Zodiac (Unused)

This may be the last of my ‘digging-into-the-past-for-old-artwork’ posts. This one is titled Zodiac. I vividly remember spending hours upon hours on this project. It was intended to be printed digitally as an inkjet print and then installed as one long diagram/drawing (as if you connected the four pieces below into one long strip). It is a shame that I never did anything with this, especially considering how much time and energy I expended upon it.

Zodiac_1

Zodiac_2

Zodiac_3

Zodiac_4

The Role of the Dominator in the Evolutionary Process

Here’s another image from the archives. This was probably one of my first large drawings strongly influenced by quantum mechanics and string theory (thanks to Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos) that I did in my first year of graduate school. It was also the first drawing in which I combined graphite, ink, marker and digital elements.  It touches upon many of the themes and concepts that I have been expanding upon ever since, albeit in a much more wordy fashion.

Dominator

EvolutionOutlined

EvolutionOutlined

EvolutionOutlined

Figure Drawing Update

I didn’t get a chance to attend too many more figure drawing sessions since the last time I posted some drawings, but I have updated my Figure Drawing 2010 Gallery (two of those images are pictured below) with some of the highlights from those sessions (the first ten images in the gallery are new). They are taken from sessions from both the Fine Arts League of the Carolinas in Asheville, NC and the William King Museum in Abingdon, VA and they are all pretty much either 10-minute or 20-minute drawings with no tweaking after the time was up.

I’m looking forward to experimenting with different media (other than just graphite) for my next figure drawing sessions.

FDr

Embrace Process Part 2

And, now, continuing the story of the process of Embrace. . .

Moving beyond the whole ‘poop cloud’ concept, I decided to bring it back to being more representative of actual body parts embracing one another. This drawing is a mass conglomeration of those drawings. The final dimensions of this graphite drawing are approximately 4 1/2 feet x 3 feet (a work of art unto itself!):
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An additional drawing to the one above:
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And, since I cannot resist the idea of developing a good drawing — I proceeded to do some inks and markers over the graphite drawing to see what I would come up with. I really like how this came out (though I didn’t really use it for any of the final drafts of Embrace):
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The next image is an example of what I like to call ‘dynamic linear mapping’ in which I use tracing paper (or a light box) to draw with a brush pen on top of my own graphite drawings to highlight the movement and forms in the drawing using only linear elements:
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Then I decided to invert the ‘dynamic linear maps’ and use the negative spaces instead of the positive black lines to what it would look like — and I liked it!:
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The purple color looked great in the concept stage, but, in reality, it would make the wall and that whole corner of the room too heavy. So, I decided to throw some white into the mix to make it lighter. Getting closer to the final piece, but still needs some tweaking:
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The purple just wasn’t going to cut it, so I resorted to all white and decided to make the framed pieces glimpses into the original graphite drawings that were completed:
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And, voila, the final piece! I hope to have some details of those graphite drawings soon (as they are barely discernable in this picture):
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Embrace Process Part 1

The developmental process of the finished Embrace mural installation was very long (and quite interesting I think!). So, in this post and the next, I’ll show you how I came up with what you see in the final piece.

A view of the site before my meddling:
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A few images (of the many) of the poses (of TJ & Jessica) I referenced while developing the imagery for the installation:
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My first concept drawing based upon the figure drawings of TJ & Jessica:
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A little Photoshop magic used to superimpose that first concept drawing over the actual space (I didn’t think it looked too good — so, back to the drawing board!):
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I redrew the original drawing in a more fluid, cloud-like style. Unfortunately, some referred to it as the ‘poop cloud’:
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Still liking this drawing, I plugged it into a scaled vector file (in Adobe Illustrator) to see how it would look. This is where the idea of using frames on top of the mural worked its way into the plans. But, what to do in those frames had not yet been decided. I also toyed around with the possibility of extending the imagery onto the windows via paint or vinyl, but that got scratched in succeeding sketches. Overall, though, I couldn’t help but see a ‘poop cloud’, so, back to the drawing board!:
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End of Embrace Process Part 1.

Etching Process

This is an image of one of my copper plates in the initial stages of the etching process. Although I’m supposed to keep my personal thoughts aside (thanks Sue!), this is one instance where I think the plate looks a whole lot better than the actual completed print. The black stuff coating the copper plate is highly toxic asphaltum that I have begun to scratch into revealing the shiny copper beneath. The shiny copper parts that are exposed will eventually be the areas that get etched, thus allowing ink to seep into those areas and print (as seen in the finished print).

Random Thought Pattern (Quadrant A), 8″ x 12″