2006-10-18: Illustration Friday -- 'Smitten'

2006-10-18: Illustration Friday -- 'Smitten'
Originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

I've been a bit whacked this past week. Cos I'm directing a piece of industrial theatre for a pharmaceutical giant, and I'm thoroughly exhausted.

We did a preview for the client on Monday. And it would be a lie if I said I wasn't apprehensive. And to say I was apprehensive would be an understatement. And to claim that it's an understatement is to be creative with the truth. I was crapping myself.

Our client-run was at 3pm. And by noon, my actors still hadn't quite cracked it. I had an outburst. Shrieked a bit. Shouted a bit. Used several dirty words. And we did a quick run before leaving for the client. And the run was good. The energy was higher. And the actors were liberating the comedy in the piece. Phshew.

So we got to the client. And found that the boardroom they'd booked for us was WAY too small. Unusably small. So I went scouting with Seanarie, our production manager. And we found an outside porch where smokers at the company congregated. And we annexed it. Set up. Had some last minute notes. And then the client and his extremely pretty communications person arrived. And it was showtime.

My three actors -- Bronwyn, Linda-Michael, and Billy -- TOTALLLLLLLLLY bowled the client (and me) over. They were awesome. Extreme amounts of energy. VERY funny performances. And two clients laughing their heads off in the right places. And the round-table notes session after with all of us present was VERY positive and encouraging.

Wow.

Which brings me to this week's Illustration Friday topic -- 'Smitten'.

Because of some of the strife involved in directing a show, I've gone for a literal sideways interpretation of the topic. I've taken it to mean 'smote', as in 'hit'. According to Webster online, 'smitten' means:

1 : to strike sharply or heavily especially with the hand or an implement held in the hand
2 a : to kill or severely injure by smiting b : to attack or afflict suddenly and injuriously
3 : to cause to strike
4 : to affect as if by striking
5 : CAPTIVATE, TAKE intransitive verb : to deliver or deal a blow with or as if with the hand or something held.

I sourced my reference photo on stock.xchng. According to the
photographer, Pablo Medina, it's a pic of 'the Uruguayan "Mouse" Herrera offering a brutal beating to [his] rival of Argentina.' The title of the photo is: 'Box 1'.

I've definitely taken a liberty or two with the pic, just to make it more
dramatic for me.

I painted this on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet PC using ArtRage 2.11 at a coffee-shop called 'Gloria Jeans' in Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton this afternoon. Seriously high babe count. Definitely a 5 out of 5. Service and food were excellent. 4.5 to 5 out of 5. Ambience gets a 3 out of 5. A lovely place for coffee.