These sketches were all done during my first trip to Paris in 2006. Three of them were done at the Louvre and the fourth at the Musee d’Orsay.

This one was done as the Louvre was closing. The security was kind enough to let me finish what I was doing as they ushered everyone else out.

Hit this one on my second trip to the Louvre later the same week.

Alright, this one really deserves an explanation. Mullets are an easy target, but most I’ve never seen one quite so deliberate and perfect. This waiter at the Louvre’s cafe invested a lot of love and effort (and hair product) to get this mullet so symmetrically sculpted. As mullets go, this one almost did belong in the Louvre.

I just loved sculpture by Francois Pompon at the Musee d’Orsay. The simple lines, the smooth perfectly smooth surfaces… It was actually incredibly hard to draw and I don’t think I really did it justice. It really lent itself to the kinds of shapes and lines I usually like to incorporate into my drawings.

Damn, I want to go back to Paris…

I have to take a moment and mention that Out of Picture Volume 1 , a book I’ve been heavily involved in, is now in bookstores all over the country and on Amazon.com. This is probably the coolest project I have ever had the pleasure to work on, and definitely the most meaningful from a personal standpoint. Basically, a bunch of artists and friends who met while working at Blue Sky Studios got together and wrote short stories which they then illustrated. The results are captured in this beautifully produced book which Villard (who also published the Flight Anthologies) released this past Christmas.I wound up laying out and designing the book, and also did the story “Newsbreak.” In addition to the eleven stories in the book, there’s also a 40 page gallery section in the back filled with concept sketches and paintings. If you like illustration, animation or comics, you’re bound to find something in here that should tickle your fancy.Here’s an excerpt from “Newsbreak.”We’re currently working on Volume 2 which is due out this summer. It should be debuting at MoCCA NY in June.

Well, I think I’ve worked out most of the bugs in the new site. If, dear reader, you should find something that just doesn’t work, please let me know.

The one drawback to the new portfolio site is that it requires Flash, but it’s easier for me to update, so I think I’ll be sticking with it for awhile. I’ll be adding a link to “Michael Knapp.com Classic” soon for anyone that misses the old site (both of you).

In the meantime, here’s another Paris sketch from one of my favorite museums, the Rodin Museum. There are some things that studying in school just can’t do justice. The sculptures of Rodin definitely fall into that category.

Wow.

After seven years of saying this was going to happen, I’ve finally updated my site. Hopefully the new format will allow me to keep it up to date, but I don’t have the greatest track record, so we’ll just see.

I’m hoping to post sketches and such on a fairly regular basis, so to kick things off, here’s a sketch from when I was in Paris a couple years ago. I was a lot more diligent about keeping a sketchbook that year.