Raspberry Ice, Cakes & Tea-Bert&Fox

 

 

"A face in the picture would bother me, so I'd rub it out with the turpentine and do it over." -Norman Rockwell

Bert's face bothered me so I did it again and added the great Milt Kahl fox. I didn't like that the first Bert had no interaction with anything and kind of stared out to nowhere. This is a much better and more playful scene. When I'm working on art pieces and I get really discouraged I will look up quotes from people like Norman Rockwell, Pablo Picasso and Walt Disney. Some of Norman Rockwell's and Picasso's are my favorites.

Mary Poppins Update

I'm working away on this lovely piece so I decided to update. I asked the Walt Disney Archives if I could have the Mary Poppins figure back, if they weren't doing anything with her, and they graciously told me I could. I don't live too far away from the studio but it took four hours to get there and back because of holiday traffic! But the funny thing was I came home and ripped her head, legs, arms and hat off because the anatomy was all wrong. Believe it or not, the trip to get her was worth it. Starting from scratch would have taken at least a week and a half and having some time away from her I was able to recognize right away what was off with her (and a little embarrassed I gave her to Disney like that). So this is her all shiny and new with better proportions. I finished the Willow tree and I'm still working on Bert in the Chimney scene surrounded by kites because he is a jack-of-all-trades in the movie. He's a Screever, Kite Seller, Chimney Sweep and One-man Band. The hardest thing about doing these is their faces. I do major face studies of both Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke (Bert's face study shown. Pencil on heavy paper) and study work done by Milt Kahl. I want people to recognize there faces in a familiar way and love them like they did the characters in the movie. I spent hours on faces for both Mary and Bert and they ended up in the trash. It's really discouraging when this happens but I keep telling myself that I have never regretted re-doing the faces of my figures so that encourages me.