random doodle

i have started drawing regularly again, mostly just nonsence little doodles like this one i did on the top my dark box for silk screening.

i have been slowing down allot with drawing figures.  i think it is killing my line-work and energy but i am getting more anatomical information in.  i dont know if the exchange is worthwhile yet but i think it is probably something i should at least try for awhile to see where it goes, perhaps if i do it for awhile the knowledge i gain will translate into my more energetic drawings.  this guy had that weird but that i have seen in drawings but never seen in person.  i also notice v's repeat throughout the body.  i have yet to properly analyze the importance of this but i am sure it means something.

sketch club

i finally made it over to sketch club.  it was just what i needed, i haven't felt that energy and inspiration for drawing for quite some time.  when you get a bunch of people in a room there is an energy, i was so happy to be in a room with people who were exited about drawing rather than just waiting to go back to bed.  i hadnt noticed the lack of energy in my classes as being something that was holding me back untill i went to sketch club and drew with people who love drawing.  my batteries are recharged now.  

self portrait

finaly got this image cleaned up enough to post. keeping things in proportion and making sure i keep my body the same way in a self portrait is one of the things i struggled the most with here.

19 x 25

white and black charcoal on hand toned grey paper

something new

i was watching a pollock bashing documentary in art history the other day,  one thing i have been noticing is that when people are doing something new with art there is usual some questioning about wether something is art by the artist or by the critics.  so if your questioning wether something is art you may be onto something.  

infuences

i was asked to write about my influences and how i developed the mark making i have now.  its a tough chalenge because i draw from everything around me, as my painting teacher Steve DiGiovanni would say even paintings you dont like offer something to be learned.   you can see his stuff at www.stevedigiovanni.com .  

my old drawing 2 teacher, Chris Durante showed me the beauty of showing where you have been in a drawing and got me working predominantly in pen for along time.  this built to spill poster by jay ryan is a good example of the beauty of showing where you have been.  this poster would not apeal to me as much if he had removed the leg that he redrew on the left side.  Chris also had a strong emphasis on loose gestural line work.  after class my friend Mauricio and i started a drawing group called the burn that also focused on loose gestural drawing.  the drawing rooms were often open so we always took advantage of that.  loud music filled the room as we would t

ake turns posing, sometimes we would stick our bodies through chairs to further confound the form and really force us to look at what we were doing.  other times we played a drawing equivalent of musical chairs where we would play a short song and draw each others portraits, when the song ended so did our drawings.  

my old figure drawing teacher larry morrelli turned me on to allot of great artists that would influence me.  http://www.fimp.net/larryex.html some of his older work can be found here.  he always said, draw with a sense of desperation, thats one thing that really stuck with me.  the constant search was another strong point of emphasis, the strugle to look, to see, and in effect, the strugle to find what is there.  another good larry saying is something along the lines of sometimes you have to destroy something in order to make it better, that one is not stated correctly i feel, but there is a point in drawings often, usualy preceeding the magic 15 miniutes where the drawing just gets worse and worse before everything starts snapping in to place.  another related quo

te is that its better to d

estroy a drawing for the chance of a beautifull drawing than just settle for an ok drawing.  Giacometti was one of the more influential people he turned me onto there were others and i am probably going to continue this post further.

where do i come from, what am i, where am i going?

i have been in somewhat of a slump as of late,  it started out almost a month ago when i got sick, this caused me to get behind with some major assignments in school.  i sleep every other day at least twice a week and even this does not afford me enough time to catch up or even just to maintain and finish the regular work that i have to do.  

on top of this i have been rather introspective as of late.  i seem to be stuck in a set way of doing things and this is bugging me.  to me school is not about what you know, its about what you dont know and how far you are willing to take it.  although i feel i have been learning a ton about anatomy this quarter there is still so much i do not know.  i knew a fair amount of anatomy of the head.  the torso i knew somewhat about previously in relation to the skeleton but learning the muscles on top really helped me bridge the gap between what i see and what i know is underneath.  i am still struggling with knees arms and legs.  blocking in the feet has helped a lot with placing figures solidly in a location.  i feel a have a lot more to learn about them, they seem to be the mushiest part of the body given the extreme number of bones there.  it make sence though because most of the weigh seems to land on the feet.    

i guess the closest thing i can think of to drawing the figure would be garlic, the bulbs of garlic under the skin are similar in some ways to muscles under flesh.  i like figure drawing because it is so hard, the only thing i can think of that is more challenging than figure drawing is drawing fast moving water.  running water is also like the figure in the sense that what it flows over affects its form, it has the additional problem of being transparent and reflective.