Voyage Countdown Video Trailer

Voyage Countdown Video Trailer. Contains absolutely no drawings from London. Instead, a collection of thoughts, phrases, pictures, and places from the spring and summer of 2006. New York, Washington DC, friends, enemies, bottles, whirlwinds, the list of people to whom I gave over 200 paintings at my going away party... I drew numbers from a top hat (so as not to introduce favorites) to decide who would choose when... It's fascinating to compare the order of the draw (and more interestingly, the order of the choose) with my own estimations of a paintings strength...

Love Smells Like Flowers

Love Smells Like Flowers. I was wandering through the American Portrait Gallery, in Washington DC. It was 2006. Encountering a dozen new ideas about American folk art, and art in general, I made notes.

The Influence of Symbols on A Pigeon I & II

The Influence of Symbols on A Pigeon I. Symbols are abstractions, defined by context. Remove the context, and you remove the meaning.

In this movement I conduct an experiment to see how a neutral participant, one with no pre-formed symbolic conceptions, would react to a rather ubiquitous symbol.

Coffee and Complicated Thoughts in a Red Chair

Coffee and Complicated Thoughts in a Red Chair. Lesson #6: Composition and Shape.

Downstairs in a London coffee shop, the chairs were especially comfortable. Chain coffee or independent coffee, I don't really mind as long as there are comfortable chairs. Especially during the long London winter, coffee shops are some of my favorite places to draw.

This is a picture of me from last week, complete with my adventure pack. Pen in hand, I was drawing a quick sketch of Meral. At the same time, I was explaining the importance of shape (particularly implied shape) in composition.


Meral seemed to understand, but thought that the picture made her look fat. Which is when I began another rant on the beauty of shape in form.


In this case, I was particularly fond of the three-dimensionality of the drawing (and the shapes found within).


Sometimes it's better for me not to talk too much.

Meral, Discontent in Green Jacket at Brighton

Meral, Discontent in Green Jacket at Brighton. I'm supposed to be at the Camden Crawl right now. My red glitter bracelet is still on from last night, thankfully. Somehow. So, I'll keep this short.

Meral and I went to Brighton this past Tuesday. No clouds, only sun. Brighton sure made herself beautiful for my first visit. A bit cold, maybe, but by spreading out on the beach, we could lay beneath wind-level.

Still, cold enough for coffee... Except that we decided to sit outside. And the place didn't serve coffee (hence the discontentment).

Three Images of a Nude Man

Three Images of a Nude Man. I was going to alumni life drawing sessions at VCU. Not that I was an alumni, but who cares. At the time, models were hard to come by... 2002.

Working within the context of a decomposition of form by notating fundamental geometric relationships, I drew three black and white sketches of the same male model in three different poses.
The rectangles should be enough to let you know that the model was male.

A Wrench Beside A Bottle Perpendicular to the Ground

A Wrench Beside A Bottle Perpendicular to the Ground. Get it? The bottle is parallel to the floor, but perpendicular to the ground (the canvas).

The Long Dark sketchbook begins with drawings from the night of August 13th, 2006. The last drawings I made in Richmond, realised the day before my original departure (I later decided to move my ticket back a week).

Notice the connection? You may also notice the flipside of my self-portrait, drawn on the same night).

Woman on a Couch, Looking Left

Woman on a Couch, Looking Left. It was February, 2007. Cold. Dark. In the basement of the El Paso pub on Old Street, a group of artists met to draw a model.

A Cardboard Painting of a Woman

A Cardboard Painting of a Woman. Lesson #5: Preparing the Ground.

Last week, Meral painted the cardboard white. We were using time wisely while waiting for the basecoat to dry on her official portrait.

Then. We worked on the couch pose a bit more before putting a coat of blue on the cardboard for good luck.

Last night, I needed to warm-up before putting in the next stage of color on the portrait.

So, I used the cardboard to make a quick sketch of Meral. It was a nice way to reintroduce myself to my pallete. At first, she hated it. But, then I fixed the drawing. Now she likes it more than the "real" picture.

You may recognize my red chair. While painting last night, I realized how beautiful Meral's portrait was turning out. Which is when I fell through the seat....

Meral

Meral. Lesson #4. Figure Drawing. After the first three lessons, we decided that it would be best to concentrate on figure drawing. Five drawings later, I decided that this would be the pose to paint. It says so at the bottom of the drawing: "Painting Pose" Except that when it came time to put pencil to canvas (board, actually) I went with a completely different pose.