I GO TO THE HUNTINGTON

Above, a portrait by Ramsey from the Huntington Library in Pasadena. I just visited there and I thought you might like to see what I found. 

I'll start with the exterior, above. This was the house of 19th Century railroad tycoon, Henry Huntington. It's an art museum now. There's a few buildings like this on the estate and collectively they're called The Huntington Library. 

Outside are rambling gardens of different types. This one (above) is clearly patterned after pictures by Fragonard, though you can't get a sense of that from this photo. Wait a sec, let me grab another picture... 

Okay, there! That's (above) the kind of garden it was. And yes, there really are trees like that. 

The centerpiece of the gardens is a small valley containing a Japanese garden. I'm guessing that the gardens are more costly to maintain than the buildings.

Inside the house we get an insight into Huntington's personality by seeing what he chose to collect. Near the door, in a place of honor, is a portrait of James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine.  Good for Huntington! He made his fortune on steam power and he honors the man who made it possible.

The caption on the wall says that Watt's friends thought the likeness was striking, but they remembered him as being much more jovial than he appears here.

Also in a place of honor is this well-known portrait (above) of Samuel Johnson. I'm assuming that Huntington accessed Johnson mainly through Boswell's biography. Imagine that...a rough and tumble railroad guy who found Boswell's book to be useful and inspiring.

Here's (above) Mrs. Huntington. After her husband died she became the richest woman in the world. I was hoping her portrait would convey a haughty attitude,  a "Who let you in here? Did you wipe your feet?"-type expression but no,  she looks like she was a nice person.

The Huntington houses Gainsborough's "The Blue Boy." Gainsborough used to brag that he got his backgrounds from still lifes of broccoli and blankets.

The picture's much parodied in America and the boy's often portrayed as a fop. That's not really fair. The kid looks perfectly manly to me, he's just wearing an outrageous costume that that nobody at the time realized was outrageous. 

 

I wish I could remember whose bust this was. We both have the Fitzgerald nose.

Ouch!

Boy, there sure are a lot of naked people here.

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P.S. I just received a comment from K. Marinov on the 7/30/12 post, CAVES IN THE CLOUDS. Marinov sez:

I was doing a Google image search for "cloud caverns" because I flew through one on March 7, 2008, but was too awestruck to reach for my cell camera (that wouldn't have done it any justice anyway). These paintings are all that I could find.

The cloud cavern I saw was on a flight from Odessa, TX to Houston, TX in the pre-dawn hours. I could see daybreak beginning in the horizon and we started flying through some clouds. A short while later, sun not up yet, we flew into a cloud cavern. I saw pillars, mountains, valleys, ceilings, and plateaus very similar to these images.

It was a dark blue/gray hue since the sun hadn't risen yet. But then, the sun rose...

ORANGE! YELLOW! PINK! RED! I WAS IN HEAVEN! I was just awestruck. I hadn't EVER seen anything like that and I now consider my life complete to have seen such a sight. Thank you for posting these pics!

MORE INTERESTING MAPS

I'll start with a Neverland map that I assume was sold at Disneyland soon after it opened. It's not all that useful as a map but it's cheery and would look good on a wall.

Here's (above) another take on Neverland. I love this poster. Black and white enhances the effect.

Above, a gangster map of Chicago.

Above, a detail.

Above, still more details.

This (above) isn't really a map. It's done by an artist who paints on maps.

Here's (above) a map showing the progress of the Pequod as it hunted Moby Dick.

I read that the octopus (above) appears on more maps than mermaids and narwhales.

Above, Mussolini as a grasping octopus...or is it? In a comment Sir Pogalot says it's Churchill.

I wonder if this map of London (above) is still in print?

Here's (above) the world without water, committed to paper in 1690.

COMPARING IPAD DRAWING APPS

I thought I'd update my previous post about drawing apps for the iPad mini. Among the apps I use frequently now is "Paper." That's it above. I even use their stylus (see the comments for more on the stylus). I like the pen tool, which actually draws like a brush. It has a nice, fluid line and a beautiful thick and thin.

The problem is that the T&T only appears when you draw fast. If you draw normally with the same brush you get a thin, rapidograph line. That's because the stylus and the program aren't geared for pressure sensitivity. They do support the pressure sensitive Pogo Connect stylus, though comments to the support site indicate that some users aren't happy with the result.

So I start with Paper because that makes the best lines then, when I've got an idea I like, I switch to "Sketches." Sketches is similar to Pencil, but it has more features. The dot  and airbrush tools are wonderful!

I just started using the "Animation desk" program. I'll show you the doodle clips I began with when I figure out how to move them to Vimeo or YouTube.

The program has some annoying bugs.  Drawing with it is like trying to sketch with a tricycle dipped in paint. Lines drop out, become thin, colors change...there's some real stability issues here...but amazingly, even with those liabilities, the program is still a lot of fun to use...and it only costs a few bucks!

Here's (above) letters drawn with Animation Desk's fan brush and transported to Sketches for those cool halftone dots. Haw! I had no room for the "e" in "before."

Hmmmm....let me try an airbrush pass on that. Wow! It looks like a 50s jazz album.

Here's (above) a photo transported to the "Adobe Ideas" app. I haven't used this free program much so I won't comment on it. I'm still curious about "Procreate," "Sketchbook Pro," and "Art Rage." I'm also wondering about "Inspire Pro," which I think is also free. People tell me it has lots of brushes.

 Does anyone here have an opinion about which iPad drawing app has the best brushes for cartooning?

NEWSPAPER CARTOONISTS OF 100 YEARS AGO

I thought I'd show a few examples of early newspaper comics you might not have seen. This one (above) is extracted from a page by William F. Marriner. He was a terrific draughtsman and a really funny guy.

He died in 1914 at the age of 41. At first it was believed he was shot after he came home and interrupted a burglary in progress, but a neighbor quoted him as saying that if his wife didn't come home soon he'd kill himself and torch his home, which is exactly what happened.

Can you believe it? Comics strips were used to illustrate serialized books (above). We should do that today.

This comic was printed in a Sunday supplement magazine, This Week. It looks more recent than a hundred years old, but I couldn't resist including it

Imagine being a kid cartoonist and growing up with newspaper comics like this (above). I like the way this artist packs the page with art.

Above, another brilliant Sunday page by Powers.

I can't believe the comics page attracted artists of this caliber (above). Whatever happened to this guy?

Ahhh, refreshed at the fountain of Rube Goldberg (above).

Here's (above) a detail from George Herriman's "Stumble Inn." Fantagraphics says they'll publish a whole book of this strip soon.

Oh, what the heck! I 'll put up the entire Herriman page.

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BTW: All these strips were stolen from Alan Holtz's amazing blog, "Stripper's Guide." You can find a link in the right sidebar.  

BOB FOSSE CHOREOGRAPHY (PART 2)

Here's three more Fosse dances. That's Gwen Verdon above, from the film version of "Damn Yankees." There's a couple of classic Fosse moves here which Gwen didn't get right, but it doesn't matter because she projected tremendous appeal. Geez, being a star dancer is tough. In addition to knowing how to sing and dance and act, you have to somehow acquire charisma and a personal style.



Here's (above) "Rich Man's Frug" (pronounced like the fru in "frugal) from "Sweet Charity." It's not one of Fosse's best efforts but it's full of good ideas and it's an interesting clip to study. Watch it and try to answer the question, "Exactly what went wrong?" I'll take a stab at an answer.

For me there's a story problem. The dance lacks context. We need to see all this weirdness through the eyes of a character we care about. Shirley McLane should have been part of the number, an innocent clumsily trying to pass as a big city sophisticate.

Camera placement was also a problem. Fosse was a master at staging and photographing big ensemble numbers for the camera, but even he didn't pull them off 100% of the time.  Nobody does...it's the nature of the business. There's a youTube interview where Fosse talks candidly about the problem and you can see that the very mention of the subject gave him the shivers. What do you do when the public demands a home run every time you're at bat?



Here's when Fosse got it right...a big ensemble number that works flawlessly.

CHOREOGRAPHY BY BOB FOSSE (REVISED) (PART I)

NOTE: I've revised this post, and now it's in two parts. The second part follows this one).

Geez, I wanted to talk about choreography and the terms musical comedy choreographers use for dances and dance moves...terms like "the Foxy Trio" and "the Tea for Two," and words like "Terpsichore" and "Violanda." I just couldn't self-educate, even in a small way, in the short time I had. Oh, well...I'll still write about it soon, even if everything I say requires correction.

I still have choreography on my mind, though. I thought about posting about Jack Cole, an early jazz choreographer. While watching his videos I got sidetracked into watching Bob Fosse numbers again, and seeing him at his best wiped everything else from my mind. Here's three of the ones I watched. You've probably seen them before. I have, dozens of times. I'm obsessed, I know. I'm to be pitted.




Fosse was a musical comedy guy. Watch numbers he worked on like "A Secretary is Not A Toy," "Whatever Lola Wants",  "Brotherhood of Man" and the money song from Caberet to get a feeling for how he handles humor. He's great at it. It's surprising then, that he's so good at dramatic dances like the one above. Of course he sneaks humor into them.




Here's the death finale from "All That Jazz." The dark humor in it makes everything seem doubly tragic. I can't watch this without tears flowing. It's amazing that the most moving depiction of death on film was done by a dancer.

CAROL BURNETT AND JERRY LEWIS

Wow and Double Wow! Take a look at this sketch (above) from the old Carol Burnett Show. It starts out a little slow, but stay with it...it gets better. Jerry's great in it!


  
Here's Carol (above) as William Shattner. This video isn't as good as the one at the top with Jerry but it contains some great ideas. That's the problem with TV...you can have a terrific idea but you hardly ever get the time to get it right.

I'm guessing that the scene where the two girls push each other's breasts up and down was built around funny,  padded bras that were meant to stay in place in whatever direction they were pushed in. The gag didn't come off because the bras wouldn't work.



Here's Carol as Charo's mother. Haw!




And finally, Burnett's spoof of the film, "Born to Be Bad." Nice, eh?