TV SKETCHING: 2013/2014

Here’s a roundup of TV sketching done in 2013/2014 that I’ve not yet posted here in this blog. These sketches of PRIS from BLADE RUNNER, were among the earliest drawings I ever did with my left hand that I actually began to like. I’d avoided drawing for the better part of 2013, because my crude left-handed efforts would rock my already pounded optimism, and remind me of a cherished ability that I’d just lost. Then, in August/September 2013, I finally sucked it up, and began to draw with my left hand in earnest when Julia and I began sketching from the TV. Starting our drawing sessions with paused images from old faves like BLADE RUNNER.

BladeRunner_Pris1

I revisited these early lefties in late 2014, adding a watercolour wash which clarified my hesitant and spidery line. In hindsight, choosing frames from BLADE RUNNER to relearn to draw had a double personal significance, because this film was originally released in another threshold year for me; 1982. I’d just moved to the Big City from the country to start work as an inbetweener, and while it was immensely exciting to enter the industry I’d aspired to since childhood, triumph was infused with tragedy as I went back to my hometown each weekend to be with my terminally ill mother.

Although BLADE RUNNER is now considered a science fiction movie classic and influenced decades of movie production design, my memory is that it wasn’t popular when it was released, though adored by we sci-fi types.

BladeRunner_Pris2

Perhaps the reason for BLADE RUNNER’s underwhelming performance that year is simply that in 1982 so many films competed for the box office dollar: TOOTSIE, BEASTMASTER, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, DARK CRYSTAL, E.T. THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, FIRST BLOOD, POLTERGEIST, THE WRATH OF KHAN, TRON, WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, THE THING, SOPHIE’S CHOICE, DINER, DEAD MEN DON’T WEAR PLAID and GHANDI to name a few. If you wanted to take your mind off your troubles, 1982 was a great year to use movies as the distraction, and I spent many week nights at the cinema to escape.

Ironically, all these many years later, rewatching those escapist movies from 1982 brings vividly back to life that complicated mix real-world feelings I sought to hide from that year. BLADE RUNNER has trapped in amber that mix of contradictory emotions, not just because it reminds me of my own triumph and tragedy of 1982, but because of its plotline of hidden emotion and imminent death in a fantastic city.

Goldfinger_1

This is supposed to be Sean Connery from the 1964 film GOLDFINGER (although I’ve accidentally drawn him wearing David Byrne’s too-big 1980s suit). The line-drawing was started back in September 2013, and since then I’ve reworked the drawing a few times, adding detail, and finally watercolouring it just this month. It was while drawing this sketch that I began thinking about watching the JAMES BOND movies when I was a child, leading to a blog post in October 2013. A tuxedoed Sean Connery smoking a ciggie in a night club is one of those iconic 1960s images, like Marlon Brando astride a motorbike was to the 1950s, or a rifle-toting cowboy John Wayne was to the 1940s.

When the BOND movies hit in the early 1960s, Britain had only just recovered from its postwar rationing and life among bombed-out WW2 ruins. Though a victor in WW2, Britain was left essentially bankrupt, and learned that it was not the power it once was. The 1960s BOND films (and the 1950s BOND books before them) took place in exotic locales that the average Briton wouldn’t afford to visit till the 1970s, and reassured them that although British influence appeared to have gone, secretly Britain still pulled the strings that made the world operate (and  secretly its cars were still cool, and secretly its gadgets actually worked).

Goldfinger_2

Just as we now, with the advantage of hindsight, see 1950s Hollywood monster/alien invasion films as America processing its Cold War fears, the 1960s Bond films seem now to represent Britain grappling with diminished global political relevance and the sting of Empire gone forever. The suave, elegant, and deadly BOND spanked a variety of anxiety-inducing types (conniving lefties, oily continentals, scary ladies, cat lovers, and judo dudes) while offering condescending help to the current world policeman, the USA. BOND’s relationship to Felix Leiter and the CIA is a variation on Sherlock Holmes’ relationship with Lestrade and Scotland Yard; the USA gets the credit but we know that Britain has really solved the case behind the scenes. (“Couldn’t have done it without ya, James”).

The British power fantasy in the BOND films caught on globally and played a part in the 1960s “British Invasion” of popular culture, ironically making Britain internationally relevant again via its own fantasies, compensations and yearnings. Though the political clout of Britain was reduced, its cultural clout was perhaps even stronger than before.

17 thoughts on “TV SKETCHING: 2013/2014”

  1. Love the way you write and draw James. Your ability to communicate the substance of the story with interesting information, thoughts and opinions is tempered with your humour which makes your pieces so delightful to read. Thanks.

    Reply
    • Thanks so much. In the past few years I have gotten a lot of fun (and a good deal of comfort) in writing, and it is gratifying to hear that you enjoy it too.

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