Lines, Lines, Lines

When I first started seriously taking a shine to drawing as a far more wee lad, I was attracted to hatching for some unknown reason. Then, I stopped drawing for a while in college, and when I returned to it, I had abandoned hatching all together. I'm not sure what brought it back, but now much of my work seems to be a study in angularity...an attempt to make or depict curves in a barrage of straight lines.

Danger!

A sort of clunky, sharp lined experiment of Austrian bombshell Marisa Mell. It sort of takes away from her full-lipped beauty...but sort of still works for me for some reason.

The Summer Wind...

It seems as though the June Gloom has finally blown away. Mayhap it is time to hit the beach...

Wednesday in the Boudoir Revisited...

Shootin' Marbles

I Maniaci (1964)

In cult and exploitation cinematic circles, Lucio Fulci will perhaps always be identified with bizarre horror titles (If you've ever wanted to see a zombie fight a shark, may I recommend his 1979 effort Zombie). In the stream of 60's and 70's genre cinema that's often parading before my eyes and in my brain, I've found that I enjoy Fulci's earlier comedic efforts more. The man was a gifted director for farce...which doesn't explain the often farcical leaps in logic that his horror titles usually contain. Anyhow, this quickie sketch was grabbed from a still from his 1964 collection of comic sketches, I Maniaci.

Sex and Fury...

A few posts back, I put up a quickie I had done of Meiko Kaji, and said I might revisit that territory. Well, I sort of did. Reiko Ike was one of Toei studios top stars for 'pinky violence' films in the 70's (if you don't know what they are, I shan't embarrass your delicate sensibilities). Her 1973 effort, Sex and Fury, featured a fair quantity of both and also starred Sweden's Christina Lindberg (star of exploitation classic Thriller: A Cruel Picture...which I also won't bother to explain...if you look it up, you're on your own). Anyhow, if you've ever been curious what a topless woman would look like sword-fighting....look no further. Amazing that it came along years before the internet...

Mood Lighting...

Still June...Still gloom...

June Gloom...

...deserves a touch of the girls of summer...

A Moment of Quiet Contemplation...

Diaphonous...

A word that neither you nor I use often enough.

Wednesday in the Boudoir...

At this point, all I need is an ascot and some Prohibition Bath Tub Gin, and we're ready to go.

Still in the Gardens...

Last Year at Nymphenburg...

The Bavarian Nymphenburg Palace in Munich features expansive gardens which features a variety of classically inspired sculptures. Now, the one this li'l quickie was inspired by was labelled as Pluto, but the trident he carried said Neptune to me (other images of it I found also labelled it as Neptune). Oh internet, you occasionally possibly mis-leading scamp you. As a side note, the palace and gardens were featured in Alain Resnais' surreal masterpiece, Last Year at Marienbad.

What's Cabfare to the Elysian Fields...?

A return to my statue drawing shenanigans. The Lord of the Underworld isn't often depicted when compared to his more sunny or sea-going brethren. The story of his abduction of the fair Prosperina seems to be the most frequently rendered. This one, once again, was inspired by the simple direct statue carved out by the great Canova.

The Galveston Giant...

If you're not familiar with boxer Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion, may I take a moment and recommend you go look him up. Even if you don't care for the sport and are somehow immune to interest in civil rights struggles, I'm sure Jack's larger-than-life style of living will be more than enough to keep you interested. The white boxing community threw anything it could at the "Galveston Giant" (I'm not sure that it's merely coincidental that Jack was from Texas) trying to take the title away from him, but Jack held onto it until 1915. It would be 20 years before another black boxer, Joe Louis, would be allowed to compete for it. By then, times had changed, and Louis' reign as champ was heralded by many and even used as anti-Nazi propaganda. In any event, I had fun drawing the big, smug galoot.

The Many B-List Sartanas...

Many spaghetti westerns had their titles and dialogue re-dubbed to turn their heroes into so many Djangos and Sartanas. This quickie was from a screen-grab I made from the '71 entry Django Defies Sartana, which was perhaps the weakest title of the knock-offs though a slightly better movie than many of them. There's simply no beating One Damned Day at Dawn...Django meets Sartana for title umph. Much like there's no beating Gianni Garko, the original and best Sartana. Perhaps I should be drawing him instead...

"Forget Everything Except Vengeance!"

Another "exploitation" quickie based loosely on Lady Snowblood star Meiko Kaji, one of the queens of lurid, blood-spattered Japanese cinema in the 70's. This one's a little rough. I didn't quite capture her the way I wanted, but I was still happy with the lines to an extent. I might have to give her another go...rarely has feral intensity looked so sexy...

Exploitation...Armed to the Teeth

This was a quickie of Maurizio Merli, star of many an Italian thrillride. I first saw Maurizio in the spaghetti western Mannaja (aka. A Man Called Blade). Despite the general power and prowess of a great 70's stache, he died young at the age of 49. My desire for Euro-Exploitation flicks, however, lives on.

The New $13 Bill...

Recreating the interwoven curved hatching that is oft featured on paper money and stock certificates is not easy...but, it can be fun...especially with a subject not traditionally depicted in such a way.