newyorkette

And to all a good night!

PS - if you still have gifts to buy and don’t know what to do, get a goat or a cow or a sheep for someone in the name of the person who already has everything, at Heifer International! You get a free e-card, too.

(Brighton Beach, August 2007)

There’s a reason for this repeat image above. I just read Norah Ephron’s “I feel bad about my neck,” and this is all I have to say: I will never feel bad about my neck. Not even if it one day hangs down to my knees. I want to be just like these ladies above. Notice, they are not only wearing bikinis — one is even wearing a tanga bottom! I think they’re beautiful, and I don’t think they feel bad about anything, except, possibly, their husbands’ necks.

In fact, if Norah were ever to hear about this comment of mine, I’ll be happy to make a gift to her of my Coney Island Venus, in honor of glorious, ageing womankind. It’s my favorite, but for a good cause, I’d part with her.

(That was my public service announcement to womankind. )

UPDATE: For some correspondence regarding this post (with name removed to protect the privacy of the correspondent) click here: Read the rest of this entry »

Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery, in “Marnie.”

Here is the B & W version:

Home sick, watching DVD’s, I always liked this scene from Hitchcock’s “Marnie,” when she’s got the safe open but can’t get her hand to steal the money in the safe and Sean Connery looms up behind her and says, “Go ahead and take it! It’s not stealing! What’s mine is yours!”

One thing I always noticed about the movie (besides Sean Connery’s overly plucked eyebrows) is all the beige’s and browns and yellows. If you look carefully, you’ll notice an uncanny, bright yellow theme going from the yellow getaway handbag, to the yellow fridge in Marnie’s mom’s house, to the yellow leather vest on Sean Connery’s father.

(I’d provide reference photos, but I simply paused the DVD and worked from the TV screen.)

I was on the radio this morning with Diffee, discussing a couple of rejected cartoons! More specifically, on NPR’s Bryant Park Project, which is direct from the web!

Here is their blog post with our cartoons on it.
And here is the show, of you care to listen!

Be forewarned, that is definitely my morning voice. Cheerful, but not quite fully of this world yet.

For more of Diffee, see Emily Gordon’s interview for Print, here!

Well, I had already done my fun drawings from Trouble in Paradise, but had not figured out how to color them in. So here’s my second try at inking with layers.

Here’s what it looked like before inking and a little repositioning, just india ink on paper, then scanned:

I’m not sure which I prefer. I had thought the B&W one was too rough looking, and quite liked adding in grays with the layering. They I got into coloring the rest in, probably inspired by DIVYA SRINIVASAN’s illo last week.

See my previous Trouble in Paradise attempts (of Miriam Hopkins), a few posts down.

These are the reference photos besides the actual movie that I used to guide me. For the Miriam Hopkins, in my previous post, I drew directly from the screen. (On pause, of course!):

1- for her body
2- for her face
3- for his pose

(Lemmy Caution keeping an eye on the assassin next door. Later, he asks: “Et Dick Tracy? Il est mort, aussi?”)

More practice in layers and colors. This is Eddie Constantine, in Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville.

For the black and white version, see a previous post, here.

Eddie has a face that’s interestingly bloated and wrinkled at the same time. He’s got that redheaded complexion, which shows in the eyes mostly. Sometimes he looks like a burn victim, his face is so distressed. And when he wants to, he can turn to the side or three quarter profile and make his eye look like the eye of a whale, like in the moment before he kills the guy in the telephone booth next to him (as in my illo). I drew him from the television screen, but here’s a photo of the moment just before he turns, realizing he has a neighbor.

Here’s two more images of Eddie, which show what he looks like, here, and here.

And I love this one, from Alphaville.

Well, thanks to Dave James‘ benevolent kibbitzing (via email, now that I have closed comments in order to enjoy a respite from deleting the constant flow of incoming spam), I now know how to do layers! Thank you Dave James!
This is my very first attempt/romp in layers, with Cary. I like the idea of romping with Cary Grant! Indeed!