Just thought I’d share a quick warm up sketch I did about an hour ago. Today’s background listening has been Carpe Jugulum which is the first appearance of the noble clan of Igor in the Discworld Series. So I thought I’d take a crack at them.
Today’s Rhapsody is the Trumpet Rhapsody by Maynard Ferguson .
I just heard that Maurice Sendak passed away today. Obviously I grew up reading everything by him, Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Really Rosie, the Little Bear series… everything. As I grew up I studied him as one of the great American Illustrators and took perverse glee in discovering just how controversial several of his books, which I took completely for granted growing up. He was an inspiration to me and many other young artists. (In fact one of my small frustrations in college was being too late to hear him speak at RISD. The line to get in was incredible)
It was wonderful to see him on Colbert Nation last month and sad to realize that it would be a swan song.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 1 | ||||
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| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 2 | ||||
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Today’s Rhapsody is from the exceptional guitarist Al Di Meola playing Rhapsody of Fire.
Finally going to see the Avengers was an entertaining comedy of errors. I had planned to go see it in the U-District on a 1:00 clock showing and based on what I had heard about sold out showings I wasn’t particularly optimistic about getting in to what was a very small theater. Unfortunately in my online schedule check I got the Metro, which is in the U-District, mixed up with the Varsity, which is in neighboring Wallingford. So you can imagine my surprise after giving myself a half hour and getting to the Metro with time to spare to discover that it was closed (by the look of it permanently) In desperation I made a bee line it to the mall theater figuring if I was late for one showing the next one would not be too much of a wait. I realized my Varsity/Metro mix up just when I passed the point it was too far to turn around, which was frustrating, but I made it to the mall theater right on time A little crowded but not as if I had wasted my time trying to get there.
So back to the Avengers… It was fun… A lot of fun… nothing that I would call high art in any sense of the imagination but fun. Joss Whedon, as always wrote a script with extremely fun dialogue that took full advantage of his characters and like he did in Thor, Tom Hiddleston owned every scene he was in. I sincerely hope he gets as much work as he can handle.
And all in all it did an excellent job on taking a comic book. The effects are spectacular and as long as you keep your suspension of disbelief cranked up to the nines you’ll have a great time. Keep in mind when I’m say this I’m not talking about believing a man can turn into rampaging green juggernaut… I’m talking about things like SHEILD’s nonexistent security protocols, the tendency to treat anyone not wearing spandex like a victim or at best in the way (I counted a good 20 planes on the Helli-carrier which didn’t get blown to bits during the first attack. Care to explain why they weren’t out there shooting aliens?) I can go on but really in the end in a movie like this that isn’t important. You go to films like this for the roller coaster ride and Robert Downey Jr’s snarky remarks. Asking questions make the plot fall apart.
In short for everybody who is not a chronic nickpicker, like your’s truly, Avenger’s is a wonderful bit of fluff that you will all enjoy.
I’ve done this sketch before. In fact I’ve done it several times. And why not it’s one of the nicest and most challenging pieces in the Seattle Asian Art Museum’s collection of Indian sculpture. One of the things I like best about the Indian sculpture room along of course with it’s spectacular selection of Greco-Buddhist art from Northern India and Pakistan is that it all in a nice central area which frequently double’s as the museum’s event hall… for a while it even had a small bistro. They still usually have chairs there, sometimes even tables. Very convenient for laying out your kit and creating especially good and accurate sketches.
Anyway this sculpture, representing the Hindu god Shiva and his consort Parvati, is from the famous temple site of Khajuraho in north central India. This is a frequent image in Hindu sculpture. What I really like about this piece is the sculptor created a really convincing feeling of affection between the two figures.
