I, Drew, This

Back at it after far too long, I rewatched The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) today and felt compelled to attempt Faye Dunaway

It took more than 6 hours, but I traced Eva Marie Saint as she appears in North By Northwest (1959).

Snona Lisa

Today in the Teaching Music to Young Children class I’m taking, We had our first solo lesson presentation. One of our classmates goes up and teaches a 30-minute lesson as they would to children ranging from pre-school, thru college. At the start of this lesson (on triads), we were given crayons and asked to draw snowmen. Our ‘teacher’ told us, “It doesn’t have to be the Mona Lisa or anything”...

I couldn’t resist...

(P.s. I used my phone to obtain a reference image of The Mona Lisa for this drawing)

Snona Lisa Snona Lisa, I have drawn you

You’re so like the lady with the mystic smile.

Is it simply ‘cause you’re wintry they have blamed you

for those little lumps of coal dust in your smile?

Over the weekend, I finally saw the supposedly terrible Doris Day romantic-comedic-spy-thriller Caprice (1967) and I have to say, it was pretty terrible. The set decoration was gaudy at best, Richard Harris and Doris Day had zero romantic chemistry, the writing was confusing, and near purposless. Still, like Doris Day’s other frothy 60s comedies, if you can swallow your pride and just run with it, you can have a bit of fun. The handheld-camera ski cinematography and the comedic “hanging hair” sequence are definite standouts.

Anyway, it got me thinking about that whole 60s mod look and I realized it would be pretty cool to draw a mod 60s girl. I drew a sketch in a similar vein to this after I watched the (far better) Arabesque (1966) for the first time. My drawing’s improved a lot since then though, and I’m working on developing her as one of my characters. This is kinda big because I only have 3 other real ‘characters’ that I draw and that have stories and worlds. They all occupy a distinct world with a distinct musical, story, character, and aesthetic makeup. Musically, she has more of a ‘hip’ 60s soundtrack feel ala Lalo Schifrin. Electric guitars and basses, organs, Moog synths and other more ‘hip’ 60s isms over a foundation of a more conventional then-contemporary movie soundtrack orchestra - strings, saxes, vibes, trumpets & trombones, french horns, piano, etc.

This character works as a government agent and we are never allowed to completely forget that, like James Bond, (they make a way bigger deal out of it in the books) she’s still a government employee and has to deal with the bureaucracy and office politics that entails. I figured this would be an interesting opportunity to explore women’s roles in the workplace in the mid-late 60s and a variety of other woman’s concerns. This character is very efficient at nearly everything she does. She has to be to be even considered for a ‘men’s’ job in the sexist environment around her. 

The 60s spy genre has been done and overdone the world over. Beautiful sexy girls falling for/seducing suave debonair gentlemen agents- ya’ know, that sort of thing. It really interests me though, to play around with that dynamic. One of my other characters, Jack Danger, is gay and also has globe-trotting 60s adventures, but being a lesbian working in the ‘man’s game’ of international espionage gives this character lots of new situations to explore.

I could also have a lot of fun with neat gadgets. Men get briefcases, wallets, and not too much else to carry in general. Women though, get purses, compacts, jewelry, and all sorts of other things. One gadget is going to be a special bottle of hairspray that doubles as a flamethrower, knockout spray, etc.

In my acting class today, we did an activity I always love and that's drawing to different pieces of music. We did eight, but the one I really liked was for this old-fashioned carousel organ piece. It starts out very jolly, but when the bass tones and heavy drums come in, it sounds kinda creepy. Almost a maddening cacophony of noise.

Here's the track

Admittedly, it doesn't sound nearly as creepy as it seemed to this morning. It's mostly the heavy drums and bass notes that did it. Melodically and harmonically, it's not all that creepy. I'll have to do something about that. I'll start thinking about composing my own maddening carousel waltz.

For the sketch, I thought of a carousel spinning out of control ala Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951) and decided it needed to be a bit more nightmarish. A disturbed clown turned around staring at you? Nahh. But.. what if.. the carousel horse *creeeeakk* turned around and stared at you with these crazy eyes? We only had two minutes to draw in class, but I spent some time polishing it up later. One detail I changed was that ,originally, the pole ended at the roof, but I figured in this nightmare, the pole would appear to go on infinitely and that would be more scary.

In my English class, one of the many generally dull presentations on healthcare in the 1910s-30s south I had to sit thru had a little clip art image of a doctor holding a stethoscope to a piggy bank. I thought it was real cute so before they changed slides I made a quick note of the snout shape (that’s where the expression comes from here) and made this out.

I generally like this sketch, but something about the proportions and placement of features is a little off. I’m not sure how exactly.. The neck’s a little odd. The left eye is bigger than the right, but it’s less noticeable and less bothersome the closer you look at it from. I also fully attempted an ear! Oigg...

I re-watched one of my all-time personal favorite movies of all time Rear Window (1954) last week in connection with a Film Music Appreciation assignment (Franz Waxman’s [entirely diegetic] score is brilliant, gorgeous, and deserves way more credit than it gets).

 I got on a bit of a Rear Window buzz afterwards and pulled out my white knee-length shorts and black V-neck t shirt (tucked in) as an homage to this costume (designed by Edith Head), which to my mind, is one of the most beautiful and iconic costumes in the history of film. 

Over the weekend, on a whim I bought the cast album for Applause. The album cover looked like the kind of old Broadway musical I would like and it starred Lauren Bacall, so I was even more interested. I know she’s not a singer exactly. You can hear the decades of smoking in her voice and she just has a low and somewhat raspy voice to begin with. Despite the limitations of her voice, she’s marvelous and her singing fits the character of Margo Channing like a glove. 

O yeah! I didn’t realize it till’ I got home, but Applause is based on All About Eve (1950)! I’m really glad I watched that movie recently! Len Cariou is also in it and he has a gorgeous song called Think How It’s Gonna Be. I first know him as the grandpa in Blue Bloods, but I knew he was in Sweeney Todd on Broadway long ago, but I was pleasantly surprised to finally hear his voice here for the first time.

 I also didn’t realize at first, when this play was from. I assumed 60s I guess, but things like the use of the word “bitch” or mentions of *gasp* pot! surprised me. They were used intelligently in the songs, but they made me realize this play had to be a little newer than I first thought. It’s from 1970, a few years away from most of the Broadway musicals I’m knowledgeable in, and I love it. Musically, it’s really great and different. It’s definitely in the classic Broadway musical comedy tradition, but it incorporates a few mildly late-60s elements like electric guitars and rock beats here and there, but this is no mistake, a generally traditional score. 

I had never heard of this musical before, and I’m amazed I haven’t heard songs like Think How It’s Gonna Be before. I wonder if Applause had played a few years earlier, when the pop music climate was a little more Broadway-interested, if some of its song might have become hits outside of the play.

Some people have a lot of original characters (a friend of mine told me tonight she has 250!) but I only really have three that are anything more than just a first-occurrence idea. I drew Dr. Quack for only like the fourth time in 4 years today, and I thought I might share my three original characters.

Kyle The Fox 

Kyle The Fox Exists in a sort of 30s-50s old Hollywood cartoon animal kinda world. He’s an old-fashioned cartoon character ala Bugs Bunny or Animaniacs and as such he gets to do all sorts of crazy cartoon-y things. His stories are, as I call it, “popcorn entertainment” at its best, “ars gratia artis”! No big morals or earth shattering revelations! There will be the occasional hint at depth though, afterall, Kyle the Fox is not completely superficial, but he leads a generally fun life. The music of Kyle the Fox is the best, most exuberant of old Hollywood film scoring. MGM musicals meets Max Steiner meets Carl Stalling and Scott Bradley, etc. He travels around the world but never has any money (like Charlie Chaplin’s tramp character) and stows away alot and goes wherever the wind takes him.

Jack Danger

Jack Danger, on the other hand, is my ‘serious’ character. He exists in a realistic sort of pseudo mid-1960s world. He’s sorta James bond meets The Fugutive meets Catch Me If You Can meets Run For Your Life meets Jonny Quest meets James Bond. There’s such a rich history of 60s spy/action heroes with gorgeous femme-fatals and “bond girl” equivalents, but I thought it would be really different to have my protagonist be gay in this period setting. It would not only appeal to an audience that has historically been neglected, especially by these 60s action/spy movies & shows, but would also allow me to tell some important and relevant stories that have some real depth to them. Musically, I want Jack Danger to sound like a jazzy 60s tv show score. I love the styles used in say John Barry’s 60s bond films, but I want something a bit smaller-scale that sounds very very American. Sort of a Pete Rugolo/Stan Kenton sound (Run For Your Life is a great example). I have a tragic origin story already in my head that I’ve been developing for a few years now. It’s pretty good, but it still needs a little work.

Dr. Quack: M.D.

I haven’t drawn color in a long time. I watched Funny Face (1957) last night/this morning and got inspired. Once I added the balloons, I had to have color. Greyscale balloons just aren’t very interesting.