Wall Street Journal Hedcuts of Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller

The hedcut on the left is (hopefully obviously) Eddie Murphy from "Daddy Day Care" (2003).I actually created a stipple portrait of Murphy for The Wall Street Journal on five separate occasions - each time Joe Morgenstern's film review column led with one of his films. On the right is another hedcut of Murphy, this time from a film called "Showtime" (2002). There are a handful of actors that I rendered on more than one occasion (we never re-used a drawing), and quite a few that I would've liked to try my hand at, but never got the opportunity...at least not yet.

I was asked to create a hedcut of Ben Stiller only once - for a film called "Along Came Polly" back in 2004. Every now and then (but not too often), Morgenstern would call me mid-week with a change of heart...usually having just attended a critic's screening that sparked his imagination. The film in question was a little animated film, "Teacher's Pet" - from the creative brain of (fellow illustrator) Gary Baseman. So...my drawing of Stiller was scrapped. I had completed about half of it before tossing it aside, and although I wouldn't generally share an incomplete portrait - I thought this aborted attempt was sorta interesting. You can still see my little "pencil marks" and that it's just starting to take shape. And, the reason I've thought to post this particular nonsense today is that Murphy and Stiller's new film "Tower Heist" happens to be opening nationwide.