RIP Robert B. Sherman

I read the sad news on one of my favourite sites, Cinemaretro, that Robert B. Sherman has passed away. Robert along with his brother, Richard, were the talented songwriters who wrote much of the music that we all loved from the Disney films and theme park attractions throughout the 60's, 70's and even into the 80's. Since I was a child of the 1960's, Disney films such as The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, and The Aristocats were very much a part of my formative years, as well as their absolute masterpiece, Mary Poppins. Actually, I had just screened my DVD of Mary Poppins over the Christmas holidays, watching it for the first time on my big HDTV, and was awestruck by the sheer craftsmanship that is in abundance at every level in that film. I was a bit teary eyed in fact as I listened to "Feed The Birds", remembering that it was the song that Walt Disney would often request that Bob and Dick play for him in his office when he was in a reflective mood.

The music of the Sherman Brothers is strongly melodic with witty and whimsical lyrics, making everything they wrote memorable and timeless. For me, their songs, combined with the orchestral scores by composer George Bruns, were so much a part of that warm and wonderful era of Disney, and I am grateful to these talented men for the legacy they have left us. Bob, I hope you're now enjoying a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow!

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Monica Bellucci

Yeah, I know it's a long time since New Years Eve when I last posted on this blog. Blame it on a lack of creativity on my part, as well as my general feeling of disinterest in that which passes for entertainment in this 21st century thus far. I'm afraid I'm very much out of step with the tastes of modern society, and that's why most of what you'll see here at The Cartoon Cave is dedicated to my nostalgia for a better era.

Still, I have to post something to keep you folks interested in coming back, so here is a brand new caricature I just finished yesterday of that beautiful Italian goddess, model and actress, Monica Bellucci. She's the featured subject this week on Caricaturama Showdown 3000. The initial sketch was done from watching her in the Italian film, Malena, in which she plays the title character, a beautiful yet terribly ill-treated young woman in Sicily during World War II. However, I decided to portray Monica just as herself in more glamourous mode. By the way, as today is also the birthday of my Italian buddy, Cory Crivari, I shall dedicate this caricature of Ms. Bellucci to Cory, as he well appreciates the charms of a lovely woman as do I. Happy Birthday, Cory!

Here too is a montage of clips from the film, Malena:

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Natalie Wood

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the very tragic death of Natalie Wood on Nov. 29th 1981. Of course, that terrible incident has been back in the news lately, due to the captain of the yacht coming forward with what may be new information that was not disclosed at the time of her drowning all those years ago. I was only 21 at the time, but I remember the sad news with great clarity. Natalie had been starring in Brainstorm, which was still in the middle of production when she died. She hadn't been in many theatrical films for awhile, as it seemed she was doing more in the way of made-for-TV movies in the late 1970s. At the time of her tragic death she was only 43, still a very vibrant and beautiful woman.

There was so much mystery surrounding her death by drowning, that speculation ran rampant about what led to it and what possibly transpired on the yacht that night. I doubt that this current re-investigation will turn up anything more conclusive that would disprove it being an "accident", but it will be interesting to see if any new facts come to light. It was certainly a very suspicious incident, though, and there has to be far more behind it that we'll probably never know the truth about.

Interestingly, as I was looking through her list of theatrical film credits on IMDb, I think I've only seen about a dozen of them that I recall. In fact, she only made about 30 odd films as an adult performer, if you start counting from her appearance in John Wayne's The Searchers, when she was just 15. Of those I have seen, there are several that I've watched a number of times, including her iconic performances as "Maria" in West Side Story, the vaudeville-to-burlesque performer "Gypsy Rose Lee" (aka "Louise") in Gypsy, and as the intrepid feminist reporter, "Maggie Dubois" in The Great Race.

Another film I've seen several times is 1964's Sex and the Single Girl, in which Natalie played real life writer (and later editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine) Helen Gurley Brown, although the movie is a fictitious romp only loosely related to Ms. Brown's book of the same title. It's not a great film, but it is a lot of fun to watch. Natalie's paired up with Tony Curtis, before costarring again together famously in The Great Race the following year, and they've got terrific on-screen chemistry. (Actually, their first onscreen pairing was in Kings Go Forth, in 1958 alongside Frank Sinatra.) Here's a clip from the film where Tony's character is trying to seduce Miss Brown while they're waiting for their clothes to dry off after a scene in which they both ended up toppling over a pier into the water. (Yes, there's a tragic irony in that, isn't there?). Of course, it was from this film that I chose to sketch my caricature of Natalie Wood that appears at the head of this post.

A truly beautiful lady with great warmth and charm. She was one of the true screen goddesses of the 1960s, and I miss her very much.

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Happy Halloween!

Here's a new caricature of Vincent Price that I drew for this past week's subject on Caricaturama Showdown 3000. I've written about Vincent Price before, as he was one of my favourite actors and I was lucky enough to have met him in person many years ago. As reference for this illustration pictured above, I turned to his role as Mr. Trumbull the undertaker, who's desperate for business in the 1963 dark comedy, The Comedy of Terrors. Here he is offering up some "medicine" to his infirm and nearly deaf father-in-law, played by Boris Karloff.

Incidentally, I'm dedicating this Halloween post to Belle Dee, who is a huge fan of Vincent Price, as well as of all the gothic horror films from AIP and Hammer studios of the 60's and 70's. Belle is also a very talented illustrator/cartoonist who has created a great many illustrations of her favourite horror film stars. Please be sure to check out her stylish art on her Facebook page.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to take care of this cop who's trying to arrest me for drinking and jiving at the Arthur Murray Halloween Dance...

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The End Credits Roll On Elwy Yost

Long before the Turner Classic Movies cable channel came along, lucky movie buffs here in Ontario had Saturday Night at the Movies to look forward to each week. Starting in the mid-1970s, it was on this TVOntario show that many of my age were first introduced to all sorts of film classics from the glorious past. And the man who created the show and hosted it for about 25 years running was Elwy Yost, a round faced, enthusiastic, and very genial film connoisseur. Sadly, I learned yesterday that Elwy Yost has just passed away at the age of 86.

Similar to the appeal of Walt Disney coming into our living rooms every week on The Wonderful World of Disney in the 50s and 60s, a decade later Elwy Yost was also like a favourite uncle arriving every Saturday night to sit down and watch with and discuss some of the best movies that Hollywood's Golden Age had to offer. Every week there would be a couple of films screened on a related topic, or perhaps from the same director or starring the same actor. In between the movies there would be pre-filmed interview portion, sometimes with a well-known star, but more often with a director, screenwriter, cinematographer, makeup artist, or other creative person who had long laboured behind the scenes. Elwy would usually film his interviews with them at their homes and, though the interview might start out a bit stiffly, the subjects would always warm up to Elwy as it progressed, when it became quickly evident that Elwy was really interested in their specific contribution to a film classic. I'm certain that many of the interviewees were delighted to be asked questions about their achievements that nobody had ever been interested enough to ask them before. While Elwy did have a tendency to gush in his "Gee Whiz!" manner, his enthusiasm for the films he covered was quite endearing to his loyal viewers, who probably found him very easy to relate to. Elwy was not a film critic so much, but rather, the ultimate film fan. I suspect Elwy Yost never met a movie he didn't like!

Fortunately, TVOntario has just recently been making a number of Elwy's interviews available to watch on their online TVO Archive. I strongly recommend checking out some of these. Animation buffs will probably enjoy Elwy's interviews with Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng. Here is a clip from YouTube that shows Elwy Yost in his hosting duties on Saturday Night at The Movies. Yep, we'll miss you, Elwy...

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Liam Neeson

Here's my caricature of Liam Neeson, the subject of the week at Caricaturama Showdown. As I've mentioned often on here, I do my caricatures by sketching from video reference rather than from photos, as I find I get a better feel for the design of the face and the personality of the subject. For this caricature, I started by watching Liam in the 1994 film, Nell, which starred Jodie Foster (who was also co-producer) in the title role of a young woman who has been raised in a log cabin in the backwoods of North Carolina, completely isolated from the outside world. Her mother was a stroke victim, paralyzed on one side of her face, so Nell grows up never hearing properly enunciated speech. When the elderly mother dies, Nell is left speaking what appears to be an unknown language when she is discovered by the sheriff and a concerned doctor played by Neeson.

It's a truly beautiful and touching film, even moreso in retrospect, as it was during the filming of Nell that Liam Neeson met and fell in love with his co-star, actress Natasha Richardson, who plays a psychiatrist in the film. They married soon thereafter and had a wonderful, stable, loving marriage until Natasha was tragically killed in a skiing accident in 2009. I acknowledged the tragedy at the time with this tribute, as I believe there were many people who felt so saddened for Liam in his great loss. It's hard to watch the film today and not shed some tears when you can tell how they were falling in love during its production. And in her performance as Nell, Jodie Foster is truly luminous, and shows what a gifted actress she has become in her years before the camera. A lovely and poignant film that I highly recommend if you have not yet seen it.Source URL: https://coffeecatholic.blogspot.com/search/label/caricature
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Happy Birthday, Bill Cosby!

The subject this week on Caricaturama was Bill Cosby, and the fellow who chose him knew that this challenge would end on Cosby's birthday. I hadn't been participating in this weekly challenge for awhile now, but I felt compelled to draw ol' Bill, as I consider him the gold standard of stand-up comedians. I wanted to portray him back in his prime of the 1970's/early 80's when he appeared regularly on The Tonight Show while Johnny was still at the helm. Those were the days! In fact I drew this from an appearance in 1983 that Cosby made on The Tonight Show that can be found on this new multi-disc DVD set that came out earlier this year.

Here's a terrific Bill Cosby routine I remember fondly, courtesy of YouTube:



PS: Sorry I haven't updated the blog in awhile. I haven't felt very motivated lately, I'm afraid.Source URL: https://coffeecatholic.blogspot.com/search/label/caricature
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Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman was this week's challenge on Caricaturama Showdown. There were a lot of entries portraying him as Prof. Snape from the Harry Potter films, so I wanted to show a very different side of him for variety. I remembered that he was in the Richard Curtis film, Love Actually, a delightful romantic comedy with a great ensemble cast. So here is my caricature of Alan Rickman from that role as a compassionate office boss who plays cupid for two of his employees, while also trying to avoid falling into the trap of an extramarital affair with his comely young secretary. Check out this great scene from the film where he tries to discreetly purchase a Christmas gift for the girl while his wife is off elsewhere in the department store, and he runs into trouble from an overzealous jewelry counter clerk played to perfection by Rowan Atkinson.Source URL: https://coffeecatholic.blogspot.com/search/label/caricature
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Gary Sinise and Natalie Portman

Here are a couple of recent pieces drawn for Caricaturama Showdown 3000:


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Sheridan College Open House 2011 (Part 2)

Here are more of the caricatures I drew at last week's Open House:

This first one features one of the new grads from Sheridan's Music Theatre program, Brittany Robinson, pictured here with her boyfriend Trevor. Earlier this year, Brittany had landed the plum role of Janet Van de Graaf in The Drowsy Chaperone, which will likely remain my favourite Sheridan production for quite some time. She is a lovely and talented young lady to whom I wish much success in her career!









Here are several of the Sheridan Animation students who drew along with me at this year's event. This is Leisha-Marie Riddel, who graduated from the program last year.

3rd Year student, Hai Wei Hou.

3rd Year student, Omar Noori gives the thumbs up.

Aaron Fryer, one of my talented students from this year's 2nd Year.Source URL: https://coffeecatholic.blogspot.com/search/label/caricature
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Sheridan College Open House 2011 (Part 1)

Last Saturday, April 30 2011 was the annual Open House at Sheridan College. Once again I was asked to draw caricatures alongside several talented students to promote our BAA Animation program. Here is the first of 2 posts to show some samples along with the subjects:











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Happy Birthday, James Garner!

Every year on this date I like to celebrate the birthday of my favourite actor, James Garner. Although I don't have a new caricature in full colour to put up this time, I do have this article I wrote for the "Exagerrated Features" magazine, the quarterly publication for all subscribing members of the ISCA. In it, I describe my own personal working method in creating one of my celebrity caricatures, and I use James Garner as the subject for this tutorial. The series of rough sketches at the top of this post I had done especially for the article, and they demonstrate how I sometimes will help familiarize myself with the subject before developing the final piece of art. I don't always take this step, but I do recommend it as a way of warming up and finding the "design" of the head and face, particularly when you may be struggling to get the likeness. I hope this tutorial will be of benefit to those of you who also enjoy drawing caricatures of celebrities:






Now that you've read all that, you may now relax and enjoy this clip from The Rockford Files to see Jim Garner's expressions for real:

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More Caricaturama Pics!

Here are the latest entries I've done for Caricaturama Showdown 3000. Daniel Day-Lewis is this week's subject, so I decided to draw him in his role as film director, Guido Contini in Nine, one of my favourite films in recent years. I've long been planning to do a group shot featuring the whole cast of Nine, so hopefully this first one will give me the necessary boost I need to start drawing all those gorgeous gals like Marion Cotillard and Penelope Cruz!

The week before it was Sharon Stone in the spotlight, though to be honest, I felt I missed the mark a bit on her, as her likeness proved to be very elusive for me. I've drawn her of course from her big breakout role as Catherine Tramell, author of murder mysteries and suspected ice-pick killer in Basic Instinct. I hadn't watched the film since first seeing it in the theatre when it debuted, and I must say it's a better film than I gave it credit for. There's a very similar feel to Hitchcock's Vertigo, especially in the cool blonde look of Sharon Stone so reminiscent of Kim Novak, as well as the score that sounds very much like that of Bernard Herrmann. Anyway, it was good to see the film again after all these years.Source URL: https://coffeecatholic.blogspot.com/search/label/caricature
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