Universal City Walk

Posted on by Thor

Periodically illustration instructors from Savannah Collage of Art and Design come down to Orlando to sketch in Universal studios. I met  instructor Ted Michalowski when I drove up to Scranton Pennsylvania around the time that my step mother died. While up there I reached out and found that Ted hosted a sketch event each month and I decided to join the local artist sketching. His event had local musicians performing and artist could gather to sketch the jam session. One musician played the Theremin which is an instrument that you just move your hand over to create sound. You hear this instrument in most early science fiction films. It was a fun sketch session.

After 6pm parking is free at Universal for local residents so Pam and I drove down and met Ted and several other instructors for dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. The Savannah instructors have connection which allow them to sketch some areas behind the scenes. For instance they sketched and painted characters from the Harry Potter movies without having to be pushed along with the crowds going on the rides.  After sharing sketchbooks and war stories of the challenges of teaching art, we all went outside to sketch at City Walk. I don’t visit Universal or City Walk very often so it was exciting to mingle with the tourist crowds and try and catch the bright lights as the neon and signage turned on after sunset.

Ted used bold ink line work to create gestural and intimate figurative sketches. While I sketched a view overlooking the crowds below. Ted sketched me all of the artists at work. He has a fantastic knack for catching faces and peoples poses with intimate close ups. Since this evening in the park, I have been following the work of Ron Spears whose painterly style is an inspiration. He was teaching a class in Italy and it was great to see his everyday studies. He is now painting up a storm doing loose informal studies that are a delight to see. The other artist I met this night was Stephen Gardener who’s realistic painting were also an inspiration. This is one advantage of Orlando in that talent often gravitates to this magical place.

Universal Parking Nazi

Posted on by Thor

On March 1st, the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida hosted a fundraising concert at Hard Rock Live. Hard Rock is located at Universal Studios City Walk complex. After 6PM, the parking garage becomes free for Florida Residents. I left home later than usual to make sure I got to Universal after 6PM.

There was a long line of cars waiting to get past the parking admission booths. When I got up to the booth, the collections agent asked me for my Florida drivers license which I was happy to show him. Now my license isn’t the prettiest thing in the world. It is dog eared at the corners and the renewal stickers that Department of Motor Vehicles keeps sending tended to slip a bit from being in my hot wallet too long. Anyway, I’m holding my license out the window and he barks at me that he needs a FLORIDA License. “It is a Florida license.” I respond. He frowned and took the card from me, then handed it back. “I can’t use that”. He said. After some arguing, he did admit it was a Florida license, but he said “I can’t scan that.” “What? You didn’t even try!” was my response. “It is valid till May of 2013, read the back.” I got five bucks out of my wallet since there seemed to be no way to reason with this Parking Nazi. I held my bill out the window but he took so long with the car on the opposite side of the booth, that I changed my mind. “I’m leaving.” I told him. He slapped a ticket on my windshield under the wiper and pointed me towards the exit. I turned on my wipers to send the ticket flying as I drove away.

After leaving Universal and cooling down, I decided to return to the parking garage but this time I would look for a female parking attendant. I figured a female attendant would be more reasonable than the Parking Nazi. It was quite a drive on side roads and a very crowded International Drive. When I drove up to the female attendant, she gasped when she saw the card, but she did let me into the garage. I probably wasted an hour of drawing time by arguing and driving in circles, but I was in. I stayed off the moving walkways and used the steps rather than the escalators, for the exercise and to warm up. Besides walking is often faster than the moving walkways.

There was a metal detector to get into Hard Rock Live. The security guard said, “You can’t bring that chair inside.” “Your kidding.” I replied, “What am I supposed to do with it?” “You’ll have to bring it back to your car.” If you’ve been to Universal, then you know that the parking garage is a loooong walk. If I had to walk all the way back, I’d probably leave in a huff. This was the last straw. As I was debating what to do, a second guard said, “Let him in.” I set off the metal detector then emptied all the art supplies in my pockets onto a table. Finally I was in.

Betsy Dye who had recently started working for the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida greeted me in the lobby. Her warmth and cheer melted away my frustrations. I went up to the White Lennon Room where people were able to meet the band members of 38 Special. The band members hadn’t arrived yet, so I went out on the balcony and sketched there. It was a cold night, so I drew fast.

K.D. Lang

Posted on by Thor

On May 27th, K.D. Lang performed at Hard Rock Live in Universal Studios. Terry scored some free tickets to the concert. We were pleased to find that parking is free for Florida residents after 6PM as well. We parked in the Jaws lot and rode the series of escalators and people movers towards City Walk. City Walk is the closest thing Orlando has to Times Square so I might be tempted to return for some night time sketching in the future.

Our seats were way up in nose bleed territory, but the price was right. Terry went to get some sodas at the bar. I saw Parker Sketch in the crowd but I didn’t have a chance to talk to him, I was already sketching. I layed out the sketch while the house lights were on, but then the place went pitch black. The warm up act was Jane Siberry and the Siss Boom Bang. She is from Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is most famous for her early 1980s new wave
hits such as ‘Mimi on the Beach’, ‘I Muse Aloud’ and ‘One More Color’.
Internationally, she is best known for her 1993 album ‘When I Was a
Boy’. She talked far more than she sang and honestly we couldn’t wait for her to get off the stage.

Terry has several K.D. Lang CDs so I was very familiar with her music. She  is a Grammy Award-winning Canadian singer and songwriter. She is
regarded as one of Canada’s foremost female vocalists, as well as a
champion of legal equality for LGBT people. K.D. is the same age as me. Terry told me that when K.D. came out publicly she was in her twenties and it took some guts since most performers hid their private lives and loves. She was on fire for this performance. I particularly liked her rendition of Hallelujah.  People were standing and swaying to the music by the end of the concert. There was endless applause when she left the stage and even louder applause for the encore. It was a great concert in a great venue.