Parties and small talk

 The back alley of the apartment of Isidore. 
Stories of my social life and again taking long walked and lots of photo's of Angoulême.

Ascension

Thursday the 29th of May

Today it was the feast of Ascension and honestly I had completely forgotten. My current roommate went to a party yesterday evening and he didn't come home because he was staying at his girlfriend's. So as a complete dummy I went to my internship in the morning at nine o'clock as usual and no one was there. 
I went back to the apartment and did some writing.

Writting on the typewriter of my 'roomie' 

 Polaroid.

In the end I went back to Atelier du Marquis at around 12 and some of my colleagues had arrived and opened the door. So I did some drawing and decided to go make a card for a certain somebody's birthday. 

wedneday updates

Wednesday the 28th of may

Today once again it was rain so my hair was a mess. I'd move off my current couch to the next. 

After storyboarding to get my pages to be 24, I've been sketching out 12 of my pages in rough and I'm almost done.

I'm beginning to have the feeling I'm fueled by nothing more then green tea. I make funny hours as in sometimes I work from 9 am till 9 pm it is completely my own doing, since my official working hours are from 9 am till 6 pm. 

Some of the stuff I have laying arround on my bureau.

After I was done with the rough sketches I decided to do some more character design. Here's one of the party guests Mr. Wolf.

So this Afternoon I moved to a different couch and the guy I'm currently staying at Isidore Datsinov is his pseudonym, is a really cool guy.

Monday

Monday the 26th

Sketches and some advice.

One week

Sunday the 25th of May


So this is my one week mark, I've been here a week and I'm not yet homesick (ah well maybe a little, I did call my friend Brenda the other day, not just to chit chat but also to hear some dutch).

Sunday was a rainy day again

Only a little bit of rain, a sunny day.

Saturday the 24th

Stories of my social life, meeting my new intern supervisor and walking trough Angoulême.

Fox sketch

first try of pages

Friday the 23th

Rainy days of Angoulême, so far I've had a lot of rain.

Under the cut sketches of my first page and some character tries.

Storyboarding and sketching

Thursday 22st fourth day in Angoulême

This little guy is on my way to Atelier du Marquis

Sketches and storyboards and a photo of my work place.

Tuesday: My free day.

Tuesday was beautiful in the morning but it soon started to rain. I moved from my hotel to sleep in the house of my friends. 

Yesterday Caroline told me what my internship would look like (meaning the first month I'd be working on my own project and the second month I'd be the intern of Jessica Abel). Which meant I had to go out and find myself a story.

 I felt like I'd really like to do a local myth but after asking around a bit the only interesting story I heard about was the undergrounds of Angoulême which really just comes down to the fact that there are underground tunnels in Angoulême much like the catacombs of Paris except that they are not open to public (only once a year) and there is the local believe that in  these catacombs people stash their wine and liquor.

Which is not a bad story, I didn't however feel like drawing a lot of dark spaces. 

    This is how I sent my cards, and stamps aren't as expensive here as in the Netherlands!

    I love how everything is comic related.

Second day in Angoulême

Second day

    The view of Angoulême from the plateau

Monday I had my appointment with my internship supervisor, contact person really, at the Art school of Angoulême EESI. It's a tiny academy of say about five hundred students, it was real cosy and kind of reminded me of the IVKO my highschool. Since the appointment was at two o'clock and I'm a morning person I went about to explore Angoulême a little. Yesterday I'd seen some of it but today I was on my own and I had the chance to make a nice long walk. I found the cathedral and a nice little park next to it.

Cathedral Saint-Pierre 

Maria

    

I  had enough time to make some drawings in the park.

 In the afternoon I had my appointment, Caroline my contact person showed me the place I'd have my internship (Atelier Marquis) and we arranged I'd start coming Wednesday, That means I'd have one more day on my own. This evening I had dinner alone (I ate my trusted instant noodles) and had a drink with one of my friends later on.

first day in Angoulême

Sunday 18 may

first day in Angoulême

I'd first fly to Bordeaux and then take the train to Angoulême. I had arrived in Bordeaux at about one o'clock in the afternoon. From the airport I had to take a the shuttle bus to Gare Saint-Jean and of course I took the wrong and much slower bus, it took me a hour to get to the center of Bordeaux. I did see a little of Bordeaux because of my detour. they have much like in the Netherlands trams in Bordeaux. I had to get on a tram from the center to get to Gare Saint-Jean. At around half passed two I finally was able to by my ticket to Angoulême. Unlike in the Netherlands you buy a ticket for a certain time slot. It was a Sunday so naturally the trains weren't as frequent and they'd be another day in the week and I had to wait about an hour to get on my train. 

I was really kind of nervous, not a lot of people in Bordeaux were able to speak English and it had been quite a while since I really spoke any french.

At last I got on my train to Angoulême, I had a seat number and I went to find my seat as soon as the doors opened. I set next to a lady who was nice enough to tell me what stop Angoulême would be, actually just the next stop. The train was almost empty in my compartment where just about five people all together, one of them was a man in the seats parallel from mine. He was reading an English book and on his desktop he was looking at some cartoons he was, or so I thought, working on.

We where almost at the station of Angoulême and I had called a friend whom I had met at the kunststripbeurs in Utrecht and he would pick me up and show me around. The man who had an English book with him also went down to get out on the next stop. Figures I thought a cartoonist or something alike he must live in Angoulême.

When we where both waiting to enter the station he told me in French on what sides the doors openend and I got confused and said: “Pardon, mais je ne compris pas” and he immediately understood I wasn't french and asked me in perfect English where I was from.

When I told him I was from The Netherlands it turned out he was one of the people my professors from the HKU had met. Matt Madden is his name. He knows Stefan van Dinther and had met Bart as well. In fact his wife (Jessica Abel) was the person who had asked for an intern and I was said intern (for my second month).

We talked for a little while he gave me a little book of his and his and Jessica's email.

Walker – Mat Madden

My friend came to pick me up, showed me where my hotel was and I ended up having dinner at his place.

Afterwards I went to my hotel, apparently everyone stays at this hotel their first night. I took two books with me from home and started 'Memories of Silk and Straw'.  

Tomorrow I have an appointment with my internship supervisor at two o'clock so before that I guess I'll have the chance to see some more of Angoulême.

The Netherlands

Sketch of the last view I had of the Netherlands