lilli series well before my daughter read Sam Sam in Bayard's children's magazines. Later I discovered his mind-freshening work as an artist of the line (pity there's no English equivalent to 'dessinateur' which means so much more than a draw-er or daughtsperson!) in editorial work and exhibitions for the US as well as in France. Now The Big Adventure of a Little Line, one of my favourite books of all time, is out in English - thanks to Thames and Hudson. The ending always leaves me with a little lump in my throat.
The lovely Stella Bataille of Club Petit Pierrot who introduced us, just send me this short clip of our Drawing Duo together in the cinema at the French Institute, London.
Stella started by introducing a little of our work - here's one of my recent books from my recent French 'draw-along' series, Les Contes à Colorier...
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and then we broke into a A2 page projected onto the large screen - curious to see what would emerge. Here is my Tiz meeting Serge's cat...
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| ...in a restaurant as it turned out. The audience then suggested the menu - mouse, and dog to eat! |
Here's my left hand drawing a chef's hat on an alligator waiter. No idea where he came from! I always end up holding a sheaf of pens and brushes in my right hand. Serge stuck to his one pen.
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| Ott's turn with his brush - meeting Serge Bloch's famous Sam Sam and his Sam Nounours |
But there is Tiz is sticking her nose into the story again!
A kid ask for a yeti (I drew a baby one) and then a witch - such a big bossy witch! Serge's little witch is being much sweeter.
Here's the only (inadequate) glimpse I have of a stunningly original stage enactment of Serge's The Big Adventure of a Little Line. Serge draws as a young actor mimed to music and in front of the backgrounds of his book.
Later I joined Axel Scheffler, Sophie Henn, David Litchfield, Dorothée de Monfreid, Marianne Dubuc and other amazing South Ken Kids Festival guests impro drawing on stage to jazz trumpet. Can you see one of our joint drawings I found on Twitter?
Vive the @SouthKenKids ! Impro w/ @ItamarBorochov @dc_litchfield @bridgimage Axel Scheffler Barroux & other amazing artists
— Institut français UK (@ifru_london) November 20, 2016
The final drawing I did with Serge didn't make it on the big screen. Instead I took it home with a pillow that I bought on the way back, ready for a good nights sleep.
