Seven Guidelines for Drawing

UPDATED:

I just added photos of these fragile drawings taken in direct sunlight. The camera turns the white of the paper grey, but seems to carry the essence of the drawings better than the scanned image.Tranquility

The goal/soul is to be quiet and undisturbed before placing the pen on the Bristol. Sit quietly in front of the empty paper not to think about the drawing but to empty the mind. Think about nothing. Let the hand act directly from the spirit.

Profundity, or Reserve

Not everything is revealed at once. The viewer must make an effort in order to fully appreciate the object. The drawings must be appreciated by contemplation as well as with the eye of intuition.

Simplicity

Try to keep things uncluttered. Monochromatic ink is better because pigments are an encumbrance that would get in the way.

Non-attachment

Adherence to any fixed way of thinking, any "ism" whether religious or political, is a constraint of the spirit and the mind.

Asymmetry

Naturalness

Draw not with mere naive innocence. In fact the goal will be attained after gaining so much experience that the act of creating something can be done spontaneously, with "no mind." Naturalness implies honesty.

Astringency or Dryness

These seven titles were condensed (plagiarised) from The Art of East Asia. It is a 700+ page hardback textbook written by many people.

The Gnarl Begins

Untitled Green

10" x 12"
Winsor & Newton Artists' Water Color on
Aquarelle Arches 140 Lb hot pressed paper

I made a water color painting tonight. While the pen drawings I have been creating are rewarding on many levels, they don't offer the immediate level of uncertainty that attempting a water color painting does. This painting felt spur-of-the-moment, but it wasn't. I had to go out and buy the paper one day. The next day I had to find the box that had all the old water colors that I got from Jacque Rupp's estate sale. I had to clear away all the drawing paraphernalia. I felt as if I were cheating on my drawings. And yet, it doesn't seem too far fetched to me. I needed to stretch a bit. The ink drawings that I am mainly focusing on are certainly brush-as-leaf-like. I have many more of these drawings to do, but I can't help but get excited about what the future paintings might look like. I realize that I have reduced my vocabulary as much as possible in order to rebuild a cohesive lexicon of marks. I have been reading about Russian mathematician Andrei Kolmogorov and his complexity definition: The shortest number of bits of information into which the string can be compressed without losing any data. I've been thinking about how a good painter does this. The painting at the beginning of the post maybe has too many gratuitous marks. I wonder if I can make it more elegant with practice? I realize that I need to become more familiar with water color and inks for when these drawings of mine reach the next plateau, I won't be held back by technical difficulties. I must also say that, thanks to Harold, I have had these images by Dennis Hollingsworth floating in my mind. Dennis is the perfect example of an artist who has distilled his painting vocabulary down many times. Over time, Dennis then guides the growth into gnarly entities.

Jacque Rupp

Here is another animation cell that we acquired from Jacque Rupp. I re-found it in one of the back-burner piles. I am going to start adding the "labels" function over time. This is the first.

Ham Fist

We left for the coast on Friday morning. On Thursday night, I had "upgraded" my Blogger account. Glitches will ensue. We'll roll with the brainiacs at Google and not complain. Just like I had no control over the fog.

It was beautiful in fact. I brought one book with me, 15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a library snag. Sitting around the campfire I fell in love with this drawing/study by Francesco Vanni:

It was damp and foggy which added joy to our hearts. I actually was wearing three layers the whole weekend. The fire became the heart of activity. Faces even appeared on roasting marshmallows.

Bartolomeo Passarotti did the ink drawing above. I am seeing the world as a challenge of hatch marks.During the day, Nature provides the patterns. At dusk, around the fire,
Giovanni Mauro Della Rovere makes perfect sense. (I just used Google Scholar for the first time)

I made this one synthesising drawing. The whole weekend left me feeling ham-fisted but inspired.

Three photographs that I have been sitting on, thinking that they were potential paintings

Jokers, 32, 33, and 34

How To Draw A Bunny, 44 and 45

The posting started Friday November 04 2005.

All things being equal
Like the measure of The night sky,
The actual size of The universe,
With its five hundred Trillion stars
Had begun to have Its effect
On the tiny brain
Of the weeping clerk.

Ten years later and the postage is only twelve cents more. The words are absent but the doodles have exponentially evolved. The collage is no longer from external found objects but from the scraps of personal production.
Thanks to Whiting Tennis.

Special Behind the Scenes Bonus Pix

Nobody asked for them, but here are a few shots from my studio that I thought someone might find interesting. First of all, I've always wanted to show off the space efficient shelves that I made to wrap around our hot water heater.

Then there is the Scenic-art trade-trick of tape-roll control.

No self respecting painter goes anywhere without their squeegee and paint key.

Now here is a custom made tool. It is two rasp surfaces folded over into different shapes and welded to a half inch tube. The rasps make different size tear-drop shapes for fancy details.

Finally, here is my limited edition lazy suzan drawing table (with sleek storage bins).

New Accomplishment

40 inches tall by 30 inches wide
Indian ink on matte board
working titles:
Forest and The Trees (Kind of mundane at this point)
Fur Currents (Would Furrents be too much?)
The Garden of Forked Paths II (I used this title once before in 1994 but it seems more appropriate for this drawing)

This is the best piece that I've done this year. I kept sneaking away from my responsibilities this weekend in order to finish it. From a distance it takes on a velvet or fur-like appearance. There is even an optical vibration that creates more colors than the existing two. It seems calm from eight feet away, like a piece of fabric hanging on the wall. Or a curtain. But then, the even-spread begins to shuffle and patterns pulse like beacons. I'm compelled to step closer. My eyes flit across the surface as my brain zooms and blooms. This is a good drawing because I am reminded of water and willows without actually having drawn either. I could go on and on. . .

3 is the magic number

According to John Canaday, "painting is a triple experience --visual, emotional, and intellectual." He wrote this in his Realism portfolio for the Metropolitan Seminars in Art.

Realistic

"Harnett's The Old Violin is the kind of realistic painting the eager but unenlightened beginner encounters with relief. He knows that Harnett must be good because, after all, museums and collectors covet his work. But at the same time it is possible to enjoy Harnett without having to wonder what his art is all about. His pictures are guaranteed to be good, yet at the same time they are enjoyable at face value. In short, they are safe"

Expressionistic

"But confronted by Dufy's expressionistic painting The Yellow Violin our hypothetical beginner may feel a little insecure. He may find the picture attractive enough in its way, but it doesn't look as if it had been hard enough to do. Still, it is not too puzzling. You can tell what the images are supposed to represent even if they are out of kilter."

Abstraction

"But Braque's abstraction is another matter altogether. It looks confused, pointless, inept, and even unfinished."

I love this Metropolitan Seminars in Art Series. You can find the books (published in 1958) at yard sales all across America this weekend. These statements are from Canaday's splash page, his introduction. He is setting his readers up for an observation that I take for granted today: ". . .the two paintings that are closest to one another as far as the artist's approach is concerned, the two that can be enjoyed on most nearly the same basis are the two that seem most unlike to the layman. The very realistic Old Violin and the highly abstract Musical Forms are first cousins."

Painting is a triple experience, but today you have to chose between
	Harnett's The Old Violin
	Dufy's The Yellow Violin
	Braque's Musical Forms
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Poll test

James Lavadour

Tony Scherman

Free polls from Pollhost.com

Who paints better?

Tony Scherman James Lavadour Neither

In the previous post's comment section, I learned many things, but two stood out.
1) We need fresh air right now. (Thanks*)
2) The photographs of Miklos Gaal (Thanks*)

1) I am choosing to plow forward and do what I can do. We wash out zip-lock bags at our house and re-use them. I nod to Ashland Oregon's women in black (wishing I was on a bike). I try to catch my sighs and breath, and breath.

2) I am impressed with Miklos Gaal, but I started to wonder about how a unique tool can create the appearance of quality. Of course, he is in control of this tool. But can't anyone control their cell phone? Like I did here:

Here is his better meadow thicket:Can you see how the photograph can take on a style by the technology used? Me:

Him:

Me:

Photography is so much like painting. However, many humans still think "truth" exists in photographs. If you want to have your photo-journalistic head set straight, go visit Dennis Dunleavy at his blog where he dissects images and how they are used in our culture today. I especially like his comparing and contrasting of frontpage news across the planet:

What is the antonym of "sigh"?