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cumberlordfb reblogged deareje
Spoiler-ish
#StarTrek #IntoDarkness photos from the production designer Scott Chambliss. More here http://www.scottchambliss.com
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thecutteralicia reblogged moriartysskull
12 Cumbermoments of sheer acting brilliance in no partucular order
Benedict Cumberbatch Acting Appreciation Post
He’s on his way to international blockbuster stardom, but first and foremost, he’s a great thespian, one of the best in the world. As an actor, Benedict Cumberbatch is intelligent, fearless, versatile, chameleon-like, peerless, sensual, sexy, mesmerising, eye candy… you simply can’t look away when he’s on screen, he sucks you in…
1) In Hawking (2004), Cumberbatch manages the masterstroke of acting out the physicist’s MND disease in pinpoint precision, but entirely without making him an object of pity. He shows the struggle with the disability getting worse each day without portaying Hawking as a tragic figure. The disease is never at the center of his acting, the viewer’s attention is always drawn to Hawking’s way to science stardom and his emotional life. All that makes the heartbreaking moments of the movie (the final diagnosis, for example) even more special. The lesson is clear: What we witness here is a genius playing a genius.
2) There are obviously countless magical acting moments in all episodes of Sherlock (2010/2012) - from Cumberbatch AND Freeman - but A scandal in Belgravia surely has excessively many. The absolute highlight (besides every single scene in which Sherlock interacts with Irene Adler): The last ten - not showy but nearly pious - minutes, in which Cumberbatch acts out - with sparing gestures and mimic art - that Sherlock is capable of all kinds of emotion, from trustfulness to admiration and probably even love. The last moment at the rainy window with it’s only four words of monologue leaves you breathless with empathy and sentiment.
3) The sadly undervalued drama Third Star (2010) is without any doubt one of the most throat constricting movies ever made, and Cumberbatch as deathly ill James is responsible. I don’t believe that there’s a more powerful performance of agony anywhere in any movie ever made. No, I’m not exaggerating. And then, on the other side of the scale, there’s so much tenderness, joy and lust for life in his performance… you have to see it to believe it.
4) In the Golding entwicklungsroman adaption To the ends of the earth (2005), Cumberbatch plays young British aristocrat Edmund Talbot, who travels by ship to Australia. Everything in this TV drama is very dream-like and weird, and Cumberbatch’s performance fits in perfectly. There are loads of impressing acting moments… the love at first sight moment at the dance on the high sea for example; but all the tense encounters with Captain Anderson (Jared Harris) are the highlights of this series…
5) In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Cumberbatch delivers the probably most hearttbreaking gay movie scene sinceBrokeback Mountain. It’s really really short but it’s one of the highlights of the entire movie. Besides that, he also owns the best and most suspenseful scene in TTSS. You might even say that he’s the heart and soul of the movie - without diminishing Gary Oldman’s great performance.
6) One of the supreme disciplines of acting: playing twins. Cumberbatch does it in the short film Inseperable (2007) - and mind-blowingly so. The film is only 11 minutes long, but Cumberbatch is so intense in his gestures and facial expressions, he manages to tell two full life storys with only a dozen words of dialogue. A moment of desperate crying alone in a car is the only crescendo in this calm psychological mini thriller.
7) If a lesser actor had taken on the part of Alexander inStuart: A life backwards (2007), he wouldn’t have had a chance to stand his ground against the impressive, showy ”Stuart” part of Tom Hardy. Stumbling mumbling Hardy is the center of the movie, without any doubt. But Cumberbatch isn’t intimidated in the least by his counterpart. He has a great chemistry with Hardy and they interact brilliantly. Cumberbatch is moving and genuine and often funny, and when he’s on screen, the eyes of the viewer tend to wander off Hardy, towards him.
8) Another troubled genius: Cumberbatch as Vincent van Gogh in the magnificent BBC documentation Painted with words (2010)… true greatness. A perfect study in mental alienation. Cumberbatch recites words from original letters Van Gogh wrote to his brother, and he interacts with the camera - a magical experience. The scenes in the asylum are gut-wrenching.
9) “Bite it. You have to bite it!” This one sentence is the key to Cumberbatch’s unforgettable Paul Marshall in Atonement (2007). Small role, large effect. He’s pitch perfect (and, Jesus, a bit sexy) as the slick, creepy chocolate factory owner - irritatingly good, as director Joe Wright points out in the DVD’s audio commentary: “We never expected him to be that unsettling.” Cumberbatch’s scene with Juno Temple is the most memorable and best played in the whole movie.
10) The last enemy (2008)… pretty good mini series, BRILLIANT lead. Cumberbatch plays Stephen Ezard, a scientist in a future UK who feels sold down the river in a world he doesn’t understand anymore. His acting of sheer desperation is breathtaking, and there are painfully beautiful love scenes… so sensual you want to look away.
11) Wreckers (2010)… Rural love triangle with loads of sexual tension between all characters. The film has it’s weaknesses and is much too low key to really wow you, but Cumberbatch does the job. He’s shady and likeable in equal shares, and there’s a strange jumpiness to his character that’s totally fascinating. He has a fantastic chemistry with Chris Evans who plays his violated brother, and the tension between them is never far from sexual and leaves a bad taste in the viewer’s mouth.
12) Star Trek into Darkness (2013)… An absolute artistical triumph for Cumberbatch and some kind of a first climax of his career (besides Sherlock). It’s a first rate fun popcorn film, colourful, loud, exciting, full of plot faults and innuendos and flip dialogue and explosions and bromance - and then there’s Cumberbatch: majestic, stoic, Shakespearian, barbaric, grave. And painfully, alarmingly sexy. His face does things that I’ve never seen a face doing in my entire life, and his physicality is out of this world. And then there’s his character’s big moment, and I will eat my pants if he doesn’t get an Oscar nom for it…
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The Times - Whats not to Love About Benedict Cumberbatch
He was an all-action Sherlock Holmes for TV and now he’s conquering Hollywood in Star Trek. Caitlin Moran joins the actor at his parents’ home for Sunday lunch
I don’t know if you remember, but some time last summer – between the end of the Olympics and the return of The X Factor – it briefly became the thing to have a go at Benedict Cumberbatch for being “a posho”.
However many times Cumberbatch tried to explain that he was “just middle class, really”, a sum kept being done, over and over: “Harrow education” + “called ‘Benedict Cumberbatch’ ” = “A man who wipes his bum on castles”. There was a series of catty columns about it, with headlines like “Posh off to America” and “Poor posh boy”.
The underlying presumption seemed to be that Cumberbatch was some dilettante princeling – stealing roles such as Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock, and the painfully repressed landowner Christopher Tietjens in Tom Stoppard’s Parade’s End, that would otherwise have gone to working-class actors such as Danny Dyer, or Shane Richie from EastEnders, and that this was all a great pity.
Of course, as with all these things, it blew over quite quickly – not least because it was superseded by the news that Cumberbatch had been cast in the new Star Trek movie, and was, therefore, about to become one of the most successful British actors of the past ten years. But I am reminded of it all today, in the back of a cab, leafing through a pile of cuttings on Cumberbatch.
“What a load of balls that was,” I muse. “The whole posh thing. What a load of old balls. What a funny old world.”
It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and I have been invited to lunch with Cumberbatch at his parents’ house in Gloucestershire. Star Trek Into Darkness is now about to open and this is the only day he has free to talk. I have made the great sacrifice and taken a train to Swindon.
The cab driver drops me outside the house.
“Here you go,” he says.
I climb out of the car, and stare at a gigantic, honey-coloured mansion, with immaculately tended lawns. Parked in the driveway are a black London taxi and a vintage silver Rolls-Royce.
Last night, Benedict had offered to pick me up from the station, saying he has a “loooooooooovely car”.
“Yes – you have, haven’t you, Benedict?” I think to myself, staring. “You’ve got a lovely pair.”
I crunch up the drive, carrying a massive bunch of flowers and a bottle of wine, and shout through the letter box.
“Hello! I’m from London! I’ve come on holiday, to the countryside, by accident!”
Silence. I circle the house. The place is so big, I can’t work out where the front door is.
I decide to go to ask a neighbour for advice on how to penetrate the Cumberbatch estate.
I head towards a nearby crofter’s cottage.
Benedict Cumberbatch is standing in the doorway of the tiny cottage, in a pair of knackered navy corduroy slippers, watching my progress across the lawn – lavishly strewn with hyacinths – with some curiosity.
“What were you doing at Kate Moss’s house?” he asks, mildly.
Ah. Kate Moss. The working-class girl from Croydon made good. That mansion is her house.
The “posh” Cumberbatches, by way of contrast, live next door: three small rooms downstairs, three small rooms upstairs. Every available surface is covered in books, family photographs or owls.
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sherlockspeare reblogged the11thdoctor
“The Sherlock star takes a well-deserved break to chat with the crew.” ( x )
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elementarysherlock reblogged frauleinninja
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meetingmemories reblogged waxenantimony
WATERCOLOUR CHEAT CODES
I made really quick tutorials full of swatches to send my mom who wants to take up watercolour painting for a hobby. I’ll share them here as I find time to type what I wrote her.
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The first two pictures illustrate discoveries in mixing skin-tones. I try to find paints that make it faster/easier to mix skin colours - even if you’re adept at making these tones out of other colours, the right combo of purple and yellow can cut out a lot of time and money. The one I have most success with is “violet gray”, then “permanent magenta” for darker and wider ranges, and “purple lake” when I was cheap and it was on sale.
Mix these (sparingly) with raw sienna. The darker the purple the less you’ll need to add to your yellow (yellow ochre works as well). Ultimately, watercolour is tricky to mix so if you’re not confident right away make sure to paint swatches before putting a loaded brush to paper, otherwise be ready to mix with water on the paper.
For a lighter, paler, redder skin tone, raw sienna + brown madder is what I prefer, although as you can see in the first image (about half-way down the page on the left), “cadmium yellow pale hue” and “cadmium red deep hue” work just as well, and might be cheaper on you. With that combo, however, it’s easier to get stuck mixing a ton of orange.
Back to permanent magenta, it’s great with browns to get darker tones, not just for darker skin but for shading. I keep three browns on my “skin” palette (last pic), “burnt umber”, “burnt sienna”, and “vandyke brown”. Mix it with some skin-tone, even just a little, to keep it from looking straight-out-of-the-tube.
So mix your skin tones, make a few test swatches to figure out how much water you need (every brush behaves differently), and lay down some washes.
In the middle of the first piece of paper is a gradation in a skin tone (violet gray + raw sienna) from really warm (“brown madder”) to really cool (“turquoise”). This was done wet in wet, to show what kinds of tones you get from adding warm and cool colours.
To the left on the bottom are a couple light washes of colours painted over a skin tone (same ol’ raw sienna + violet gray) to show how different colours look on this mix when applied dry on dry. Blue (I used turquoise again) is great for some shadows, implied stubble, and veins close to the skin, reds and most browns for warmer shading, yellow for jaundice or boogers… you get it.
On the bottom right is an example of really warm vs. really cool shading on the same skin tone mix (just guess). The initial skin tone wash is a bit warm for the cool side, but the contrast makes the shadows really evident. Different colours in shading will have different effects that way. The only surprise here is the use of dark blue “indigo” which is great for coming close to black when mixed with other colours.
On the second page are two more noses, different skin tones, and just three extra passes with skin tone washes - although difficult to tell because I was lazy and didn’t wait long enough for them to dry after the 2nd pass. The extra passes aren’t particularly warm or cold leaning, but simply draw off of the initial tone I placed.
IMPORTANT: These little quick studies serve to be as economical as possible, using few colours but still not looking just like an awkward mix of red and yellow or brown and yellow. For a more detailed or accurate representation of skin tones, a ton more colours might be added - for instance the darker skin tone on the right would have more pinks, and of course different parts of the body appear to be tinted differently. Also never forget no matter what colour or how dark skin is, skin is shiny. Be mindful of even diffused light. At the same time - perfect representation of skin is hardly necessary. More expressive colour treatment rules.
But ultimately - colour in skin - who cares! Just play around with colours you like, build a base that’s easy for you to mix quickly for wet on wet or however you prefer to work. Play with colours on different planes or surfaces of the body, with light, and take everything I say as a tips - not rules - ‘cause watercolour is really unpredictable and that is often the best part.
Another note: I use pencil tins for palettes, it keeps things portable, easy to mix, minimal paint waste, and I can rearrange paints easily to make mixing easier. I usually have three but you could get away with one or two. If you try it out, keep the paints and empty space clean with jut a bit of water and the wipe of a cloth/kleenex.
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The third picture shows a really quick, easy, natural black mix I make. It’s simply “Hooker’s Green, Dark” and “Dioxazine Violet” at almost equal quantities. You can mix it with a blue or red or yellow for a warmer or cooler black, depending on which you need. I included some gradation and overlapping swatches. Just keep in mind black can be very powerful in watercolour, or any opaque application of the paint, so use it sparingly and with a plan in mind.
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Despite my shitty watercolour sketches up here, I spent a huge amount of being a child working at a cooperative gallery with some contemporary and purist watercolour painters alike so I picked up a lot. If anyone wants me to be more specific about something, or maybe produce a more specific guide or sketch for a problem you have, let me know and I can try to help out.
These were things my mum asked for and that I produced with her knowledge of the medium in mind, so if it really did interest you but you’re stuck on something, or found something I said vague and confusing, let me know.
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sherlockspeare reblogged moriartini
AU - Professor!John and Student!Sherlock
Sherlock is challenged by Jim to seduce one of their new professors, John Watson. He is calculating and manipulative at first - but begins to rethink their wager when he starts to develop unfamiliar (and frighteningly sentimental) feelings towards the man.
[fic]
UPDATED - Chapter 10
Didn’t know it’s been updated. Thank you. I should go and read.
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