First Night Design | #CoverMakeOver Week 9 — American Beauty

Now what on earth was I going to do for American Beauty for Week 8 of Julie Powell‘s makeover challenge. There have been several different covers for the film which is directed by Sam Mendes and stars Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening and Thora Birch, in which a ‘sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter’s best friend’. IMdb

I knew I wanted to avoid a rose but what was my main focus going to be? I decided it was people so I swiped a slice from Tallulah Bankhead, a profile shot of Spacey from Wikipedia and set to work, the idea being that Spacey’s character is yearning for the out-of-reach schoolgirl (alright, so Bankhead was not a schoolgirl even when she was a schoolgirl). If knowing it’s Bankhead disturbs you, imagine she’s Spacey’s wife, Bening!

#photorehabcovermakeover Week 9 American Beauty © Sarah Vernon

To be frank, I’m not enamoured of my treatment but — as so often — time was running out and I didn’t want to miss out, especially as I probably won’t be able to take part next week. Fonts used were Skia Regular for Sam Mendes, Bening and Spacey, Times New Roman for ‘American’ and Zapfino Regular for ‘Beauty’.

Click here for instructions if you would like to take part in future challenges.

Take care and keep laughing!

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French Impressionist Painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir ~ Short Film in Studio

Originally posted on Country Woman Paints 

Auguste Renoir

I discover so many fascinating things from the bloggers I follow in my reader. And from the ones they link to. Blogger “oawritingspoemspaintings” (a new blog to follow!) shared short films of the artists Renoir, Monet and Rodin, live in their studios, that were amazing. I plan to post each of them, beginning with Renoir. He is my favorite artist of the three and I’ve now watched it a dozen times.

French impressionist painter Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) painted despite partial paralysis and cruel rheumatoid arthritis until the end of his life. Painting with his brushes taped to his crippled hand, especially moves me.  To the end of his life, Renoir’s  three sons helped their ill father, who was wheelchair-bound later in life. His children often helped him in his painting, posing for him from the time they were small and later as he grew more disabled, binding his brush to his arthritic hand and with his paints, brushes and palette. Renoir’s wife passed away a few years before his death.

From an NPR interview linked here:

“Renoir had crippling rheumatoid arthritis — at the LACMA exhibit {Los Angeles County Museum of Art}, there’s a flickering black and white film that shows Renoir painting in 1915, despite his…

via French Impressionist Painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir ~ Short Film in Studio.

First Night Design | The Man Who Planted Trees (1987)

This is an utterly charming and inspiring animation based on an allegorical story by the French author Jean Giono, which was published in 1953.  The Man Who Planted Trees or L’homme qui plantait des arbres, was made into a short by Frédéric Back in 1987 and won several awards including the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

Take care and keep laughing!

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