Vintage PTO article- Obituary for Roy Scheider (Feb 2008)

I have been inspired from finding an old article I did for the PTO (Please Take One) magazine back in 2008, to do some drawings. But here is the article, in its entirity, that gave an unique inspiration point for today's drawings.

 

Obituary

Roy Scheider

1932-2008

“You're gonna need a bigger boat,” is the most memorable line from one of the most famous blockbusters of 1970s, which was Jaws, which brought Steven Spielberg into the public conscience as a director. Also, for the actor Roy Scheider, one of his most memorable roles as Police Chief Martin Brody, who is responsible for making sure his hometown of Amity is protected from the infamous white shark.

Roy Scheider was a memorable actor of his generation. With roles in such films like The French Connection, All That Jazz, and Marathon Man, he will be remembered for his roles in some of the most popular films of the 1970s.

Born as Roy Richard Scheider in the US state of New Jersey in 1932, he was more of a sportsman than an actor in his youth, competing in baseball and boxing (the latter gave him his distinguished broken nose during one of his competitions.) However, he eventually became interested in acting during his time at college, as he studied drama. After a military stint, he returned to acting with the New York Shakespeare Festival, and eventually won an “Obie Award” for his role for the play Stephen D.

His silver screen debut came in the form of the lead role in the 1964 horror movie, The Curse of the Living Corpse. This lead to unaccredited roles in two movies in 1968: The Julie Andrews musical “Star!” and the Emmy nominated sports comedy Paper Lion. However, his breakthrough role came in the form of Frank Ligourin in the 1971 thriller Klute, starring Jane Fonda, and Donald Sutherland. He became Oscar nominated for his supporting role in the Oscar-winning The French Connection, with starred Gene Hackman, and directed by William Friedkin, who would go on to do The Exorcist (Scheider would collaborate with Friedkin again as the lead of his 1977 film Sorcerer.) Throughout the 1970s, his became well known for his roles in Jaws (and its sequel, Jaws 2), Marathon Man, and received another Oscar nomination for his role in All That Jazz. During the 1980s, he was appearing in all sorts of films highlighting his versatility as an actor. These include being a pilot in Blue Thunder, a scientist in 2010, the sequel to “2001: A Space Odyssey”, and even a hit man in Cohen and Tate.

During the 1990s, he became known to a new generation of people with his role as Captain Nathan Bridger in the TV series SeaQuest DSV, which ran for three series. He even appeared in the 1991 David Cronenberg film, Naked Lunch. However, his career took a nosedive during the late 1990s and 2000s as he kept appearing in B-movies, from The Peacekeeper to Red Serpent. He also appeared in the 2004 Marvel movie of The Punisher as Frank Castle Senior, but he just was not in favour for mainstream films as he was in his heyday.

He passed away from multiple myeloma (cancer in the marrowbone) in early February 2008 in the US state of Arkansas, leaving moviegoers a legacy of films spanning less than five decades. Although, people say that actors should never work with children and animals, but Roy Scheider did work with one “animal” in particular, and that got him the lead role in one of the most successful films of the 1970s…. even thou the real star was the shark himself.

Roy Scheider, Actor,

Born 10 November 1932, New Jersey, USA

Died 10 February 2008, Arkansas, USA

Do a Drawing Every Day_ Day 2_ Quick Hand Sketch

This a quick life drawing sketch of my left hand to work out the position of the hands for my character sketch.

Post a Drawing a Day_Day 2_Marching Character Sketch

This sketch was a character sketch based on yesterday's colour study. I wanted to add some realism to the pose of the arms.
But I made the neck on that character too fat...or have I forgot to add any shoulder space from the neck?

Post a Drawing Every Day- Day 2- From Sketch to Final Logo Design

Pencil Sketches of Logo Design

I needed to design a logo, as part of a recent scheme to promote myself as a freelance graphic designer. So I sketched out some ideas on pencil, pen, and paper. I wanted a simple design for my logo, as less is more- I also didn't have a lot of time to toy with loads of ideas- and I like the idea of using my 'stage name' to promote myself as a designer. So this explains why I went for my initials to make a stand out. I was also toying with the concept of an artist's signature - something I rarely use professionally- which explains why the initials are joined like that. 

Initial Ideas for Logo Designs

I then went into my art package of choice, and toyed around the logo design with different fonts. These were the contenders, which I thought could work as a distinctive logo.

Finalised Layout for Logo Design

I went for this combination, as I like the unique quality of the font for the initials, and I thought the simplicity of the font for the name would stand. I also realised that at this stage, when uploading my designs for this entry that this stood out, as the black colour for the bottom text made it easy to read when it was shrunk in a thumbnail. 

Colour choice for Logo Design

Another Colour Choice for Logo Design

Shame I had to colour the background in black, and toy with the colours for the fonts! Oh well, I then settled for a set colour...

Alternative Take on Final Design

... But I wanted to 'Auto Smart-Fix' it, just to see what it look like...

Final Design for Logo

...before I settled for the original colour choice. 

So what have I learned from doing this? I really should check how the logo design looks at each stage, by looking at them from the various thumbnails on my browser. I have no excuse not to do so, with all of the options my browser, Vista, provides!



Oh well, I will have to wait the outcome of the first phase of the selection of the other proposals being sent to see whether I have made a dramatic mistake in my logo, or from another aspect of proposal, like my profile, has let me down. I might even get some success from doing this. So who knows...?

R.I.P. Robert F. Boyle

R.I.P. Robert F. Boyle

Art direction, and production design, aren't always the most celebrated aspects within film-making. But Boyle's work include two celebrated Hitchcock films (North by Northwest, and The Birds) amongst his impressive CV of films, from over half a century, should make him a celebrated individual in his craft.

Should be worth a look to check out some recent documentaries he appeared in, like Something's Gotta Give, and the recently completed When the World Breaks, to get a better idea of his work.

Post a Painting/Drawing every day- Day 1- Kraftwerk Colour Study

I recently joined a group, in which former acquaintances from my University days are attempting to keep up with whatever area of drawing you want to do (from rough to finalised digital works, for example.)

Kraftwerk Colour Study

I was inspired from the recent documentary, Synth Britannia, I wanted to do something that involved the imagery of Kraftwerk, one of the major influential acts for the British electronic music scene (Human League, Depeche Mode, et al.)

I was inspired to do something from the footage of them marching in sync. Although the perspective, overlapping, and static poses don't give that much of a marching effect.

I also haven't toyed with traditional colour in a long time. So I got out some pastels to mainly get the block colours down over the simple pencil sketch I drew.

Waste not, want it | Blog | Design Week

Waste not, want it | Blog | Design Week

These are some pretty imaginative ways of 'recycling' everyday items.