Every day I drive to work past one of the largest cemetaries in Southern California. Yesterday I happened to glance up at the hill above the road and saw the scene I’ve sketched here for exactly one second before returning my attention to 45 mph traffic. The two musicians were apparently professionals, dressed in dark uniforms, one playing a violin, the other playing one of those large bass guitars mariachi musicians use. Were they paid to play at the gravesite by a grieving relative? Or were they playing to a fallen comrade? Whatever the reason, it was an interesting and oddly touching visual. One second isn’t long, but long enough to retain and recall enough to make this sketch this morning from memory.
“Byodoin Temple, Hodo”
by Kawase Hasui, 1921
One of my all time favorite artists, Kawase Hasui. Beautifully composed, carefully rendered, atmospheric stuff well worth study.
Some links that might be of interest. My friend Dave sent me these:
- Barb Dickey, aka “The Storyboard Queen” has a fun web site for her work – storyboardland.com.
- Cool site full of commercials, short films, animation, music videos, etc. – boardsmag.com.
- A wonderful, graphics intensive fine-art site called The Art Renewal Center. You can buy art prints there as well.
She turns seven next month. Maybe I’ve got too many kid sketches here, but hey, when I’m off work for the weekend I’m hanging out with my kids, so I draw what I see.
On a different note, yesterday I picked up a book in the sale bin at the local bookstore on my favorite New Yorker cartoonist, George Booth. It’s hysterical. Good interview with him about his life by Lee Lorenz, too. Mr. Booth is one of the few gag cartoonists who can really draw, despite what might appear to be a humorously casual drawing style. I think I like his humor because it is so unpredictable and just plain odd. And he draws really funny cats that just sit in the background of his sketches.
Yesterday my son Jack and I went to get a haircut at the local barber’s in a small shopping center tucked away at the foot of the hills behind our house. It looks like downtown Mayberry – small, quaint, nothing typical “LA” about it. The barber is in his late seventies or early eighties. I love it. It’s the only place I’ll go to get a haircut. Being eleven, Jack was not excited about being there, and told me as much, and how he hoped there wouldn’t be a long line. Well, not only was there no line, there was no barber. The place was empty, the lights and radio were on but no one minding the store. I called out, “hello”, but no answer. Then I noticed the cash drawer open – gulp! Having lived in the tough neighborhood of Hollywood for a few years, I suspected the worst, but this isn’t Hollywood and there was money dozing quietly in the drawer. Whew! Jack asked, “What do we do?” hoping, I suspect, I’d say let’s go home, because he looked rather disappointed when I told him to sit down and wait for a minute or two. Sure enough the old barber came in with a new cup of coffee he’d just purchased next door. That explained the cash drawer. He seemed a little surprised to see us there and asked Jack to hop up in the chair for a trim. I spent a few minutes sketching him while he got his haircut. Jack made some great funny faces at me while I drew, and I wished I drew faster to capture it. When it was my turn, Jack drew in my sketchbook too, but was a bit upset to find that my pencil didn’t have an eraser, and so decided he didn’t like his drawing any more. Oh well.
My wife’s uncle just gave me a great book, Doug Lindstrand’s Alaska Sketchbook. The book’s cover isn’t much to look at (sorry), but inside it’s loaded with hundreds of nicely drawn sketches from life and photos by a guy who lives in the Alaskan wilderness. There was a photo of a seagull that I sketched from (above). Great reference for wild animals in their natural habitat.
Just a quick note: I just got finished reading an article on VFX Newswire about digital pre-visualization (previs) of movies. This is an excellent story about exactly the kind of work I spend my time doing these days. Namely 3d (and 2d) previsualization.
For our industry it’s both an exciting and frightening time, depending on how you look at 3d vs. traditional storyboarding. Read it and take a gaze into the future.
Anthony Zierhut 