Film Festival.

RE: "Of Giants"

"Your work was selected for this years' program and was consequently screened at the festival. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for taking part in the Animex Awards".

These are some still frames from "Of Giants". The festival took place in Middlesbrough, UK, from 7th to 11th of February, and I am here, in California, working on another three shorts of "Oah & Harlam Episodes". Not to complain about being in California! Nor about working on new episodes! But I never attended a film festival! 

Los Angeles Zoo, painting with Deborah Ross.

Today was a fortune. I painted with Deborah Ross, one of America's leading wildlife artist. Ross is a faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York and also teaches workshops in animal drawing and movement at Dreamworks, Pixar, and Walt Disney Feature Animations. 

“I work in watercolor because of the speed, mobility and emotional richness of the medium. My technique derives from the oriental school of painting. A broad sweep of color applied with the full body of the brush lays down the overall gesture. I then use the fine tip of the brush for a telling detail – the arch of a wrist or angle of brow line - to set and ground .the pose. All of this must be done quickly, for I only work from life. Once the moment is past, I stop.  My ambition is a portrayal of the essence of a subject distilled during the moments of observation. This “genii loci” (spirit of the place) is severely depleted and often lost when an animal is displaced from it true habitat.” - Deborah Ross 

Robert, my friend.

Taking breaks between film work and putting some care into this blog keeps me happy and sane! 

Wait Mama...

Since working on a new film these days, I am going through some of my old work and finding interesting pieces. This drawing came spontaneously, while sitting by my old desk at my parents' house, with yellow lamp light, using the leftover ink from my childhood. That was during my visit to Lithuania in 2001.

One Boy's Horse and Meeting Norstein.

Found this old sketch of mine while looking for inspiration. This was an early stage of development for "Tomorrow", my short film from 2009, where I had an attempt to show a child's sense of beauty amid devastation of war. 


A year and a half after the production was over, I met a person to whom I am grateful for the biggest inspiration starting from my early age. Yuriy Borisovitch Norstein, an author of "Tale of Tales" and "Hedgehog in the Fog" - my favorite films of all times. On the last day of our meeting I looked through my art with a hope to find something that has a soul, that has no touch of digital, something that I drew with a free mind, and stopped at this sketch. Next, it was framed with brown tape at the back and soon traveled to Moscow!