For one evening in 1981, I was working with someone that famed director, Stanley Kubrick, calls a genius. I call him a willing accomplice in my first lucky break.His name is Pablo Ferro. He pioneered techniques for editing hand-drawn titles for such classics as Dr. Strangelove, Clockwork Orange, and Beetlejuice, among others. He won an Art Directors Hall of Fame Award in 2000. You will be hearing more about him next year as a documentary about his creative contributions to film comes to completion. In December of 1981, the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia was a stop on the Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You tour, which featured a nationally televised HBO-broadcast of the concert. I was working at a record store as a display artist when I got the call that I had several hours to “tattoo” a nude model, part of the opening act for a live Rolling Stones concert.
Needless to say, I was a bit nervous. Not only had I never painted on the fleshy surface of a human body, I never had to perform work under the scrutiny of Hollywood types and under the pressure of the strict deadline of a live concert by musicians billed as the “greatest rock and roll band in the world.”I stopped at the local five-and-dime store and purchased brushes and some acrylic paint, then I sped off to Hampton. Like clockwork, a bus met me in the parking lot and Pablo opened the door to let me in. We pulled up to the backstage entrance to the coliseum.
Within minutes I found myself in a small room with Pablo and a drawing table. I was informed I was replacing the original artist that was just fired because the letters he stuck on the model kept peeling off. The model was fired, too, because she was too curvaceous for the letters to adhere. Within minutes, the new model walked in and disrobed. I asked her to lie on her back so I could “tattoo” her face like Mick Jagger’s is done on the Tattoo You album cover. Another woman kept making the rounds with a tray full of grapes and other fruits. After I finished painting her face, I started adding similar black patterns to her nude body.
Article comments
1 - Alex Thrawn
There are no hand drawn titles for A Clockwork Orange.
2 - Larry Estes
That may be, but it still stands that he utilized similar techniques on non-drawn titles as with hand-drawn titles. The techniques applied to hand-drawn work that spilled into work not so hand-oriented. It would be safe to say that the hand-drawn works informed all other creations, whether created by computers or whatever. Thanks for rsponding.
3 - DaddyWorksFromHome
I remember these concerts very vividly, Larry. One in particular was Aerosmith and he was the third and last act. The 1st was just so so, and the 2nd was just about the same, but when Aerosmith came on he blew everything I have ever heard away. So awesome it was unbelievable that music could be so different. I remember this event as if it were yesterday and now the only way to share these experiences is to write about them. You have steered me onto a new genre that I can now add to my poetry. Bless you.