old sketch

today i read that roger ebert is bringing his show back to television. this is a sketch i did almost a year ago, after reading this amazing article about him in esquire magazine.

it's based on this photo by ethan hill.

obviously, my sketch isn't identical to the photograph, but i think i captured that mischievous twinkle in his eyes ;)

i feel like i should say that i grew up on siskel & ebert at the movies. i didn't always agree with their opinions, but it was fun to watch them (especially when they disagreed with each other), and this was in the days before the internet. you couldn't watch trailers online. imdb didn't exist. no film blogs. no word of mouth on twitter or facebook. aside from reviews in actual newspapers and entertainment tonight segments, the only way to be on top of upcoming movies was siskel & ebert. (oh yeah, and there was entertainment weekly, but i didn't discover that magazine till i was about 14.) and aside from animals, film is one of my first true loves. so yeah, mad respect for mr. ebert.