Gladiator// My Journey as an Artist (and it has been a long one indeed)
What we do in life, echoes in eternity -Maximus from 'Gladiator'
(Commodus) Have I missed the battle?
(Marcus Aurelius) You have missed the war.
After reading that book I decided to watch one of my favourite movies since he kept mentioning it. Yes it's a more 'testosterone' movie nevertheless it was an amazing movie that bowled me over when I first saw it when my dad rented it and I thought: Why didn't I see this in the movies??? My favourite scenes: the first battle against the barbarians in Germania. It's the most amazing battle ever because it's so hyped and the music fits amazingly well with the action that takes place. The second scene I love is the one that was mentioned in the book- the fight that takes place in the coliseum where Maximus calls upon his fellow gladiators and asks who had served in the army and they came up with this quick plan to defeat the legionaires. When I told my mom, she was quite surprised that it wasn't some other more peaceful scene. I must admit the soundtrack really did make the movie and the set and costume designs were stunning. I loved the cold tall marble pillars with the soft billowing curtains and the grand fur capes that they all wore. Actually one piece that I absolutely adored was the helmet undefeated champion of the gladiators that Maximus eventually kills. It was a gleaming silver helmet in the shape of a tiger and when he pulled the face shield down, it was a face of a mask. It was really awesome. As for the music, I've listened to that soundtrack religiously after I first watched the movie: I'd get on the bus to go to UHS at 7:15 in the morning and listen to the entire track.
Most great adventure films have that kind of storyline: Maximus the hero is accompanied by the strong heroine (and btw, he couldn't have done it without her help and her sacrifice: her brother and her own place in the court) defeat the conniving, poisonous and jealous enemy.
Anyway those lines in the beginning of the post spoke to me. If you've watched the movie, you see that though Maximus goes from a general who was the emperor's favourite to the lowly slave to a gladiator- he is respected and loved despite his standing in the social hierarchy. His character is strong and he knows who he is and stands by his principles. Throughout the movie his sole goal is to go home. All that he has fought for was only for the desire to return to his quiet life as a farmer (extremely connected to the world: he picks up some earth prior to every fight, rubs it in his hands and smells it. Yes, it's also to prevent hands from getting sweaty) and to return to his wife and son whom we discover later on, are killed by the orders of the emperor. In the end, we know his home is where his family is: not that place he describes of that as a poplar tree and apples and fig trees which he returns to when he dies. You are home as the princess says (er can't remember her name).
Is Rome worth one good man's life? We once believed it, make us believe it again.
Reminds me of Jesus Christ.
Anyway I've been looking around the stuff in my room, and I found all these old sketch books that I actually filled and finished. Wow I used to have a long attention span. Anyway here is some of my work over the many years: starting from-hm- gr 5 and gr 6 when I lived in Hong Kong:
(From left to right. Please click for a larger image): I laugh at the first image because it's so funny looking. I have no idea who this is. Just some human I drew and started colouring in and must have realized it was the wrong shade of skin tone. The second was inspired by these chinese dancers we saw and I drew all their dresses and stuff. The third was a study of a vase and bamboo and random stuff in our HK apartment. The last depicts me and my bro and my friend Laura on one of our many walks with our parents at some reservoir drawing.
When I returned to Canada, I started taking art lessons. I didn't take pictures of my first drawings which were all flowers (studying and learning organic shapes). I copied all of these seperate pictures save the egg. The other two were from books. I copied a lot as an artist when I was younger to just learn the technique. The second picture is just a close up shot of the rose which I took pride in doing the water drops. :P
I had to draw cars which was the hardest thing I had ever done. I have little knowledge in this so if I drew the rear view window too high or too low or too tilted my teacher would correct me because of the functional and rational purposes of the car. I also started to copy images of women and started copying animals in colour pencil. I also began to look at photos and copied them in colour. Now when I look back I can see they were pretty anatomically incorrect.
So I continued to copy from photographs rather than premade sketches. They all pretty much suck the first two. The face of the first is too long and the nose isn't slanted enough. Her face for that matter is not slanted enough. The second is of Iverson (it was for a friend initially) but now I've noticed that I didn't foreshorten the face enough. I got discouraged and stopped halfway. Now looking back, all my drawings crack me up. The last was the sketch that really got me into Arts York art despite the meticulous violin sketch that I showed below.. they liked the quick gesture drawings I did of the other art students. Ai yah.
Yeah so that has been my progression of DRAWING thus far though I have also posted a watercolour I did in tribute of the Beslan tragedy here. But I'm not exactly thrilled with my acrylic painting skills either. The last was done at sucky Parsons: a life study (charcoal) that took two days to complete. I've done a lot of life drawing in UHS but most of them are rolled into heaps in my basement. Yay and I'm done my post: that took several hours.
(Commodus) Have I missed the battle?
(Marcus Aurelius) You have missed the war.
After reading that book I decided to watch one of my favourite movies since he kept mentioning it. Yes it's a more 'testosterone' movie nevertheless it was an amazing movie that bowled me over when I first saw it when my dad rented it and I thought: Why didn't I see this in the movies??? My favourite scenes: the first battle against the barbarians in Germania. It's the most amazing battle ever because it's so hyped and the music fits amazingly well with the action that takes place. The second scene I love is the one that was mentioned in the book- the fight that takes place in the coliseum where Maximus calls upon his fellow gladiators and asks who had served in the army and they came up with this quick plan to defeat the legionaires. When I told my mom, she was quite surprised that it wasn't some other more peaceful scene. I must admit the soundtrack really did make the movie and the set and costume designs were stunning. I loved the cold tall marble pillars with the soft billowing curtains and the grand fur capes that they all wore. Actually one piece that I absolutely adored was the helmet undefeated champion of the gladiators that Maximus eventually kills. It was a gleaming silver helmet in the shape of a tiger and when he pulled the face shield down, it was a face of a mask. It was really awesome. As for the music, I've listened to that soundtrack religiously after I first watched the movie: I'd get on the bus to go to UHS at 7:15 in the morning and listen to the entire track.
Most great adventure films have that kind of storyline: Maximus the hero is accompanied by the strong heroine (and btw, he couldn't have done it without her help and her sacrifice: her brother and her own place in the court) defeat the conniving, poisonous and jealous enemy.
Anyway those lines in the beginning of the post spoke to me. If you've watched the movie, you see that though Maximus goes from a general who was the emperor's favourite to the lowly slave to a gladiator- he is respected and loved despite his standing in the social hierarchy. His character is strong and he knows who he is and stands by his principles. Throughout the movie his sole goal is to go home. All that he has fought for was only for the desire to return to his quiet life as a farmer (extremely connected to the world: he picks up some earth prior to every fight, rubs it in his hands and smells it. Yes, it's also to prevent hands from getting sweaty) and to return to his wife and son whom we discover later on, are killed by the orders of the emperor. In the end, we know his home is where his family is: not that place he describes of that as a poplar tree and apples and fig trees which he returns to when he dies. You are home as the princess says (er can't remember her name).
Is Rome worth one good man's life? We once believed it, make us believe it again.
Reminds me of Jesus Christ.
Anyway I've been looking around the stuff in my room, and I found all these old sketch books that I actually filled and finished. Wow I used to have a long attention span. Anyway here is some of my work over the many years: starting from-hm- gr 5 and gr 6 when I lived in Hong Kong:
(From left to right. Please click for a larger image): I laugh at the first image because it's so funny looking. I have no idea who this is. Just some human I drew and started colouring in and must have realized it was the wrong shade of skin tone. The second was inspired by these chinese dancers we saw and I drew all their dresses and stuff. The third was a study of a vase and bamboo and random stuff in our HK apartment. The last depicts me and my bro and my friend Laura on one of our many walks with our parents at some reservoir drawing.
When I returned to Canada, I started taking art lessons. I didn't take pictures of my first drawings which were all flowers (studying and learning organic shapes). I copied all of these seperate pictures save the egg. The other two were from books. I copied a lot as an artist when I was younger to just learn the technique. The second picture is just a close up shot of the rose which I took pride in doing the water drops. :P
I had to draw cars which was the hardest thing I had ever done. I have little knowledge in this so if I drew the rear view window too high or too low or too tilted my teacher would correct me because of the functional and rational purposes of the car. I also started to copy images of women and started copying animals in colour pencil. I also began to look at photos and copied them in colour. Now when I look back I can see they were pretty anatomically incorrect.
So I continued to copy from photographs rather than premade sketches. They all pretty much suck the first two. The face of the first is too long and the nose isn't slanted enough. Her face for that matter is not slanted enough. The second is of Iverson (it was for a friend initially) but now I've noticed that I didn't foreshorten the face enough. I got discouraged and stopped halfway. Now looking back, all my drawings crack me up. The last was the sketch that really got me into Arts York art despite the meticulous violin sketch that I showed below.. they liked the quick gesture drawings I did of the other art students. Ai yah.
Yeah so that has been my progression of DRAWING thus far though I have also posted a watercolour I did in tribute of the Beslan tragedy here. But I'm not exactly thrilled with my acrylic painting skills either. The last was done at sucky Parsons: a life study (charcoal) that took two days to complete. I've done a lot of life drawing in UHS but most of them are rolled into heaps in my basement. Yay and I'm done my post: that took several hours.
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