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The Tragedy of Natalie Wood

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My dear friend, Kay March suggested a gentler frame for Natalie. She's usually right, so I gave her her way.


From her role in "Miracle on 34th St" to "Splendor in the Grass", I was fascinated by Natalie Wood. The circumstances of her death have remained a mystery. Most younger people will recognize her husband, Robert Wagner as Tony's father in NCIS. When she drowned 31 years ago, I always wondered about it. This drawing has taken me about a year, working on it and putting it away. I was trying to capture an ethereal look where she seems to say, "What happened to me?" I used the original link, because it had the right feel, then about destroyed my hands-lay out-HB pencil, then it was a Prismacolor ebony, super smooth pencil, 6B, the kneaded eraser over and over to make the light just shine on her face and a dark wash. She was hatched, erased, hatched, erased. This took an eternity. I've spent the past 18 months getting back to this level.

This is a part of the story

thehairpin.com/wp-content/uplo… Natalie Wood

Scandals of Classic Hollywood: The Unspoken Tragedy of Natalie Wood

Natalie Wood was a transitional star, her career straddling Hollywood's awkward shift from the classic studio system to the independent free-for-all that continues to characterize film production today. Her face also seems frozen in transition from girl to woman: Wood was a child star, Oscar nominee, teen bride, and has-been — all before the age of twenty. And her acting oscillated between the poignant and the hysterical, for which she was alternately lauded and lampooned. But she had a work ethic, and ultimately survived studio manipulation to become a legend in her own right, starring in one of the most successful and seminal musicals of the past fifty years.

latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow…

During the making of her last film Brainstorm, Wood drowned while on a weekend boat trip to Santa Catalina Island, California, with her husband Robert Wagner, Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken, and the boat's captain, Dennis Davern. Many facts surrounding her drowning are unknown, because no one admitted seeing how she entered the water. Wood's body was discovered by authorities at 8 am on November 29, 1981, one mile away from the boat, with a small inflatable dinghy found beached nearby. According to Wagner, when he went to bed, Wood was not there.The autopsy report revealed that Wood had bruises on her body and arms as well as an abrasion on her left cheek.[41] Later, in his book Pieces of My Heart, Wagner acknowledged that he had a fight with Wood before she had disappeared. The autopsy also found that Wood's blood alcohol level was 0.14%, and there were traces of two types of medication in her bloodstream: a motion-sickness pill and a painkiller, which increase the effects of alcohol. Following his investigation, Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi ruled her death an accident by drowning and hypothermia.According to the coroner, Wood had been drinking and may have slipped while trying to re-board the dinghy.

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Kay-March's avatar
Ah,Ah! This frame works much better!! :D