Metamorphosis Drawings
2011.07.21
Metamorphosis, transition, change, tension. These are small drawings, averaging 6 x 8″ in pen, ink and pastel. More new work can be seen on my website in the Mixed Media and Ceramic sections.
Pierced Drawings
2010.04.04
Pierced Drawing No.1
19 x 26″. Pastel and ink on paper. The first in a series of ten drawings of piercings.
Pierced Pear
14 x 20″. Watercolor, aquarelle and colored pencils, pastel. The last of a series of ten drawings with piercings. I don’t know what inspired me to do the first few pierced drawings nor have I thought of anything clever to say about them post production. Toward the end of the series I started poking the stainless steel ball piercing into anything sitting around simply for the absurdity and ended up with the Pierced Pear.
“I just don’t want to die without a few scars, I say. It’s nothing any more to have a beautiful stock body. You see those cars that are completely stock cherry, right out of a dealer’s showroom in 1955, I always think, what a waste.” Tyler Durden (Chuck Palahniuk), Fight Club
Late Night Cut/Paste
2010.03.29
Late Night Cut/Paste
40 x 30″. Pastel and ink on Masonite. Inspired by too many late nights with graphics programs.
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
~Suzie Wagner, 1998
Week 3: Value Study. Geek, Biomech and the Post Apocalyptic. Out of Class Drawing.
2009.11.23
What is this? What I am seeing? What does it mean? Ooooh. For more information, see the Week 3 Sketchbook entry on this blog.
Time: 6 hours. Paper: Sennelier pastel card. 19 x 26″. Media: Black, white and gray pastel. Actuals: a standard laptop run amok on MS Vista and a bonsai root trained on a circuit board:
Process: I love drawing on pastel card, basically like drawing on sand paper. It allows for many clean layers of pastel. If only it came in 54″ x 10 yard rolls. First layer:
Second layer. Drawing from bonsai, overemphasizing the circuit board and linear perspective because I liked it that way:
Third layer. Printed out bits of my Perl program (CTRL + PRTSC) graphically enhanced, (Print Mask for GIMPs). Pastel on back of print, then traced with ball point.
Week 3: Sketchbook
2009.11.23
Most my artwork of the last 10 years falls into this genre so it was no problem coming up with an idea for a class sample drawing. I was looking forward to doing this assignment, completely prepared. At the very last minute, I mean the nanosecond before putting pastel to paper, I changed my mind, inspired by the paper size. I love drawing on Sennelier pastel card but the largest available size is 19 x 26″. I felt restricted by the small paper. It reminded me of the laptop I inherited which is a standard sized laptop but feels like being in a doll house compared to my big screen, wireless mansion of a desktop. Furthermore the laptop was already loaded with MS Vista: windows popping open, scroll bars, some sort of MS designers gone mad translucency thing that has to be seen to be believed, I mean, totally anathema to anyone who knows how to micromanage their computer experience. Ubuntu, BSD, Perl anyone?
Since 2001 I have grown ficus retusa bonsai over circuit boards, real plants grown over real pieces of circuit board, and made the ceramic containers for them. Right before I started the drawing, I attempted to email an image of my bonsai using the laptop. Who knows what happened. The image broke into multiple windows on the laptop screen, probably nervous pastel coated fingers on that itty bitty fingerpad and the whole mess looked like….well, a potential drawing. With the thought that it would be easier to create a program for sending images than using someone else’s idea of an image sending program, I added a bit of my own Perl code, a program that admittedly I never got to work correctly, digitally speaking, but has its uses as a decorative element. The best laid plans and all that.
Week 2: Proportion/Line Punk Genre Out of Class Drawing, Part 1
2009.11.07
Final drawing meeting requirements for Week 2 Out of Class Drawing: Proportional Line with characteristics of Punk Genre(s).
Time: 1 to 2 hours a day for 4 or 5 days. Something like that. Paper: Rives BFK 34 x 26″ Media: black and white ink; black, gray and white pastel.
Admittedly a bit of overkill for a line drawing. Still, it is a build up of lines. Detail:
Actuals: Watch parts and a piece of broken glass. I found the broken glass in a dumpster. I had made the watch parts I had available into earrings prior to this project so ended up having to draw from the earrings:
Process: Loaded Rotring fountain pen with ink + water for gray ink:
Worked on inking in proportional line drawing of watch parts in gray then spraying with water for runs and splatters. Admittedly, at this point, I was doing very unpunk things like swiping up runs with a kleenex when they threatened to mess up really good parts of the drawing.
Inked in watch parts with black ink and used spray bottle to splatter gray ink over paper stencils resembling broken glass.
Finished with black, gray and white pastels. Used wet brush on pastels to define glass.
Week 1: Gestural Tribal/Graffiti Out of Class Drawing
2009.10.31
Final drawing meeting requirements for Week 1 Out of Class Drawing: Gestural with characteristics of Tribal and/or Graffiti
Time: 4.5 hours Actuals: sprocket, piston, gears, butterfly wings Paper: Canson Edition Light Gray 22 x 30 Media: black and white ink, gray felt tip marker, black, gray and white pastel Process: Squeezed sponge loaded with ink+water onto paper for splatter effect. Brush and ink wash to find center, define general shape. Traced sprocket and gears with gray felt tip marker. Gestural marking with black, gray and white pastels. Used wet brush on pastels to refine gestural marks.