'Sleeping Hobbit 2' in charcoal:
'The Hunt Begins' in watercolour pencils:
'That Sinking Feeling' in oil pastels:
'Taking Tea' in oil pastels:
'The Night Shift' in brush and ink:
'In The Thick Of It' in oil pastels:
'Hidden Away' in brush and inks:
'Halfway' in pencil:
A portrait of the late, great Stanley Kubrick. I don't often much like my older work, but this is one of the rare exceptions:
This last one is a portrait of a model from a magazine that just happened to be sculling around; a result of the 'don't know what to draw; open a magazine at random and draw whatever is on the page' approach to sketchbook filling:
This guy has been rattling around my head for a while now, so I sat down and drew him yesterday. I've only managed to show him to you today as Blogger wasn't cooperating yesterday, for some reason. I like his slightly manic stare. He was sketched with a 2B pencil.
This next sketch is of a Bearded Barbet in oil pastels. This little sod led me a merry chase as he flew around his enclosure like a maniac. Patience and persistence allowed me to create this image as a kind of composite based on the several times he decided to stop for a breather:
This next little guy is an Australian King Parrot. He was a dream model; he kept almost perfectly still the entire time I was drawing him. He was tucked away at the back of his enclosure in the shadows, but his bright colours made him stand out like a sore thumb. Good thing he wasn't trying to camouflage himself, I suppose. I did this sketch in chalk:
The last of my sketches at the aviary was of a Moluccan Cockatoo. If I thought the Bearded Barbet was fidgety, he had nothing on this guy. He didn't stay still long enough for me to do a full-length drawing, so I had to make do with details of his head and claw. This sketch is was done in a 2B pencil:
The first person to say that this post is for the birds gets a slap.
I've heard quite a few people dismiss 'The Hangover' as just another 'stoopid' comedy about a bunch of idiots getting into a series of ridiculous scrapes. I must admit that I can understand why; this is a movie that knows full well it isn't offering anything particularly original or groundbreaking. After all, it tells the story of four guys who go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party... which has been done so often it could almost be a genre in its own right. Personally, though, I absolutely loved this movie, and re-watching it on DVD has re-affirmed the reasons why. For starters, it's just incredibly funny. This is one of those movies where I find myself constantly pressing rewind because I've missed the next gag because I was still laughing so hard at the last. I also think that it's put together very well; the story unfolds at a great pace and it really becomes a kind of detective story once the plot gets going (admittedly, featuring the world's stupidest detectives, but I'm O.K. with that). The three central characters are all well fleshed-out and different enough to hold your interest and perform very distinct roles, rather than just being the cookie-cutter 'frat boy' types that you so often get in these kind of movies. I think one of the biggest appeals for me of 'The Hangover' is that the protagonists are all roughly my age. It does get tiresome when these kind of comedies always seem to be populated by teenagers (or actors in their twenties playing teenagers, as is more often the case). This movie is by no stretch of the imagination high-brow, but it is extremely funny. Highly recommended.
I went to see Denzel Washington's latest movie 'The Book Of Eli' the other day, having been somewhat intrigued by the trailers. It was quite a strange experience, actually. While there wasn't much wrong with the movie, I really couldn't say that I enjoyed it very much. I really can't even put my finger on why I didn't enjoy it; it was an intelligently written, well acted, beautifully shot piece of science fiction with philosophical overtones... on paper, it's a movie that could have been made with me specifically in mind. For some reason, though, it just didn't make a connection with me and I left the cinema completely perplexed as to why I didn't enjoy the movie more than I did. I wish I could explain it, but I'm at a loss. It's such a well-made movie, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to others... I just couldn't get into it myself for some reason. Weird.
Having had more than a bit of a crappy day yesterday, My Lovely Fiancée™ and I decided to cheer ourselves up in the evening by watching the 'Meet The Parents' and 'Meet The Fockers' DVDs we got for Christmas back-to-back. It's not that commonly known, but the version of 'Meet The Parents' that most people are familiar with, starring Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, is actually a remake of a rather unsuccessful indie movie of the same name made about a decade earlier. I'm afraid I can't do any kind of comparison as the original 'Meet The Parents' had an extremely limited cinema release and has never received a video release, either on VHS or DVD. I'd like to get hold of a copy one day, out of sheer curiosity, but I have a feeling it may be nothing more than a pipe dream. The much more famous remake was notable for the casting of Robert De Niro in a very rare comedic role. This was something of a coup for the film-makers as it drew a lot of attention to a movie that could easily have been dismissed as just another Ben Stiller film. That's not to say it's not funny; it is a very amusing film and anybody who has ever been in the situation of having to meet their other half's parents for the first time (which, let's face it, is most of us) will be able to empathise with Stiller's character's plight. The humour is not what you'd call high-brow, with a lot of the gags revolving around the fact that the protagonist's name is 'Gaylord Focker', but it does mine a universal seam of so-painful-it-can't-help-but-be-funny comedy gold. I do have to say that, seeing as this DVD is promoted as an 'ultimate special edition packed with hilarious extras', the bonus features are actually very thin on the ground. They don't even warrant a second disk! The movie itself, however, doesn't disappoint.
Moving straight on to the sequel, as we did last night, it quickly becomes evident that what you have with 'Meet The Fockers' is that extremely rare thing: a sequel that is actually better than the original. There are more funny lines, the pacing is better and you have that incredible cast. As much as getting Robert De Niro was something of a coup for 'Meet The Parents', being able to add Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand to the cast for the sequel must have had the film-makers unable to believe their luck. However they managed it, it works extremely well. You totally believe Hoffman and Streisand as both a couple and as Stiller's character's parents. The chemistry between all the members of the cast is what elevates this movie above and beyond your standard comedy sequel fare. I also think that this is a sequel that serves a genuine purpose, as it gives the story a real sense of resolution in a way that the first one didn't. Having said that, I can't help but feel that, if the planned third movie in the series goes ahead, it will really have a hard time not feeling like a totally unnecessary addition to the story. 
I'm sure 'Prince Caspian' has recently become the second most widely read of C.S. Lewis' Narnia books, thanks to it being the only other Narnia tale to date to get a movie adaptation. To me, however, it's just another of my beloved Narnia stories and one that I love just as much as all the others. Re-reading it this week, I've noticed how much Lewis has borrowed plot-wise from Shakespeare. I'm not quite sure how I've missed this before, but there are blatant parallels with both 'Hamlet' and 'the Scottish play' (hot potato, orchestra stalls, Puck will make amends) very much in evidence here. I can't bring myself to make this a criticism, though; usage of Shakespeare's plots is so widespread in literature that it almost always falls into the homage camp rather than the plagiarism camp. It's great to see all four of the Pevensie children back from 'The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe' in this book. It makes reading 'Prince Caspian' feel like putting on a comfortable pair of well-loved slippers. Actually, one of the highlights of the book for me is when Peter and Susan find out that they won't ever be able to return to Narnia as they are too old. As a child, I found this part absolutely heartbreaking, imagining how I'd feel if I was told the same thing. My lip still gets a bit quivery, to be honest, even now, as I read this bit, but it's ameliorated by both my adult perspective and the fact that I've now read 'The Last Battle'. All in all, 'Prince Caspian' is another wonderful chapter in a truly magical series.
This was an experiment that didn't entirely work. I put down a layer of black ink on the page, then covered it with strips of silver tape. I then cut out the shapes of the face with a scalpel, hoping the black ink would show through when I peeled away the tape. Unfortunately, the tape was too sticky and took most of the ink and half of the paper away with it, leaving a slightly more mottled texture than intended. Oh, well; not every experiment works:
This last one is a simple brush and ink portrait where I decided to turn half of the subject's face into a skull. What can I say? Sometimes I do stuff that other people find slightly bizarre. I never claimed to be normal:
This piece, however, is a pencil sketch I did at the Dickens Festival in Rochester a couple of years back, of a chap dressed up as Fagin from 'Oliver Twist':
This is a sketch I did of a young lady chilling out listening to her personal stereo, done in black ink with a brush:
Enid Blyton's 'Mr. Twiddle' books are a slightly bizarre experience to the modern reader. They revolve around Mr. Twiddle, a perpetually confused old man who continually forgets what he's supposed to be doing and mixes things around, and his long-suffering wife, who is permanently enraged by his antics and spends most of her time shouting at him. I'm sure that, at the time these stories were written, people thought nothing of this; after all, in 1942 people had slightly more pressing concerns. In 2010, however, it's difficult to read these stories and not think of Mr. Twiddle as an Alzheimer's sufferer or somebody with severe dementia, which makes him quite a tragic figure, really. It also makes his wife's constant accusations of stupidity seem more than a little harsh. This is, however, only something an adult reader would pick up on; if you're reading 'Hello, Mr. Twiddle' to young children, or they're reading it to themselves, they're unlikely to see it this way. Even to a modern day child, Mr. Twiddle is likely to be perceived just as he was when he first appeared in the 1940s; a bumbling old man whose antics are really rather funny.
Of all C.S. Lewis' Narnia stories, 'The Horse And His Boy' has always been my least favourite. When I first read it as a child, the reason I liked it less than the others was because the main character wasn't a child from Earth; perhaps my eight-year-old self just couldn't relate as well. Re-reading it now, as a thirty four-year-old adult, I don't have the same problem. I actually like the fact that we get to see Narnia and it's surrounding lands from the point of view of a native; it makes an interesting change from the other books. The reason 'The Horse And His Boy' is still my least favourite of the Narnia novels is because the story just doesn't seem to fit in very well in the flow of the larger story-arc. The events in this book take place during the events of 'The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe' and, as a result, this novel feels almost more like a footnote to that book rather than a novel in its own right. An extremely long footnote, I'll grant you, but still... The other reason this book doesn't work as well as the others is because it puts some of the characters from 'The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe' in jeopardy but, if you've already read that novel (and let's face it, very few people reading 'A Horse And His Boy' won't have already read the most famous Narnia book first), you know full well that these characters are going to be fine and that the antagonists' schemes must fail. O.K., you could say that, this being a children's book, you've already got a pretty good idea that the good guys are ultimately going to win anyway, but, to me, it still diminishes the dramatic tension somewhat. Of course, saying that I like this book the least of all the Narnia books is like saying I like one of my fingers less than any of the others; I really like them all and wouldn't be without any of them! This novel still has some absolutely superb scenes, particularly those featuring Aslan.
