Andy: 1985 Paris visitors

Photos from Rej Bourdage's brother-in-law. They were taken from a 1985 trip that he and Rej's sister Dana took to Paris. Andy and Linzi have fun with the crowd. Some of the other people were also visiting (Anne-Marie and Ralph), and the rest were working on "Asterix".

Jonathon Webber, Sahid- owner of "Les Mirages", Linzi, Andy

Chris Doyle, Rej, Andy Bartlett, Drew Mandigo, Andy, ?, Bill Speers, Dana Bourdages, Ralph Palmer

Ralph, Chris, Andy, Drew, Andy, ?, Anne-Marie Bardwell

Rej, Drew, Andy

Linzi, Andy

Andy: Dave Smith photo

Dave Smith has sent this great photo. It looks like a still from a classic 80's film.

Paris

Andy: more 1985

Jonathan Webber was kind enough to send some great photos of Andy from our time in Paris, around 1985. Mike Smith became a very close friend for Andy over the years. As John wrote "they are actually from Mike Smith's legendary box of pictures from back then".
I can't believe how young everyone was.

Andy, Mike, and Jonathan. This looks to be in the local cafe/bar across from the studio, "Les Mirage".

Andy and Brendan.

Andy, Linzi

Andy standing beside a gigantic xerox of a brithday card Mike Smith drew for him. Mike caricatured most of the people of the studio at the time, all wishing Andy a happy birthday. I've got a copy of the drawing around here, so I'll scan it an upload it soon. I think this might be in '84.

Tapani Knuutila, unknown girl, Dino, Andy, Johathan. Reg and Mike in the foreground. That looks like Roger Chiasson in the background (beard).

I'm not sure where this is. Could be Paris, but Mike had returned to London in '85, and it could've been a trip that people made up there to visit him at the time. Maybe someone can clarify....

Andy Knight: 1985

Like everyone, I am completely saddened by Andy Knight's untimely passing. He was an incredibly creative artist; an amazingly mature leader right out of the gate. He was also generous to those he worked with.
Andy was 2 years ahead of me at college, a class that was comprised of some pretty stong draughtsmen/cartoonists, and Andy was at the top. His drawings were the definition of "appealing".

In 1984-85 I was fortunate to work in Paris on 2 "Asterix" animated films. Andy was doing both storyboards and layout for the films. His drawing ability was something to admire even back then. He must have been 22 years old, yet he storyboarded most of the film with a confidence and ability of someone who'd been in doing it for a dozen years. I could never figure out how he understood film language so easily that early in his career.....

On "Asterx in Britain" I moved up to work in the Layout dept, which Andy was Supervising, and my job was to create "character poses" for some of the sequences. It was daunting and frustrating to see him in his office just pumping out image after image that were so well designed and composed for animation. In my attempt to keep up, I was learning to put down ideas in a simple, appealing manner, much like Andy. In hindesite I was learning from one of the best. The group of artist at the studio was young and influenced each other immensely. That included Mike Smith, Rob Stevenhagen, Bibo Bergeron, the Brizzi brothers, Reg Bourdages, etc...

For most of us on those films, it was one of the best experiences of our careers/lives.

I had not seen Andy in the past 15 years, and unfortunately never got to tell him how much he inspired me to improve my early work.

Below are a couple of photos of Andy during that time.

Andy(standing) supervising the storyboarding on "Asterix in Britain".

(Keith Ingham is second from the left.)

Andy and Pino

On the street's of Paris.

Pete, Jonathan Webber, Andy

Andy, Linzi, and John

(courtesy Reg Bourdages)

One of the common images I have of Andy is his wry smile. It's as though he knew something you didn't; showing a wisdom beyond his age.

Rest in Peace Andy.

I'll be adding more pictures of Andy to this blog in the next few days. If you'd like to add images to this blog, please email them to me at ken@duncanstudio.com

Andy Knight: 1990

In early 1990 I worked for a 2 week stint at Passion Pictures in London. Andy Knight was working there, directing commercials I think, along with Chuck Gammage. And Dino Athanassiau and  Phil Valentine were working there as well.

I went over to animate on a "Pizza Pizza" commercial. To be sure we spent day and night at the desk to get the job done. 

At the time I tended to doodle a lot of cartoony nudes. Andy noticed this and quickly made the sketch below and put it on my desk. It's the only original drawing that I have of Andy's....and it's brilliant.

A month later I'd start working at Disney studios. 

"Ken" by Andy Knight