Rocky Balboa

Today it’s the Italian Stallion himself, Rocky Balboa. This piece has its kinks for me, mainly in the front arm. The reference I used to draw him was a bit too large so his arm was cut-off in the photo, and I drew him too small on my end. I had to improvise a bit and fill in the negative space of where his arm would’ve been and draw the rest of him from there. While this does break the immersion of this piece, by having his arm seemingly hidden behind shadows, I think the strength of capturing a likeness to the iconic boxer overrides it. The highlights and shading are also something I’m impressed with as I look back at this piece. I might’ve done a smidge too much cross hatching, but I think I found a nice balance of light and dark to and texture to the piece.

As I find more ways to incorporate color into these black and white drawings, Rocky’s boxing gloves were the perfect place to add color. Using red again, the gloves add a focal point and helps the wearer stand out simultaneously. I tried another experiment and used whiteout to capture the light off of the bright red gloves. In combination with cross hatching, I think I was able to mimic the leathery texture of the gloves to a decent extent.

For me, it’s the small victories that I’m proud of in this piece. The highlights of his shoulder, bicep, traps and neck and the rendering of his face and torso are all strong points for me. While I think it’s stronger than the previous day’s Ash, I still think it’s a bit lacking in comparison to the ones done earlier in the week.

For the personal part of this entry, I’m finding it a bit difficult to find something to talk about. I mean, what about Rocky hasn’t already been said? His underdog tale of struggling through the pain, never giving up and always being humble are things that every human being relates to universally in one way or another, so how can the main theme and message of the 6+ films be possibly relayed without being watered down even more? We’re all here on Earth, cursed (or blessed, take your pick) with life and even worse, forced to live in a morally bankrupt and illusionistic society.

So, how do I relate the ‘Rocky’ films from my life to yours? I guess through encouragement. We’re all struggling, but I think we struggle most of all with the internal one inside us. The vicious combatant known only to us because it is us. We’re our own Apollo Creed and some days he lays us flat on our asses. The mental struggle that we go through with our demons of insecurity, doubt, and hopelessness that can grind a person to dust without skipping a beat. It’s tiresome, and I know, because as I write this right now I have my own head swirling with insecurities and doubts. However, like Rocky we have to take it blow for blow and never back down. I know, I’m already sounding cliché but clichés survive for a reason. Personally, I see them as fundamental truths. I mean, why else would they be such well-versed ideas? I digress, but the point I want to convey is that we all suffer, and we have the power to end or at least make our suffering bearable.

To express myself, I find that following Christ’s teachings makes our physical attempts at alleviating our suffering a bit more manageable. I think the innate goodness of a morally perfect Being gives us a counterweight that allows us to keep our grandiose ideas of a more peaceful life in check. People always say that riches or X, Y and Z object will give them peace of mind but the Lord calls simply for our daily bread. It’s this idea to never desire more than what we have and only give us what we need. Again, I don’t mean to be cliché, but it’s the baseline of keeping yourself from daydreaming yourself into a depression because you’re not somewhere you want to be in life at the moment. It’s the starting point that allows you to plan and figure out how you can start and go about alleviating your pain. I’m aware, everyone’s situation in life is different and how they handle it is entirely up to them, and even my suggestion is one way of handling the multitude of ways on the road of self betterment, but my point is this. Alleviating your physical, outside suffering, whether it’s a job, relationship or mental struggle starts by going toe-to-toe with your own demons. The ones that have become so deeply ingrained in you that you don’t even notice them anymore. The ones you look at when you look at yourself and fill you with disgust. When you take the time to look inward and start to make the changes you always day dream about, the results can surprise you.

I don’t mean to preach and say this is how you’re supposed to live your life. I’m far too much of a flawed person that barely has my life together to do that (and people that know me will agree and add to how messed up I am). Like I said, I wanted this to be a letter of encouragement. To let anyone that reads this know that taking the steps to make your life more bearable is daunting, but don’t give up, keep going. We all stumble and fall every day. We all fall prey to our wicked thoughts and desires, and we fall into a negative mental health space more often than we care to admit, but you don’t stop. You never let the setbacks define you, and you always try again. Then hopefully, one day, you run up your own flight of Philadelphia Museum of Art steps and reach a place where you feel truly satisfied in your soul and look back with pride at how far you’ve come.