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| No. 368: Don Vito Corleone by Tom Wills, April 2017 |
"But I'm a superstitious man. And if some unlucky accident should befall him - If he should get shot in the head by a police officer, or if he should hang himself in his jail cell - or if he's struck by a bolt of lightning, them I'm going to blame some of the people in this room, and that I do not forgive."
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| Gray. Old. Man. |
I love The Godfather movie trilogy. I’ve grown accustomed to the back-and-forth timing of Godfather II and find the Vatican intrigue of III entertaining. I even named my German Shepherd “Corleone.”
German. Corleone. I have to explain that one a lot.
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| Before the wine, and the chair. |
I decided to draw Don Vito after a particularly rainy weekend of Godfather marathoning, during a lull in paying art work.
It became a work of lucky accidents.
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| Early version of Marlon Brando's face. |
First, I had a nice wooden frame with a mat that I had painted gray, specifically fit for a wedding picture I have done. But the groom hated the frame, wanting something less heavy. So suddenly I had a large and heavy, dark frame on hand.
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| Vito's vino. |
Godfather!
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| Sinister happening. |
Second, the film frame from Godfather I that I chose for the drawing had a real problem: The camera seemed to catch Marlon Brando’s saggy and shadowy eyes in left to right motion. I could not really discern where the iris and pupils are. Someone else had painted the image and had him looking to the wine bottles, but it looked wrong — too much white in the eyes. So I guessed and made him look to the right, away from the wine bottles. The result is …
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| Be a man! |
Sinister Godfather!
In the movies, particularly the first one, Don Vito comes across as much less of a badass than he is in Mario Puzo’s book. Sure, people got artfully whacked on the big screen. But in the book the whackings were much more heavy.
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| Working on the shirt and pants. |
So what we now have is an aging and sinister Mafia don glaring murderously from a frame originally reserved for a bride in white, who was looking lovingly into the eyes of her husband.
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| He's no bridesmaid. |
For love or murder, I hope you think this piece looks killer.
I will sell this piece if you should make me an offer that I cannot refuse. Find me on Facebook or email willstom01@gmail.com. We can work something out peacefully.
