October 30, 2017

Elvis in Charcoal #159, The movies #19 Harum Scarum

By Rob de Vries Elvis in charcoal, Movie, Work in progress 1 Comment

Today I started on a new drawing in the Elvis in Charcoal, The Movies series.
This time it’s going to be a drawing of the movie “Harum Scarum“. To be honest, I don’t like that movie at all, but Elvis looked good.

Johnny Tyronne, an American singer, premieres his latest film in the Middle East. He meets Aishah and Prince Dragna and is invited to Lunarkand. Seduced by Aishah, Johnny is captured by a band of assassins led by Sinan. Johnny meets the Princess Shalimar, now a slave girl; and he escapes but is recaptured. Sinan wants Johnny to kill King Toranshah by using karate so that the evil Prince Dragna will get the throne. Johnny foils the plot with the help of a band of thieves led by Zacha. Johnny marries the princess and returns to Las Vegas with some of Zacha’s dancing girls.

Work in progress, line drawing

Work in progress, after a couple of hours.

The drawing is made with Charcoal, ink colored pencil and White chalk on colored paper.
The size of the drawing is 30 x 20 cm.

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Tags:Art, Chalk, Charcoal, Colored paper, colored pencil, Drawing, Elvis Presley, Harum Scarum, portrait, series, Sixties

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robdevries

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The beginning
I remember well. It was the summer of 1973 or 1974, we were on vacation with my aunt and uncle. For two weeks my uncle constantly sang the first lines of “Blue suede shoes”.
I asked him what that was and he told me it was an Elvis Presley song. Back in Amsterdam I immediately went to the record store and bought the LP “Elvis’ Golden Records Volume 1”. “Blue suede shoes” wasn’t on it, but I was immediately sold.
After that, all my pocket money went to Elvis records, books and related things.

In the meantime
A few years later I also started drawing and painting Elvis portraits. Of the countless I had made, only three have survived, and that’s only because they hung on my mother’s wall.
Once I grew up, my interest in Elvis waned somewhat. I was still a fan but not so fanatical that I bought everything I could find. That changed in 2007 when we went on vacation to Colorado in the US. In the three weeks we were there we took a domestic flight to Memphis to visit Graceland. That was an unforgettable event after which the Elvis virus struck again in full force.
Back in the Netherlands I restarted making Elvis portraits and collecting books and vinyl.

And now, a portrait of Elvis (almost) every week
Since that visit to Graceland I have been making a portrait of Elvis (almost) weekly using charcoal, ink and white chalk on colored paper. Most of these are sold. Mostly through Facebook and Instagram. In 2022 I hope to make the 300th Elvis in Charcoal drawing.
I also work on commission, your favorite Elvis photo as a drawing or painting. There are even regular customers who already own more than twenty of my Elvis artworks.
My Elvis portraits hang on people’s walls all over the world. A.O. in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Norway, Ireland, England, Italy, Australia, Scotland and the United States.