Tag: Thats

by David Burgess on May 26, 2018 0

Best Drawing Tools

Only the Best Materials Needed for Drawing

This is a list of my best drawing tools. This collection is by no means the Cadillac of art supplies, but in the mid to high range price point. While I don’t have the money for the super expensive stuff, I don’t like to compromise on quality.

I’ve drawn most of my life and have been perfecting my craft for years. As time goes on and I try new stuff I may tweak the list a bit.

I also believe that most of these drawing supplies are great for beginners. My reasons, there’s no use in handicapping yourself with crumby equipment. Thankfully, drawing isn’t like oil paints in that even the best doesn’t cost a fortune. Aside from that, experimenting with a variety of supplies always gets the creative juices flowing.

The Best Pencil For Sketching And Travel

Derwent’s Onyx pencils

The best sketching pencil so far, that’s not

even the best as pencils go, is the Derwent onyx pencil.

It’s remarkably strong, and it’s capable of some pretty black shades. No, not as good as carbon or charcoal because it is still graphite that will get shinny if you overdo it.

I’ve used it in serious finished work, like this here Anubis puppy, and I thought it was an ok serious pencil, but I haven’t made up my mind yet. It’s kind of an odd ball, or “black sheep” of my pencils.

One thing I want to note, I don’t think it would make a good pencil to learn how to draw with. Only reason is that it doesn’t give me that feeling a soft graphite does. I wouldn’t want someone to miss that experience because of my recommendation. It’s just too hard of a lead that I think would make an absolute beginner frustrated.

Now, on the doggie drawing over on the right, a good many of pencils came into play to create this, including my woodles pencils, but I wanted to state where I used the onyx. The little scratching texture effect on the blanket. Those are the little wispy lines. There is also a great deal on his snout, and pretty much any of the blackest blacks that are in the work.

The Best Drawing Pencils

CreateAcolor Graphite Pencils

The pencils that stuck out the most for me were the CreateAcolor’s professional grade pencils. They just seemed a cut above Derwent, although I’ve used derwent for years and it’s not a bad pencil.

They create beautiful, smooth lines, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced any gritty spots.

I no longer need to buy the big tin, just single pencils to replace the ones I’ve used up, but if you buy the big tin of 24 there is a schematic on the top of the lid, much like a box of whitman’s chocolates. This has pictures of pencil marks to show you how dark that particular pencil grade gets. This is one of those things I wish I had when I decided to quit dabbling and really learn to draw.

Sadly I haven’t been able to find the 24 count tin in my travels in a good while. If you happen to find it, better hop on that sucker, or if you find that the 12 count tin has the awesome schematic, please let me know. 🙂

The Best Drawing Paper

Portrait drawing on stonehenge paper, created by, Shannon FleetLet’s get down to the foundation of sketching and drawing. Paper is oftentimes more important than people think. Drawing can be done on just about any paper, or with any tool that makes marks, but good paper makes a huge difference, sometimes the difference between success and failure depending on which drawing media you’re using.

On the flip side, the best paper makes for a better creative experience. Your pencil will also respond differently to different paper, this will either be frustrating, or give you a wonderful feeling. For artists who work with colored pencils, they need a paper with enough tooth to build layers of color that doesn’t fill up too fast. On the other hand, artists who use charcoal or pastels need a paper that is super toothy or else the powder particles won’t hold.

The paper I speak of here is the stuff you want to create finished work on, I have and use several different varieties since I’m hopelessly addicted to art supplies, but here is both of my favorites.

This drawing was created using Stonehenge paper.

The Best Hand Held Pencil Sharpener

Pencil Sharpener Print by WallJewelry

Those pencils aren’t going to sharpen themselves! This particular issue has always been a problem with me. I’ve tried everything in the past.

I’ve always had romantic notions of the artists that use a knife to hone their pencil tips with care. This, I’ve been told and read is the best way to sharpen your professional pencils. I’ve never liked it.

For me the convenience of a regular, no frills pencil sharpener and a sand paper block was all I could deal with. I just want to get back to work!

Convenient, yes, but sadly most pencil sharpeners suck. They wear out super fast, and when they do wear out they chew rather than sharpen. This creates a ton of waste and frustration. I’ve been known to rage when it snaps the tip off of my lead causing me to stop and grab a 9H pencil to dig it out.

Even worse they are deceptively cheap, so one doesn’t notice the added cost and waste of having to buy a new sharpener just because the blade has worn out. This cost adds up over time.

Of course, there are electric pencil sharpeners. I give you an unprofessional “LOL” at this. You can’t take them with you.

The Best Artist’s Erasers

Some of My Erasers, Plus Some Improvisation

Pink Rubber Erasersby FallSeason

The eraser is also a great drawing tool that’s often overlooked. I use it for the obvious, to fix mistakes, for pulling out graphite from the tooth to lighten the tonal value of an area, and finally I actually use it to draw with.

I like to use three types:

The Kneaded, well it’s not exactly a traditional kneaded, but I’ll explain in a minute. Your trusted kneaded putty will do all sorts of stuff. Clean up, pull out graphite or charcoal, clean any smudges, create shapes. It’s the one that I use the most.

The regular white plastic eraser. For all of those general tasks that the other erasers can’t do. It’s ok to not have the best here, provided it’s not one of those pink erasers. You don’t want it to destroy, or otherwise flatten the tooth of your paper, or even worse, to rip it to shreds. But, the best does exist! I’ll show you below.

The last, is my trusty clicker eraser. The one I like to use is the tuff stuff stick. I used to use the fatter clickers, but they were terrible to draw with, yet not big enough to erase large areas. Plus, with my old clicker if I bore too hard on it I would nip off the top! Took me a long time to find tuff stuff.

UHU’s White Or Blue Tac As An Eraser

Better than any kneaded eraser on the market
Let me explain my substitute for the kneaded eraser. I like to use white tac. It can be pretty hard to find and you have to get it from the UK. lol. It’s the same as blue tac and you can use the blue too! Either one you can get your paws on.

It comes in a larger quantity than real thing, which also makes it cheaper. It’s stronger, lasts longer, and picks up more graphite and charcoal. It makes me hate to have to use the old kneaded putties. This is why I crowned it the best.

About Best Drawing Tools

The drawings and sketches were created and copyrighted by Shannon Fleet. That would be me!

The other images relate to Zazzle and are copyrighted by the artists who created them. A link is provided to the Zazzle site if you’d like more information on their work.

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by David Burgess on May 11, 2018 0

Must have resources for the figure drawing artist

The Artwork of Lacy Chenault – from Heart people to Belly Dancers

I Believe I have always been an artist – from a very young age I remember having a huge interest in drawing things – but it’s always been one thing – Women – which started as heart people and evolved to women.

Through High School I got bad grades in everything but art class, even if I skipped a week of school I would always finish my art projects on time, and sometimes do other people’s projects as well. But I feel like my art is at its peak right now – though I secretly hope it isn’t – I would like this to just be the beginning of a mountain rather than it being all downhill from here.

A few years ago – right around the time I moved in with Mark I started to really pick it up again, and since then I have gotten much better. I started my very own website and found the people who really like my art. At least I think they do?

I think the biggest thing for me is when I just recently signed a contract – I will be receiving 12% royalties from a company selling my artwork on cross-stitch patterns, and sales at my cafepress shop seem to have taken off. I am not one to usually have an ego about things, but at the very least at this point I can say I am proud of myself.

I can look at my art now and really see that I have gotten better – sure it has taken years and many drawings have been thrown in the trash, but after all that it has actually gotten better…wow.

Earlier this year I had my first “Art Show” at a local coffee house – my art was up for one entire month. MY ART was the sole décor for this coffee house for all of the month of February – sure when it happened, I didn’t think I deserved it, but looking back – I did. I loved that people could see my art up close and personal – not only on the web – my scanner never does them justice anyway. It was really nice to see that people really did like my art – lets be truthful here – a lot of people lie on the internet, I can’t read their expressions when seeing my art, so I never really know what they think of it – that is of course, unless they buy it.

It started as just Fairies here and there, some Goddesses – then it grew to include the Zodiac collection, and just recently I started Drawing Belly Dancers, as I myself am now one – it has inspired me in so many ways with my art.

I draw dancers from my class whether they know it is them or now – they are at the very least my inspiration – I have drawn my teacher twice and I think she likes them. I take tons of pictures at every show – just to take them home at get ideas for my next drawing.

It is really ever evolving – you put the effort it and you will see results – it may take years – but it is always about patients – with anything you want to get good at.

Giovanni Civardi – Drawing the Female Nude

Lots of different poses, real looking women
For many years I have been drawing women, and only women. The female figure I think is just nicer to look at.

The problem I would always run into when starting a drawing is thinking of a pose, and actually pulling it off. That is why I purchased “Drawing the Female Nude” at my local Barnes and Noble. The only other option I could think of was to hire an actual model, and that’s just too expensive and awkward.

Drawing the Female Nude is written (and illustrated) by Giovanni Civardi, an Italian artist and instructor who also wrote and illustrated “Drawing Human Anatomy” and “Drawing the Male Nude”. His drawings are as realistic as they come, which is how I like it.

In this book he uses two models, one that is tall and has more boyish figure and one who is a bit womanlier in the hips and butt. Both of them are definitely European, you can tell by the furry armpits, which you can “edit out” in your own drawings easily, but it really doesn’t detract from the book at all unless you are tremendously shallow. That is also part of the reason I really like this book.

The women in this book look like real women. Their breasts are not super-round and perfect, their brows are not perfectly plucked, and they do not have washboard abs. I am not saying they are fat (I am probably bigger than them), they are real.

These two women are drawn in many different poses including standing, sitting, stretching, twisting, turning, lying, and even some yoga positions from just about every different angle. Each pose includes his own tips on pulling it off, and information on different techniques and materials. He uses charcoal and pencil to sketch out the women. There are also a few actual photographs of the models in this book.

I really like his tips on shading and shaping the muscles. He really teaches you a lot about the female muscular structure in this book too, which is something every artist should study a bit about to reach his or her full potential. He encourages every artist to find his or her own unique style, not just to copy.

This book was definitely worth the $14.95 I paid over three years ago. I still use this book as a reference, and I do feel that it has made me an improved artist. This book I think would be an excellent gift for all artists who like to draw real looking women, whether amature or professional

The Nude Figure – a visual reference for the artist

I know you will find what you want in this book. It is full of good poses, which are lit very well.
I browsed through this book at a Barnes & Nobles a few weeks ago, and almost immediately fell in love with it. But I did have to wait to go online as it was nearly 30.00 at B&N and I knew I could get it cheaper at amazon.com, which I did for a mere 22.00 with shipping.

Before “The Nude Figure” my best reference book was “Drawing the Female Nude” by Giovanni Civardi, which featured his drawings of two models in various poses. It is a great book for the beginner, but after five years of using it I needed something new – and Playboy just wasn’t working.

The Nude Figure by Mark Smith featured only photographs of various models and all kinds of different poses. All of the photographs are in black and white which is a definite plus in my mind, helping you to see the defining lines and edges. The poses are divided into chapters as follows:

Standing Poses – This chapter is full of your basic standing poses. Arms up, arms down, from the side, from the back.

Reclining Poses – All kinds of laying down positions, all from different perspectives. Some look quite easy to draw and others are quite hard.
The Figure on a stool – These I find quite difficult simply because of the stools – I am not good at any kind of still life, even if it has a woman sitting on it.

Bending Poses – Most of these look like stretching before a workout poses. I don’t se how they could be useful in a work, but for practice everything is good.

The Figure in motion – I am very happy with this section as I do a lot of fairies and it is full of people jumping up in the air – something you could never get a live model to hold.
The Pregnant Figure – There are only a few pages of this, and I’m glad they put in here. It’s not too often that you get to see a nude pregnant woman to draw from. I think this will come in handy someday.
Unusual Poses – Just like it sounds, many of these aren’t very practical, but very useful in learning how different muscles shift in different positions.

The bulk of the photo’s are in Standing, Seated, and reclining poses. Those fill up most of this book.

Also the people in this book are all pretty fit. There aren’t any fat people in here, not a big scope of different shapes. Again, I am happy with this as I don’t want to draw fat people, but other artist might be disappointed by this lack of diversity. Some of the women have hairy armpits though, and some don’t – that’s diverse enough for me.

Take More Risks – Dynamic Figure Drawing

I highly recommend this book for any artist who just wants to tweak what they already know.
The moment I browsed through this book I knew it could help me tremendously. Dynamic Figure Drawing is a book for the already knowledgeable artist, wanting to better understand the human anatomy – something very important in drawing the figure.

I would start out with a book such as “Drawing the Female (or male) nude” by Giovanni Civardi, which only has poses of women or men, and Giovanni is much easier to read, easier to understand as a beginner.

What I found most helpful is the artist examples drawings; he shows different ways of looking at the figure to get a good realistic drawing of it. I have found that breaking the body down into simple shapes makes it so much easier to put it all together, adding muscle structures and curves after. He also breaks down the perspective drawings quite nicely,

There aren’t many full poses in this book as he beaks most down to the parts. He has sections on feet, legs, arms, chests, etc. My hands have gotten so much better since practicing them with this book. But I definitely recommend using another book or source for getting you poses, then using this book for the parts you have a hard time with. I recommend “The Figure Nude”, which is full of photographs of both men and women nude in all sorts of poses. If not, a magazine is always a good alternative.

This book is in no way easy reading, in fact it seems like it should be in college art classes all over the place. It is very technical, and I usually have to read over the same section a few times to really get what he is trying to say. So, again, I don’t recommend this book for beginners at all.

For the figure drawing artist who’s been at it for a while, and just has a hard time with certain parts, or has a hard time putting more action into their poses, I can’t say enough good about this book. It has helped me out in so many ways in just the short time I have had it. You can see it in my most recent works (some are featured on my profile) such as Gaia – I would have never tried such a difficult pose before reading this book. I also am not afraid to show hands anymore, because he has made them so much simpler.

I have truly been inspired by this book, since getting it I have been much more creative with my art, and I take more risks. I am very pleased with what this book has done for me.

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Deals on not so new books
Soometimes it’s a good idea to go the cheap route
I know there are many starving artists out there as well (myself included) but art lesson/reference books aren’t the kind you want to just borrow from the library, it is a good idea to have them in your collection. Sometimes I open up my old books I haven’t looked at in years and it’s like I’ve never looked through them before – turn old inspiration into new – eBay is a good place to get good – and cheap art reference books.

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by David Burgess on May 10, 2018 0

Book Review: Figure It Out! by Christopher Hart

Christopher Hart’s book, “Figure It Out!” is basically a beginners guide to drawing the human form. It’s not an advanced book of everything you ever wanted to know about drawing the human body, but it is a book that will get most artists comfortable drawing the human figure. He’s got his own techniques, and a few unique examples for demonstration, and the most important thing about this book is simplification.

Christopher Hart has built himself a virtual empire when it comes to How-To drawing books. If you search Amazon for his name, literally thirty or more titles will be returned, in the search. Go to any bookstore, and the drawing section will be dominated by his name. He has garnered a bit of criticism, however, due to the fact that his drawing instruction is geared more towards the comic artists, than those looking to represent realism. He’s also been criticized for not doing all of his own drawing. Many of his books are filled with the art of other artists. However, much of the art is superb. Hart himself is not a recognized comic book artist, and he will routinely employ artists that are. However, what he does well is he covers all of his bases.

For me in particular, the book, “Figure It Out!” took me from being very tentative with my drawing of the human form, to feeling like I could conquer just about any pose. His instruction begins with the head as a basic shape, and then moves on to the body. He states that the body is more or less all about nailing down the torso, and he gives a great analysis about how to layout the torso with a few main angles. He then goes on to demonstrate the process by showing human poses using only stick figures. Simplification is his key.

Remember when you were a kid, and you’d draw stick figures? Well, guess what? You were, apparently, right to do this. Hart demonstrates this by nailing down intricate stick figures of the human form. He shows that this is all that’s necessary to get the form down. One of the chapters, called “Body Dynamics,” is dedicated to drawing dozens and dozens of stick figures, and by the end, I felt like I had a handle on manipulating the human form. Each successive chapter goes into more detail on fluffing up the human form, as in adding the muscles and the clothing. The book finishes with some fairly unique poses, that demonstrate the human form in all sorts of angles, specifically showing things like foreshortening, and hiding appendages, and some other complex poses.

The book isn’t an end all be all book of drawing the human form. It’s a starting point to get the confidence for the hard stuff, and it was all I needed to help me get over the hump, and help me feel more comfortable about tackling what I had up until that point felt was the overly complex human form. After reading the book, there are still things that may be out of my reach, but I certainly don’t feel like I need to shy away from anything either. In fact, most poses, I can bang out fairly quickly.

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by David Burgess on May 8, 2018 0

Me and My Musicals: Maybe I Should Have Taken Those Singing Lessons

ME AND MY MUSICALS

10. That’s how old I was when I saw my very first live play on stage and perhaps more importantly, my very first ever musical ? Miss Saigon, to be exact. At that age I loved every single second of it from the songs to the dancing to the sheer magnificence of watching those talented people perform in front of you live! But the songs, interspersed with the plot, was my very favorite part of the entire experience. As a Disney movie lover seeing real life people break into song like it was part of everyday was a delicious experience!

So Maybe My Playlist Isn’t Like Yours

But I like it anyway

From Sarah Brightman in the Phantom of the Opera to the award-winning Stephen Sondheim I scour record stores, secondhand video shops for any obscure CD, DVD of anything related to Musicals. At the advent of the internet, online shopping and, dare I say it, Youtube, I’ve had more opportunity to enjoy the wonderful world of musicals.
While my peers in high school and college filled their mp3 players with mainstream and pop songs I flooded mine with an eclectic collection of Sarah Brightman’s maddeningly gorgeous voice, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s catchy tunes, Sondheims masterpieces and everything else in between. You should have seen the looks I got on the tram when I would accidentally sing a part out loud – didn’t happen too often but I didn’t really care overmuch.

Those Singing Lessons

Maybe I really should have taken them after all
The Gloried Microphone by Tom8115 @flickr When my mother went to New York about 2 years back I was still in college so she made the painful decision of not bringing me along. When, in tears, I asked her why she hadn’t brought me along she answered simply that I would sing at her to death until we went to Broadway. She was probably right. But it still hurt.

I am one of those shower divas, meaning I can only sing in the shower and never anywhere else. When I was a child and one of my brothers had given me the ‘Cats’ soundtrack on cassette tape I was too in love with it to be embarrassed about singing in front of other people. When my mother suggested that I get a singing lesson I was too embarrassed to have some ‘expert’ tell me how to sing it. Again, she was probably right. Who knows, maybe I could have been in my own musical. (Or not.)

It’s All Heart

And a great deal of dancing
My limited exposure to musicals means that I don’t know much about it. Even with the internet I can’t see anything live although I try to get as much shows as I can locally. I never profess to be an expert, in fact I’m probably the exact opposite to that. But, for me, musicals whether I watch them or just listen to them, are an integral to me as a person. When I want to cry or when I simply feel lazy a simple listening or watching session is enough to energize my life. And, in the end, that’s the most important thing.

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by David Burgess on May 7, 2018 0

Top Ten Opera Villains

Even those of us that got most of their musical education from Bugs Bunny cartoons know that Operas have a marked tendency to end badly. But few really take the time to admire all the effort that goes into preventing the happy endings: for every soprano and every tenor singing their love duet center-stage, there is a bass-baritone lurking somewhere in the shadows just waiting to turn the music to a minor key, and the amount of plot twists required for him to suceed is simply staggering! So with this in mind, let us pay a homage to the Operatic villain. Let us sit back and count down those top en vocal virtuosoes that were just that good at being bad!

10.The Mikado

from Sullivan’s “The Mikado” (Sullivan as in “Gilbert and Sullivan”)
Timothy Spall as Richard Temple playing the Mikado in the movie Topsy Turvy While some might consider the works of Gilbert and Sullivan as Operettes, or even Musicals, their creators labeled them as “Light Opera”, and in this list we’re sticking to that. Besides, how could we leave out what is probably the most influential duo in English-speaking musical theater?
And from all their works, while HMS Pinafore might be the most iconic and Pirates of Penzance the most popular with modern audiences (with a Broadway adaptation and no less than two movies to its credit), on the long run none has enjoyed a greater sucess, with countless adaptations and enduring popularity as everything from a high school play to a grand opera, than their masterpiece “the Mikado”. And at the center of this bright and sunny black comedy -never has a story who’s main plot points are the threat of mass execution by beheading (for flirting), burying alive and something involving either “boiling oil or melted lead” been so merry and surprisingly clean- stands the ominous, gleefully, almost sarcastically evil figure of the Mikado, the Emperor of Japan. Though he only appears halfway through the second act and he really sings very little except for his own introductory aria (“A more humane Mikado…”), this tyrannic despot’s shadow looms over every single action of the characters, his subjects, from the very start of the Opera. A “peppery potentate” indeed, to quote another Gilbert and Sullivan work!

9.Doctor Bartolo

from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville”
John del Carlo as the ‘doc (on the right, with the grey wig), plotting with his friend Don Basilio (Christophoros Stamboglis)Doctor Bartolo is here representing the “basso buffo”, or “comic basse” school of operatic villainy. And while he doesn’t sing the most iconic aria in his opera -“Figaro, figaro, figaro…” that ring any bells? It’s from “the Barber of Seville” too, but Figaro, the titular barber sings it-, he is certainly a force to be reconed with.
To put it simply, Bartolo’s an old coot that wants to marry his teenage ward; his main gimmick is that he’s old. He spends most of his time plotting, performing slapstick comedy and singing patter songs or (parodies of the type of) songs that were cool “in his day” -take note people: this guy is gonna sing stuff that was already outdated when Operas were still being written-. Also, he never performs or even mentions anything even remotely resembling medicine.
Now in his original incarnation Bartolo is more of a buffoon than anything else, but directors nowadays tend to downplay the more farcical elements in this play, so you’ll probably see a more low-key sort of comedy -though they’ll always go for the cheap laugh of having him have a fake heart attack during one of the fast segments-. This can have adverse effects: for one thing, you might end up feeling sorry all him. When you take out the “crazy old man” jokes, he’s really just some poor guy that’s in love with a younger woman…and that gets his house wrecked continually by a protagonist that’s a bit of a jerk like that. However, when done correctly, playing him straight -or at least as straight as he can be played, this IS a comedy after all-, can make this guy come off as the meanest, nastiest but also funniest old bastard this side of the Guadalquivir.

8.Giorgio Germont

from Verdi’s “La Traviata”
Just a sweet old man looking out for his family… (Richard Lewis as Giorgio Germont)This one is another strange pick. Strange in that he’s not really evil. If anything, he’s a good guy! He’s the lead tenor Alfredo Germont’s father and when he isn’t singing touching songs about the beauties of his Mediterranean homeland (“Di Provenza il Mar i Sol”), he’s heaping blessings upon the lead soprano. So why is Giorgio Germont a villain?
Well, basically, because he causes most of the trouble in the Opera. To give a brief synopsis of the plot, the protagonist (Violetta, the titular “Traviata”), is having an illicit relationship with Alfredo. But this is ruining the Germont family’s reputation, so much that Alfredo’s sister (Giorgio’s daughter) is being threatened to have her engagement broken off. And so Giorgio does what he thinks is best for his family, and tries to break up Alfredo and Violetta. And even then, he doesn’t really plot it: he just goes to Violetta and begs her to abandon Alfredo… and not tell him why.
We don’t want to give away the ending, but this has tragic consequences for everyone involved. And all he really wanted was to take care of his daughter… not to mention that he even tries to fix things later on, but to very little avail.
So, ladies and gentlemen, our number eight is Giorgo Germont: the living, singing proof that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

7.Nero and Poppea

from Monteverdi’s “L’Incoronazione di Poppea”
Rachel Yakkar and Eric Tappy as Poppea and Nerone (Nero) respectively… you should be able to tell which is which on your own, despite the clothesThis opera is outstandingly old, at least a good one or two hundred years older than most of the operas on this list. It was written by Claudio Monteverdi, the father of Opera (though this wasn’t his first work in the genre), but apart from old, it’s also very strange. That is, the flashy ancient Roman setting is fairly common in opera, but the theme is very unique in any medium.
Basically, “l’Incoronazione” presents the triumph of love (classic enough), but in a negative light. In this opera Love triumphs -literally: there is an allegorical prologue, and our familiar Cupid even makes a few appearances during the action-, but he triumphs over Fortune and Virtue.
Now, for anyone familiar with Roman history, Emperor Nero was a deranged psychopath that happened to ascend to the throne of the most powerful empire in the world, making him one of the most vicious, murderous despots in history. Poppea, for her part, was his concubine who, through machinations and seductiveness, managed to claim her place on the throne next to him -though later on even her charms did not spare her from his wrath.
In the opera, Nero loves Poppea. But their love leads Nero to exile the legitimate empress Ottavia, have his tutor the philosopher Seneca killed and coerce the Senate of Rome to crown Poppea empress, while Poppea for her part ruthlessly abandons her lover Ottone as well as any pretense of shame. And when this couple from hell has finished off all the decent characters in the play, after a triumphant, bombastic finale that seems to mock the usual “happy ending” motif, they sing one of the most langorous, beautiful love duets in Opera history (“Pur ti miro”). It has been said about this opera that “Never has the triumph of evil been set to such divine music”.

6.Canio

from Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci”
Enrico Caruso as Sideshow Bob… uh… we mean CanioIt’s exactly what it looks like: the number six opera villain of all time is a killer clown. The signature role of the legendary Erico Caruso, boasting the famous aria “Vesti la Giubba”, Canio, the leader of a troupe of Commedia dell’Arte clowns, is out to seek revenge on his wife Nedda for cheating on him. His plot is to kill her on stage, before an applauding audience that will realise only too late that the murder is real and not a part of the show… a grisly story indeed. Illustrating the maddening internal strife between love and hatred as well as the strange, almost post-modern conflict between an actor and his stage persona, the character is very complex and human, but also threatening and villainous enough to easily make this list.
5.Carmen
from Bizet’s “Carmen”
Well, I’d trust her…Set in Seville, Spain, but nothing at all like the “Barber”, “Carmen” is a riveting take of passion, jealousy and revenge. And at the center of it all is the eponymous “femme fatale”, who might just as well be a villain or a heroine: José, a soldier of the guard, falls in madly in love with her, and his unbridled passion drives him to unimaginable extents, while her fickleness in toying with him ultimately leads to the breathtaking showdown where… well, we’re not going to give away the ending here, are we? But it is sufficient to say that while some people consider the finale of this opera to be a tragic and sordid crime, others would say that a certain someone gets their comeuppeance.
Plus, while for the most part Bizet is a rather obscure composer, “Carmen” probably has some of the most recognizeable melodies in operatic history, from the Overture to the “Toréador” aria (“Votre toast…”; can you get any more Spanish?), without forgetting, of course, Carmen’s famous Habanera (“l’amour est un oiseau rebelle… l’amour est enfant de Bohème”).

4.Turandot

from Puccini’s… well, “Turandot”
Turandot from an early poster…We think she wants to kill someone but is too bored to do soThis lady is very pretty; fair enough. She’s also the daughter of the Chinese Emperor; so far so good. And, in her search for a husbant, she asks every one of her suitors to answer three questions. If they can answer, she marries them; if they fail she beheads them…. wait, what?
This lead lady, whom we think might be a distant and better-looking relative of n.10, is a cruel despot, cold, ruthless and incredibly powerful with an added bonus of legendary beauty. Standing at the center of a magnificent orientalist superproduction, she is the cause of as much misery and sorrow as anyone else on this list -just ask any of the princes that tried to marry her, or the slave girl Liu, who morally should probably be the protagonist- and despite a bit of a moral turn towards the end, she rightfully takes her spot as the number four best (worst) operatic villain.

3.Don Giovanni

from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”; wow… people with their names in Opera titles are nasty!
Ruggiero Raimondi as the Don. That face either means he wants to sleep with you or kill you. Either way, run!Don Giovanni is Italian for “Don Juan”. Yes, THE Don Juan. This heartless libertine lies, cheats, kills men, “seduces” women and gets away scott-free for the most part. Not only that, but he stands by his actions unrepentantly, and at one point even goes so far as to invite the ghost of one of his victims to a banquet. When the ghost actually shows up, things start to get truly sinister.
And, without giving away the ending, we will just say that a wish for this character to “go to hell” might be granted more literally than anyone in the audience would expect… and with good reason! Why else would he make number three on the list?

2.The Queen of the Night

from Mozart’s “the Magic Flute”
Diana Damrau (as the Queen of the Night) upon hearing she didn’t make number one… someone is very, very dead!You can’t go wrong with a name like this! In addition to one of the most impressively difficult and recognisable arias in operatic history (“Der Hölle Rach”), this woman has everything a high-fantasy villain like her should have: evil minions, awesome magic powers -even though she uses them in a way that’s so plot-convenient it would be egregious if we didn’t have Mozart’s music to distract us from it- and some of the best costuming and special effects an Opera star could wish for… and that’s saying a lot.
And if it is questionable whether she’s even a villain -she does really, really want to have this one guy dead, but she is also originally presented as a good guy, and her minions save the lead tenor’s life before arming him to go on a quest to save the Princess (the Queen’s daughter). Whether you should take the Opera’s word that she’s actually evil or conclude that she’s just a poor old widow who had her daughter and the guy she sent to rescue her abducted and brainwashed into double crossing her by a cult of wannabe freemasons is anyone’s guess, but all that just makes the Queen of the Night an even more compelling antagonist and interesting character
And what she lacks in the outright detestability of some of the other contestants she makes up for in good old fashioned villainous style!

1.The Duke of Mantua

from Verdi’s “Rigoletto”
Luciano Pavarotti as the Duke… what a jerk! (the Duke, not Pavarotti… Pavarotti’s awesome)See that grin? That’s the grin that says “I’m gonna sleep with your daughter and kill you if you say anything, and you can’t do one thing about it because I’m the Duke!”. This guy is so evil that they had to have the libretto re-written: in the original play on which the opera was based, he was a King, but they had to make him a Duke because it was considered disrespectuful to portray the king as suck a jerk!
The Duke of Mantua (no name given) is a philanderer that goes around holding wild parties and “seducing” his subjects’ wives -he has a wife himself too, but she barely appears-, while he also makes a hobby out of publicly mocking the cuckolds. The opera’s plot thickens when the angelic daughter of Rigoletto, the Duke’s jester falls in love with the Duke (go figure…). Nothing good can come of this, and by the end of the opera you’ll be wishing someone shoots this guy really bad.
The Duke, then, is something of an antithesis for number one on this list: he’s the lead tenor, he’s the main love interest and (by the way) he has one of the most famous arias in opera history (“La Donna e Mobile”)… but he is definitely, definitely villain material!

Honorable Mention: der Erlkoning

from Schubert’s “Der Erlkonig”
The big white ghost… yeah… he’s evilOk, ok, so “Der Erlkonig” isn’t even an Opera. Heck, it’s not even a musical! It’s basically just a lieder, which is classical music lingo for “German Art Song”; the whole thing only lasts about five minutes, and there’s just one singer and one piano involved; considering the huge budgets some of the other productions on this list require, that’s pretty impressive.
The title character, the “Elven King” -or “Alder King”, but that’s not nearly as threatening- is a ghost from the times when elves were actually evil spirits, and their “mysterious trickster” demeanor was the “carry off your kid in the middle of the night” kind of trick. And this is exactly what this creep, who’s set his mind of carrying off some kid who’s riding through the forest with his father in the middle of the night, is up to. What he wants to do to the kid exactly isn’t made clear, but for the sake of keeping this article appropriate, we’ll assume that when he’s talking about how pretty the boy is, he just wants to eat him. Add to that that only the boy can see him, and top it all off with Schubert’s music, and… yeah.

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