A bird, a movie, an observation

Posted on | September 14, 2009 | Comments Off

No none of the above are connected or in the correct order. It was the only way I could think of to tie together three seperate thoughts bouncing around in my head.

First the observation – bugger, it really is fall isn’t it? The nights have been quite chilly here. I can tell because my trusty weather vane, Cat, is always accurate. He’s been hogging the blankets, a sure sign the weather has begun to cool at night. Plus Bonnie, our scottie dog, has gotten very, very lively. She goes into overdrive with the cool weather. We think her ancestors took a left turn at the north pole on their way from Scotland – the colder it is, the happier she is. In weather that drives huskies indoors, she’s out cavorting in the snow saying “what a bunch of wimps”. Go figure. Now that I’ve depressed everyone – except those readers from warmer climes…

A movie, or rather two. It’s TIFF time. For those not in the know, TIFF stands for the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s that time of year when the nuts start falling from the trees and movie stars are thick on the ground. Most movie folks aren’t bad, it’s the damned photographers that get up my nose. Oh and the occassional “body guard” as well. I figured through the years, the more “body guards” – read big, beefy, useless – a star has, the more bloated the ego is.

I digress. TIFF time is great fun here in Toronto. It’s a chance to see movies from all over the world. Plus a lot of actors, directors – both well known and many new or unknown in this country – are available for the masses to ask questions about their work. Often when a film ends, the director/actors etc come out and field questions from the audience. The questions range from the truly cringeworthy to the well thought out. Either way it can lead to hilarous answers or some insights to the process of movie making. It is through TIFF that I’ve acquired an addiction to Indian and Chinese films. Let me tell you, if you want to see sweeping epics – they know how to make them. I tend to be quite uncritical in many ways. I may not be overly enthused about a movie, but I’m often just happy to get the chance to see the work. In all the years (eep… decades now) I’ve gone to TIFF, there have been only 2 movies I seriously didn’t like. When you sit there and say “oh for god’s sake kill all the characters already so I can leave”, you know you don’t like the movie. So… with no further interuptions… our movies:

Creation, by Jon Amiel was my first one. Good film about Charles Darwin and his family. It’s a snapshot view of the time he was struggling with whether to write his ground breaking book Origins, and the death of his beloved oldest daughter. As of this time, the film had distributors worldwide, with the exception of the US, where the distributors have said it is “too controversial” for American audiences. No… it’s too controversial for a small group of close minded idiots who use faith like a weapon. The rest of the US can handle the film very nicely. It’s a good view of how Darwin’s writings were not easy for him. He struggled with the book, and the theories he was pulling together. Worth viewing.

Mao’s Last Dancer, by Bruce Beresford is visually beautiful and, of course, an excellent story. One promotional blurb said it was “about ballet in China” … er… no … that gives the wrong impression. It’s about 1 ballet dancer, Li Cunxin, who was a product of both Mao’s Cultural Revolution and China’s post-revolution thaw. Li was plucked from a life of grinding poverty in rural China and sent to a special dance school in Bejing at the age of 11. The movie starts there and moves on through to his defection to the US in the eighties. It covers very vividly the pain his decision brought to him and his family. I am not a particular fan of ballet, but boy was I stunned by the dancing. Oh… yes… another movie worth watching.

And now the bird:
Well how about some feathers. I have a book on bird anatomy that I got from the library. I’ve been reading certain sections on feathers, wings and feet to try and come to grips with how they are structured. I’ve given up on how to draw books. They just screw me up or have really vague advise. Anyway… I sat down yesterday and did some sketches of feathers:

From Catpaw’s Art work – birds

Yesterday, I also spent extra time working on this little scarlet tanager. It took nearly 3 hours work, but I’m really rather thrilled with him. I intended to only draw his head and a bit of his chest, but began to feel frisky and did the entire bird.

From Catpaw’s Art work – birds

His feet worked out very well. I’m even impressed. I guess spending all that time drawing bird feet has begun to pay off. I never realised how different birds have such radically different feet. Colour me amazed! The tail feathers aren’t quite right, but I haven’t spent any time working on their structure yet. Give me a few days of just drawing them and I’ll be much better. I’ve been working on smoothing out the feathers as well. My birds have been a bit, er, fluffy and I’ve tried a variety of methods to give them a smoother look, without taking away their distinct features. I finally am getting there. I don’t have time to detail what I’ve done to get the effect, off to another movie in a few minutes so I’ll leave that for another day. So forgive any errors, typos etc. I’ll catch them later today.

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