A few weeks back, me & lene attempted to watch a bit of True Blood, a vampire show that has tons and tons of very vociferous fans- and it was terrible, and this coming from two people who un-ironicaly enjoy some pretty horrible television! This is a quick photoshop doodle of Bill, the main character Sookie's vampire boyfriend who seems to spend most of his time brooding and saying her name in a very funny accent. I think lene's post it doodle better captures his piece-of-toast-shaped face, tho.
Today marks the 89th anniversary of the 19th amendment, granting women the right to vote, so what better way to celebrate it than a look back at the Suffragettes? The Suffragettes began as a british movement (the american branch preferred the more gender neutral term 'Suffragist') of radical women who's protest techniques- marches, chaining themselves to buildings and politicians vehicles, hunger strikes, even some violence- were outre for their time.
Of course, these uppity women made the old guard uncomfortable, and the inevitable stream of misogynistic editorial cartoons followed; I particularly love how much fun the woman on the far right in the second image is having beating on the police- she's clearly having the time of her life. (I hope one day to have a reason to shout 'jump on him, he is only a mere man!' in public).
Its wonderfully inspiring to see these old pictures of women joining together for a mutual cause, unapologetic and forthright in demanding their civil rights. Also, their hats are fabulous.
Feminism is by its nature a contrarian movement- second wave versus third wave, anti porn versus sex positive, so on-but I think it would serve us well to remember, every once and awhile, what we can achieve through unity, and acknowledge the struggles & gains of the women before us.
I'll give the last word to the world's most cheerful fictional Feminist, Mrs. Banks:
Couldn't think of anything tonight, so here's a quick doodle of marie antoinette, after the Vigee Lebrun portrait of her (ignore the messed up arm). Sign that I've been looking at the pre-industrial crowned heads of europe for too much of my life: as I was drawing her, I wondered if she was a habsburg- one of the more unfortunate looking royal families, best seen in the portraits by Velasquez of the spanish branch of the clan-because she had that very distinctive habsburg face. Looked it up, and sure enough she was; its probably a little sad I recognized that.
A couple of old pieces from Elmer's class I don't think I ever posted- the assignment (as far as any of us could decipher) was to do a set of corporate report style illustrations on abstract concepts; this is 'foresight' and 'insight' respectively. I still like the old lady hands.
The lovely Misses E & V Savanella had their annual BBQ tonight, and it was awesome as always- as Liz Degen puts it, 'their house is a magical place filled with rainbows and unicorns and marshmallows.' I managed to do a not so great likeness of shane, but I haven't sneaky-drawn a person in a while, so it is what it is. Incidentally, that's Queen Victoria's signature crown on his shirt- here, he and vickie helpfully demonstrate how it would have been worn :D
The very talented kids over at Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty are having a little blog-iversary celebration, asking people to take a drawing and reinterpret it in their style. The problem with kid's art though is that they're usually so perfect in terms of self contained humour, story & character that it doesn't always seem like there's anything to add! That said, I took a crack at a version of Grace's 'Drifting.'
So, maybe I lied about a new drawing today, but its for a good cause! Tonight I hand cut 12 mats & helped my buddy Teresa frame them for her new apartment. A close up of the artwork: some of its mine, some of its stuff she's collected. Teresa approves!
I don't think I've ever posted this- this was done as a test piece for a fashion company that wanted the animated girl in their website intro updated. I didn't get the job, alas, but I think she's pretty cute- and its fun to see how much I've progressed in illustrator, even in the short time (november) since I did it. Fresh drawings next post!
Me & my fave grecophile lene attempted to see Euripides Bacchea at the Delacorte theater, cause every so often we like to pretend we're grown ups and enjoy things that don't involve boy wizards. Sadly, we couldn't get tickets, but have a drawing anyway!
I briefly met the lovely young men who do Baritarian Boy (a comic about the history and culture of a fictional eastern european nation) at mocca, so when they ran a fanart contest I decided to toss something off last minute to send in, and lo and behold, I won The Bronze Frolicking Chinchilla for hilarity :D This is King Einrich the Unwilling, here depicted with the loaf of bread used to lure him, begrudingly, to his coronation. Check out the other entries, there's some fun stuff.
Hey kids, long time, no see, huh? I saw Julie & Julia on friday, and in addition to being adorable and very funny, I found it very inspiring- as someone who can get hung up on failing & not knowing what I'm doing, it was great to see characters face that and get through it, to complete the daunting projects they've taken on. So, in that spirit, I think I'm going to try to do & post a drawing everyday. Will I actually follow through with it? Hopefully! We shall see. And in honor of julia, a pretty good looking insalata caprese I made the other day.
