Goodbye ...

Today's project, as inspired by yesterday's sketch. An ink drawing that went under the knife in Photoshop. Something that I may or may not use in future after I clean it up some.


Edit: a more refined version, below.

Two-Legged Dog

I'm stacking projects in a busier-than-usual busy time of year but it's kind of nice to be hustling and bustling. This is a two minute pen and marker sketch (and a much needed breather) that lies opposite a busy page of planning and note-taking.


I resisted the urge to draw in a Moleskin for a long time, both in deference to their price and (oft) pretentiousness of their owners. But this one was given to me and the paper is quite nice so goodbye, integrity!

Wrong Side of the Bars

Courtroom sketches from a visit to Chelsea District Court in Boston earlier this year. Guess I forgot to post them at the time, but I just found them in an old notebook.




My favourite part was striking up a conversation with the guy next to me after he quipped, "Yo, you got mad skills," and then abruptly ending it when his name was called to be summoned before the judge.

Behind Every Disney Character Is A Chain Smoking Animator

First of all, apologies for the increasingly delayed posts. Since I typically dive right into my paintings without doing any real prep work (apart from gleaning some photographic source material) and because of how long it takes me to actually paint, I find myself in these long stretches of time where I don't feel like there's anything worth showing.

Final concept board

With that said, I have currently embarked on a new project that, for the first time in a long while, has pushed me outside of my conceptual comfort zone. It's a sad fact but since I've studied at art school I've become utterly dependent on drawing from reference. The emphasis on anatomical precision and formal qualities has killed the fearlessness with which I used to just draw. With this project, however, I've returned to the basics, and as difficult and frustrating as it's been at times, it's been just as fun rediscovering my sea legs.

Unused sketches

Basically, I'm doing a five-panel series of full bodied portraits on 90 x 60 x 1.2 cm particleboard panels featuring character archetypes of the things I dreamed about becoming when I was a kid. Each will hold a sign that, when read in sequence, will spell out the phrase, "Not all dreams come true." I guess it's pretty melancholy but I wanted to make a piece about the sadness that exists in happy memories.

On a side note, I actually wanted to be a mailman because they got to ride a motorbike, but it wasn't as universal (or cool) as the other archetypes in the lineup -- hence, Evel Knievel. I thought about replacing him with a cop but that felt a little too real world for the vibe I was going for.


As a consolation prize for my tardiness, here's a page of sketches for the other project that I've got going this semester: a collection of six square canvases depicting G.I. Joe action figures that I used to own, posed and damaged in rough emulation of war-wounded veterans.

The Jericho Mile

I feel like anatomical studies are the artistic equivalent of going for a run. Both are fundamentally beneficial to goals that I want to achieve but (for me, at least) also oftentimes monotonous. Which explains why I don't do either as often as I should.


I think the trick is to dive right in without thinking too much. Once you do get caught up in the mechanics of it all, there is a therapeutic dimension to that kind of mindless single-mindedness. Shake the rust off and it all becomes clockwork. Sometimes it's nice to just drift.

The Man On The Second Floor

I'm pretty terrible at keeping a sketchbook but here are some 2 minute character studies I did whilst wandering about MoMA a few weeks ago.



On a side note, MoMA: nice museum, beautiful collection, horrible crowds.

Fastbreak

Here's the initial paint-sketch I worked off of. I always start my paintings as if they were line drawings, which I guess explains why I end up with a relatively graphic look at the end.


Here's the final piece after a few more adjustments. My bloody camera still isn't capturing the colours on the back wall which is fairly annoying, but oh well, what can you do.

"Maybe just one thing ..."

Go and watch "The Hurt Locker" (unless you're going to Iraq or know someone in Iraq). Easily the best film I've seen this year. It almost made me forget that Kathryn Bigelow directed "K-19: The Widowmaker".


Jeremy Renner plays Staff Sgt. William James, the newly appointed leader of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit in Iraq as they near the end of their in-country cycles. A series of nail-biting turns leads to one of the saddest and most poignant endings I've ever seen.


Also, Anthony Mackie, who plays Sgt. JT Sanborn, does a far better job in this than as Tupac Shakur in "Notorious". Who's responsible for that casting? They don't look the same at all!

Soldier Boy

A postcard-sized pen sketch that I might properly render one day ... I kind of like this look though.