Monday Artday: shakespeare

Posted by on

The current challenge on the Monday Artday illustration blog is “Shakespeare”.
Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford - BACK OFF!
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio. Alas and alack! Arm’d to do as sworn to do, so doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle. O, if I had such a tire, this face of mine hath stir’d up their servants to an act of rage. All are punishèd, for hither oftentimes upbraided me withal. There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice, in her discourses after supper, full of poise and difficult weight. I want more uncles here to welcome me. Exeunt.

…or something like that.

(Thanks to THIS GUY for the copy.)

Comments

comments

IF: hollow

Posted by on

The illustrationfriday.com challenge word this week is “hollow”.
He's an odd looking fellow! He's a startling apparition!
“In this by-place of nature, there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane; who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, “tarried”, in Sleepy Hollow, for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity. He was a native of Connecticut; a State which supplies the Union with pioneers for the mind as well as for the forest, and sends forth yearly its legions of frontier woodsmen and country schoolmasters. The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock, perched upon his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.”
— The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (1820)

Comments

comments

IMT: cheeks

Posted by on

The word of inspiration on Inspire Me Thursday is “cheeks”.
you're the chairman of the board
When Harpo Marx was a kid in New York, he perfected “The Gookie” — his signature, sure-fire, laugh-getting face. Harpo worked “The Gookie” into every comedy act and movie for his entire career. The face — involving the puffing of the cheeks, the crossing of the eyes and a fat, lolling tongue sticking out of the mouth — had its beginnings in an unusual spot.

Gookie rolled cigars in a storefront on Lexington Avenue. Harpo was fascinated by this man. He was stocky, with skin the color of the cigar leaves he rolled. He wore elastic bands around his dirty shirt sleeves to keep them from interfering in his work. While he worked, he unconciously made the face. Harpo would stand and stare for hours, making mental notes with which to perfect the “Gookie” face. Harpo would then go home and practice making the face in the mirror. One day he felt he had it down perfectly. He stood in front of ther cigar store window and rapped on the glass. When the annoyed cigar roller looked up, Harpo “threw him a  Gookie”. He became enraged. His anger caused him to make the face with even more intensity. This was the reaction Harpo was looking for. Harpo taunted Gookie with his own face for years.

Harpo credits Gookie for inspiring his acting career.

Comments

comments