5 things I learnt from Jamie Hewlett.
When I left New Zealand to head to London it was inspired by watching the very first GORILLAZ music video. However, when I arrived it was all done and dusted and I figured that ship had sailed. Then after a few years of breakfast cereal commercials and a quick trip to San Francisco, I found my self on the starting line of the second Album FEEL GOOD INC. It was a big moment for me and I learnt a huge amount from the team (Thankyou for your patience.) I worked with and from Jamie. So here are a few things I learnt from working with Jamie Hewlett.
It’s OK to be nice to people.
From the first time I met Jamie I was taken a back by how nice he was. He came by the animation studio regularly and bought us lunch at the pub across the road. He always said hi to the crew, even if he was just there for meetings with the brass, and had encouraging things to say about the work being done. This went on to events outside the studio and it seemed to spread to those around him. One night at the MTV music awards in Lisbon, GORRILAZ had just won best Band, there were a bunch of us backstage in the dressing room and not one celeb between us. There was a constant stream of artists popping in to say congrats and then leaving uncomfortably when we said De La Soul were in the room next to us. Finally, we were ready to leave for the hotel and De La Soul turned up. They had decided not to go to any of the industry events. We all jumped on the mini bus together, sang the songs from the album like teenagers and celebrated together back to the hotel. This entire scene made no sense but everyone just enjoyed themselves and it felt like a natural thing to do. We worked hard on that entire album and there were a lot of difficult times but there were so many nice people and I can’t help but feel that it somehow filters down from Mr Hewlett.
It is not a drawing contest.
I remember very early on when we were trying to adjust to Jamie’s drawing style Pete, Jamie’s co-director, said:
“it’s not a drawing contest if you need to photocopy Jamies drawings and trace them just do it.”
At the time it was hard to hear but now it makes total sense. Our role was essentially to move these drawings/ characters around in interesting and convincing ways but we didn’t have to be able to draw as well as Jamie. At the time we were animating with pencil on paper and there was so much emphasis put on draftsmanship skills in the industry. It was counter-intuitive to stop trying to draw like the ‘model’ given to us but in hind sight it was exactly the right way to approach the problem. The best results came from looking for an original J.H. pose, expression or angle that suited your needs and work from that. There was so much going on in each of these drawings that trying to create standardized model sheets would have just killed it. Of course, over time we all got better and better at understanding the style we were replicating but just when you thought you got it Jamie would come by and do a draw over of one of your key pose’s.
There is only one Jamie Hewlett.
There have been a lot of fan artists, designs influenced by and even people that get close to the line weight, posing or attitude of Jamie’s drawings. But there is only one Jamie Hewlett. That’s because he offers so much more than a well-crafted design, he offers an observation of the world. A snapshot of a moment in time and all through the lens of that unique British cultural take on humour and politics. The authenticity that he is able to craft through attention to detail and his lightness in tone is very much unique to him. So many artists are caught up in a narcissistic obsession with their craft that the work becomes heavy and difficult to access. From Tank Girl, The Freebees to Gorillaz we are able to empathize with Jamie’s characters because he does not oblige us to pay homage to the artists technical struggle as the price of entry.
Monday is a terrible night to party.
When working in animation you generally work anti-social hours and spend most of your time at your desk doing laborious tasks. There isn’t much Rock n Roll about doing in-betweens. So, when we got invited to Jamie’s studio for a bit of a party late on a Monday night (We had left the office at 11 PM) we jumped at the chance. After many many hours of ill adviced substance experimentation, some poorly timed Val Kilmer chit chat and yet another false BANKSY sighting, I rolled out of there at 9 am. I took a shower had a bucket of coffee and aspirin and headed into the studio for another day of extreme draughtsmanship. Needless to say from then on I let the rock n rollers do the rock in rolling, we were just here for the drawings.
Building your world starts off the page.
The first time I visited Jamie’s studio in London I was taken aback by the number of objects and curiosities he had around him. World War 2 war helmets, old mannequins, Clockwork Orange posters, relics of the original Star Wars and piles and piles of magazines. The unique world that Jamie had been creating before and since was all around him. This was not some convenient trend based on a GOOGLE search or a Pinterest board, this was years of curated inspiration in the form of self-expression. The authentic and unapologetic vision that created Gorillaz had been built over many years and it was an extension of the artist himself.
I see Jamie every now and again, on random occasions in Paris, and he always has a smile and kind word to say. The last time we ran into each other he asked me if I was still drawing and I said I was mostly on the producing side of things these days.
He casually said to me “keep drawing because you don’t want to lose it”
