The Dying Art Of Courtroom Art.

For a while when I was younger, I thought about becoming a courtroom artist.

See, I used to naively think that the courtroom artist was permitted to sit in on whole trials, perfecting their sketches and then selling their drawings on to the newspapers at the end of the day for big money! But this is not so.

I recently read a newspaper interview with a 68 year old courtroom artist named Patricia Coleman which was a real eye-opener. Born in Texas, Patricia worked in graphics for a Houston TV channel before emigrating to the UK in 1987 where she swiftly began working as a courtroom artist.

Mainly working for ITV News, Coleman has covered almost every major legal event for the past 26 years. She says:

“There have been lots of cases and they have all been different and there are different ways to work at them as well. Sometimes I get to sit inside the court but most of the time I have to observe and then run outside the court, find a quiet spot and do the sketches from memory.”

Did you hear that? From memory!

This is not an easy thing to do at all and I should know. Because I just tried it myself.

Here’s Patricia Coleman’s courtroom sketch of infamous British serial killer, Rose West:

As an exercise, I stared hard at Patricia’s sketch for exactly 3 minutes straight and then I quickly turned away and gave myself exactly 2 minutes to draw my own version from memory. This is the best I could come up with:

…As you can see, my version, whilst slightly resembling Rose West, is not a patch on Patricia’s which was done in a similar time frame.

As mentioned before, Coleman has covered pretty much every major British legal event of the last 26 years and I always imagine that it would be difficult not to let the things you overhear during trials influence your drawings. I mean, we all know that Ian Brady is evil but it’s not the courtroom artist’s job to paint him as being evil, right?

Here are some more of Patricia’s sketches…(Click on them to enlarge)…

“Some of them have been very memorable and the most upsetting was the Lockerbie trial in Holland. At the end of the trial, they read out the name and age of every one of the victims and where they were from and it seemed to go on for so long. I found it just so sad. That is one of the saddest things ever.”

Courtroom Artistry will soon be a profession of the past. Earlier this year, Channel 4 screened a version of Nat Fraser’s murder trial. 6 weeks of proceedings condensed down to 2 hours for television. It was fascinating.

Cameras are being granted unlimited access to courtrooms more and more these days and while I think that is a very good way to educate the public on exactly what happens during a trial, it will mean the end for the courtroom artist. And that’s a sad thing.

You May Also Be Interested In…
* Home Decorating: Ed Gein Style
* The Beatles’ Lyrics Interpretated By Charles Manson
* A Mortician With Time To Kill

Trailer: “Drew: The Man Behind The Poster”.

I didn’t even know about this documentary until a pal sent it to me but here’s the trailer for “Drew: The Man Behind The Poster” which is about the greatest movie poster artist alive and one of my favourite artists in general, Mr. Drew Struzan:

You May Also Be Interested In:
* “Back To The Future” Concept Art
* Modern Vintage Movie Posters PART I & PART II
* Graphic Designer Graham Humphreys

The Heroic Musicians Of The Titanic.

11.40 pm tonight marks 100 years since The RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean and as much as we all know the story surrounding the tragedy, there has always been confusion and controversy concerning the Titanic’s musicians who all died on that night.

Ever since the sinking, people have debated and argued as to which piece of music was last played by the band on the doomed ship. It is generally understood that the final piece of music played by the musicians was either ‘Song d’Automne‘ or the hymn ‘Nearer, My God, To Thee‘.
But it doesn’t matter.
It’s not important.

What is important is that their names are remembered and that they continued playing as the ship sank in order to keep everyone else calm. Who knows what went through their minds that night as they stood up to death like gentlemen and played beautiful music.

Click on the image to enlarge:

The Heroic Musicians Of The Titanic were:

Wallace Hartley (Bandmaster & Violin).
Georges Alexandre Krins (Violin).
Roger Marie Bricoux (Cello).
Theodore Ronald Brailey (Piano).
John Wesley Woodward (Cello).
John Frederick Preston Clarke (String Bass & Viola).
John Law Hume (Violin).
Percy Cornelius Taylor (Piano).

Here is the ‘Nearer, My God, To Thee’ scene from the 1958 film “A Night To Remember“:

You May Also Be Interested In:

The Story Of Charles Joughin.
“The Titanic Disaster” By J.H. McKenzie.

The Soundtrack To My Life. 20/08/2011.

Well, I’ve slowly been moving out of my flat for the past couple of days now and here are some of the records that have kept me from going mad…

Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three – “Live At The Newport Folk Festival 2010”:

Robert Crumb And His Cheap Suit Serenaders’ selt titled Debut Album (1974):

Leadbelly: “Easy Rider” (3-Disc Compilation):

Big Mama Thornton: “The Original Hound Dog” (1990):

The “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” soundtrack by Jack Nitzsche (1975):

Almost 2 years have gone by since I wandered into The Strathclyde Suite in The Royal Concert Hall and saw Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three play one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen and they are STILL one of my favourite bands right now.
Still!
I got a hold of their performance at last year’s Newport Folk Festival and it’s just as good as their studio work.
I listen to these guys a lot and the Newport performance put me right in the mood for some more oldies…

Robert Crumb And His Cheap Suit Serenaders.
– Now there’s a fucking band!
Robert Crumb is of course, THEE Robert Crumb; the World famous (and notorious) underground cartoonist and illustrator. If you think his drawings are the works of a genius, you should check out this debut album because it fits perfectly with his artwork and him and his band will take you right back to the 1920’s.
Back to when music was good and inspired and played with heart.
Back before it was cheap and disposable like most of it is now.

I’ve been playing that Leadbelly compilation up there quite a lot recently too because I don’t know how he gets his 12-string guitar to sound exactly like it does and I want to find out. I’m pretty sure it’s because he tunes real low and hits his guitar rather than plays it.

Big Mama Thorton’s version of  “Hound Dog” will always be better than Presley’s for me but this particular album has a song on it which I love just as much. It’s called “Big Mama” and I love it because it starts off like this:
“WELL…THEY CALL ME ‘BIG MAMA”BECAUSE I WEIGH 300 POUNDS!”
Big Mama Thornton is how I imagine the Woman at the top of those legs in the Tom & Jerry Cartoons to be!

I’m not moving house very far. In fact I’m moving next door to myself but that’s besides the point because moving can still drive you crazy and sometimes it’s better if you just go with it and Jack Nitzsche’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” soundtrack will take you all the way to crazy and back.
I love that soundtrack more than the six invisible penguins who helped me move my things out of the flat.
Cheers boys!

Time to lie down for a few days.
Good morning.

What Does A Tickle Look Like?

Well, I don’t think I need to introduce you to this guy…

Ah, Mr. Tickle.
Probably the first guy that I idolised.
I remember reading the Mr Tickle book as a wee boy and thinking how cool it would be if I could lie in bed and stretch my arms out of the window, down the road, across town, up and in through some unsuspecting victim’s window and tickle them!

I’d probably get arrested if I pulled a stunt like that in real life.

This week marks 40 years of Roger Hargreaves’ Mr Men books and I’m so glad that they’re still around.
I have all of those books (Including all of The Little Miss ones too!) and one at a time, I’m slowly giving them to my Niece and Nephew to read.
My Nephew likes to read them and my Niece likes to eat the pages.
“Whatever makes you happy!” I always say 🙂

The Mr Men story started way back in 1971 when one morning, Roger Hargreaves’ Son asked him this question:
“What does a tickle look like?”
And so, Mr Tickle was born!

From the Mr Men website:

The small, white square form at of Mr. Men and Little Miss storybooks were an instant success, selling more than one million copies in the first three years alone. From the books, the Mr. Men were later immortalised by the BBC in the 1970’s in a TV series with legendary British actor Arthur Lowe as narrator.

Since the 1980’s, the books, TV series and a weatlth of other products have become available all over the world. Today you can find the Mr. Men or Little Misses as clothing, DVD’s, sweets, toys, toiletries, medical care, bags, novelty gifts, stationery, homeware, digital apps and more. A Mr. Men book is now sold every 2.5 seconds worldwide!

In 2011, as the characters celebrate their 40th anniversary, the affection felt for the assortment of diverse characters by the generations raised with these books is stronger than ever before. Mr. Men and Little Miss are so versatile, they appeal to everyone. It really is the world’s biggest, brightest, funniest self expression brand.

Adam Hargreaves, the boy whose question spawned this global empire, is now the writer and illustrator of the world’s most recognisable books.

So it’s a very Happy 40th Birthday to The Mr Men and as a special treat, I’m gonna show you something REALLY COOL!
All you have to do is click HERE.