I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO CALL THIS (PART I)
Art provides an experience. Those that do not take advantage of that experience have no right to call themselves artists.
Pretty bold statement, I know. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed on to be a part of an all day art jam this weekend at Garfield Park. It was actually a two day event, but I draw pretty quick and I could only attend one day. All you had to do was to create a piece of art on site at the Arts Center. The purpose of the Creative Native Art Competition is to engage the visual arts community in the creation of their individual "Masterworks" in various mediums. The only "rule" was that the art be based on one of the following themes: The Arts, Diversity, Garfield Park. Before I reveal the theme I chose, I thought I might take you through a step by step of my creative process. As you can see in the first photo, much of the process involves erasing.
Seriously, though...I never really put pencil to paper without an idea in my head. When I started drawing as a kid I could never get the picture I was drawing to look like the picture in my head. I finally figured out that I had to make the picture in my head look like the picture I could draw. That to me is how you develop your style. It's a hole horse before the cart thing.
I decided the night before to "go with what I know". ROCKHEADS! I had to work with their poses a bit. The images in my head are animated and it is difficult for me to view the images stationary. I think that accounts for something in my art, but I have yet to define what "that" is. The other difficulty I had was making sure I got the hand positions right. For some reason I need to see the intricacies of two hands entwined. It's a beautiful thing and since I am self taught, I don't have the understanding of anatomy that some artisits do.
I love that feeling when I've gotten the pencils to a point that I can begin to ink them. That first line of thick, wet, black ink is exhilarating. I start with the lines that will be filled in with black. The first lines are always the roughest in my opinion. I'll talk more about "the freedom of the ink" a bit later.
One of the most exciting parts of the process for me is "the discovery." I keep my pencils very light and very loose. I will often put down the brush to add a line here or a line there. I know it sounds cliche, but the piece does begin to speak to you. You've got to go with it! That's why we have erasers. Actually this happened twice. The background came to me in a flash...more on that later.
Once I've slung all the ink onto the canvas, it's time to color. I taught myself to draw with charcoal, so my work never had colour for a few years. But, thanks to many fellow artists that saw that early work, they encouraged me to work in colour. I hope if they ever get a chance to see my work that they are happy with the results. The ROCKHEADS! by nature are intended to be coloured in marker. I wanted to capture the feel of all those book covers I drew on in grade school. I tend to favor Sharpies. If I can do a piece entirely of Sharpies, I will. Tria Markers provide a shocking array of colour that cannot be denied though. I will use Prismacolor, but hope to weed them out eventually, they just dry up too quickly and just aren't worth the trouble to drain every last drop out of them.
At this point is when I really start getting into the zone! (But, remember, I'm working in very close proximity to markers!) We're about halfway through, so, it's time to take a break...tune in next week as we go deep inside The Inkslinger's mind and I reveal the last stages of my "Masterwork."
This is another dude that was there. I'm not sure what he's doing, but I'm pretty sure he shouldn't be smoking a cigarette while he's doing it!
Pretty bold statement, I know. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed on to be a part of an all day art jam this weekend at Garfield Park. It was actually a two day event, but I draw pretty quick and I could only attend one day. All you had to do was to create a piece of art on site at the Arts Center. The purpose of the Creative Native Art Competition is to engage the visual arts community in the creation of their individual "Masterworks" in various mediums. The only "rule" was that the art be based on one of the following themes: The Arts, Diversity, Garfield Park. Before I reveal the theme I chose, I thought I might take you through a step by step of my creative process. As you can see in the first photo, much of the process involves erasing.
Seriously, though...I never really put pencil to paper without an idea in my head. When I started drawing as a kid I could never get the picture I was drawing to look like the picture in my head. I finally figured out that I had to make the picture in my head look like the picture I could draw. That to me is how you develop your style. It's a hole horse before the cart thing.
I decided the night before to "go with what I know". ROCKHEADS! I had to work with their poses a bit. The images in my head are animated and it is difficult for me to view the images stationary. I think that accounts for something in my art, but I have yet to define what "that" is. The other difficulty I had was making sure I got the hand positions right. For some reason I need to see the intricacies of two hands entwined. It's a beautiful thing and since I am self taught, I don't have the understanding of anatomy that some artisits do.
I love that feeling when I've gotten the pencils to a point that I can begin to ink them. That first line of thick, wet, black ink is exhilarating. I start with the lines that will be filled in with black. The first lines are always the roughest in my opinion. I'll talk more about "the freedom of the ink" a bit later. 
One of the most exciting parts of the process for me is "the discovery." I keep my pencils very light and very loose. I will often put down the brush to add a line here or a line there. I know it sounds cliche, but the piece does begin to speak to you. You've got to go with it! That's why we have erasers. Actually this happened twice. The background came to me in a flash...more on that later.
Once I've slung all the ink onto the canvas, it's time to color. I taught myself to draw with charcoal, so my work never had colour for a few years. But, thanks to many fellow artists that saw that early work, they encouraged me to work in colour. I hope if they ever get a chance to see my work that they are happy with the results. The ROCKHEADS! by nature are intended to be coloured in marker. I wanted to capture the feel of all those book covers I drew on in grade school. I tend to favor Sharpies. If I can do a piece entirely of Sharpies, I will. Tria Markers provide a shocking array of colour that cannot be denied though. I will use Prismacolor, but hope to weed them out eventually, they just dry up too quickly and just aren't worth the trouble to drain every last drop out of them.
At this point is when I really start getting into the zone! (But, remember, I'm working in very close proximity to markers!) We're about halfway through, so, it's time to take a break...tune in next week as we go deep inside The Inkslinger's mind and I reveal the last stages of my "Masterwork."
This is another dude that was there. I'm not sure what he's doing, but I'm pretty sure he shouldn't be smoking a cigarette while he's doing it!
posted by The Inkslinger at 8:51 PM
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