Cruella de Vil

It's kind of fitting to have a post with Cruella de Vil on Halloween.

She is one of the best villains in film history, and she is Marc Davis's final animation assignment at Disney. I asked Marc way back: "How could you leave animation after having done such a strong statement with Cruella?"

He just said:"It was time to move on, and Disneyland gave me many new challenges."

I still wonder though how Marc might have influenced films like "Sword in the Stone" or "Jungle Book" if he had stayed in the animation department.

I put together some great pre production art, that shows the development of Cruella. Milt Kahl once told me that he thought Marc would do fantastic drawings right from the start, when designing a new character. He himself would have to struggle and draw a lot of bad stuff before finding what he wanted.

These early drawings still show an influence by the "101 Dalmatians" book illustrations. Those were done by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone.

Original book illustration

Eventually Marc found his own distinctive style for continued development.

He experimented with different hair styles and fur coat designs.

This is a key drawing from an experimental scene.

Character actress Mary Wicks provided live action reference for Cruella.

These are keys from a production scene, where Cruella throws a bottle with booze into a fireplace in an effort to scare Jasper and Horace. As it turns out she scares herself quite a bit, too.

Look at how graphic and gutsy Marc draws her in this scene. Some of those faces are completely crazy, insane and wonderful!

He once told me: "Maybe I went a bit too far with Cruella's caricature, she kind of stands out from the rest of the cast." I immediately responded: "No way, perhaps

the other animators should have shown more "Avant Garde" in their design."

The color model cel Marc is holding in the photo.

Cruella de Vil is a creation for the ages. Color stylist Walt Peregoy said: "There 

will never be a character like Cruella!"

I say, let's admire and look at her as a challenge to match. All we need is top story material like Bill Peet's, a way out character design with animation that is rooted in realistic observation. 

Oh yes, and -to quote Milt- the determination to have super high standards.

Landscape with Ascanius shooting the Stag of Sylvia

The Ashmolean Museum's exhibition Claude: The Enchanted Landscape, which I looked round yesterday, provides a good opportunity to compare the artist's drawings and sketches.  A preparatory sketch for Claude's last painting, Ascanius shooting the Stag of Sylvia, shows the foreground figures standing out from their background and Ascanius (the son of Aeneas) just left of centre.  Trees, portico and people are all on a more realistic, less monumental scale.  In the painting, as Martin Sonnabend and Jon Whiteley point out in the catalogue, 'everything has been suffused with an air of fantasy.  The hunters are impossibly elongated - Ascanius, in particular, is absurdly top-heavy - but even they are overwhelmed by the landscape, lit by a silvery sky, which arches over them and recedes far back into the blue, snow-capped hills.'

Claude Lorrain, Ascanius shooting the Stag of Sylvia, 1682

Source: Wikimedia Commons

I was curious to compare the two figures of Ascanius directly and so had a play on Photoshop, as you can see below.  It would seem facile to say this shows Claude could have painted more naturalistic figures if he'd wanted to, but the point is worthwhile because contemporaries criticised this aspect of his painting and Claude himself reportedly joked that when he sold his landscapes he threw the figures in for nothing.  Of course the figures in Ascanius shooting the Stag of Sylvia can't be seen in isolation (or cut out from their setting); the painting's harmonius colours and soaring forms combine to convey a legendary time and place, dreamed from the poetry of Virgil.  Goethe summed up the nature of landscapes like this in 1829, when he said that Claude's paintings 'possess the highest truth, but no trace of reality.' 

Dream Suzuki Kizashi

Dream Suzuki Kizashi

Dream Lamborghini Diablo

Dream Lamborghini Diablo

Dream Lamborghini Paint Tribal

Dream Lamborghini Paint Tribal

ENGLISH BONFIRE NIGHT---CHOICE OF LOCATIONS

      BONFIRE NIGHT    Conversation with Tallpaul Shelton



ALL OVER THE AREA----FIREWORKS SHOWS---IN THE ENGLISH COUNTRY SIDE. ALL PART OF GUY FAWKES BONFIRE NIGHT. T-P

CLICK HERE TO SEE VARIOUS FIREWORKS TIMES AND PLACES IN CELEBRATING GUY FAWKES DAY WITH ITS BONFIRE ON NOVEMBER 5TH.

http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/9327589.Herefordshire_firework_displays_2011/?ref=fbsend

A FEW OF THE LOCATIONS WILL SHOOT ON THE 4TH SO CHECK CLOSELY AS TO THE DATE:  HEREFORD; KINGSTON; EWYAS HAROLD; LEOMINISTER; LEDBURY; WEOBLEY; MORDIFORD; AND BREINTON JUST TO MENTION A FEW OF THE LOCATIONS.


AMERICAN VALOR 500 GRAM GRAND FINALE





TSUNAMI WAVE 500 GRAM GRAND FINALE




HIGH ROLLER AERIAL MULTI-FIRER














http://www.sheltonfireworks.com/                         web site
http://www.sheltonfireworks.com/catalog.html    online catalog
http://sheltonfireworks.blogspot.com/                     312 blogs on fireworks
http://www.youtube.com/sheltonfireworks            video clips
http://www.youtube.com/thesheltonfireworks       more video clips
sheltonp@hotmail.com                                            authors e-mail

The Valley of the Ladies

"Do not hold back," I cried, "I beg you, by Zeus and by Eros himself!  It will give me all the more pleasure if your tale is indeed like fiction."
And with these words, I took him by the hand and led him to a neighbouring grove, where the plane trees grew thick and plentiful, and the water flowed by cool and clear, just as it comes from freshly melted snow.  I sat him down there on a low bench, and sat myself next to him.
"Well, it is time to hear your story," I said, "A setting such as this is delightful, and just right for erotic fiction."

- Achilles Tatius, Leucippe and Clitophon, Book 1, 2nd century CE (trans. Tim Whitworth)

What is the best kind of landscape in which to listen to a story?  I suppose it may vary according to genre, as Achilles Tatius implies, but a grove like the one Clitophon is led to, a locus amoenus of comfort, privacy and natural beauty, would seem ideal.  Here landscape is a gentle backdrop, not a distraction or a subject for discourse itself.  In Plato's Phaedrus Socrates is taken to a similar location, but makes a point of reminding Phaedrus as they walk there: 'I am a lover of knowledge, and the men who dwell in the city are my teachers, and not the trees or the country.'  He is nevertheless very pleased with the quiet location they find by the cooling water of the Ilissus, 'full of summer sounds andscents. Here is this lofty and spreading plane-tree, and the agnuscastus high and clustering, in the fullest blossom and the greatestfragrance; and the stream which flows beneath the plane-tree isdeliciously cold to the feet. Judging from the ornaments and images,this must be a spot sacred to Achelous and the Nymphs. How delightful isthe breeze:--so very sweet; and there is a sound in the air shrill andsummerlike which makes answer to the chorus of the cicadae. But thegreatest charm of all is the grass, like a pillow gently sloping to thehead. My dear Phaedrus, you have been an admirable guide.'

John William Waterhouse, A Tale from the Decameron, 1916

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The history of literature is full of frame stories but the most famous to be set in a locus amoenus is surely The Decameron.  In fact Boccaccio's ten young Florentines find refuge from the plague in three such locations: two gardens, described on the first and third days, and then a garden-like landscape, The Valley of the Ladies, which they explore on the sixth.  Despite being outside the protecting walls of country villa, this valley has the essential element of seclusion - the only means of entry is a narrow path, beside which flows a clear stream.  The valley floor is so circular it seems to have been drawn with compasses, 'though it seemed the work of nature', and the valley's sides are terraced like a natural amphitheatre.  Vines and fruit trees grow on the south side, thick trees on the north.  The stream feeds a tiny lake so transparent that you can count the stones in it.  On discovering it the ladies are unable to resist a swim, the water concealing 'their chaste white bodies no better than a thin sheet of glass would conceal a pink rose.'  You can well imagine one of them echoing the words of Achilles Tatius, "a setting such as this is delightful, and just right for erotic fiction."  And it is on a grassy spot by this lake that they resume their storytelling the following day.

Standing at the Cliff Edge

I am loving this Poncho! I bought it from the lovely Sara from Pandora's Box. I always find that it is harder for us in the UK to find similar brands such as Mink Pink and Free People. All these Californian blogs have not only got me craving sun but also their brands as well!



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Challenge #12 sponsored by Sew Many Cards

Goodmorning all ;o)
Only 60 days to go before it is Christmas, so time to start with your Christmas cards, if you haven't started already! We have a great sketch this week, so maybe you like to join us these two weeks and win a awesome prize ... This time our sponsor is Sew Many Cards  

Prineville — August 22, 2011 —
A Prefect UnionThe partnership forms a marketing alliance between Sew Many Cards and Stryders List features include an online data base of crafters locally and online as well as a crafting database of local events all over the United States. Both companies provide an array of services for the crafter in everyone! Sew Many Cards announced today that they are joining together with Stryders List by making handmade crafts and selling them to help raise money for special needs children and their families who need help paying for medical costs and/or therapy.

Donate your finished projects to Stryders List
“Crafting is therapeutic in itself, and when you are making something to donate for a great cause, that's a feeling you can't explain,” said Tera, director of Stryders List. “Crafters, especially paper crafters, seem to always have a surplus of cards or other handmade projects they have made lying around, this gives them a source to send their projects to and also help people who really could use some extra finances.”
Finished projects are going up for sale at the Sew Many Cards Shop:
http://www.shop.sewmanycards.com where the money for these items will be donated to a predetermined family each quarter. All proceeds of the digital stamps will go towards the maintenance of the site and advertising. Rest assured that when you donate an item to Stryders List, it will be going toward a good cause.
“Stryders List helped me raise over $50 in just a couple of hours,” said T-mobile, senior manager, Warren. “It was enough to get my son one more therapy session.”

And now for some little inspiration, here are the cards the Design Team made for you as samples ;o) You can click on the names and you go straight to their personal blogs to see the details about their cards ;o) They love to recieve your comments ...This week's sketch is made by Betina and you can find that sketch at the end of this post. Please do not post it on your blog but link to our blogpost. Thank you ;o)  Made by Betina

Made by Renata

Made by Wilma

Made by Carol

Made by Claire

Made by Janneke

Made by Linda

Made by Marion

Made by Monique

Made by Nicole

And our lovely Guest Designers

Made by Annemarie en Merit

Made by Dina

Here is the sketch that Betina made for you this time ;o) You can rotate the sketch and resize the elements, as long as you follow the original sketch and use a stamped image or digistamp, that way your entry qualifies for the prize draw. To join the challenges and to be eligible for the prize made ​​available by the sponsor of that challenge, we have a few rules. You can find them here.

  

We hope to see a lot of beautiful cards again. 

So take your Christmaspapers and stamps out and make a card!

Enjoy!!