Today's installment in "Adventures with the
Dude" takes us to a continent far, far
away. Many months ago, Gino and I were invited to attend a series of conventions
and store signings in the land of Dino, Sinatra, and Sophia Loren--no, it's not Hoboken. Already been there.
It's Italy! Let's turn our
world globes, class, to this land of Renaissance masters and ancient Gladiators to see the
various places Gino and I traversed.
We started the activities off in Florence, where that evening, I was invited
to lecture and demo at the Angel Academy of Art. My host and resident teacher,
Martinho Correia, was there to chauffer me to the school's
location and give us a brief tour of the academy before I began the
talk. What I saw what was an facility
designed to train students to draw and paint like old Renaissance
masters. On the walls were the works of teachers and students who
had turned out photo-real images of figures, still-lives, and
statue studies, all based on rendering techniques of the 15th
century. It was quite astonishing to see their skill level, even
at the first year student level. Downstairs had students at
the their individual stations involved in mastering still-life rendering, and
the top floor was where the live model classes were held. For my
demo, I was set up with a beautiful, dark haired Italian model, who
could've doubled for Gina Lollabridgida in her prime. OK, I'm ready to swing
a pencil.
I've done these demo's many times before, from little kids
in a dance school to altiers that have a world-renowned ranking,
but each one is a challenge. The trick, I've learned, is to be able to
talk and draw (well) at the same time. For this demo, I used pastel,
which I chose because it's quicker than using paint and accomplishes the
same thing instruction-wise. Amazingly, the audience was all English
speaking, and I skimmed along to a finish with a fairly good exhibition of
"how I do it".
LUCKY IN LUCCA
The main event took place in Lucca, which the Italian
promoters boasted would have an attendance of 100,000 warm bodies during
this 4-day event. Well, there definitely were alot of people in the
streets that day. Lot's of
them seem to be celebrating Halloween. Even their blowhards (dogs) had
costumes on. I wondered how the Sillies were doing as they celebrated
Halloween back home.
It was at the DC booth that I met Englishman Gary
Frank. Gary is currently drawing one of
the Superman books for DC and his work is quite superb. He and I hit it
off right as we sat next to each other drawing away for the fans. Later, Gary paid me the supreme compliment by
telling me I "was the most dedicated and intense artist " he'd ever
met. That probably means he thinks I'm insane.
I've been attending cons since the mid-80's, and in most
ways, I've got to find different ways to entertain myself than in the old
days. At this show, I got the most satisfaction from walking around and
watching the Italian artists draw for the fans, at least 40% of these artists
being female. Naturally, I always find this process interesting.
One older gentleman handed me a free sketch after I'd been watching him
intently as he put the finishing details. These older guys always
have such class. They also dress better than anyone else.
DRESS TO IMPRESS dept.
Have you ever met the humble Dude at a
convention? Then you know I can be a less than
stellar dresser. While in Italy, I devised a way to put a stop to that.
As I learned during my 9-day stay, the Italians are some of
the best dressers in the world, and I began to feel like a cheap American in
tennis shoes after spying too many chicks and dudes dressed to the
nines. This is a population that puts on their best pin-strips just to
slug down a cappuccino.
I was told by a local reliable source that shoes make
the man, so with that edict in mind, I set off to find the
most celebrated shoe store in Italy. Apparently, Italy's shoe stores are divided into two kinds. The
ones with the expensive shoes are on one side on the street, the cheaper ones
on the other. Naturally, I chose the expensive side. Mission completed, I soon exited with
an amazing pair of Italian-made dress shoes (never mind the price-tag--I
tried to ignore it) that will dispel the idea that Steve Rude was ever a bad
dresser. So when you see Mr. Humility doing a modeling gig at your
nearest GQ store, wave your cigar and tell 'em Luigi sent you.
But hey, even more amazing...
Aww, spit. I have to get back to work.
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