The Congress Live at the National; Nicholas Froehlich, Pen & Ink 2011

I’ve tossed up some process pics to show how it came together almost overnight.  The disaster occurred when I tried to add the watercolor onto the original ink drawing.  Somehow between the late night, early morning, india ink, and hot press watercolor stock I bought more than five years ago the lines wound up smudging as soon as I touched them.  Thanks to the new scanner, a lovely and affordable Mustek that easily accommodates 11″ x 14″ paper it is preserved for posterity as seen here.  The color above was the result of the scanned ink printed double sized onto Epson ultra-radiant watercolor stock paper with watercolor directly applied.

Bumbalon Rough Sketches, Nicholas Froehlich, Ink in Moleskine

The Congress Bumbalon Detail view 1

The Congress Bumbalon, Ink Detail, view 2

NixFlix #1: “The Killing” (1956) – Streaming on Netflix until 1/16/2012

The Killing, Watercolor Pencil & Marker, Speedpaint; Nicholas Froehlich

This great example of a noir heist film was directed by none other than Stanley Kubrick!  Its about a group of professional and would-be thieves, pugilists, and guns-for hire that endeavor to knock over a racetrack with an elaborate scheme.

The story is told out of sequence, a style now familiar but one that I’m sure held a good amount of novelty.  Not being an expert, it would seem based on the films that followed, that this was a real springboard for Kubrick.

Highlights include seeing Sterling Hayden onscreen as Johnny Clay (kept the phrase “Purity of Essence” rolling through my mind, since I caught the end of Dr. Strangelove on television last week), and he’s great as a sort of ringleader.  The white guy who drops the N bomb totally gets his, and there is an EPIC fight scene with a huge, hairy-backed Russian chess player.  Aww heck, I’ll slap that in here because it’s THAT good…

Hairy Backed Russian Fights Off A Dozen Cops

Its definitely a great example of noir, with nary a true hero to be found; and its narrative style stands tall in a tradition that heretofore includes Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Memento, and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead among many others.  I am new to this one, but I can tell already that the Kubrickian sense of detail is embedded and it’ll hold up well to multiple viewings (the use of jazz to denote sex and violence… and is the narrator a liar?) and I look forward to watching it again soon.

This speedpaint was done in two hours with water soluble drawing materials.  I used a Derwent Light Wash Sketching Pencil to rough it in (not a fan, doesn’t work well with the water), followed by my first experimentation with a cool grey Japanese water soluble TOMBOW ABT Marker.  The background was fleshed in later with a black Derwent INKTENSE soluble pencil, and there’s a touch of Pro-White for highlights and the lettering.  This scene is from a heist in The Killing, but something about it was most definitely echoed in The Dark Knight!..

‘Til next time.