Lon Chaney, Birthday Boy

Lon Chaney was born today, way back in 1883. Perhaps the most popular movieactor of his time, he is best remembered today for his role as "The Phantom of the Opera" from 1925. This collage of Chaney's impressive make-up job for that film was the second collage I ever did, and the first portrait.

Looking at it now, I can't believe how bad it was. I chalk it up as a learning experience now. When I did it, I assembled the Phantom's black clothing out of small patches of black paper, and similarly did the background using scraps of red. What blends to the naked eye, does not blend so well under the scanner, or color copier. It was the last time I ever did things this way, or I should say without more care in matching and blending. I now try to use one single piece of paper for any expanse of the same color, limiting most of my work to a size that would generally fit on a piece of 8 1/2" x 11" paper.

For a better portrait of Chaney that I collaged later, check out this image of him as a legless man in The Penalty

For a better interpretation of Chaney as the Phantom, check out webmaster Rob Scott's version here . While there check out the other monster portraits Rob's been working on.