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Thursday, January 25, 2007

El fauno (the faun)

Last weekend marked my return to the movie theater after a month of absence. The chosen movie was El laberinto del fauno, aka Pan's Labyrinth here in the States. The movie was just okay, but what really impressed me was the fantasy part of the film, especially the character and scenario designs. In fact, it inspired me to do the little drawing that accompanies this post. I drew it the day after I saw the movie, with no reference other that what I remembered, so if it doesn't look exactly like the creature in the movie, that's why. It was supposed to be a practice drawing before drawing a picture of his whole body, but I didn't have as much time as I thought I would, and didn't even start the second one. Maybe one of these days, when I draw all the other ideas I've had in mind for a while but haven't been able to put down on paper because I'm inking the last issue of my limited series. Anyway, I hope you like it!

5 comments:

Mario Alba said...

I know what it is! I was looking at the picture, thinking there was something that wasn't quite right, and I finally got it: I forgot his long hair. Oh, well...

Anonymous said...

I want to reiterate just how impressive this whole thing is. Not the fact that you can replicate the image of the faun, since we all knew that, but the fact that you can do it a full day later with such attention to detail.

I read your comment and thought, "Hmm, did he really have long hair?"

Really, your visual memory is amazing. Of the images that appeared in the film, I think the one that impressed me the most visually was the, uh, thing seated at the head of the table with all the food. But with the exception of the details about his (removable) eyeballs, his long nails, and the creepy colors of his flesh, I don't remember much else about him. Oh, and he had a little potbelly, right? That's what happens when you drop children in your mouth like bonbons, you know. High cal, those kids are.

Anyway, thanks for posting it! It was cool to see the drawing again.

Mario Alba said...

Hehehe, you're too kind, Lori.

It's always been easy for me to remember stuff like that. Something that might explain it is that, when I see something I like -be it a building, a creature, a person's face-, I find myself mentally drawing the lines time and again. Then again, maybe I'm just weird.

And yeah, The Pale Man (since that is the glutton creature's name) was pretty disturbing. He was also cool, though, but in that weird, creepy way I seem to be fascinated with.

And hey! Glad you like the pic! Let's see if I do something else with it...

Anonymous said...

I guess everyone has their own little quirks, if we can even call them that. Whenever I'm at a restaurant, I'm always thinking about one of two things: 1) if the food isn't really tasty, what could improve that (should it have been braised instead of grilled? would a spray of lemon enhance the flavor? should they have heated the oil more before dropping the food in to fry it? etc.); or 2) if the food is exceptionally tasty, I work out in my head how I could reproduce it (is it cream cheese or neufchatel? is that a pinch of cardamom in there? was it marinated before it was cooked? etc.).

The funny thing is that later someone else (like my dad, for example) will comment, "That white stuff was really good!" "What white stuff?" I'll ask, and the response will be, "Uh, the dessert."

This, after I spent fifteen minutes mentally working out the proportions of mascarpone and marsala in "the white stuff."

So, it's not exactly the same thing, but my point is that we all pay attention to what we're interested in, I guess. Either way, I think your attention to detail is really nice.

Mario Alba said...

And when it comes to cooking RIDICULOUSLY tasty meals, your attention to details is unsurpassable :)

But yeah, I think you're right, and we pay attention to the details of what we care about. And hey, if the dessert could be described as "the white stuff", that is not something I'm looking forward to eat!