EMPS: Painted Faces

For Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #94: Faces, I'm going to stay away from real live faces, and show you faces drawn or painted by better artists than I. It's a chance to focus in on specific detail from the paintings, drawings and prints we have here at Casa Blocher, the Museum of the Weird.



Let's start with one of the Eleven faces of the Doctor, the hero of my favorite tv series, Doctor Who. This is the Eighth Doctor, as portrayed by actor Paul McGann and drawn in pastels by a young artist named Ruben, um, I don't remember his last name for sure. I think it was Serra or Serna or something like that. He was in our Doctor Who club in the mid-1990s. I bought this large portrait of the Doctor at our local sf convention, TusCon, that year.



Here is a different photo and edit of the same subject. The first one shows the textures of the canvas and the pastel chalk and probably a good bit of dust. This second one smooths away all that with an "Auto De-Noise" filter. I dusted the portrait before rehanging it.



An even more fanciful piece of original art is our painting by bandleader Xavier Cugat. It's full of stylized, silly faces. I especially like the serene face of the patient. If I had this team of doctors about to poke me with a giant fork, I'd be worried! Cugat apparently churned out a number of near-identical paintings of scenes like this.



Aside from a tiny sketch of Uncle Scrooge by Carl Barks, the last of our original pieces of professional art involving faces is this pencil sketch of King Hubert from Disney's 1959 animated classic Sleeping Beauty, drawn by legendary animator Marc Davis. The comic irritation on his face reminds me of Donald Duck when the nephews are driving him crazy.



I also photographed a stylized chef's face on a barbeque tray, the face of a mod Barbie on a doll case, and faces of tikis and parrots from a Disneyland attraction poster. But let's close this entry with one of my many attempts to photograph a rather bizarre but popular art print of a bygone era, the famous Green Lady. It's actually titled Chinese Woman, a 1950 painting by the Russian-born, South African artist Vladimir Tretchikoff. I used one of our vintage lamps to light this particular shot, so it came out much more yellow-orange than the actual print is. But yes, her face is green, specifically blue-green. The Green Lady takes a bit of getting used to, but I like the curves of her somber face and the strange and exotic colors of the piece.

Karen

Round Robin: Resolutions and Revolutions

It's time for the Round Robin Photo Challenge again, and this one challenges the brain as much as the camera. For the topic "Camera Resolutions," Steven asks us to devise three new Round Robin topics for the new year, and photograph one of them.

But I've been feeling rather bereft of ideas recently, and as of 8 PM had no clue what to photograph. I even took a nap, literally hoping to dream up something. My dreams this morning were haunted by Bruce Campbell, of all people; but my evening nap brought me no dreams at all. So I did what I usually do in these situations. I went to Safeway. Here is what I came up with:

Camera Resolution #1: Fabulous Faces. I resolve to photograph more faces in 2009.

Cliff (anime, sf and Hitchcock fan, DVD collector, joker) smiles for the camera.

Here is my friend Cliff from Safeway, obligingly posing for this Challenge. I very seldom photograph people except at church, and that is usually a group shot or from a distance or both. John doesn't want to be photographed, because he likes his privacy. But I'm not so much of a hermit that I can't find anyone to photograph. I just need to be braver and more outgoing, and make more of an effort. So let's have a challenge that's specifically about photographing faces. I need the practice!

Camera Resolution #2: Safety First. I resolve to photograph things designed to keep us safe.

Multiple safety devices can't prevent people from driving like jerks.

Our everyday lives are full of warning labels, highway safety devices, childproof packaging, and on and on, all meant to keep us from doing something stupid and consequently being killed or injured. Some of it is vital, some merely silly. Let's photograph some of these sentinels of our health and safety. In this case, we have several on display: a speed bump, a street lamp and safety reflectors, not to mention the light of my car's headlights! Some people have no regard for such efforts, though. As I slowed down to photograph this speed bump, a guy honked at me and passed me on the left, speeding past at 30 MPH or more in a residential zone at night. I sometimes drive that fast in my neighborhood, but I wouldn't zoom past someone at a speed bump to do it!

Camera Resolution #3: Wheels. I resolve to photograph some wheels. In fact, I've done it!

The humble shopping cart gets an upgrade.

Let's have a Challenge that all about wheels, and things on wheels. The obvious candidates for such photos are cars, trucks and buses, but there are plenty of other vehicles to photograph as well.

"Wheels" - the choice of young J.D.s everywhere.

And here's where Safeway really got my brain jumpstarted. There were some teenagers who had been harassing people in the parking lot (This was 10:45 on a Friday night), and as I was leaving the store they had come inside, dumping their bicycles just inside the double doors. And there they were: wheels, waiting to be photographed.

Attention shoppers! We've made this cart harder to steal!

But the wheels that really interested me tonight were on another vehicle entirely. Last weekend I dragged John with me to Safeway, and he became fascinated with the new (or newly refurbished) shopping carts there. Each cart has a notice that if you try to take it beyond one of the yellow lines at the edge of the parting lot, the wheel will lock.

How does this work, exactly?

John was dubious. After we unloaded the groceries he examined our cart, even turning it upside down for a closer look at each wheel. He saw no evidence that the "boot" over one wheel was capable of moving to lock the wheel, or any other mechanism that would allow the cart to prevent theft as claimed. He was all for giving a practical demonstration, but I managed to talk him out of it.

Wheels of the future? Maybe! They don't squeak, anyway.

Now let's see everyone else's Photo Resolutions! And remember, you're welcome to join in, too. See the Round Robin blog for details.

Karen

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