Chez Whiteling

Merry Christmas!

whiteling — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:52:48 GMT

Dear LJ-friends,

I wish you a HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a joyous time with your families. Peace on earth.

Meee-ooo-www! :-D

And also I'd like to send birthday wishes to not_alone !

Hugs and kisses,
your (Snow) Whiteling ;-*

Deppisation is fun

whiteling — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:46:39 GMT

Johnny Duerer 1500 AD by ~Whiteling on deviantART

Well, again I carried on my project of art improvement by Deppisation. This time, it was German painter Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) to suffer for my forgery. ;-) It was a birthday gift for a friend of mine. Guess whether she is a Johnny fan... :-D

Clicking on the thumbnail will bring you to the DeviantART-Site where the picture is displayed in apt size. (The original painting, a self-portrait dating from AD 1500, is to be found here: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer_104.jpg)
I can't help it - as much as I admire Master Albrecht, I like Johnny's look much better... (sorry, Albrecht!)

One Depp for two Birthday Girls!

whiteling — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:19:58 GMT

Isn't it a wonderful coincidence that my newest Johnny drawing was finished just the day before yesterday, so that I can post it in honour of the birthday of two friends on my f-list? :-)

Happy belated birthday, wendylady1 and happy birthday, morrelli !!
I hope your special day was/is a good one!

It looks as though Johnny had a nice birthday present for both of you up his sleeve...

I used one of my all-time favourite Johnny photos (from a photoshoot with Cesare Bonazza from 1995) as reference and worked with pencil 6 B on pastel paper. Original size 30 x 40 cm.

I hope everyone is doing fine! Sorry for my long absence from LJ, but I was knocked out by a flu (am still struggling with the aftermath of it).
I may not post much anymore, but I'll be popping in now and then for sure and try to catch up with my f-list. *hugs*

My Artwork Made Johnny Depp Shy Away

whiteling — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:25:11 GMT

The last week was rather exciting for Deppsters, as the European premieres for Johnny's new film "Public Enemies" (directed by Michael Mann) in London and Paris took place.

In this shaky video of the premiere in London you can see Johnny speed signing. At 0:18 min. he's just about to sign a printout of one of my drawings (no, it's not visible in that clip), then he suddenly shys away! What has happened? Is my art that frighteningly bad, you may ask??!
;-)

Well, let's start from the beginning.
I SO would have loved to go to one of the premieres, but alas, it was not meant to be, since my working schedule threw a spanner in my plans. :-( Oh well.
A friend of mine was going to attend the premiere in London though, and I asked her if she would be so kind to take one of my Johnny drawings with her and try to give it as a present to him. Very graciously, she agreed.
I decided to make a high quality printout of my John Wilmot drawing (Johnny is a big admirer of the second Earl of Rochester), signed it (er, usually, it's the other way round...), put it in a sheet protector and off it went to London, nice and secure in the suitcase of my friend. It's the drawing I posted here: http://whiteling.livejournal.com/30042.html#cutid1)

My friend was very fortunate - she managed to snatch a place in the fan's front row and after long hours of waiting in front of the cinema, Mr. Depp's signing session started eventually. Johnny made his way along the line and when he finally had reached my friend she gave him a few bracelets and had two postcards signed by him. In the end, she held out my drawing to him. But before my friend had had the chance to tell him that it'd be a present for him, he already had started to sign the picture, so my friend spontaneously cried out (most probably with a slight tinge of hysteria in her voice): "NONONONONO!" He immediately twitched back and for a milli-second looked quite puzzled at my friend, obviously thinking "Oh! What have I done?!" My friend: "No, this is for you!" Johnny, smiling: "That is for me? Oh, thank you", took it and handed it on to his assistant. (Luckily, the drawing was still in the sheet protector by the time Johnny touched it with his pen. :-D)

So, after all, it seems that it was not necessarily the quality of my art in the first place that made him jump a little... *phew*
;-)

TWO Birthdays!

whiteling — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:15:06 GMT

A Very Happy Birthday to
Mr. Johnny Depp
and
saturnine3 !!

I hope you both have a most enjoyable day! Luck and success for your new year to come!

What would be more obvious than to post a piece of art for an artist's birthday? A piece of art with Johnny in it to boot?
Dear Siriuss, I hope you will forgive me that I took the shortcut and made a photomanip for you... the drawing I am at will take some time longer.
I inserted Johnny's lovely head into one of my favourite artworks - Oedipus and the Sphinx (1864) by Symbolist artist Gustave Moreau:

Caution! Very lightly dressed persons ahead!

It is said that the Sphinx guarded the entrance to the ancient Greek city of Thebes, asking a riddle of travellers to allow them passage.
This most famous riddle in history was: “Which creature in the morning goes on four legs, at mid-day on two, and in the evening upon three, and the more legs it has, the weaker it be?”
The Sphinx strangled and devoured anyone unable to answer. Only Oedipus solved the riddle by answering: "Man—who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and then walks with a cane in old age."

In my version of the picture though, Johnny Oedipus seems to have the Sphinx guessing vice versa... "Whaddayathink, Miss Sphinx, how old did I turn today? Huh?"
"Uhh... erm.... --- thirty...? Thirty-two...?"

----------

Here you can have a look at the original painting:
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Oedipus_und_die_Sphinx_(Gustave_Moreau).jpg

Happy Star Tr... erm, Birthday, Pearlette!

whiteling — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:42:08 GMT

Like you and so many others here, I enjoyed the new Star Trek movie thoroughly. It was such a delight to see the actors put on the mannerisms and habits of the original crew.

I can't believe though that this fabulous crew shouldn't have met much much earlier. How could they grow up without each other??? My suspicion therefore: they knew each other since their days in the intergalactic toddler group. Hollywood - do a BABY STAR TREK (aka The Original Original Series)!

I can see it just before my eyes:

I do not know who took that charming picture, but I'd like to thank the website www.engagements.ca on which I found it!

I saw Star Trek last week and was really really enchanted. I felt as if about 8 years old again, back when I eagerly waited for every new episode of Star Trek to be aired. Ah, childhood memories - I actually had tears in my eyes as the famous prologue at the end of the new film was quoted. "Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise..." Siiigh...

Happy Birthday, dear Pearl! I hope you are having a fascinating special day! :-)

Vimeo, I am in love with you

whiteling — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:55:23 GMT

A few days ago, I was following a link from an online magazine which brought me to www.vimeo.com, a relatively new and not yet widely known video website and I was really blown away by the wonderful pieces of film I discovered there. The videos there are so much better than on YouTube, technically; they are mostly presented in HD - image and sound are of first-rate quality and as it seems, vimeo attracts particularly artists and that shows.
I'd like to share following finds with you. :-)

This one is called A Short Love Story in Stop Motion (very moving, I thought):

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

The title of this video is Apoptosis, and I loved it for its mesmerising pictures and music (a trippy image meditation on the image of the circle):

apoptosis from takcom™ on Vimeo.

Powerlinerflyers is simple on the first glance, but it has a wonderful rhythm to it (and I love the music of the film "Amelíe"):

powerlinerflyers from wes johnson on Vimeo.

Vimeo is full of such little gems. Very worth a visit! I hope you enjoy it like I did!
ETA: The embedding function shrinks the video display size. They are displayed larger on the Vimeo page.

Happy Easter!

whiteling — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 10:30:24 GMT

Happy Easter, everyone! Frohe Ostern Euch allen!

I wish you all a very happy Easter, full of joy and happiness. I hope, the cute bunny above has brought some yummy chocolates for you, too. :-)

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag...

whiteling — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:17:48 GMT

... liebe Mona alias lame_pegasus !

Ich hoffe, Du bist wieder gut beieinander!

Passend (?) zu Deinem Wolf's Moon gibt es hier noch einen....

tada...

Werwolfschlumpf!!

"ROARRR!"

Isser nicht süss? ;-)

*Knuddelt Dich durch*

I do not want you to like me

whiteling — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:58:53 GMT

The Rake's Progress...

Ever since I saw Johnny Depp in the role of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, I was totally blown away by this gripping, haunting, amusing and heartwrenching portrayal.

The historical John Wilmot (1 April 1647 – 26 July 1680) was an English libertine, a friend of King Charles II, and the writer of much satirical and bawdy poetry.
A patron of the arts, he was the toast of the Restoration court and had besides his wife many mistresses. Wilmot was also an infamous debauchee, and when he died at the age of 33, he had made himself that early end, drinking and shagging himself literally to death (it is said that he suffered from syphilis and other venereal diseases).

In the film "The Libertine" from 2004, based on the play by Stephen Jeffreys, the Earl starts the ride with a prologue in which he claims "You will not like me." He then makes some scandalous and nasty statements, to close his speech with the words: "This is it. That is my prologue. Nothing in rhyme. No protestations of modesty. You were not expecting that, I hope. I am John Wilmot. Second Earl of Rochester. And I do not want you to like me."

Oh dear. At least by now, I was totally sold. And at the end of the film I am always in tears; despite being a cynic, egoist spirit, Johnny lets the heart, the soul and the love of John Wilmot shine through. It is incredible.

Naturally, I tend to draw such characters sooner or later (this time it was later, since screencaps of the film are not very suitable as reference - too washed out or dark, so I went with the movie poster) and here you can see what I've made of the Earl:

Done with black and white pastels on velour-surface paper, 24 x 33 cm

In case you want to check out Rochester's poetry, you may go here: http://www.druidic.org/roc-bio.htm
But be warned! Many of his rhymes are really, I mean really bawdy!

Happy Birthday, Estelanui!

whiteling — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:40:44 GMT

*dashes in just in time to wish Estelanui a happy birthday*

Happy Birthday, dear Francesca! :-)

I hope you are having an enjoyable day full of pleasant happenings. *hugs*

And look - those lovely ladies have come, bearing gifts for you:

This is a detail of the votiv altar stone of the Matronae Aufaniae which was found under the Bonner Minster. It dates from the second half of the second century. (The photo was taken by my hubby, at a visit at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum)
It's such a beautiful image of the triple goddess. :-)

More on the Matronae here on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matres_and_Matrones

Here we go again...

whiteling — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:49:39 GMT

The February issue of the German magazine View had Mr. Depp on the cover.
I couldn't help it... I had to draw him (again)!

Done with coloured pencil on Japanese paper, 28 x 31 cm.

Oh, I love this paper! It gives the drawing such a nice fluffiness. :-)

Don't trust your ears

whiteling — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:56:54 GMT

I just learned that Microsoft has recently launched a new software product called "Songsmith", which is a sort of reverse Karaoke: instead of providing the music a user sings along to it records the voice of the (singing) user and makes a complete song from it. Well, at least that was what MS was aiming for. Now it seems that People obivously don't sing themselves but take popular songs and send it through Songsmith.

I'm still laughing after listening to some examples. Here are Queen and The Police as you never heard them before:

Happy Birthday, Elwood!

whiteling — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:53:14 GMT

Dear Elijah, in honour of your 28th birthday I made a little manip in which my fandoms collide (or collaborate)... *ggg*

I would love to see this series!! :-D

Happy New Year!

whiteling — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:50:04 GMT

Well hello - who is looking that sceptical into the future...?

It's a certain actor I find myself still fascinated by. So much fascinated that I sat down for the last 5 weeks to make a portray of him "as himself".
The result (just finished today):

Johnny Depp at the BLOW press conference

Coloured pencils on semi rough paper; in case you'd like to see the artwork in a bigger size, visit my DeviantART page: http://whiteling.deviantart.com/art/Johnny-Blow-108055823

I hope you all arrived safe and sound in 2009! May it be a healthy, happy and prosperous year!!

*hugs her f-list*

Merry Christmas!

whiteling — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:52:28 GMT

Merry Christmas and Peace on Earth!

Dear friends, I wish you happy holidays full of warmth and love and light.

Here's a link to a few German Christmas Carols, sung by the famous singers Fritz Wunderlich and Hermann Prey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_r4yr1PBmw
(sorry, there is no embedding function)

Blessings to all of you! *hugs and kisses*

PS: The painting above is a detail from the Altar of S.Thomas Beckett by Michael Pacher, a German painter and sculptor, about 1465

Thank-you for X-mas Cards

whiteling — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:11:45 GMT

I received three wonderful Christmas cards by
morrelli
julchen11 and
pearlette

Thank you, my dears, it was so lovely to get your greetings!
How funny, the cards of Julchen and Pearl contained almost identical pictures of otherwordly beautiful Frodo, though in different media (Pearl, you are a woman of many gifts and talents!!) - ah, he has the beauty of an angel.

Again, thank you so much! :-)

Iorhael94 has an interesting party guest...

whiteling — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:17:08 GMT

Happy Birthday, EvFrodo!! :-)

Look who has come to join your birthday party:

FROBAMA!!! )o(

I dunno - I always seem to come up with the weirdest manips for your birthday...;-)
I hope you are enjoying your special day! *hugs*

Nanobama!

whiteling — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:35:21 GMT

I am late in congratulating Mr. Obama and all Americans on this historic election victory! YAY!

Today, when I visited the website of the weekly magazine "Der Spiegel", I found an article about NANOBAMA - tiny carbon nanotubes with the portray of Barack Obama on it. It's unbelievable.
Look here: www.nanobama.com/
Really cool!

Congratulations, Mr. President to-be!! :-D

Sweet Aussies for a sweet Aussie Lady

whiteling — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:14:02 GMT

Today's the birthday of maewyn_2 !
Many happy returns of the day, my dear!! I hope you are enjoying your special day.

Hope you don't mind if I post a not completely accomplished water-colour picture - I thought it would be very fitting. ;-)

... for a sweet Aussie Lady. :-)

Koala bears are such cuties. Cuddle-worthy no end..

ETA: On Mechtild's suggestion I add the completed version of the picture. :-)

I'm still around! (plus a bit of shameless self-promotion)

whiteling — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:04:59 GMT

Hi gang,
I thought I let you know that I still exist. :-) I'm just super uneloquent these days... --- but finally I have a new computer! The old Linux dinosaur I used for the last 4 or 5 months was unbearably slow and completely unsuitable for picture editing and posting. I realised how much of a picture person I am. Being not able to fiddle with my beloved Photoshop dampened my joy of posting remarkably.

Now that I've arrived in the modern times again (as far as the computer concerns), I would like to invite you to have a look at my brand-new art niche at www.deviantart.com. The link to my section is http://whiteling.deviantart.com.
Most of the artwork over there will be known by you, if you followed my LJ posts, but some of you might enjoy the bigger size of the displayed drawings. It feels so good to have my scattered pictures eventually in one place.

Hugs and kisses to all of you!

ETA: Since I keep finding (partly long forgotten) artwork in my portfolios, you should check in at my deviantART gallery once in a while; my collection should be growing further. :-)

Don't Go Back

whiteling — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:01:50 GMT

Autumn has come with full force. It is cold and wet and misty and I am suffering from a slight fall depression. All work and no play makes Whiteling a dull girl.

So I crabbed my pastels to cheer me up and this is what's turned out:

Let's have a closer look:

Made with pastels on semi rough paper, 24 x 32 cm

The drawing displays an early moment in the film Secret Window, in which Johnny Depp played Morton Rainey, a writer who begins to realise that his life is in shambles. I don't know if you, dear reader, know this film. It's based on a short story by Stephen King and I don't want to spoil the plot for you... so I just can say: the guy in the picture is not completely happy. ;-)
I saw the film when it was in cinema back in 2004 and liked it, apart from the ending which seemed too predictable to me. But only when I bought the DVD recently and watched it a few times, I noticed many fascinating details that I missed in the cinema. And of course, Johnny's performance is superb. And so is the thrilling score by Philip Glass. All in all, it may not be the greatest film ever, but an interesting and entertaining one.

A Duke for morrelli

whiteling — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:55:25 GMT

Dear Skater girl, I hope you don't mind me posting a new art manip as a birthday present for you! Come on, I know you like Johnny Depp too! ;-)

So here is Mr. Depp as George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham:

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (28 August 1592 – 23 August 1628) was the favourite, claimed by some to be the lover of King James I of England,[1] and one of the most rewarded royal courtiers in all history.

There's a Wikipedia entry about him which also features Peter Paul Rubens' original 1625 portrait of Monsieur Villiers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Villiers,_1st_Duke_of_Buckingham

The Duke was indeed of good looks; maybe the similarity between his and Johnny Depp's beauty would have been better recognisable had I used a picture of Johnny where he shows more thoughtfulness... but instead I decided on using a happy expression to underline the baroque lust for life - and as a result he looks like one the Three Musketeers, don't you think? Quite a lusty guy.

Happy Birthday, Skater girl! May the new year in your life be filled with happiness and health!
*hugs*
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A Private Reading with Mr. Depp

whiteling — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:23:36 GMT

Well, Wendy, you got a visit to Paris, a Paid Live Journal Account and Pretty Pictures for icons. How about a Private Birthday Reading Session with delicious Mr. Johnny Depp? You and your best friend may listen to him exclusively.... ah, what a treat!
Enjoy!

(Found the painting on some blog, which gave no information whatsoever concering the artist or the title of this artwork, so I cannot give credit to the creator, I'm afraid.)

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Happy Birthday to Me! :-D

whiteling — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:39:37 GMT

I find the hobbit habit of giving mathoms on their birthday a very likable one. So, this year I will stick to this tradition.
I honour of my birthday (:-D) I have made a new drawing And since I am blatantly on a Johnny Depp trip, my subject was his Deppness himself again, this time in the part of Scottish author and playwright J.M. Barrie (1860-1937), the father of Peter Pan, a role he played in the film Finding Neverland from 2004.

It was a nice contrast to my Sweeney drawing (you missed that one? You find it here: http://whiteling.livejournal.com/22890.html#cutid)

Soft graphite pencil on Japanese paper, 30 x 45 cm

Before I watched Finding Neverland, I was not very familiar with the work of J.M.Barrie; I had heard of Peter Pan, but could not claim to know the story very well. I liked the remark of one film critic: "Finding Neverland is the story about something very beautiful born from something very sad". The origin of the poetic tale of the boy who wouldn't grow up is a tragic one:

When he was 6 years old, his next-older brother David Barrie, his mother's favourite, died two days before his 14th birthday in an ice-skating accident. This left his mother devastated, and Barrie tried to fill David's place in his mother's attentions, even wearing his clothes. One time Barrie entered her room, and heard her say "Is that you?" "I thought it was the dead boy she was speaking to," wrote Barrie in his biographical account of his mother, Margaret Ogilvy (1896), "and I said in a little lonely voice, 'No, it's no' him, it's just me.'" Barrie's mother found comfort in the fact that her dead son would remain a boy forever, never to grow up and leave her. (Wikipedia.org)

Barrie was inspired to his immortal story by his acquaintance with the family Arther and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. He was not only good friend with the parents, but with their sons George, John, Peter, Michael and Nicholas, who became role-models for Barrie's literary characters. The film is only loosely based on the historical events and takes some liberties in displaying things. For example, when movieBarrie gets to know the Llewelyn Davieses in Kensington Gardens, Sylvia is already widowed. Actually, Arthur L.D. died only in 1907, 10 years after Barrie met the family for the first time. Usually, I prefer it when films try to stick close to historical facts, but I didn't mind the liberties Finding Neverland took, as the whole film is a masterpiece of a soulful and poetic fantasy over Barrie and his creation, not a documentation. They would not have cast Johnny Depp as Barrie had it had to be accurately done - J.M. Barrie was a little and not very handsome man. Johnny Depp is very much suitable to play him though, since he gives Barrie's beautiful soul and mind an equally beautiful envelope.
In case you want to know more about the Scottish writer, you may visit http://www.jmbarrie.co.uk/, a great website dedicated to Peter Pan's "father".

During drawing this radiant face, I kept thinking: "The same guy played Sweeney Todd. How does he do it?!"

Yep, it's the same person:

A second ST drawing I made some time ago

It's stunning, isn't it?

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