Mandy Archer - The Art of Aardman: The Makers of Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, and More

Dominique Louis Concept art The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!, 2012 First published in the United States in 2017 by Chronicle Books LLC. First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2016 A CBS Company. Copyright 2016 by Aardman Animations, Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.
ISBN 978-1-4521-6651-3 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4521-6657-5 (epub, mobi) Designed by Nick Avery Design
Edited by Mandy Archer Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, California 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com Peter Lord Portrait of Nick Park Sketchbook page

Aardmans first such journey began almost 50 years ago, when founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton were schoolboy friends. The film they made was shot in Davids family kitchen using a camera borrowed from his dad. A modest beginning, but it was the start of something special. This book is a celebration of all the artists and sculptors whose creativity has made Aardman one of the most loved and respected animation studios in the world.

And though Im a big fan of the written word, theres no denying that pictures make for a much more beautiful book. So here weve tried to capture for you the magic, the fun and of course the beauty of the visual side of the process. Well take you right through the filmmaking and development process everything from the first sketch to the finished frame. It all begins in that mysterious time when nothing has been settled, and all possibilities are open. As an artist or an ideas person this is probably the most exciting time youll have on a new film and I hope that weve managed to communicate some of that energy and sense of adventure. Though some of the pictures youll see were created a long time ago, this is definitely not an exercise in nostalgia.

The same creative process continues here every day as new projects and stories are born. And the work thats being done, by artists old and new, is just as exciting, and just as varied as its ever been. Many of the people whose work youll see in this fabulous book are still working away today in sketchbooks or on tablets (or, as in my case, on the back of the agenda for a meeting that isnt really holding my attention). Meanwhile new artists are constantly adding to the story, working out their own personal vision. I love to dig out the stories within stories and hidden histories buried under the surface. Before any of our finished films are brought to the screen, plenty of words have been written, believe me countless pages of scripts, notes and analysis.

But equally there are hundreds, if not thousands, of images everything from the faintest pencil sketch to a beautiful digital painting. Through those images, stories are born, characters evolve, jokes are planned and whole worlds are created from scratch. If theres an answer to the old, old question, where do your ideas come from? then for me and for many of us at Aardman the answer is to be found right here in this book. Ideas come from inside your head, and as often as not, they tumble straight out as drawings and into sketchbooks. I love to look at early sketches of characters who have now become really well known like Morph, Rocky the Rooster or Wallace and Gromit. You can see the artists almost dancing around the subject, trying the same thing over and over with tiny variations, then shooting off onto tangents, trying something utterly different always reaching unconsciously for that magical moment when the image is somehow, magically right.

I find it fascinating to catch a glimpse of the possibilities that might have been, the characters that never were, the strange ancestors or distant relatives of the familiar screen faces. When Dave and I first created Morph, we had no clear idea of who he was. Over the years, his character seemed to emerge alongside his appearance, all tied up with the things that he did and the way that he reacted to the world about him. And so much of that took place on paper, through drawing. In two dimensions, we could experiment with Morphs character at the same time as he was finding his feet in three dimensions through animation. Youll see in these pages many different pictures from behind the scenes lively sketches, beautiful finished paintings, technical drawings images that were never designed to appear on screen.

But this book is about so much more. Its about the use of colour and light both crucial parts of storytelling. Its about inventions and inventiveness. Its about character and comedy, mischief and madness. Youll see some glorious, informal photos from the studio floor and other images taken directly from the movies. And these photographs themselves represent an astonishing amount of creative work by scores of people.

There are model-makers, carpenters, art directors, puppet-makers, engineers, prop-makers, painters, sculptors the list goes on and on not to mention their counterparts who perform almost the same roles but in the world of computer imagery. And then there are those in the camera and lighting department whose job it is to make the sets and characters look as wonderful as they possibly can, and to put them up on screen. An incredible accumulation of talent to transition a world from the drawing board to full three-dimensional reality. This is a celebration of so many artists, technicians and craftspeople each with a personal vision, all combining their talents across a huge range of projects, and all linked by the irresistible desire to make the very best, best-looking, funniest films possible. So, welcome to our world. I hope you enjoy visiting it through these pages as much as Ive enjoyed being a part of it.

I think youll find it beautiful and I hope youll find it inspiring. I LOVE TO DIG OUT THE STORIES WITHIN STORIES AND HIDDEN HISTORIES BURIED UNDER THE SURFACE.