A Quick Note...

After my car broke down on the interstate about a month ago I decided that I would finally break down and get a cell phone. My car's alternator decided to give up its ghost and I had to walk two miles to a Homeland to used their payphone which upon arriving, there was none. The clerk informed me since cell phones had become so popular they had removed their payphones but I was allowed to use the store's phone. It was at that point I became resolved to get one.

Being the nerd/geek that I am I shopped about and finally decided on the HTC Evo. The Evo, running on the Android platform, is very customizable so I decided to create a couple of quick wallpapers, not animated, that may come later, because I always like to personalize my stuff. Below are a couple of wallpapers that I created rather quickly. I created brushes in Adobe using Alchemy symbols and a dragon's eye I created sometime ago for a comic book shop that commissioned me to do their web site. The gears are a brush set called SS gears, no I did not created them. The clock face on the second image is one I am working on for a steampunk clock for cafepress. It was a project that I set aside for awhile and may finish soon.






Both images are in the Evo size format if you have an Evo or an android phone, feel free to use them.

Note: I am still hard at work on Carmilla and have learned somethings and ran into a few snags. I am taking a 6 day Sabbatical from work starting this Wed. and hopefully will have something to show as well as more blogs since Halloween is quickly approaching.

Ponderings, Musings and Flattery...

Musings and Ponderings

October for me is not only a month of hollowed eyed ghosts and howling, shapeless masses that cling close to the shadows, but also a month of reflection and reassessment creatively. Soon in the next few weeks I intend to revamp my cafepress site, Through a Glass Darkly and rework some of the border work as well as organize it so that items and prints are more easily found. I have neglected the site for over two years and it shows. I am not happy with some of the prints and items, either I have grown a bit more artistically or I feel that my work needs more respect than I have given it and thus needs to presented with more care. I have decided I would rather offer a few good pieces than just fill the site with things I am no longer happy with. It will be a slow process and many pieces will be reworked. I will update as I do changes to the site.

Flattery

Almost a year ago I finished a piece with pencil on bristol based on the Norse god Odin. I decided to depict him in his hermit guise which he would adopt when walking about humanity and not the typical warrior god on his throne. This aspect of Odin always interested me, with his one eye given up for wisdom and his cronies of ravens that acted as his messengers. Here is the original pencil.



I decided to try my hand at digital coloring and used earth tones primarily creating an almost sepia effect. I use Adobe Photoshop for digital coloring and used a "leaf" brush that comes with the Wacom tablet I have to create a vignette about the central figure. I was pleased with the results and it was one of my better attempts at coloring a piece. Here is the colored version below.




Now I admit that this was one piece that I did on the fly, I liked it well enough for what it was but really never considered it one of my better works and it never fails to surprise me that sometimes people will like works I have done that I myself don't consider as one of my best pieces. Goes to show perhaps an artists is his worst judge. The real surprise came in my email, a young lady, I suspect who abides in France, sent me an email with a picture of the Odin piece that she had tattooed on her back. Now whatever your stance is on tattoos is a personal matter, but I found myself extremely flattered that this young lady would put this piece on her flesh. I mean it is one thing to buy a print or an item like shirt with an image on it, but to put it permanently on your skin for me was the highest form of flattery. So I thought I would share the picture she sent me.




I thought the tattoo artist did justice to the image and retained aspects of my style. I know that had to hurt the young lady as she lay under the needle and I am flattered that she not only chose my piece to adorn her back but also took the time to send me the picture of the results.

Note: Halloween will be here soon, I will blog more creepiness soon. =)

Carmilla, the Lady Vampyre

In 1872 Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu penned the short novel, Carmilla about a female vampire that predated Bram Stoker's Dracula by twenty years or more. The story contains the majority of the vampire lore save that Carmilla would shape shift into a large black cat, not a wolf or bat as Dracula but she did spend her repose in a coffin.

Carmilla hunted primarily female victims and occasionally would emotionally bond with a few, and her real name was Countess Mircalla Karnstein, Carmilla being an anagram for Mircalla. Carmilla has influenced several films, one, And to Die of Pleasure, being the English translation of the French movie Et Mourir de Plaisir, by Roger Vadim in 1960, also known as Blood and Roses, which explored the lesbian undertones of the story. Other movies such as Let's Scare Jessica to Death in the '70s were heavily influenced by Carmilla.

Carmilla recently inspired me to do this sketch. I was walking into the local convenience store on the corner one afternoon and as I entered this tall, dignified woman was entering. I could guess from her complexion that she was of Indian nationality, though whether Creek, Cherokee or what I would be hesitant to guess. What struck me about her was not only her penetrating dark eyed gaze, but her inner sense of regal nobility. She had fine narrow cast features and long silky straight hair tied back and her face haunted me on the way to work.




I couldn't help but think of the novella Carmilla, So I combined the face of that encounter with my fancies about the story of Carmilla and came up with this sketch which I will be turning into a digital painting. It is 2B pencil on bristol with a vellum finish. To my surprise I had forgotten about her shape shifting into a black cat, so the cat is a happy accident. I find I have many of those in my work, perhaps it is my subconscious kicking in overdrive. But in the next week or so I will be working on digitally painting Carmilla.

Thought I would also share what I did for the Halloween Project at work. Below are photos of the endeavor. Now this project was simply for fun, it is actually acrylic painting on cardboard that was coated with black spray paint. I enjoyed doing it and it got me out of my regular duties. =)

Pearl of Wisdom

In my last blog I talked about combining my love for the weird with also my artwork instead of creating a separate blog for that purpose. Originally this blog was to be concerned with oddities on the web and such and a combining of the two may disappoint some, if so, my apologies. I am still on the hunt for the bizarre and will post my discoveries as well. Now that all that is out of the way.

Pearl of Wisdom was flawed yet it was also one of those pieces that I couldn't let go off. When I say flawed, I know the disproportions that are present in the piece and they stare at me like the pimple on the forehead of a high school prom queen. Yet, I had to finish it and in the end was pleased with the effect I was trying for. I have always had a love for Albrect Durer's art and his engraving Knight, Death and the Devil remains one of my favorite pieces of art. Though no where near his level, I did like the feel of Pearl when I finished it in pencil on bristol. Yet, I felt like there could be more to cultivate out of the piece. So, like the Mad Hatter I am, I set out to experiment with my Wacom table in Abode. Below is the result. (forgive the water mark but people love to pilfer)




It is a little different than the majority of my work which is primarily Dark Gothic Fantasy and it isn't black and white. But the piece seem to demand more than the black and white pencil version and I believe the color helped with the composition. I am frankly self taught when it comes to Adobe and sometimes it glaringly shows but I love to experiment and I decided to do the majority of the objects and items in layers and then set them to multiply. Items like the robe, face and hands, staff, etc where done on their own layer then the final layer set to normal to add details. Below is a montage of some of the details from Pearl of Wisdom.




Like I mention before this is different than my usual work, but I still consider it a tad like esoteric fantasy. The Hermit has been a symbol for many things including wisdom, solitude, inner knowledge etc. He is often a figure that haunts my subconscious imagery and like many of my renderings of the Grim Reaper, he seems to want me to set him down on paper. Perhaps Jung would have had a field day with me. Below is another depiction of the Hermit I did last summer based on a short story I wrote years ago. (The story needs much rework and editing so please be forgiving.)



This piece, The Hermit and the Elf, was done much the same as Pearl of Wisdom, a digital coloring of pencils, but I didn't take as much time as I did Pearl of Wisdom in setting separate layers for each item. Though I am not quite where I want to be in the digital rendering realm I feel that I am getting closer but I can not forsake my first love which is black and white art. I have to admit though color adds a dimension that I want to explore.

On another note, I have committed myself to a project that will have to be done by next October. It will be a compilation of short stories, poems and of course art and most likely will be self published online. It is called the October Book and I hope that it is done in time for next October.

Note: Pearl of Wisdom both the black and white and the color version prints can be purchased at Deviant Art here and here.

Update

I have to apologize for not blogging as of late. I have been busy working on a project for work that involves me doing artwork for Halloween as well as busy doing digital painting on a pencil piece I recently finished.

I have been toying the idea of either creating a new blog for my artistic exploits or combining it with this one. If I combine them I may change the name of the blog to fit more with the theme.

This is the piece I am currently digital painting in Adobe with my Wacom. It is pencil on bristol and though I love black and white, this piece seemed to demand some color. Also with the background I have in mind it may accentuate the composition more.


Pearls of Wisdom.... by *PoeticCrow on deviantART


I have to confess that much of my digital endeavors are self taught and the coloring I am doing is rather experimental So far I am liking the results but I did commit a cardinal sin of not doing the background first and that may lead me into some trouble and may ruin the effect. So I have my fingers crossed.

Anyway, once again I apologize for the lack of updates and will get back on track soon.

Thanks

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror

Note: It is now 58 days to Halloween.


When one considers how vampires have changed over the years from their initial conception on screen one could perhaps write a social thesis on how art reflects current society. There is no denying there is a strong sexual connotation embedded in the vampire but also there is an undercurrent of eternal life by the ingestion of human blood. But all this came with a price, your soul, at least that was the how the vampire was viewed in his early incarnations. This view of the vampire was of definitive evil that craved power, longevity and in some cases a youthful appearance by preying on others. In the dark regions of Romania the vampire was repulsive with foul breath, hairy palms, pointed ears protruding fangs that did not retract. Bram Stoker mined much of this lore as well as legends of Vlad the Impaler when he penned Dracula and F. W. Murnau, in 1922, accentuated these details in his film adaption of the novel.

The history of Nosferatu is a troubled one. Names had to be changed to avoid a copyright issue because Prana Films never got the rights to the novel so Murnau and screenplay writer Henrik Galeen had to change key names. Dracula became Count Orlock and Harker became Hutter and Renfield became Knock and so on. Yet even with the changes the plot was so blatantly obvious that Stoker's widow succeeded in winning a law suit that caused Prana Films to declare bankruptcy and the majority of the prints destroyed. Yet Nosferatu survived and has been hailed by Empire Magazine as on of the top 100 films of World Cinema.

Here is a bit of interesting trivia, until Murnau's film, in legend, lore and in literature the daylight did not destroy a vampire. It was Nosferatu that incorporated this detail, even in Stoker's novel, Dracula could travel about by day but his powers were considerably weakened. Munau had to devise a method to dispose of Count Orlock and the idea came to him to have Ellen, Mina in Dracula, read the Book of Vampires and discover " a woman pure in heart must willingly give her blood to him, so that he loses track of time until the cock's first crowing." Ellen offers herself to Orlock who gorges on her until he is unaware of the coming morning and is destroyed by the sun. This has been passed down through film after film, daylight is lethal to a vampire, an example of how Hollywood can retool lore for effect.

In 1979 Werner Herzog remade Nosferatu entitled Nosferatu the Vampire. Considered by many an art film with a very creepy performance by Klaus Kinski, it follows the main plot line of the original film but doesn't disguise many of the names that Murnau's film does. Harker is Harker and Mina is Mina in Herzog's film and Kinski gives at times a sympathetic portrayal of the immense loneliness that Orlock suffers from his longevity and isolation. It is a very poetic film that ends like the Murnau film with Ellen/Mina sacrificing herself to keep the Count distracted until the morning sun destroys him. Herzog's film is a compliment to the original and personally I prefer it but much of my preference lies in the fact that it is technologically superior and gives a richer portrait of Orlock. But if it were not for the original we would not have the 1979 film and even those technical advances make it more preferable to watch, there is no denying that for its time, the 1922 Nosferatu was ahead of of the curve and its contribution to the genre cannot be denied.

In 2000, E. Elias Merhige was selected by Nicholas Cage to direct Shadow of the Vampire to be produced by his studio Saturn Films. With a script written by Steven A. Katz and a cast that included John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Udo Kier and Eddie Izzard, Merhige created a backstory to the filming of Nosferatu with Dafoe playing Max Schreck, the actor who was hired to play Orlock but there was one catch, Schreck was a real vampire. The result was a dark comedy accentuated by Malkovich ad libbing dialogue in many scenes and a performance by Dafoe that would garner him a nomination for a best supporting actor Oscar. Though the movie is loaded with black humor the ending still results in the pathos of destroying their lead actor at the cost of the films leading lady. Funny and somber the film is required viewing for anyone who has an interest in the original. Of course the movie is entirely fictitious but the atmosphere and watching Malkovich playing the obsessed Murnau as well as Dafoe playing Orlock as a sinisterly creepy but sometimes sympathetic ancient, vampire is a pleasure to watch.

The Man with the Thousand Watt Stare: Dwight Frye

It is now 59 days to Halloween and keeping with that tradition this is another continuation of Supernatural Horror and the contributions of earlier films and actors to the genre.





In 1931 when Tod Browning filmed the stage adaptation for Dracula the part of Renfield went to a relatively unknown stage and film actor Dwight Frye. Frye's portrayal of conscience conflicted servant of Dracula was at the time so mesmerizing that he became dubbed the Man with the Thousand Watt Stare. Frye portrayed Renfield as a multifaceted individual that it later became the groundwork for other actors in later film adaptations of the Lord of the Undead. At times Frye's Renfield was a sympathetic, broken man tormented by his own dementia and desire to become one of Dracula's legions by a promise by the Count that he would make him immortal but the consequences seem to cost him his very soul. But at the drop of a hat he would succumb to the lure of power and his craving for blood, whether it was insects, small animals or even human, for to him it was the gateway to immortality for as his Master claimed, "for the blood is the life." It was in these instances that Renfield's nature would turn dark and sinister, Frye's performance stealing each scene he was in and literally chewing up the scenery like a madman.




Since he gave such an intense performance as Renfield, Universal would of course capitalize upon it and Frye would be later cast in James Whale's Frankenstein as the sadistic hunchback lab assistant Fritz and again in the sequel as the lab assistant Karl in The Bride of Frankenstein. It is interesting to note that it wasn't until Son of Frankenstein that Bela Lugosi himself played the hunchback with the iconic name Ygor. Though Lugosi's performance as the embittered hunchback with the broken neck is one of his finest, it is Frye who comes to mind at the mention of Ygor. Perhaps in a small ironic way, the servant surpassed the Master.

In each role Frye delivered characterizations of either tormented souls or characters that danced on the lunatic fringe. As a results of his performances being so convincing he was typecast in Hollywood but on Broadway he starred in what he really wanted Hollywood to notice, comedies. Sadly though he did not live long enough for Hollywood to take notice for him to make that transition, he died of a heart attack at the age of 44.

Through the years though Frye status has been somewhat elevated by Alice Cooper's song "The Ballad of Dwight Fry" (without the final e).




Here is a very nice video created by "The Smiling Shadow" on youtube. A montage of clips from Dracula set to Mad World.