Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Bonjour ^_^

So as some of you know (unless your new to the blog - in that case, Welcome! ^_^), the other week I found myself biking through the insanely gorgeous countryside of Southern France. Caught in a postcard, we travelled around 30 to 40k's a day, through glades and corn fields, past towering historic Chateau's (French for castle), up mountains (and down, fortunately) as well as under overgrown canapies of fern trees . I was shouted the trip by my mum and her partner and was honestly counting my blessings every day - ok so maybe not when slugging up the 4k mountains... but getting to the top elation returned :) 



That part of the country is known for its beautiful scenery - honestly you can not take a bad photo - and amazing gastronomic flair! I'm sure it has something to do with using all their own produce, there were so many times we'd catch the chef ducking out the back door into the garden and picking the vegetables and herbs that would accompany our meals. 



It was one of the most amazing trips I've ever been on! two of the images I'm sharing with you guys are straight sketching from what I saw around me - the other is inspired by the ducks we saw. If you've never been you may be unaware that French ducks are freakishly huge.. I'm not entirely convinced they're ducks at all actually, more likely some type of goose or turkey and the name was lost in translation - they are also incredibly loud and travel in packs of about a hundred. Force fed corn (which is strangely unavailable for hunan consumption) they waddle around squaking at you waiting to be made into delicious confit de canard or a very popular starter called Foi gras (pronounced more like fogwah).



Hope you guys like them, and at the risk of sounding like the poster child for Southern France, if you get a chance I seriously recommend going ^_^ 

Hope you all have a fantastic week! 

12 comments:

  1. nice details with the pencils, hope you had a great trip

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  2. Thanks Leon - I definitely did ^_^

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  3. Oh my! I am so happy for you that you got to do that, France it BEAUTIFUL. It has always been my dream to live there for at least one year of my life. :) Wonderful illustrations too!

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  4. Amazing! Great work Lesley!!!

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  5. Leslie, your artwork is stunning! The "freakish" ducks illustration is great.

    Lovely work.

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  6. Great stuff Lesley, I really love your characters, they are apealing and very well staged... congrats !

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  7. It surely is Renee ^_^ Good luck moving there, I definiteyl suggest the South - for the food alone :D

    Thanks Rawls!!

    Wow, thanks so so much Chris ^_^

    Hey Mael - appreciate it! :D

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  8. beautiful landscape. did you work it all out on location or finalize in studio? well done.

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  9. Chouettes vacances ! La France, je connais bien :)) have a good trip in France :)

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  10. Hey John - I did it all on location, I had some time to kill before dinner ^_^


    merci beaucoup Lilidoll! - J'ai passé un bon moment
    (Not sure if I got that right)

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  11. Very nice scenes. The flowers are my favorite, but all three are very pretty.

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  12. The first two still look great digitally! And love love love the ducks colored - specifically the one in the top hat and the one below him (or her) eager to get food! Also, the girl and concept are wonderful as well!

    As well, I rather enjoyed my European trip to Germany and Prague, so I say the same to you French orphan ;)

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