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The Drawing Board Blog:
"Yes. No. (Ceci n'est pas une pipe.)"
TRANSLATION: "Yes. No. (This Is Not A Pipe.)"
part IV - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
POSTED: May 6, 2014 | ART PICT: May 04, 2014
Working the dummy over....
I find that I keep going back to the mask face and tweaking it... darkening a shadow here, erasing a bit there.... Every time that I think that I am DONE with drawing that face... I find my pencil has traveled back there again. My art teacher always said that the HARDEST thing for any artist: is knowing WHEN to quit. When to lay the pencil down... That's funny, considering the post above where I just talk about picking the pencil up. LOL. Anyway. You know.... talking about "funny"...., I think that it's ironic as hell that I spent so much time and effort deciding whether I should include the darkened heart in the hair... because I thought it MIGHT be overkill or TOO OBVIOUS as a symbol, etc. etc. .... to find that in the long run.... you don't even see it unless you focus on it. The subconscious is a GENIUS. I am sorry that I even questioned the thought. I should know better by now. One day I'll learn. It's kind of the same with the road that runs through the mask/face.... but that symbolism is a little bit clearer, more obvious. The symbols in this drawing are so thickly layered.... and I am finding even more as I go along. Did you perchance notice the star that popped up in the big dummy's shadow???? NEXT
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POSTED: May 29, 2014 | ART PICT: May 11, 2014
Back and forth...
It finally feels like the drawing is MOVING ALONG. Yeah. Yes. I am still drawing the dummy. Finessing details, etc. Not very exciting during the doing BUT very satisfying when done. I'm just not done yet. Still penciling the art baby. Sigh. BTW: click any artwork image in this blog, and that will take you DIRECT to the next art pict. That's how you can tour JUST the drawing picts (if you rather bypass the extremely mundane details). SOOOOoo.., if you click the drawing pict BEFORE this one AND then this pict and THEN use your browser back and forward buttons.... you can SEE the progress of the pencil. Homemade anime action. NEXT
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POSTED: May 29, 2014 | ART PICT: May 18, 2014
Is there any artist elbow room left?
I'm working on the socket where the dummy's arm would go. Wow. I didn't realize that the locking mechanism looked so much like an old fashioned key hole. I'm sure my subconscious did. I'm just catching up. LOL. NOW... the drawing is starting to get to the complicated part. Oh boy. Up to now, I've JUST been following the pencil across the paper and it has been a ton o' fun (and lotsa work). At THIS MINUTE: the drawing looks stupendous. BUT, I KNOW that has a LOT to do with the fact that there is a whole lot of white space showing right now... that balances out the pencilled details. BIGtime. It is going to start getting REALLY crowded in this paper space real soon. I am going to have to start managing things. Ok. AND, of course... I just thought how wonderful another line of boxes straight out from the eye would be. AWESOME. ....but do I really have the artistic elbow room for MORE symbolic ...stuff????? Sheesh. NEXT
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POSTED: May 29, 2014 | ART PICT: May 25, 2014
Neutral: a wonderful layer to add to a symbol.
The eye in the box. In the preliminary layout of the drawing, this symbolic element just seemed a little sarcastic. I really liked that vibe. I liked it so much that THAT fact alone is really WHY the boxed eye kept place in the drawing. BUT..., on the journey from artistic concept to paper.... this (staring) eye symbol layered differently than originally expected. Close inspection revealed a few... hmmmmm... flaws... in the original photograph. Flaws? Distortions? Beautify-ing? Idealizing? You decide for yourself. I'm just the artist trying to draw a symbol, as dictated by the collective unconscious. The process of communication is so tenuous.... that the final... direction the drawing takes... is not always as initially supposed by the operating consciousness. LOL. Confused? Not me. No waaaaay. I just try to... listen.
A really HARD look at the photo turned up a couple of not-so-surprising facts... AND I actually pulled out my ruler to confirm a few things. I know. I shoulda KNOWN but I wanted to make sure. You know, little things were off. For example: the fact that the pupil had been photoshopped to an off-center position to give the face that slightly cross-eyed look so beloved of (what Tom Petty's song called) Angel Whores (aka ingenue sex kittens). Predatory innocence. (Predatory) THAT is probably why the pupil was downsized too. BIG pupils denote: sleepy, drugged, and/or sensual, etc. Too funny. IF I draw this eye the way they "fixed" it in the photograh... it would appear that I was not a very good artist and had no clue how to draw an eyeball. That's funny. Sooo, by the time I was done de-pelt-ify-ing the eyebrow, reshaping it a tad, enlarging the pupil, etc. etc. ....the eye seemed to lose some of that sarcastic edge I liked so much. Oh well. NOW the eye has more of a neutral vibe. That's ok. Neutral is wonderful in symbolic terms because it is rarely SEEN as neutral. It's all in the eye of the beholder baby. BIGtime. For some reason, people prefer to define neutral. Assigning meaning to neutrality is done on an subconscious level...all the time by everyone re:everything. It's basic human nature on so many levels. THINGS have meaning. Period. Therefore the idea of neutrality is easily discarded by the viewer and a distinct ...agenda... assigned.. to the symbolic element... allowing the symbolism of the surrounding pieces... to accumulate.... and gather momentum.... Neutrality becomes a kind of symbolic wild card because you don't know what meaning will be assigned to the element by the viewer. This layered approach to symbols highlights the incredible beauty of the dream language AND the complexity of translation. Neutral is a very powerful tool in the hands of a visual symbolism artist. BUT.... it needs to be used spare-ingly because too much of anything definitely overpowers intended results. BIGtime. I must confess that I DO miss the sarcasm, but the eye symbol, as is, works. Very well. LOL. NEXT -
POSTED: June 02, 2014 | ART PICT: June 01, 2014
A Critical Juncture + The Symbolism Of The Portcullis.
Ok. THIS IS IT. This COULD be where the drawing takes off ...or BOMBS and becomes a chaotic pencil MESS. Jeez. I hate saying that sort of negative thing and you might assume that I am exaggerating... but that would be a mistake. This is an extremely complex composition and RIGHT NOW it is balanced out by the abundant white space to the right... That is about to change. How this moment is handled... ugh. Lovely. Hang on. We'll find out, eh? I, however, am the one who will have to LIVE with these decisions. ARRRRGHHHHHH! Everyone remain calm. I am NOT panicking. No way. Not me. Nevah. LOL.
A SANE SIDE NOTE: I find the beauty of the symbolic language of the collective unconscious to be just incredible. I know, I've said that once or twice before BUT I sit here, KNOWing that if I tried to speak this language on my own, right now.... that the attempt would be SO heavy handed. I grew up in foreign lands and KNOW how it is when you go to speak another language. In the beginning, you understand waaaay more than you can express fluidly. It's the equivalent to speaking Kindergartenese and saying things like, "See Doggie Run" when you REALLY want to say, "That lithe and graceful hound flies like a shadow chasing a flickering candle flame." I know, overblown and stupid example (it really doesn't even make sense)... but you get my drift. It takes time to grow your vocabulary and have the confidence to use it in public. It's the same way with the dream language (for me) ...right now. I'm still a beginner. We... use photos as the start of the communication process. I am trying to LEARN how to speak collective unconscious-ese. The collective unconscious is trying to... teach/help/whatever. It is such a tenuous enterprise. BUT... see the portcullis? Can you SEE ...the shadow of portcullis? I would never have consciously come up with such a beautiful symbol of an OPEN door that could ALSO be PERCEIVED as closed... by anyone focused on ghosts..... NEXT
...MORE Surreal Artwork by
Chris Eisenbraun.
