Monday, May 31, 2010

"Fertile Worlds".....2

Working my way across the bottom of the leaves... then will work back...










Getting in a wee more before calling it for the day, this shows the area done - note am working my way back to the left, filling in the leaves and adding a couple branches to be seen...

Sunday, May 30, 2010

"Fertile Worlds".....1

Because of its size [4 feet by 8 feet] and not having the space to set up the plyboard, am using my masonboard [4'x3'] as support, and laying it on the bed...








As can faintly be seen, the scaling was transferred, and the rough pencil sketching applied...














Am using this nib instead of the crow quill, as it works better on the roughness of the canvas, and yet allows for as much fineness as I think is needed for the detailing...
and so - I begin...

Thursday, May 27, 2010

"Fertile Worlds".....scaling....

the next step is scaling, drawing guide lines of proportion...   while it all will still be freehand drawn on the canvas [with the sole exception of placing the horizon line], it still helps to have more  guidelines in setting the composition - to balance it as it were, setting the fulcrum to the rendering...

Now the actual rendering can begin - at least the sketching on the canvas of the size - and the grisaille of blue following the course of creation...

Monday, May 24, 2010

"Fertile Worlds".....the guiding sketch...

Because this is based on sketches done, have decided not to make this so detailed, as those parts can as well be gained from those others...  consequently, this is as far in detail as am going for, and will now proceed to translate this 18"x36" into the 4'x8' canvas rendering...

As for some of these  parts, like the sapling and the ikebana on the  knob, these will wait until all the rest is in, then will decide whether to include them or not...  have in any case decided not to include the surf, as seemed rather out of place in this [ as, to some extent, the ikebana]...  there will be more birds, as this is just indications, and of course the leaves will be flushed all across the top, a canopy to the rest...  hints of foreground grasses probably will also be added, to better ground the tree...




















Saturday, May 22, 2010

Others of Note - Peixotto, Jardine, Flanigan and Neil......

In the realm of architectural and landscape renderings, few were as crisply done as Ernest Peixotto, who's impressionistic renderings gave a sense of great detail amidst what seemed simplicity, using form as the means of achieving depth instead of intense shading...



























Walter Jardine, as can be seen, was influenced by Booth, and utilized this influence to in this instance create a most wonderful pen and ink painting of still life, full of textures and depth - a great study in seeking to achieve mastery of still life using this medium...











Richard Flanigan, tho dealing in vignettes, and using a lot of dark strokes, did much in composition to dramatize the scenes, also providing great diversity of textures and details...












John Neil dealt with fantasy, but in such an imaginative manner, his renderings come to life in their expressive detail and sense of depth to his works...





















Note in these the manner of setting distances, the sharp contrasts between fore and aft grounds, and even in the fore, the varying of textures of cloths and flesh, and how the emphasis shifts by using light or dark in good contrast, creating good drama...












There were others of this turn of the century kind who also did terrific renderings, almost all for illustration purposes, yet, as with Jardine, works which could stand on their own as fine art - all which should be studied for techniques in composition and delineation of textures, and as means to achieving greater heights of renderings...

Friday, May 21, 2010

"Fertile Worlds".....

Am still working out the sketch for this, but I've decided "Fertile Worlds" will be the theme/title, and that it will be sort of a combo of several earlier notions...  the first will be the foreground having a large old tree, its branching leaves covering as a canopy across the top [much as envisioned in "Re-Creation"], behind which lies the open water, with a surf along the lower right, and the ikebana sitting by the tree on a knob...  on the right of the trunk will be, spread across most the width of the vista, the islet with the figure, but with the figure half turned to looking at the viewer, as if beckoning...   on the left of the trunk will be seen, in a reversed form, tho shaded on the right, the rock development, clearly noticed to be more distant from the islet, tho with a possibility of them being joined by some curving scape not seen...   behind all, far in the distance, will be  the associated mounds of lands, and perhaps some with outlines of spire cities...

Initially, I would had liked doing the twins on the patio, but for now that must await models...  in the meantime, this one will do fine for an opener of the Grand Manner of rendering...  now the quest is to see if this one can be done in time for the fall show in November...  at least, except for the inks, which will be gained beginning next month, have all here to work with and on, and even a hip operation will not waylay its ongoing...   and if there are breaks needed in the doing, there are a couple of small works which can be done in colored pencil to keep me with a change of pace...

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Catching the Spirit.....

Along with Vierge and Coll, there was another who's style influenced the pen and ink artists over the coming years - Franklin Booth...   his works in many ways bridge the times between the woodblock cutting process and the photoengraving by having a style which reminds one of the former yet was used by the latter...










 Note the fullness of his renderings, and how he manipulated the sky, teasing so much in cloud forms yet keeping them in the background as he emphasized the elements of the foreground...












While highly stylized in penwork, his  renderings were as much paintings as any done in this medium, with a wealth of varieties and expressionistic details that lent much to drawing in the viewers to what he showed...









His range of subject matter varied widely...
Yet he was adept at all of them....













Even the occasional vignette....










All his works are well worth studying - for form, function, use of negative, impressions of detail, and sense of drama whatever the subject matter... 

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Re-Affirmation - "Tis Not Too Late To Seek A Newer World"....

[from Tennyson's "Ulysses"]

Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.

To Sail Beyond The Sunset..........

One can begin with an image from Franklin Booth, catching his spirit and drama of an age that never existed, yet he could visualize well.....












 or begin on a personal shore of imagination...










 perhaps to envision a land within swells of rock...











 or, still on the sea, sprouting on water rock....











 and, perhaps, conjoined by a 'floating' stretch of paradise...











All manner of possibilities already being considered - each with its set of interest, and together bringing a maze of possible metaphoric relationships to widen and enrich...

Monday, May 17, 2010

Portrait of a Friend - PAPAGEORGIOU SOTIRIS


Papageorgiou Sotiris
Portrait direct to Greece
Hugs doc!!

Smiting the Sounding Furrows...

One of the great things which can be so well illustrated in pen and ink is the idea of drama, of 'pushing the values', and few did so well at this as Joseph Clement Coll...  so, continuing with a retrospective of the year ago, here are more examples of his craft and the manner in which he, as had Vierge before him, extended pen and ink....

 These are from a series of illustrations done for Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World", of the adventures of Professor Challenger...













Note how the use of the black achieves so much in placing drama, from the intensity of the foregrounds, even the particular characters within...








 Note the sense of the visual, the angles in which is measured the drama - and remember he did all this essentially from his head, after mentally 'seeing' it so vividly, then transcribing it all to paper...
























































To climax with the masterful rendering of the full plate, with all the necessitated details - and then think, if he had been able to carry on doing these as ends of themselves, how much more detail and drama he would have gotten out...

[and yes, remember to click on the pics to get the full sense of the handiworks]

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Rendering in the GRAND Manner...

What, then, is to be considered for these large scale renderings?   

For one, there is an idea been playing with for the past decade or more, but which for various reasons [one being it needed a model, and the original prospect ended declining] was never done, tho the mental visualization has remained strong over the years - "Re-Creation", a view of a huge old tree in the foreground, branches spread across the top of the rendering, behind it being a plateau yard lined with a low wall, and on the left, part of the home back seen, with two women seated on the yard on the right [all this being on a hilltop, with the grass sloping on the right side], one woman facing the viewer but looking at a large board in front of her and in the process of applying to it while holding her left hand to the other as if in a 'halt' position, while the other [original idea called for these women to be twins] sat facing the first, hands in a gesturing, but the eyes blank as is blind, the background being the inner wall of a crater, on which is being seen the ideas being applied to the board - and only the foreground is in color, the background being in the initial blue grisaille...

The second is an old one from many years ago, one of a series, and tho was the initial idea from which the others came [and were indeed done], was itself never done, tho sketched in various amounts over the years - "Vault", an almost aerial view of the interior of an old volcanic upshot out in a desert or rocky area, but the interior seen is vegetated and lush, a hidden oasis as such, and it is the oasis which is seen in color, the rest of the landscape being black and white...

The third is another old idea of many years ago, one actually done but poorly in execution and now lost, only parts of it remaining in Polaroid photos and sketches, but still wanting a revision and better choreographed background which may in part be in color with the central focus and the rest in black and white [or the whole in color] - "Vantage Point", which shows a woman sitting on the edge of a board overlooking water [pool or similar], with above her the vista of Earth, the two seen thru the branches in the foreground of a bonsai, the rest of the landscape playing variations on how the water is arranged, along with the distant mountainesque edge of what is seen as a space pod...

There are many more, but for now these seem most likely to be the first done, as soon as the details are worked out [should the last one, for instance, have a Japanese garden as its locale, and if so, how arranged]...  for the second, what is seen as the oasis [a waterfall and lake in there, along with the lush vegetation?]...   but in any case, plenty food for thought in getting the most out of the projected vistas...

At the least, the intent is to show possibilities of how pen and ink COULD be used, even as a very labor intense manner, as an inspiration well beyond the norm, in the hope there will be greater understanding of the medium - and more...   there are often comments made to the effect that if one wanted such detail and realism in a work, take a photograph - fair enough, IF WHAT IS BEING PHOTOGRAPHED WAS  THE WORLD AROUND...   but - what of the world within the mind? how, then, to show the magnificence if not thru as much the detail and realism given the 'real' world, with the same intent, to draw the viewer into it and explore within it - and, with feedback, thus liberate those pen/ink artists who see more in the real world than most, yet hesitate to devote the time and energy to show that which is considered as such of most important to those artists involved...

Saturday, May 15, 2010

The Nature of Rendering [from June 8, 2009]

One of the things which needs correcting on is a misconception that titles are extraneous fixture to all but literature... wrong... titles[or theme/titles, as I prefer to consider them ] are, properly, as much an integral part of the rendering as is the case with writing... perhaps it is more so, since it is the key to elevating the rendering from just a 'sense of life' to something more... initially, of course, the viewer is drawn to the visual work sans anything else about it... without knowing ANYTHING else - artist, title, era in which done - the work is first viewed as a glimpse into a self-contained world... it is seen as a universe on its own... within that framework, tho, there is much which can be gleamed...

The metaphysical view, for instance, is instantly discernible - there is a vast difference in how a benevolent universe view contrasts with a malevolent one... is it a world of flux, or is it one of identity? if a landscape, are there vegetation, or is it barren? if vegetation, are they blooming, dying, or dead? are animals in health, or malformed? the humans - happy, serious, fearful? are the colors bright or murky? is it viewed with clarity, or is it as if from a nearsighted without glasses? what is the most prominent feature - the main focus? how is humanity placed within this universe? what size - larger than life, or tiny and insignificant? if no figures, what are the main entities - how are they placed? is there a significant difference of size between setting and object? is the emphasis placed more on one thing than another? figures - their posture: upright and proud or elegant, or bent and awkward? is the painting smeared or distorted, or orderly and complex? the light - bright, or subdued? in still life, are the objects glistening, or tarnished? are they solid, or fractured? and the list goes on...

Make no mistake - few artists are aware of any of this, unless perhaps they took aesthetics in some studies, and even there it often is glossed over for other considered more important matters... far fewer artists, even if aware, have any concern with any of this [and note, am speaking of artists in general, as this applies to at least all of the visual art mediums]... most artists came about their being artists as a form of displaying the skill of rendering, of sketching an object or scene with an ability beyond what most others seemed to possess... continued use gained greater ability, such that, in some cases it led to selling what was rendered, or making copies of the original and selling those... in none of these, however, was there an awareness for the most part in wanting to learn anything more regarding what they did other than the technical skills to better achieve what they were doing... one could say it was a practical attitude, much like crafts or trades... this is not as such to demerit their doing, merely to emphasize that for the majority, that is what is meant by being an artist - and their works, for the most part, are a sort of 'here today, gone tomorrow' kind, without much of any lasting tribute than 'twas nice', whether a scene or still life or whatever...

With pen and ink artists, it is largely the same - yet they have a more forbearing incentive to seeing the best of their efforts seen as Fine Art, as more than just a 'twas nice' rendering... to give a similar example, consider colored pencil renderings, how for many years they were just temporal works used for illustrating in magazines and architectural studies and so forth - until some of them wanted to take that skill and 'fine art' what they did... take a look at their works now, what they choose to render, what thought went into what they rendered, and how painstakingly they rendered - see colored pencil as Fine Art... there is a difference in the 'before' and 'after'... the same can and ought - and NEEDS BE - with pen and ink, if the goal is to achieve that same end...

And GREAT art, to be great, requires awareness of the means of greatness - even if few works succeed at it or artists care to strive for it - if for no other reason than it gives satisfaction to the artist of being successful in showing, in communicating, what is thought by the artist as of great importance - and that all the elements involved in the composition is integrated to that end...

At least that is my view of the situation...

I should add that if what one wants to do as a pen and ink artist is to do scenes and/or character work [I prefer that more than to say portraiture], I am not disparaging it nor discouraging it - indeed, GO FOR IT, for that is what gives the satisfaction... but - if such is, like is for me, not enough, then what has been written is a way of furthering the seeking of that satisfaction that otherwise is not there... at the least, even if scenes are the forte, knowing all this other can aid in improving that, crystallizing the essence more so than would have been if not knowing... remember, the essence of art is 'for contemplative purposes' - it is why one goes and looks at a work over and over and over, savoring the impact received, being refueled by the savoring...

Friday, May 14, 2010

Anniversary Reviewing - The Idea of Theming.....

 [from the May 25 and 26 postings of 2009]
It was mentioned about 'upgrading' pen and ink rendering to Fine Art... what would this mean, and why be wanting to do this? the issue has to do with theming, something which most artists are only dimly aware of, and rarely ever having had any understanding of its nature, let alone of its importance... in visualizing the universe, the world around oneself and/or especially the world within the four corners of the canvas [whether actual canvas or not, but a convenient metaphor for the support on which the rendering is done], there is, for the artist, a necessity, whether consciously seen or not, to sift and choose among all the possibilities, what is considered by the artist of primary IMPORTANCE - indeed, within that universe of creation, by the nature of this choosing, everything which is deemed of importance enough to include is as such metaphysical in importance, precisely because in the choosing, whatever is included assumes fundamental values to the artist... why? as I see it, it is because in creating a work of art, especially Fine Art, an artist is involved in 'selective re-presentation', of necessity - because not everything CAN be included, thus what is, HAS to assume prime importance, whether consciously considered or not... further, the more an artist consciously is aware of this process, the more an artist deliberately strives to arrange and compose according to this premise - the more consistent the end result will be, and the greater the work will be in consequence...


This is, actually, a logical extension to the illustrating [which, of course, also dealt with theming, but from the standpoint of the story and not the rendering itself]... here, tho, it is raised to the work itself, for the work itself, so that one can contemplate the work and grasp that there are layers to it [like the proverbial onion], which in essence is what elevates it beyond mere fancy sketching, or even crafted drawing, to Fine Art - just as is the same with the better works in other mediums...

FURTHER -

In showing, thru his/her renderings, what is considered of prime importance to consider by others in this comtemplative measure, this means that even in doing scenes, there needs be more thought to placement of the objects within - their relative sizes, detail emphasis, and so on, so as to better being out the showing of the artist's intent... after all, an artist, a painter, like a writer, is communicating with others, the showing, the visualizing - it is the means of communicating, and if it is unintelligible, then there is a failure to communicate [and if there is a claim of not wanting per se to be communicating, then there is no sense in there being a showing]...

For pen and ink artists, this almost comes with the territory, so to speak, because of the conscious attrition of the unforgiving ink, requiring forethought before depositing, and thus forethought on where and in what manner is to be depicted what is to be deposited by the ink... this, in turn, fosters the creativity, which is an offshoot of this fore-thinking in composing... even in such renderings as portraits, both human and of animals and or/ objects like vehicles or buildings, how these are depicted owes much to the creative thinking, even if heavily taken from photographic references - which, for one, is why they are superior to photographs, for all the attempts of configuring character to the photographic images themselves... for many if not most, all this is more or less intuitive - but the more one is conscious of this and deliberately composes the rendering to this, the better the work and the more a pen and ink artist can claim to be doing Fine Art

..................................

This is being restated because it has pertinence to the shift in what it is I intend doing with my rendering...  in a way, it helps crystallize my being able to look  at 'the big picture', to use a well-known phrase from the O'Toole movie "Creator"...  hints were given in "My Bigger Back Yard", but what comes in mind is being more able to draw the viewer into that world of mine, and perhaps even gain a few ideas of the viewer's own to carry forth into that person's sense of life and world, an enrichment that in turn might further spread - and even feedback...

Thursday, May 13, 2010

And Yet...

It is almost a year now since this site began, and with this upcoming anniversary, some further thoughts come to mind - especially on the perennially remarked 'theme'...   while, as mentioned, there are no dirth of ideas which seem to flow from me, that does not necessarily mean that those ideas are imbibed with passion, something often overlooked by those who are content to have the ideas, even if not particularly great ones...   for the past many months and years even, many of the ideas I've seen fit to render have been involved with the seemingly minutiae of life, despite the multiple layers the metaphors engendered...   there is nothing wrong in this, as many have brought to me much satisfaction not just in the doing but in the conceiving...   but there always has, in the back of my mind, been another course - one which has only been sporadically pursued, and with oft felt regrets that more had not been made of it...  no, tho this stemmed from my youth of many years ago,  I do not consider it nostalgia in any manner, only that for in part the sake of getting more rendered there was in a manner a forsaking of a to me grander view...   to say the least, the prospects of doing these grander view in pen and ink would to almost all others seem a madness that makes my present ones quite sane in comparison, and that the doing would mean loads longer times involved in the doings, still the prospects of seeing my worlds at large in the large, with the intimate details which should accompany...   I am speaking, of course, with regards the original notion of what 'Visioneer Windows' pertained, and which at one time was rendered in acrylics yet now see at least some of the time as worth glorifying in pen and ink - true ink painting, true rendering in the GRAND manner...  

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Theming Into Series...

One of the things I have found happening a lot to me is that my ideas tend lately to 'spontaneously combust' into a host of related renderings of a series...   the latest, for instance, was originally just an interesting idea spawned from someone else's notion of doing water drops on twigs and leaves - and thought of a dripping water faucet reflecting the landscape [sort of an odd way of doing a landscape within a still life]...  and this "Clear In The Air" has sprouted not only the just completed "Breezing Into Blooms" but another in the works, "Leaking Blossoms", a waterfall of drops showing a tulip garden - and yet another of a faucet with an Iris blooming in front of it, this time the faucet being attached to the house, theme/titled "Consequence"...   I often wonder, tho, how much this happens to other artists, as opposed to a deliberateness in planning a series...   there is, to be sure, no complains on this, as it is indeed a manifestation of intense creativity, but for those who seem to have something I never had - a 'block' - I do wonder why such is not found more, this visualization of variations, each intriguing and adding interest to further investigation...

Friday, May 7, 2010

Breezing Into Blooms - Finished

 And all the sections of the color landscape amidst the b/w background are now in place...













And the close-up...

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Breezing Into Blooms - 13

The background is now done...  there may be future breaking up of the bottom flats, but in general, this is all finished...   next is to do the colored desert landscape amidst the five water drops...

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Breezing Into Blooms - 12

There had been expressed some concern that the seemingly abrupt shifting of the clods towards the bottom of the background rock jarred too much, but this is offset by some deliberate irregularities, as seen on the lower right...   now, all that remains of the background is the lower left of the rendering...  then comes the water drops, and the colored ink landscape within them...

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Breezing Into Blooms - 11

Slowly continuing, after letting my hand rest a day - seems can only do so much then it 'revolts'...