Wednesday, November 17, 2010

FOR GOOD






I've begun to work on some new personal work again.
I'm thrilled.
As I have mentioned many times over in the past, pursuing personal projects are paramount to my studio practice; it has always been that way, however it's only recently that I actually began to take some inventory of my process -- that is, those steps to grow my work, my technique, and my creative vision. My commercial work is steady now, and it feels good, granted it's not that every commissioned project that I do fulfills me wholly, but it does my wallet, and so I realize that in order to pursue those other projects of mine that I want to lift off of the ground, it's necessary to fund them somehow.
I have had a new body of work floating around in my head for the past 2 years, but for several reasons I have not been able to, nor have chosen to elaborate on them. I still waver at the notion of trying something new. I strain at trying to render transparencies at just the right opacity, and to select colours which are the proper temperature. But most of all, I try to follow those instructions, the criticism that I pass along to my students about their own work, that they should not be so precious about their work if they want to become better artists.
I wrecked my piece today, and it was incredibly difficult for me to do, but I did.
I wrecked my piece today.
It was incredibly difficult to do.
But I did it.
On purpose.
I spent about a day and a half working on this piece, but near the end of it, I just had to try something to see if it would work.
I used both water based and oil based media in one composition, which is not unheard of; however, it made the piece look jarring in some areas. It's difficult to tell in the image at the top (the white sections are done in enamel, and the rest of the picture is in water colour and ink) because the camera adds a kind of filter that helps to flatten and unify everything, but I'm really not happy with it.
Still it's not entirely a failure.
My time and effort spent was not in vain because I did learn something.
I needed to get my ideas onto the page somehow, and even though I may have skipped a few steps in planning, it was necessary for me to start immediately otherwise I think that I would have froze and lost the momentum to work on this piece.
I spend so much time planning my commercial pieces that when it comes to my personal work, I often have the reflex to create them automatically, without any rehearsal or rough draft. It feels good to do it this way.
And isn't that the primary reason why I chose to draw in the first place?

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

SIX A.M.

I woke up around 6am this morning.
I didn't mean to. It just happened.

Daylight savings, having been only a couple of days ago, throws me off every year. It takes me a while to adjust.

I feel a bit hungover, and tired.


This week is Illustration Week.

The American Illustration party is tomorrow.

The Society of Illustrators are holding their annual judging.

And a lot of illustrators are coming in from outside of the city...from out of state... and from out of the country.

I always look forward to this time of year because I get to see friends who I seldom see because they live so far away.


Funny that I would post myself singing and playing the guitar today.
Makes no sense.
But does it have to?
Don't be alarmed there is no chance that I'll be segueing out of illustration to pursue music.