June 9, 2021

Weird Elvis

By Rob de Vries Elvis in charcoal, Work in progress 0 Comments

I started on “Elvis in Charcoal” no. 275. This is the photo from 1956 that on the front cover of the “Rare Elvis” album.
This has always been one of my favourite Elvis images also because of the strong light/dark contrast.

I remember when I came home with this album, in the early 80’s, my little brother couldn’t stop laughing.
He just learned how to read and “rare” means something completely different in Dutch.
“Rare” means “Weird”…

When I placed an image of the early stages of my drawing on Facebook someone mentioned that the image on the sleeve is reversed. I decided to leave it like this because I already started my drawing and spend some hours on it.

Early stages of Elvis in Charcoal no. 275

Halfway there…

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Tags:1956, Art, Chalk, Charcoal, Colored paper, Drawing, Elvis, Elvis art, Elvis Presley, fifties, portrait, Rare Elvis, series

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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.