sketches

Around the time I was wrapping up the 365 sketches project, I was already starting to think ahead about new projects. I really enjoyed using my digital drawing pad with the oil pastel setting in Corel Painter 11, and when I saw real oil pastel crayons in a store I bought one black and one white. A cheap way, I figured, to see if I would like drawing with them on actual paper. This afternoon at work I was writing condition reports on some purposefully smudgy drawings by a contemporary artist, and I remembered the oil pastels at home in a drawer. I said to a colleague, “do you think if I went home this evening and made something like this, I could call myself an outsider artist?” She replied, “You have a master’s degree in art history. I don’t think you qualify as an outsider.” So this is legit folks! Real contemporary art!

The process I used to make this abstract drawing was spontaneously creative, but drew on themes of sampling and replication in some prints I had to write about today. First I sketched an abstract shape (the base of the lamp I use to light my workspace), and then I pressed the image onto another sheet of paper to make an offset print. I touched up the original sketch with another layer of pastel, and repeated the pressing process 4 more times, juxtaposing the position of the shape and letting them overlap. Then I filled in the background around them, making it nice and smudgy. I was just about to call it quits and throw away my original, when I realized I could cut it out – or better yet tear it out – and paste it onto the surface to make the artwork a drawing, with offset drawings, and a collage. And that, my friends, is what you see here.

As promised to those who requested it, I put together a slideshow of all 365 of the daily sketches from 2011. It can be viewed on youtube by clicking on the cityscape above. (Or access at http://youtu.be/gglYchLT1J0.)

ABOUT THE SLIDESHOW… Each of the 365 sketches displays for about 2.25 seconds in the order in which I made them. For those who want to study an image in particular, hit pause along the way. I have been skeptical about the success of this slideshow request because I prefer to ditch the drawings I like least. I think there’s plenty of garbage in here. Plus even at just over 2 seconds each, the slideshow is almost 15 minutes. I must admit, however, that upon forcing myself to watch it once all the way through, I was surprised to see a progression of subjects and styles that I was not fully conscious of at the time. More than once, I said to myself, “Oh, this sketch came right after that one? Interesting…” Last, I spent too much time trying to find music I thought would work (nothing seemed all-around satisfactory), so there’s no sound. Pretend you’re in a quiet gallery, or if you like, play your favorite tunes while watching.

For those who are interested in seeing my “best of the year” slideshow, visit http://mysketches.net/?p=1722 and link to the video, or go directly to http://youtu.be/oAhToX_w1OU on youtube.