Venus at Art & Story Blog

Venus

Published January 28th, 2007 in Character

“Venus, if you will
Please send a little girl for me to thrill
A girl who wants my kisses and my arms
A girl with all the charms of you”

—Ed Marshall (performed by Frankie Avalon)

I just saw Peter O’Toole in Venus and after many shoddy attempts to draw his caricature, I’ve arrived at the one you see here. This is as close as I get tonight. Take it or leave it. I only hope you can see a resemblance.

char02

What a tremendous performance from O’Toole and what a tremendous film! Venus is a melodrama* and a love story and one of the best damn executions of both that I have seen in a long long time. I think perhaps not enough can be said about it, and so I’m inclined not to say a thing more on the subject.

Along with this, I want to point out that this is the first post of a drawing done with the Aquash water-brush pen filled with black sumi ink (see “Little Tokyo Afternoon”). I’ve actually done a number of other sketches with it in the past couple of days, which I’ll be posting here. I’ve enjoyed inking with a brush in the past and this tool makes it that much easier. I love it!

*EDIT: Webster’s defines melodrama as “a work (as a movie or play) characterized by extravagant theatricality and by the predominance of plot and physical action over characterization.” Since Venus is characterized by characterization and not so much by the predominance of plot and physical action, I suppose it doesn’t really qualify as a melodrama. Which is probably just as well, since melodrama has some poor conotations. Anyway, it was good. Go see it. And let me know if you think Peter O’Toole should get the Oscar. I think he should, but maybe the Academy would like to set a new record. If O’Toole doesn’t win, he’ll have obtained the record for most number of best-actor nominations and no best-actor award.

2 Responses to “Venus”

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1 Jamie Jan 29th, 2007 at 9:56 am

I like this version of O’Toole the best. The eyes are better. Anyway, I don’t know why I feel so invested in O’Toole winning this Oscar. It’s odd, probably sick and Freudian. But if those potential jack-asses don’t give it to him I’m gonna be really heart-broken.
2 Lee-Roy Jan 29th, 2007 at 12:42 pm

Oh, come on! The later ones are better. Thank you, though. Your insistent dissatisfaction with my O’Toole caricature is what drove me to better ones. Those early ones were really strange.

Invested? Sick? Freudian? Hoo-ha. The best-actor award should go to the best actor or “best performance,” rather. That actor/actor’s performance is Peter O’Toole’s in Venus. Some actors play characters, some play them well, and some bring such a sense of realism that you believe they are their character completely. Of course, a good script and a good film help, too.

About Lee-Roy

I’m a Storyboard Artist and Illustrator currently in Los Angeles, where I live with my fiancée, three cats, and several colonies of ants. My earliest memory is as a three-year-old, drawing a picture. About three decades later, the picture is still being drawn. It’s one I never want to finish.