Archive for April, 2009
Sketchbook: Society of Illustrators, Feb 2009
Ain’t No Sunshine, ink on paper, 2009. Click image to view larger.
The Society of Illustrators does this wonderful thing called Jazz & Sketch every Tuesday and Thursday night. (It used to be just once a month; they expanded it by popular demand.) If you’re in NYC and want to practice some life drawing, head on over. Here are the details.
When I planned my trip to NYC in February, attending Jazz & Sketch was at the top of my list. These are two of my drawings from that night. (I worked on the first one some more after we came back to Oklahoma. I finished it one afternoon during a tornado warning, sitting against the toilet, next to my weather radio. Very Okie.)
Redhead, ink on paper, 2009. Click image to view larger.
Show Us Your Process!
Foggy drawing, desk view. Click image to view full-size.
I love it when artists blog about their creative process, giving us look behind the scenes. It’s important to remember that artists are not magicians. Our creative work does not appear out of thin air; it’s work. Here are some of my favorite artists’ blogs with links to process-related posts.
Debbi Kaspari is an Oklahoma artist/naturalist currently at work on a field guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago. She also manages to write a wonderful blog showcasing many of her sketches, plus bonus things like drawing birds from paper models.
Abbey Ryan makes a painting a day. Wow. (Here are some other artists who also make a painting a day. And they have a book!) Have a look at this video to get an idea of how she builds her paintings.
Jason Hackenwerth documents the construction of his fantastical sculptures in great detail.
James Jean blogs about his sketchbook and works in progress at ProcessRecess. (Some images, while beautiful, are NSFW.)
Also:
The Tools Artists Use
Creative Workspaces blog
Artists’ Studios Flickr pool
A casualty of The Process: one of my palettes after a painting session. See more palette photos in this Flickr set.
To learn more about my process, you can look in the navbar to your left, under “Category” and click “Process.” Here is one of my favorite posts showing in-progress paintings.
Shows in OKC and Norman 04.10.2009
If you are in Norman or Oklahoma City tonight, please do not stay home.
Things to do in the Plaza District
Things to do on Main Street in Norman
Sketch Series: Dr. Sketchy’s 04.05.2009
Merry in a Feather Boa, ink on paper, 2009. Click image to view on Flickr.
Click here to see my other Dr. Sketchy’s drawings.
Click here to see the Dr. Sketchy’s OKC pool on Flickr.
Click here to learn more about Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School.
Sketch Series: 100 Heads
5 heads e, blind gesture drawing with pigma micron ink on 3 x 5 index card, 2009. Click image to view on Flickr.
I’m working on a series of blind gesture drawings on 3 x 5 cards. Click here to visit the whole set on Flickr.
“100 Heads” is an undertaking in which an artist creates 100 different portraits using as many different styles and materials as possible. I’m taking a different tack, drawing as many heads as I can as quickly as possible without looking. I’m enjoying the unexpected results.
Figurative Collage Set on Flickr
Sketch for How May I?, mixed media collage on paper. Click image to view on Flickr.
For about ten years now I have collected pictures to use as ideas for new pictures.* I often start a painting by gathering a small pile of image sources, either intuitively, because they seem to go together, or for a specific purpose. I used to create a pencil-and-paper sketch of these various sources, attempting to synthesize them visually before starting the painting. I would also scan them, resize them, struggle through PhotoShop layers to get them to fit together just right. At some point I thought, “what I really want is this head on that body,” and went: rip, slap, tape, done. I realized that the collage is visual shorthand for my pictorial plan. It didn’t have to make sense compositionally; the collage is a convenient way for me to gather a group of visual sources onto a single page. Plus, the faster I make the collage, the more unexpected and interesting visual moments show up in the result.
I’ve scanned a bunch of these collages and uploaded them to this Flickr set. Enjoy.
*Old-school illustrators call this a swipe file. Though it was years before I learned that what I was doing was a traditional practice; before then I thought I was (gasp) stealing and that it was (gasp) wrong. Thank you, illustration.
Moving Creativity Blog
Christian Pitt of Mainsite Contemporary Art in Norman pointed out a new blog about creativity in Oklahoma.
Moving Creativity is written by Mary Ann Osko, an Oklahoma art afficionado and PR consultant over at Osko Communications. Check ‘em out.
Mary Ann is right in saying that Christian makes magic happen. I think this sums it up:
I’m friends with so many artists and I want to make it so we can pay to go to the dentist.
True.
Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School in OKC 04.05.2009
Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School is holding a session at aka gallery tonight from 6 to 10 pm. If you’re over 21 and you like drawing pretty girls, bring $10, your pen and paper, and a thirst for adventure!
The alluring Merry of the 7 Deadly Sins Revue will grace us with her presence.