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Barbershop

16 comments
Here's another image that was drawn for Lilo & Stitch...and perhaps my favorite and most sentimental image.

When I got the idea of having Lilo explore her community, I thought she could stop by a local barbershop. But, this being a small island --and and even smaller community -- I thought I would also make the local barber the local PO Box as well.

During this time I was freelancing for Disney, while living in the small town of St. George, Utah. I used to get my hair cut at Anderson's Chop Shop, and I thought this would be the perfect place to shoot reference. I really liked the homemade barber's cabinet and old fashioned barber's chairs, so I thought it would be ideal. The chair, clock, water cooler and cabinet, are drawn just as it really was at my barbers. The rest of the building was drawn to reflect the Hawaiian architecture.

The time drawn on the clock is the actual time I completed the drawing.

I wanted to show my barber John Anderson the drawing, but I wanted to wait until the film was released before I showed him the drawing. That way, it could never be said by anyone that I had compromised corporate security. Sadly, John Anderson would never see the drawing. A few months before the film was released, John was murdered in his barbershop. It was the first aggravated murder in St. George in ten years.

When I told Dean de Blois and Chris Sanders that I wanted to give his widow a print of my image, both Chris and Dean paid for a professional print out of their own pockets and had it sent to me. I am very grateful to both Chris and Dean for their compassion. Those guys are tops in my book.

The drawing was drawn on vellum and Prismacolor pencil. The original is about 16x20, and it was drawn in about a week.

16 comments :

Mark McDonnell said...

BEAUTIFUL Marcelo. Wonderful and playful. Not to mention the wonderful break in the composition due to the cast shadows and the great sense of lighting/blown out nature. You're a true talent.

WOW!!!

MAC

A. Riabovitchev said...

WOW !!!!!B E A U T I F U L!!!

Seth Hippen said...

I love it Marcelo! I'm sure glad you didn't go into accounting, or plumbing, or a myriad of other professions. You're such an inspiration. I'm sure you would've been amazing at whatever you did, I just wouldn't know it. Thanks!

-Seth

Kactiguy said...

Very cool.

Howard Shum said...

Sad story, but the drawing is beautiful.

Shawn Bird said...

Nice lighting. The shadows rock in this one Mo.

Shawn

Martin Wittig said...

Marcelo, I can't believe that this is my first time to your blog. Absolutely beautiful work! The deigns, composition, lighting, all of it is simple amazing. I'm inspired!!

Marcelo Vignali said...

Thanks everyone. The lighting was a lot of fun to work on in this drawing, and it really helps with the mood of this piece to create a glowing atmosphere. I subordinated the areas of light by over-exposing them and blowing them out, then I concentrated my details in the shadows. Because of that, the audience is forced to explore the shadows.

Dibumac said...

nice drawing.... sad story :(

Hans said...

Thanks to Mark, I now have the oppurtunity to add another great artists blog to my links! I'm a big fan of your work and hope one day to work with someone like you, so I can watch and learn. I'm a complete sucker for detail and have been studying your barber shop over and over again. Lighting and composition is just perfect and so many story telling details, wow.

How do you avoid smudge on a piece like this? I use blue col-erase myself, but will definitely explore prisma color.

Thanks for sharing, looking forward to your next piece:)

Hans

Marcelo Vignali said...

Hans,

This drawing DOES have a lot of smudging, but all in the right places;)

Part of the reason why I like to use Prismacolor pencils when I do these large drawings is that for the most part the wax pencil marks stay put ... verses drawing in charcoal. (I love charcoal, but it's way too messy for me.) Drawing with Prisma pencil on vellum allows me to use a drawing-stump to soften edges and soften shadows as though I were working in charcoal.

Other tricks I use are -- after I lay in my underdrawing -- I start in the left-hand corner and work my way towards the lower right-hand corner. That goes against the conventional wisdom that states a drawing must be developed simultaneously all over in order to control the values, but I found it was easier for me to control the messiness by drawing this way.

I also try to draw with an extra sheet of paper under my hand to protect the drawing from getting messy. It's kind of like a bib for my hand, exposing only the areas that I'm working on.

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Miras said...

Great picture, and the story about it!

Dave James said...

Marcelo:

Simply wonderful!

Abd thanks for the insight on Prismacolor on Velum.

Nick Sung said...

That's quite the story Marcelo.
This is absolutely beautiful;
I'm sorry John never got to see it.

sexy said...
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