One of the bigger surprises in film last year was Wonder Woman. A box office hit and (for the most part) critic and audience darling, I liked the film and felt Gal Gadot, like Christopher Reeve with Superman, proved for a second time (after Batman v Superman) to define the character of Wonder Woman… and I say that with no disrespect to Lynda Carter!
Hey, the first Sketchin’ post of 2018!
Hope you like it! 😉
So here we are, at the early stages of winter and what better subject matter for my latest image than a film that takes place in a cold hell?
Here you go, Kurt Russell from the incredible John Carpenter directed… The Thing!
John Carpenter and Kurt Russell collaborated on three of my all time favorite films: Escape From New York (though I felt the low budget hurt the film toward its climax, it was still a great, creative story and Snake Plisskin is easily one of Kurt Russell’s best characters!), Big Trouble In Little China (wherein Kurt Russell humorously plays the stupid sidekick… who thinks he’s the main show!), and the subject of my latest piece, The Thing. (They made at least two other films together, Elvis and the tongue in cheek remake of Escape From New York, Escape From L.A.)
Sadly, all three films didn’t do all that well at the box office though all three are considered cult classics today.
Regardless, enjoy and have yourselves a very Happy Holidays, everyone!
To answer the unasked (so far!) question: How do I select which images to create?
Much of my choices are based on actors/things I like. But now and again, I’ve had requests and, in the case of the following picture, something about the subject was fascinating to me.
So, without further ado, actor Dorothy Janis, circa the mid-1920’s.
Dorothy Janis (1912-2010) made only 5 films during her career, four silents and the final film, Lummox, released in 1930, was her only “talkie”. She would retire, according to IMDB, at the age of 20 after marrying in 1932.
I have seen none of her five films. Until I stumbled upon her image on the internet, I didn’t know anything about her…
…and yet I found her image fascinating enough to give it a go. I’m particularly fascinated by the views of beauty. Her hair, in the original image, would be considered a mess by today’s standards. her dark, penetrating eyes were something typical to find in actors of the black and white silent era.
I hope Ms. Janis’ life, during and after her acting career, was a pleasant one.
Intriguing stuff, at least to me!
Not much to say about this one as I suspect most people already know…
Jeff Bridges’ most famous role… The Dude!
Back in 1987 the movie The Lost Boys appeared in theaters. Featuring a great cast of young (for the most part!) actors, the main draw was easily Kiefer Sutherland as the charismatic -and deadly!- vampire David…
Loved the film and loved his punkish/new wave look.
And it would seem heresy for me to say this, but I even loved Echo and the Bunnymen’s cover of The Door’s People are Strange, part of the movie’s soundtrack…
Love the look of Kate Beckinsale in the Underworld movies, even if the movies got progressively worse as they went along. Mind you, not trying to be judgmental here, as I have noted before I’ve positive feelings (guilty, admittedly) for the Resident Evil films.
So, here she is, Ms. Beckinsale as Selene in the Underworld movies…
Now for some insider type stuff:
What I love about digitally “inking” these pieces (I use an iPad and Apple Pencil with the Procreate program) is that it allows me to play around with white just as easily as I do with blacks.
Way back when I used to use an actual brush and ink in my work, black ink moved beautifully with a brush on the page but there is really no equivalent with physical white “ink”. In fact, white “ink” is really just a corrective. It’s used mostly to patch up errors in your work and is often used just to create certain effects such as stars or splatter.
Now that I’m doing my artwork digitally, all colors, including black and white, work the same and therefore I can now do white effects (I’m working up to going into colors, so bear with me).
In the case of the above piece, most of Selene’s hair was creating using white (digital) “ink”.
Enjoy!
This is my latest piece…
Really like it, was happy with the results… sort of.
Sometimes you make a piece and parts of it work really well while others… don’t. In the full sized piece, you get more of Angelina’s body but I felt the face was what really, really worked in this picture so I cropped out the body.
Interestingly, I wouldn’t mind zooming into the face even closer and remove a little more of that lace.
We’ll see. 😉
It has been a very -in fact too long- a time since I posted new artwork. Why? Because I’ve been incredibly busy and simply haven’t had the time to put (Apple) pen to (iPad screen) paper.
This weekend, I was determined to remedy that situation and, voila, here you go!
The subject is actor Scarlett Johansson and the role is the Black Widow.
As successful as Marvel has been with their movies, its weird they haven’t bothered to make a Black Widow standalone film.
Ah well, perhaps in the near future.
Today’s subject is actor Margaret Hamilton, who had a very long, productive career yet will always be best known for playing the Wicked Witch of the West in the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
I read somewhere that the plot/story of The Wizard of Oz was incredibly influential to many other films.
The person who noted this -someone far more astute than I!- went on to note that the original 1977 Star Wars’Â story was, essentially, a sci-fi version of The Wizard of Oz!
While many note Star Wars is a pastiche of many films, including taking many elements from the Akira Kurosawa directed film The Hidden Fortress, I was surprised by that analysis… more so when I thought about it and realized that analysis was dead accurate.
So, have a Happy Halloween!
Really poured my heart into this one and I’m really happy with the results.
Ladies and gents, Michelle Pfieffer’s Catwoman from the very quirky Tim Burton directed Batman Returns (1992)…
Even for someone as quirky as Tim Burton, Batman Returns was a decidedly oddball film, filled with astonishing visuals and eerie, bizarre sexual themes.
Catwoman’s character, who looks like a mix between a Dominatrix and the Bride of Frankenstein, was probably a big reason (the other being the very murderous Penguin!) why the folks at Warners decided to move in another direction and got themselves another director for the next two Batman films, which were decidedly campier and far less edgy.
I don’t feel Batman Returns is a “great” Batman film. Nonetheless I strongly agree with one long forgotten critic who said (I’m paraphrasing here) that the movie is “great” whenever Pfieffer’s Catwoman is on screen, but not so great when she’s not.
Loved her version of Catwoman and, frankly, wished Mr. Burton had stuck with her character as the main villain (though in truth the character of Catwoman has always skated the line when it comes to being an out and outright villain) and left Penguin for another time.
Ah well!
As with all the “sketches” I’ve posted, click on the above image if you want a closer look at the art!