Earlier this month I shared with you the art I did for the poster of a local Burbank production of Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys stage play. If you missed it, you can refer to it by CLICKING HERE.
A couple of weeks ago, I was able to attend one of the performances that featured my friend Daniel Roebuck and Jim Roope. Danny has been an actor on the screen for many years (click here to see his credits), and was also responsible for producing and directing this production. Jim, while not usually an actor, normally spends his days as a news correspondent for CNN radio. The two did a marvelous job, and I was able to chat with them afterwards on the set where we took this shot of the three of us with one of the mini-posters featuring my art. Enjoy!
Daniel Roebuck, Chad Frye, and Jim Roope (who had already removed his prop spectacles depicted in the poster art).
Just before the holidays, actor Daniel Roebuck called me up to ask if I’d be able to help with the poster art for a local theater production he was producing, directing and acting in, Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys. I have a vague recollection of the George Burns/Walter Matthau film version from some Saturday afternoon television airing in my youth, and thought the assignment might be a fun one.
The story focuses on two elderly actors who had hit their prime as young men in the days of vaudeville. Daniel wanted the image to show the two lead actors as they are now in their twilight years, and also show them from their bygone days of the stage all while expressing that the play is a comedy.
A very stylized version of actors Daniel Roebuck and Jim Roope as young vaudevillians on the left with their elder counterparts looking down.
In researching old posters to elicit a nostalgic feel, I stumbled across a great French poster for The Marx Brothers movie A Night At the Opera. It provided a style and layout that would fit the needs of the play perfectly! I don’t often follow another artist’s vision so closely as I did this time, but I figured “why not?” After all, the French artist liberally “borrowed” his caricatures from the great American artist Al Hirschfeld.
A 1936 French poster for the Marx Bros. famous film “A Night At the Opera” that is clearly based on the caricatures of Al Hirschfeld.
I believe the art will also serve as the cover of the program. If you’d like to get your own copy, Dan Roebuck’s play opens tonight in Burbank, CA and will be playing for two weekends (January 7, 8, 9, 14 and 15) as a fundraiser. If you are interested in seeing the production, tickets are available by calling (818) 504-4400.
One of the perils of winter is the proclivity for one to become ill. How the evil germs seek out their victims is beyond me, but this past week I fell prey to their maniacal misdoings.
Just last Friday I finished my character design and storyboard revising job on two Zhu Zhu Pets movies. I packed my things, went home, enjoyed a nice Saturday, then BUM bum buuuummmm – Sunday hit with a thud. I started coughing in morning church, and after a two-hour afternoon nap, it was evident that something was wrong.
I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again – curse that mischievous Murphy and his confounded law! My first week out of work and I have been spending it nursing a fever, achey back, and runny nose having never been ill while I was employed. Today is the first day I have felt well enough to even sketch something, which I’m sharing with you:
My infernal Cheshire Cat mug just sat there mocking me all week in my sick stupor.
This is not the first time I’ve ever been sick, but somehow it always strikes me as a big surprise when it happens. I tend to forget what it feels like in between illnesses, so when it hits, all the symptoms are rediscovered anew – much like how you look for Waldo again after having not picked up the book in a year – only less fun. Stupid germs.
So, whether you live in the cold reaches of Indiana, or in the 70+ degrees of southern California as I do, the winter bug may seek you out. Try not to be too hospitable to it, ok? Especially if it is wearing a striped shirt and glasses.
Last winter I had the opportunity to meet and chat with actor Joe Mantegna for a few minutes. I’ve always enjoyed him in various movies such as The Three Amigos , Baby’s Day Out, and one of my all-time favorites – Searching For Bobby Fischer. It was at that moment that I realized I had never seen his current TV show Criminal Minds.
Here in Los Angeles, Criminal Minds seems to run every night on the Ion Television channel, as well as periodically on A&E and CBS – sometimes all three at the same time! It’s ensemble cast works hard to capture the weekly criminal who can’t seem to play normal in society. As I was watching with my sketchbook in my lap, I started to doodle one of the show’s other headline stars, Thomas Gibson, who made himself known a few years back on the sit-com Dharma & Greg. While that was a comedy, somehow on Criminal Minds Thomas is continuously stoic in his demeanor, never cracking a smile. His uber-seriousness was something my pencil had to try to capture. I later finessed the drawing a bit at my desk adding color on the computer with these results….
Thomas Gibson with enough intensity in his gaze to crack open a walnut.
One of these days, perhaps I’ll go back and sketch Joe Mantegna as well since he sort of got this whole ball rolling.
My own Superpop (perhaps with a little artistic license on the physique) with his new Father’s Day grill. (And no, the flag is not on fire – it’s behind the grill.)
When it comes time for gift giving, why do fathers fall into a stereotype that they are hard to shop for? It is probably why the common Father’s Day gift is a tie because the kids don’t know what else to get the man who seems to not have a single need (not that he needs another tie, either). Plus, if your father is the primary breadwinner, all the money you have to spend is his anyway. When you grow up into adults, you now have your own hard-earned money, but the need to find the perfect gift for Dad is still a challenge.
This year, I and my three adult siblings all faced this common dilemma, but we decided to attack it together. Mom and Dad moved out of our childhood home last July where they had a built-in grill. Now, that sounds more glamorous than it really was. The grill was there when they moved to that house in 1974. Usually you had to clear it of wasps, then you would turn on the gas and light the single burner with a match, put your meat on the one small rack inside hoping this time the rack didn’t fall down onto the lava stones, and it had a wooden shelf off the front that Dad made (and was now weather warped) so you had a spot to rest the plate. Highly unglamorous.
Since that utilitarian grill could not be taken to our parents’ new home, the folks have been grill-less for almost a year now. We banded our forces together for the cause of good to spring for a decent grill. Grills come in many sizes and varieties now, and the new house deserves to have some open flame and smoke out on the deck.
A week ago my sister gave our dad the money so that he can choose a grill he’d like. All is now right and good in the land, so long as a fire extinguisher is close at hand.
To all you fathers out there, Happy Father’s Day. Especially to mine.
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I have a great interest in film music. I grew up in a musical family, but while my siblings were off having lessons and practicing their instruments, I sat at my little drawing board practicing my skills with pencil and brush. I think the first soundtrack I ever bought was John Williams’ Raiders of the Lost Ark on cassette tape when I was in high school. The collection has grown over the years, and is all CDs these days.
Back in 1995 I first became aware of composer, John Debney. He wrote a brilliant score for the less than brilliant movie Cutthroat Island, and it remains one of my favorites of his to this day. First impressions are lasting I guess. I got to meet John years later when I worked on The Emperor’s New Groove at Disney. John is really wonderful with comedy scores, and his work on that film really injected something special into the storytelling.
Well, this past weekend John’s latest work was heard by the many ticket holders who caused Iron Man 2 to bring in almost $134 million in the United States. The score won’t be available for purchase until July 7th from what I hear, and I, for one, can’t wait. So much so, I felt inspired to do a little piece this weekend.
Breaking out the watercolor paint and colored pencils, I present to you this caricature of John Debney as Iron Man (click on the image to enlarge it):
Iron Man Debney imparting some musical justice.
So, if you are the casual film music fan and aren’t aware of some of John’s work, here are a few scores I’d recommend you start with before enjoying the rest of his oeuvre:
Cutthroat Island
The Passion of the Christ
Liar Liar
Elf
Dreamer
Zathura
The Stoning of Soraya M.
To see a larger list of John’s filmography, you can CLICK HERE!
A couple of days ago I shared with you the step-by-steps of a little piece I did of Disney’s Captain Hook with a caricature of yours truly in the place of Hook’s first mate Mr. Smee (CLICK HERE to see that post). When I created that little watercolor sketch this past winter, it was only one of two pieces on that theme. While that was a close-up, perhaps you’d like to see the second piece, this time full-bodied poses.
Since I went into some detail on each step in the last post, I’ll post these three stages with minimal comment and just let you enjoy the visual progression. So, without further ado, Captain Hook and Chad Frye as Mr. Smee! Peter Pan would certainly not be the same movie had it been done this way!
This is a colored pencil line drawing on nice textured watercolor paper.The purple watercolor paint will take care of all the shading in the painting.And here is the final Capt. Hook with Mr. Shmad – or is it Mr. Chee? Well, while “Chad” and “Smee” don’t mix well verbally, pictorially they go together fine.
I thought I’d share with you a couple of paintings I did this past winter. I got into a Disney’s Peter Pan mode of thinking and envisioned myself as Captain Hook’s first mate, Smee.
Well, while they are technically paintings, I tend to call these “watercolor sketches”. Each of these took maybe an hour or two to do from start to finish, so they aren’t my typical full-blown watercolor illustrations. This is what I do if I’m making a card for a friend, or doing quickie pieces for fans. There is a certain spontaneity to them that gives them a real energy. Everything is fast and loose and hopefully pure fun.
I’d like to show them to you step-by-step, which is something I haven’t done in awhile. Since there will be a few images for each, I’ll show you one of these today, and I’ll post the second one on Thursday.
So, as with any art I do, it all starts with a rough sketch. I don’t have to please anyone but myself, so it can be as rough as I want it to be. As you can see, the rough sketch for this one started with blue pencil, then I finalized my lines with regular lead. Captain Hook is always fun to draw, and it just seemed with my own body type that I was a shoo-in for Smee.
This is the initial rough sketch of the pirates!
Next, I took that rough and put it on my light table and created my final line with colored pencil onto a rough textured watercolor paper. I didn’t want to get too tight with the drawing, so you can see even in this phase the line work is sketchy in places, and not all the shapes are closed.
This is the final pencil line drawing of Capt. Hook and Chad Smee.
Next will be the tones. I often like putting the tones in purple. It looks nice when working with bright colors, which I will be for this piece. The purple seems too bright and dark right now, but later when the final paint is placed on top of it, the purple will get muted a little, and even somewhat blend in to the wet medium. And so that all my shadows don’t have a hard edge, I was careful to have it fade off in certain places like on Captain Hook’s face, and even his hat.
Hook and “Smee” get the purple tone treatment in watercolor.
Then lastly, I painted in the final colors. You can see that some of the purple shadows got absorbed into the final colors, while in other areas it served as an enhancement. Then I ended with flicking some blue specks on with a toothbrush (preferably NOT the one you brush your teeth with).
The final piece bringing Hook and “Smee” to life.
Come back on Thursday to see the second Captain Hook and Chee (or is it Shmad – thanks to my friend Jennifer Hobson-Plattner for the name) full-bodied watercolor sketch!
