Oedipus

Tonight, I was at the theater in Bonn, watching "König Ödipus" performed by cabaretist, musician and all-round-great-guy Bodo Wartke. (If you understand German, check out his music on youtube, he's great!!) During the last week, I've finally been working on a detailed drawing again because I wanted to give him a portrait at the end of the show. At his usual concerts, he always appears after the show to meet the fans, give autographs, answer questions and the like, but after the Ödipus shows he's usually so exausted (and sweaty ) that he needs some time for himself (the play lasts two hours and all 14 roles are played by himself). So I waited half an hour or so after the show, got to meet him, got his autograph on a copy of the drawing and got to give him the original. I was totally stumped by finally meeting him in person. I really love his music and felt all the fangirl-feelings coming back that I thought I had abandoned along with my Johnny Depp obsession Well, I guess what I messed up with my tongue-tide-ness-and-nervous-babbling-alternation was well made up for by the drawing which he really liked. I think. He said he's gonna put it on the wall in his office so I guess he must like it


Anyways... technical stuff:

Graphite pencil drawing, I used ALL my pencils for this, so everything from 2H to 8B. That's a first for me though I'm still not sure whether using 2H or HB really makes a difference.
The drawing is A3 size (another first for me!) and drawn on Hahnemühle Nostalgie paper (180 g/m²)
I worked on this for 4,5 days, something between 25 and 30 hours total.
I used a grid and colour-coded the reference to help with the shading. I still need to learn to see the different shades on my own.

Anything else you want to know, just ask It's half past twelve over here and I've been working on this the whole day, adding finishing touches, going from one copy shop to the next to get an adequate copy, finally getting a scan, editing that scan and then going back to get a print... so I'm tired, I can't think straight and I'm still totally psyched that I've actually shaken Bodo's hand... aaaaaawesome!



Some Videos:

König Ödipus trailer: [link]

Songs:
Ja, Schatz! [link]
Ich trau mich nicht [link]
Quand meme, je t'aime [link]
Regen [link]

And something without text, just to enjoy his awesome piano skills:
Alla Turca Stomp [link]