Archive for January, 2009

Jan 09 2009

The Duchess of Malfi

Well, I quite enjoyed the dress rehearsal for ASP’s Duchess of Malfi. It was much more polished than I expected from a dress rehearsal. The action was only stopped once, and that was for a technical glitch of some kind. The main difference actually had to do with the lack of normal “theater ettiquette” — the audience, which was basically all production people, would (quietly) make various comments, laugh when anything odd happened (intentional or not), eat snacks… and in my case, pull out a laptop and use it to draw when the lights went low.

The play itself is a bit of a mixed bag. The story mostly revolves around people doing horrible things to each other, but some of the characters are pretty interesting. ASP’s rendition is full of really dramatic and creepy imagery. This is one of their more visual productions, with fairly elaborate lighting and costume design, and a stage/set that has a nice instant visual impact. It’s set up a bit like the ART Romeo & Juliet I didn’t like from a few years back (the stage is long and narrow with audience seating on both sides); but here the acoustics work much better, and they seem to do a better job of blocking and lighting it so it doesn’t feel 2-dimensional. The performances were all rock-solid, with none that especially jumped at me as being better or worse than the others. Which is a good thing.

Here are a few of the better sketches I did. I wish I could’ve captured more of the lighting, but so it goes. There may be some minor spoilers, so I’ll keep most of the drawings behind the cut.

ASP’s The Duchess of Malfi - sketches by Gareth Hinds ASP’s The Duchess of Malfi - sketches by Gareth Hinds

ASP’s The Duchess of Malfi - sketches by Gareth Hinds

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Jan 06 2009

More Merchant, more ASP

Published by under shakespeare,sketchbook

Okay, I finally finished the proto-animated capsule version of The Merchant of Venice, from my sketches of ASP‘s performance a few months ago. I waited too long, so my memory of the costumes and the blocking is a little hazy, but I think this is fairly accurate.

Also, I’m very excited because they’re going to let me come and draw at their dress rehearsals — so come back later this week for a preview of The Duchess of Malfi (their first non-Shakespeare production).

Merchant of Venice mini-animation

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Jan 04 2009

Tough guy bus sketch

Published by under sketchbook

I’m on a roll! It’s not really a New Year’s resolution, it’s just that when I finally get around to scanning stuff from my sketchbook, I keep seeing things I want to post. So I figure I should queue a few up at once.

Here’s a sketch I liked, of a young African-American guy who was sitting across from me on the bus. (On the top are some little compositional doodles and a few random Odyssey notes.)

Tough-looking teenager on the bus

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Jan 03 2009

Good dogs

Published by under animals,sketchbook

I recently met, and sketched, some very adorable and well-behaved dogs.

Elvis the dog

Elvis the dog 2

Bailey the hypo-allergenic dog

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Jan 02 2009

Doodle

Published by under sketchbook

I rarely scan or post these, but here’s an example of the sort of thing I doodle when I’m on the phone or otherwise partially occupied, and my hands get bored.

A random doodle on yellow paper

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Jan 01 2009

More from the car

Published by under sketchbook,travel

Here are some more car sketches, from a previous trip (featuring my lovely fiancee) –

Alison driving

quick thumbnail views from the car

More car sketches (these drawn with white pencil)

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