Happy Birthday Annette!

Annette Funicello, October 22, 1942 – April 8, 2013

John Cleese

I think I noticed how funny John Cleese's face was long before I knew who he was.

Mary Poppins

This was my favorite film growing up and still ranks in my top five.

Inktober Catch Up Day 16: Dutch Farmer

I found a book on life in Holland in 1566, with lots of great costume details and facial expressions. I draw things wholly from imagination way too much and it's nice to have some reference once in a while to add variety. 

Inktober Catch Up Day 13: Caricatures

Nothing Halloween-ish about these.

Inktober Catch Up Day 10: Another Edwardian Gentleman

Inktober Day 6: Vampire

Ron Moody as Fagin

I was probably about 10 years old when my parents showed my brothers and me the movie "Oliver", based on the stage musical, based on the Dickens novel. I remember Ron Moody who played Fagin to be really creepy. Something about his dark sunken eyes, whispy hair and diminished mouth made him seem so effectively sinister. I listen to the soundtrack once in a while and it prompted me to google some photos of him to test out my brush pen (which was very new to me when I did these several months ago).

Little Old Ladies

I went through Google and doodled some old ladies to try to improve my caricature skills, which aren't too sharp. I'm happy with this first one, but the others feel a bit clumsy.

 I find that I can't do a caricature in just one pass. The first attempt, like those above, usually just yields a simplification of what I'm seeing- it's a bit cartoony maybe, but doesn't feel exaggerated enough, sometimes not at all. However, I find that once I've done that first obvervational drawing, I'm a bit more comfortable with the subject. Having already converted it into a line drawing it's a bit easier to then take that and exaggerate it as I've done below.

The one on the left was my first attempt, from a photo. The second was done without the photo, just using the first one as reference and then attempting to caricature it. Admittedly, the second one probably doesn't bear much resemblance to the original photo, but it feels like a more pleasing drawing to me. Once again, the lesson here, that I keep having to remind myself it seems, is that just because it's not right, doesn't mean you can't fix it.