Archive for September, 2006
Speeding By The Poppies
Saturday, September 30th, 2006
Speeding By The Poppies on Hwy 40, Tennessee - 11 x 14 Oil Pastels - framed, available
Critique received that this was not dynamic enough, (below, Sept. 30, 2006 version). The drawing was at a fragile stage where I was 95% happy with it, but still the critique was valid. Above: I carefully scraped a few more lines in and highlighted some that were already there but not as prominent.
Tennessee Poppies
Thursday, September 28th, 2006
Tennessee Poppies Hwy 40- 11 x 14 Oil Pastels - framed 23 x 26 inches - available
Moon Over Cypress
Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
Moon Over Cypress - 14 x 1 1 Oil Pastels
Moon Over Cypress turned out differently than what I envisioned, and unlike many other of the oil pastels done recently, it came together quickly and will not be reworked. The paper shows through as stars and reminds me of time lapse photography.
Moon Over Myrtle, finished
Tuesday, September 26th, 2006
14 x 11 Oil Pastels on paper, framed 26 x 22 inches ~ Available
Moon Over Myrtle, stages
Sunday, September 24th, 2006
While trying to rid the look of water where i intended sky, at one point it looked to me like there was a shark shape there, so playing with the computer I added it for fun. Continually scraping away areas, then rebuilding, and trying ways to improve it and give it more depth, then for some reason Cezanne came to mind - I was compelled to look him up and learn more about him, his life and work. This was great fun, and I’m not finished with what I started discovering during the process of this drawing — I mean that I’d like to apply some of cubist space principles to future work because this was very interesting! I continued to play with some Cubist ideas, then finished the drawing with less of that look.
Moon Over Myrtle - 1st stage
Thursday, September 21st, 2006
14 x 11 Oil Pastels ~ Available, framed size 26 x 22 inches
Moon Over Myrtle is another oil pastel drawing that went through transformations while posting on a popular interactive Artits’ website, wetcanvas.com - It was noted after posting this stage that the sky looked more like water, so I played around with ideas that might make it look less so, using computer alterations (a new tool for me!) as well as trials altering the drawing itself.
Jabiru
Friday, September 1st, 2006
Jabiru - 24 x 18 pencil, eraser on paper
Drawings have a job to do: to provide viewers with more than just a pretty picture.
Before starting I envisioned a drawing based on Japanese principles of using fewer lines and shading, with empty spaces considered as much a part of the drawing as every mark. Here’s what I learned through the process of this drawing: When we view Art we do more than just look; we sense character, mannerisms, and emotions… imparted through every little corner of the work, whether we’re aware of it or not, so within the limitations of gray scale in pencil drawing, Artists need to do more than just show. There are tones implied through those tones!
The irony of the lesson is that this uncommon subject, a Jabiru, is not so pretty upon first glance either, and it’s one of the reasons I chose to keep the drawing soft. By purposely compromising the values and using a lighter touch, my hope was that the viewer’s response might be “nice drawing” before thinking “ugly bird”. To explain further, the Jabiru’s feathers are pure white and its head including beak are very dark grey, almost black. The style I was stubborn about from the start: simple with a lot of white space. The media: pencil on white paper. Whereas a photograph utilizes the whole range of dark and light values in a picture, a person drawing needs to choose how much of black, white and gray tones to apply in order to keep pleasing balance visually, but also as importantly: the effect they have on our impressions. The Jabiru’s huge beak strikes a strong sillhouette by shape alone, so to lessen the impact of the large odd shape on a fairly empty page, extremes were avoided even though “realistically” the bird’s beak is quite dark.
I really want stress here that a drawing is not a photograph, and a photograph is not a drawing. Obvious… you’d think so, but a lot of Artists even believe that every drawing needs to be perfectly realistic. Photographs might be the source of inspiration or for details that memory has missed or forgotten, but never to duplicate. Drawings that are copied attempting to produce an exact visual likeness, relying purely on the photo, lack a certain warmth no matter how well rendered they are. This is a hot topic with Artists, not arising out of elitist attitudes at all, but because Art includes the human factor. A photo is a product of a machine; the visual details are copied with no sense or emotion; it does what it’s been designed to do. Drawings are unique representations of all that we sense as well as see. We interpret character of a subject not only visually, but also through our multidimensional senses and intelligence.