Century Trees

Tho' working out in the sun would have been brutal,  even on very hot days this summer I was able to sit in the shade with welcome breezes while drawing great old trees and trying to catch the pattern of cast shadows and filtered light on the ground. 

Driving down a different cemetery lane yesterday I found this massive old maple already loosing it's leaves. Tomorrow they will blanket the ground between two hundred year old stones. Those gorgeously hot summer days are gone so I'll now have to bundle up but you know I will be visiting this old beauty again!







"Death, like birth is a secret of nature."  Marcus Aurelius

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree." Emily Bronte

"I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen."  Frederick Franck

Old Jug & Jar: Spacial Perception

This week we have two Prismacolor Pencil interpretations of a nice old stone-ware jug (actually a bottle) and a small glass jar.  The three dimensional forms you see here are the result of careful observation and accurate renditions of shape, color, shade, shadow and reflection. In the first version on the right we see these three objects straight-on at eye level with no sense of form derived from linear perspective. If this were a line drawing it would essentially consist of flat shapes outlined. 

(Tho' not the essential point of this post, a hint of depth is seeing shapes overlapping.)    

In this second drawing we perceive form because of the same accurate representation as above but with the addition of linear perspective. We are looking from a slightly higher viewpoint so can see the oval shapes in the openings of the jar and in the shoulder and base lines of the bottle. While we can see the complete top edge of the jar, our eyes follow the jug's shoulder line as it disappears around the "corner" on the right side and we complete the oval in our mind as it passes behind and reappears running toward us on the left. We understand this as an indication of 3D form.

Our experience with this world says that light on one side of an object usually produces a shadow side, a curved object's shading progresses from light to dark and a highlight is the reflection of a light-source. Our hands confirm that perception of form when we reach out and hold an object. When the right marks are presented on a flat surface in an appropriate way, we believe!


"What we call art would seem to be specialist artifacts for enhancing human perception."  Marshal McLuhan

"In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present."   Sir Francis Bacon

Fantasy

Early in my teaching career I was the art teacher in a couple of elementary schools dealing with children from kindergarten to middle school. I'd often admire the the kids' simple drawings and wonder if I would be able to produce something as charming without actually copying. At the time I was not drawing "seriously" so let the idea go and forgot about it until recently. 

Now I draw almost every day and sometimes think about those young children's drawings and try to  use those memories to prompt my imagination.  I loosen up and start drawing without any real direction. I'll start with just a few marks, shapes or more likely a simple idea like "Home" or "Dance" and let the piece grow as I go along. Unlike the the ink "doodles" I wrote about a few weeks ago, I don't refine the work but try to maintain that childish quality until I've filled the paper. 

With the current popular interest in "Outsider Art" I see some producing purposefully naive work, trying to look as if they were unschooled. I'd rather use what I learn from kids to produce something sophisticated but with the simple power of a child's work. We'll continue this discussion next week.

A note here: I had to enhance these two drawings using Photoshop because the originals were too light and delicate to show up well here in Blogger. Sorry 'bout that!



"Fantasy is one of life's brighter porcelains."   Pat Conroy

"Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness."   Allen Ginsberg

Shameless Self-Promotion!

These are a couple of self portraits done with graphite pencil on Strathmore 400 series drawing paper several years ago, - in 2002  I think. No photographs involved - just me and a large floor-to-ceiling mirror. Each image is approximately 9 inches high, cropped here to cut some blank paper. There were two light sources: natural light from a window on my left and a simple old fashioned floor lamp on the right. Each drawing was one sitting within a couple of days of each other. I don't recall how long they took but I'd guess at least a couple of hours.  I was able to work with no interruptions, a condition I find essential for most of my work. There was a third version, actually the first one done, that barely resembled me but looked more like my younger brother. Not a bad thing, you understand, just not quite right.

Now that I'm looking at them all, each drawing seems a bit more honest than the previous one.
I aged at least a year in each. (Just remember, they are here in reverse chronological order) I hadn't intended to show this last one, but so that you can see the progression, the improved observation and understand the value of repeated effort. here it is. So, as I usually say, Just Do IT- but do it again and again! 

Damn! You know, I'll never learn! Why didn't I just say, here are three nice self-portraits done over a period of time, several years for instance, and I could have walked away a hero, a god! Imagine that, I could have been ... an Art God! *







"The self portrait is a thankful thing, the model gets tired  exactly when the artist does." Aapo Pukk

"Everything I paint is aself portrait, whatever the subject. Jamie Wyeth

* Comments?

Contour Line Again - and More!

These two nudes have appeared here in the past (4 years ago) but without the background I call a "grill".
At that time I talked about contour line as a descriptive device that many think of as an "outline". It may be that, but more, its a line describing an edge that often runs across the figure, describing form as well as shape, enriching our understanding of the whole figure.

The background "grills" perform a couple of functions. First, they set the figures in a separate environment of sorts, a defined space that helps us to see shape and form as distinct aspects of the drawings. The grill also calls attention to "negative space". The shape of the area defined by the figure's edges and the edges of the background space or edges of the paper.

If I were interested only in this mind/eye game I would likely dispense with the figure entirely and just work in abstract terms. Luckily (or not) I enjoy representational art, observational drawing and here, the human figure.





Having said all that,  we now have to confront an essential truth. In these works we have shapes and lines, color and texture all integrated and/or juxtaposed on a flat surface, but there is no form, at least none in the sense of actual 3D depth. Our perception of depth here, is an illusion we buy into in order to enjoy the story, idea or figure presented. At the movies we allow ourselves to "believe" that the images are real so that we can be led through the illusion of an experience. We enjoy it!

The artist Rene Magritte said it well in his 1929 "The Treachery of Images" a painting of a pipe with the label, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" - "This is not a pipe". He's saying it's an image, a painting, an idea. (Even the word p-i-p-e is an abstraction) Check it out here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MagrittePipe.j




This brings me to a current problem some artists are encountering. There are anonymous "critics" who pressure the "powers that be" to remove depictions of nudes from the pages of Facebook. Some images have been deleted. The artist/posters are given no chance to defend their work or to confront complainers. The prudes, puritans and religious fanatics, who do not show their faces, do not seem to see the difference between art and reality and do not understand at all the role of the artist. They do not subscribe to the idea, "freedom of expression", the basis of creativity. Check the link below and add your name to those protesting these abusive actions!

https://www.change.org/p/facebook-stop-banning-artists-images-of-nudity-on-facebook?


Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere might be happy."   H. L. Mencken

"Illusion is the first of all pleasures."   Voltaire

"The space between the dish and the pitcher, that I paint also."   George Braque

Jars of Color!

Here are recent drawings of two old jars I thought would be interesting because of the reflections and transparency. They are relatively quick sketches on grey paper with only three colors - black, white and blue.

Later, looking at the drawings, I thought they needed some small enhancement. Taking a cue from some earlier figure drawings with added backgrounds, I added a simple orange line around the jar - just enough color in contrast to the blue to give it a bit of life. It worked beautifully! You can see my Photoshopped re-creation, background removed, on the left.






There was just enough zing in that single line, so did I stop there? Of course not!  If a "touch" of color is good then more of the same would be better. Right?  That over-large background rectangle was the next step, and as far as I'm concerned, it's much too much. (and a bit high behind the jar in any case!)  Lesson learned - so in drawing the jar with scissors below, I was more judicious and that restraint paid off in a much better color balance.










By now you've probably noticed something else!
I started out thinking that capturing the jar's transparency would be a major factor in the drawing's interest but by inserting the virtual orange without it showing through the glass, that lack of color in the jar works against us. I should have had an actual strip of color there and worked to render it in the original drawing. Oh, well - another lesson!

P.S. I've just been re-evaluating this post (9-21-16) and now find the drawing with the larger orange rectangle the more satisfying in it's color balance! Hmm, what happened there? A year older I guess!

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."   Scott Adams

"Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere." G. K. Chesterton

Beginning (again)

Continuing the creative drawing theme of previous posts, here are two early ink drawings that re-illustrate the concept of "doodling" your way to a viable idea. When I first started creative drawing I often had no particular idea or direction, so like an old kid's TV program artist, I'd make a few random marks on the paper that prodded my hand & head and often grew into something interesting or unexpected. 

This one (left) reminds me a bit of pen-work by Fons Van Woerkom, a political cartoonist who did work for the New York Times back in the 1970's. Along with his dense hatching there was an element of "ugly" in his ideas that made his drawings quite memorable.

This "Chicken Man" sketch that I've shown here in the past (5.26.11) and a couple of large format finished drawings that repeated the image are directly attributable to the doodle above.  It's just a bit more refined and a whole lot more humorous! You cannot see the old-fashioned piano stool the poor guy is trying to launch himself from!





This last piece, tho' just as much a "doodle" as the first, grew by addition/accretion rather than the organic process of the one above.
I was watching TV and responding to the various images and ideas as they flashed by, adding elements and trying to balance the composition as I went along. It was fun! I've had commissions based on this idea where I take people's pertinent facts and/or life experiences and weave them into similar "pedestal" illustrations, almost a design for fanciful sculpture.


"With experimentation comes surprise and discovery."
      Kim Lee Kho


"Spontaneity is being present in the present."   Wei Wu Wei


"The risk of failure is part of the fun,"    Paul Simon

In the Beginning

I've always liked to draw. One of my earliest memories has me sitting on the linoleum floor in front of my grandmother's huge cast-iron kitchen stove, drawing on a flattened brown paper bag. It may have been the typical child's simple stick figure, the iconic house and lollipop tree with "M" shaped birds above or even some fantastic vision - drawing was my refuge.

Many years later when I acquired my very first Rapidograph Pen, my young son's toys (here from an old sketch-book) were among the things I found at hand to observe and reproduce. I would draw anything that didn't move. I simply loved drawing!





Whether you like to draw fantastic comic heros, design your own clothes, do dog portraits or beautiful landscapes, you will benefit from observational drawing. It will help you understand perspective, give you ways to show form, let you work out technique and simply practice hand/eye coordination. Carry a small sketch book and draw every chance you get. It doesn't matter really what you draw,  just do it!


"Those who will not start, will never finish."  Jack Adams

"Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can."  Arthur Ashe

"Know that to begin is often better than to think." Robert Genn

Ink Work, Pen Play

This is what I had in mind two weeks ago when I said, "To be continued". Serious work can be the result of off-hand play. These doodles are like clouds, yes, but more intuitive, more evocative of something serious - a reminder of old images of atomic bomb bursts perhaps - but for me more fundamental.

I like them for the nice fluid pen work and really enjoy the loose line, especially those describing the bow crowning this one on the right below. For me it's a particularly playful image!

Now, compare the work in the first two doodles with this more specific subject - on the left below. If you guessed I had recently quit smoking you'd be right!  I started with a loose, un-formed sketch but as I worked it became more specific and content driven. In the end the lettering nailed it down. It's a fun / serious image - one I hadn't set out to produce at all.






















Letting go and doodling playfully can result in ideas and images you didn't even know were in there. Don't think, don't judge, just start. A funny mark or two can lead you to adventure. Let that line free and your mind will follow!



"Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way."   Ray Bradbury

"It is a happy talent to know how to play."   Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The essential ingredient for creativity is wasting time."    Anonymous

 

Painting Clouds

This is a quick post in response to a follower's particular interest. Last week in the blog comments, Suzy wrote saying she's had difficultly painting clouds and was going to flip over to my painting website to see "how to do it right". (!)

I don't know about "right" but you should know that as a sky loving 

x-pilot, I take tons of photos and as you've seen, I do sketches when moved.  I put the pic's together, edge to edge or overlapped, to construct the basis for an interesting and believable sky. 

I know that there are only a couple of pantings there on my website (philspaziani.com) that show any sky at all and none of any real "cloud interest" so here are parts of a couple that focus on the cloud filled sky. This whole painting measures about 10 x 17 inches. - you are seeing about two thirds of it with some loss at the bottom

This horizontal image below is actually a reject.  I'd finished a painting one time and realized I didn't like the composition. (Looking now at this post, I think it actually must have been the one above) There was just too much sky! Since I paint mostly on board or panel rather than canvass, it was easy to cut off the top couple of inches, do some repainting and the image was greatly improved! My wife happened by just then and asked if I would frame that excess piece for her, saying it would fit under the upper cupboards in the kitchen very nicely. There it hangs today, "A Sky for Lorraine'"!

"I never had to choose a subject - my subject rather chose me."  Ernest Hemingway

"I was never one to paint space, I paint air."   Fairfield Porter

"Where you stumble, there lies your treasure."   Joseph Campbell