watercolor, ink and more watercolor, and more ink

I am sitting here thinking...what words can mesh together with these watercolor sketches.

Can you find my initials? 

My first thought was " Great! we all need more vulture/angry birds on a perch shooting laser beams at nothing. As for the second page, Bob Ross told me that there are no mistakes only happy accidents so, bam."

My second thought was, I am thinking I have some fascination with trees. I guess that is because they seem pretty easy to draw.  They are always growing and changing shape dropping leaves and growing more, I dont know how many forms of trees and countless styles to drawing them.  Fascinating.  For me one little scribble turns into a few more and then you have grown your own tree. Lets call it a tall one. Instant gratification, and eco-friendly. ha.

Most of the drawing I have been doing as of lately has been even more random and scattered. I know I have made mention to this before, this is how I think, I guess. More so with watercolor finished with ink pen or highlighters. When I squeeze out some color, I like to push it around and blend it together. This is also why most of the watercolor ends up with a brown muddy situation. Joe was clearly not paying attention in color basics.  I also like to cover the whole surface with some mixture of color.  This can be a real bummer with 80lbs. sketchbook paper, which is why watercolor paper is ideal, but I have 6 more pages left and this book is full so I am trying to make the best of whats left.

I also want to mention that these two exercises were the by-product of a recent shopping trip to the the art store, in which I bought a new brush and paint.  There is also a lino print in the works so stay tuned for that.  It seems pretty interesting so far.

Seems trivial and petty to mention but I am told this is what a blog is for, I have discovered I have a thing for pens, pencils markers and brushes alike. Some people have a cup or a drawer with pencils and pens, I have five as my arsenal of drawing or writing utensils. This is true of the multiple desks or areas I work at. Some things are rarely used and others are never used, but they add to just the perfect amount of clutter to my desk.

Until we blog again...

Colors and circles and every inch of white space in-between.

When a drawing like this gets started there is no real focus. The point of any exercise is to strengthen. I dont start out with a concept and a route to achieve it. I pick it up, and put it down. Repeat. Or as Will Smith circa 1998 might refer to as "Getting Jiggy with It."  Yep....I have a blog and I can talk about Fresh Prince if I want to.

I always liked to fill in "white space" with color. I call it color space. I try to imagine the space of a drawing and where the object would appear if I were to walk through it in a dream. Much like the boy who wondered through the phantom toll-booth. Curious and cautious at first, but quick to adapt.  

Sometimes it works well and the contrast creates depth. Other times it muddies any idea of what concept might have passed. What is now lost is moving quickly and undermining the project as a whole, gotta hurry before it takes a turn for the sloppy. That does happen, and those drawings may never see the light of the scanner. Also because my style is to pick up and leave off multiple times with a drawings, my motivations and attention span are usually in different places.

When an artist sits down with a thought and or idea, and they are able to bang it out, it takes a certain amount of focus. Concentration, or whatever, the practice has a number of adjectives. Sure it takes seven,fifty or two hundred and twelve tries but, it is all a learning process. This is also why your teachers with tell you to always be sketching.  With enough focus an artist develops a style.  You can have moments of change in your style but if it is to truly become your style you have to own it.  Practice.

Each of us are different and we all focus in our own way. Auditory is dominant sense with an appeal to a great many of people of all styles.  I like to be visual, which is why my office inevitably takes the form of an installation more than a work space. That is how I think. Random. Scattered. Large.

In closing I wanted to say after re-reading what I wrote I realize I have never had a nasal sensory painting party.....who is in???




 

Oil Pastels

Oil Pastel Exercise  in sketchbook

The following is an example of my use of Oil Pastels in a sketchbook exercise. I have had them in my "art-room" for some time now and just last night decided to break them out. My first impression is it was very similar to chalk. There was a fair amount of smudging that took place to produce these results. In the anticipation of the smudging, I decided to keep the design simple.

I however could very easily see this type of design going to paint on multiple canvas. As I was coloring this design my brain would only let me think about that execution. Together it would look intense, separate it would lean towards lame, and empty.

The design took a very short amount of time to sketch out and I happen to think it is a very nice addition to the last 15 pages left in my sketchbook, more specifically this adds an element of depth to my arsenal of skills as a doodle-ist. 

Finally I got to the point where I started to line it with a sharpie. This made me think of the type of vanity used to change clothes behind, and this would pretty vibrant design.
Whatever this little blip encompasses is not important, what is important is that this design was fun and I had fun creating it. And so another time, another space, and wherever we all are in another place...Be well bloggers! 

Sketched-book dealings

This is how I think...I guess.
The closer I get to filling up this sketchbook the harder it is to close firmly and walk away from. The pages have absorbed so much ink, more than usual frustration and water lots and lots of water, let us not forget the tragic coffee spill of the fall of 2010!

The cover is almost entirely covered with stickers and events of pasts, with no consideration to how many miles this book has traveled by land sea and air (multiple missed flights). At this point there is only a handful of pages left without doodles, all the more reason to push harder and get it finished and find the next book to pour into.

My countless hours of thoughts and ideas being taken down on paper, rubbed smudged or ground into the pages of emptiness with no real audience.  ?   Really I have no idea.

8.5 x 11 watercolor, micron .5 and a trusty blue bic pen

That is one of the many thoughts that race through my head when I think about what other people see or think when they look at what I have created. There can be a lot going on at first glance, but after closer inspection, the subject matter can be lacking in lines or shapes with any lasting depth or interest. The simple fact is that lots of organic shapes and simple smaller doodles add to what appears to be a complex web of thoughts. Another un-fortunate is that when this sketch was scanned it lost much of its red and yellow contrast. You could say that it also lost some of its "pop" when the digital conversion happened, but over-all I think you get that majority of thought and idea. Joe has lost his grasp of real. HA!

I have also noticed that there are a few shapes/characters that I draw over and over. This is how I think...I guess. When this type of sketch is started and created I have no drawn reference to mimic or copy. Which goes as far to say that it is not supposed to look like anything. As close as I can relate is is those few moments when I close my eyes and right before I drift off to sleep. Which also explains lots of overlapping. Crazy right?

This sketch and many others like it are never really completed and they did not make it to this stage in one sitting, there are the combination of multiple days weeks or months. I focus when I can and when I make the time to blank out for a few hours. I also tend to use a collection of tools such as ink pens and watercolor brushes. This most certainly adds to the complexity of a sketch but defiantly not adding any points in the 'fine' art category.  Some day...probably not!

Hope you enjoyed this and more like it to come.