The Fiction Project

The Art House Sketchbook Fiction Project

My new sketchbook project has arrived from Art House. The Fiction project, a sketchbook library, is to marry artwork with fiction. It is a sister project to the previous sketchbook library project, where we did sketchbooks for addition into a library of artist sketchbooks. This project is to be an illustrated narrative. Each artist/writer is given a topic, or theme to use and develop into a work of fiction, with illustrations. The theme can be as closely or loosely followed as desired, but each sketchbook should be 51% literature.

These books are to be part of a permanent collection of sketchbooks, creating a library of them. The public will be able to come and look through them free. What a good resource for new artists and simply people interested in art and literature!

http://arthousecoop.com/projects/fictionproject

These are not really aimed at children, but they can be. Any prose or poetry is acceptable or any combination there of. But quality is what I am aiming at.

I received my sketchbook yesterday, and with it my theme: This is Where We Start.

Now, this is where I start!

The Eye of Ra

We all tend in the beginning to draw the eye of Ra. This stylized oval eye is instantly recognized as an eye—a generic non-specific one. But a human eye nonetheless. This eye is applied to the faces we try to draw, and we wonder just why the drawing, so carefully done, does not look like anyone. The eye is recognized as human, but not this human. We have to look carefully, and see what makes this eye individual, unique.

Just what is the structure of the eye? How does it vary by species and individual? What makes it human and your eye? So lets take a closer look at the eye, both human and other animals. What does it really look like? How big is it, what is it shape and features? Just where and how does sit on the “face” and how does it work?

The Animal Kingdom, a brief overlook

For each species, the eye fulfills its function, to see. Obviously, but just why the variations? What does each individual animal need to see and how does that shapes both the eye and its function?

First, fish eyes. While fish often have excellent eyesight, they usually lack external structure, ea, eyelids, lashes, and eyebrows. They do move in their sockets, some working independently, but they are not typically expressive. We invent such expressiveness when we cartoon. By endowing these eyes with more human characteristics, animators make us relate to these fishy characters. Fish, because they live in the water, really don’t need things like tear ducts and eyelashes. As you move up the animal scale, the eye structurally changes, becomes more complex, sometimes bizarre and frighteningly inhuman, like the compound insect eye, or the hypnotic and sinister eye of the crocodilian, with its yellow iris and slit pupil.

Mammals also have a wide variety of eyes. Pray animals usually have their eyes mounted on the sides of their heads, (the better to see that staking lion) unlike predators, whose eyes need to be front and center. (The better to see that fleeing gazelle) All eyes are different for different functions. From the Large light-sensitive eyes of the cat to the liquid brown eyes of the bloodhound form follows function. Eyes that closely resembles our own tend to evoke stronger positive emotions in us, as we tend to humanize them. It is no surprise that we find sea otters, with their large brown child-like eyes cute, but shutter when we see the alien slitted eyes of a snake. (Of course, that forked tongue does not help.)

But just why do our human eye drawings so often go wrong?

The Eyes of the Beholder

To really be able to draw the human eye, we need to be able to clearly see and understand their structure, and how they appear from differing views. Back to Ra. The Egyptians were masterful artists. But whenever they drew the god Ra, even in profile, the eye stared straight at you. This is not because Egyptians did not understand the structure of the face. To the contrary, they had very firm grasp on anatomy (preparing all those mummies does teach you a few things about how the human is put together). So why the forward, stare you in the face eye?

Because the Eye of Ra was always on you, the all-seeing, all-knowing Ra. This representation of Ra was not so much literal as symbolic, and this holds true down to our day. We need to fight the tendency we all have to draw the eye as we know it to be. We need to observe it and draw it as it appears to be. When we start to draw the human face, we have a truckload of symbols preloaded into the brain just waiting to spill out onto our paper.

Resist this urge!

Draw what you see, not what you know.

This brings us to the major stumbling block in drawing faces, the stored symbols and how they sabotage our drawings. We have to learn for the first time the true nature of the human eye. It symmetry and lack there of. No two eyes are alike. While we share common structure, each of us has a unique eye. These things tend to run in families, so if mom has a nice round eye, chances are most of her children will too, but remember, there are always two parents.

Your eyes are your best tools in learning to draw real eyes, and unlearning the symbols stuff in your head. Look at eyes. Make a study of it. And draw them. The handiest pair is of course, your own. Get a nice mirror that stands on its own, and look at your eyes. Notice how they are similar and how they differ.

One major mistake is to make the left and right eyes exactly alike. They are not. They tend to be mirror images of each other, but not perfectly. They will be differences. One will tend to be slightly larger. This is good news for the artist, because you don’t have to be perfect! Just observant.

Notice also that the eyes are not really round or even real ovals, but their own totally unique shape. They will tend to be more rounded by the nose, and then taper off towards the ears. Watch your eyes in the mirror move. Even the eyeball is not completely round. Look at the opening for the eye, the lids, both top and bottom. Just how much of the eyeball is covered by the top lid as opposed to the bottom? Notice where the lashes really are, not where you have been drawing them all these years!

Shifting shapes

Get yourself a tablet of tracing paper and cut out a bunch of ads that show the face close-up. Cosmetic ads are good for this, as are shaving cream ads. Any ad that shows the face clearly will do. You can also use family photos, but make cheap copies of them for this. Trace the shape of the eyes, both of them. Then take the tracing paper away and look at the shapes of the eyes.

As the face turns

You might want to trace out the angle and placement of the face for reference, and see how the shape of the eye(s) changes as the face shifts in relationship to the camera. Notice the difference in the eyes in the frontal view, the profile and the near profile views of the face.

As the face turns from the full frontal view through the profile, the eyes seem to change position. They don’t really, but your view of them changes, the further eyes almost seems to come closer to the nose until it is completely hidden by it. Trace these shapes and see how the shape of the eye itself seems to change. Once you see these isolated shapes, you will have these stored in the old brain-box to counter those pre-loaded symbolic eyes.

Draw what you really see

With the help of these tracings, photos and close-up family photos, you can study the shape of human eyes, and the eyes that run in your family. Notice where the lids cross the eyeballs, making for what appears to be rounder or narrower eyes. Notice also how deep the elliptical fold is and how this varies person to person and from younger to older eyes.

One major mistakes children make, which does tend to carry over into adulthood, is placing the eyebrows too close to the eyes themselves. The opposite can also be a problem, making all your people look surprised.

One last word on drawing eyes, look before you draw

Art And The Lollipop People

First Drawing, First Language

Art is our first written language. Drawing is communication and recording. Children do this instinctively. They draw pictures and when you ask them what it is, they tell the whole story. They are recording their world and their view of it. Mommy, daddy, kitty going to grandma’s. They illustrate their lives effortlessly. Their drawings record their observations of the world.

When we are children we put down our recordings of the world according to us. But is it real? Depends on your definition of real. To the child, yes. It really is amazing how alike children’s drawings can be. Their “realistic” symbols of humanity are universally recognized. We all understand the rendering of lollipop people. These rendering are a step up from most first efforts, of tadpole people, all heads with little wiggly things hanging off the bottom that represents the rest of the body

Facial Recognition and Drawing

All of this shows how important to humans is facial recognition. The face is so important that for the first maybe 3 years that is just about all children really observe of their families.

We are hardwired to recognize and respond to other human faces, and in the animals that we tend to cherish, we often “see” something human in their expression or faces. That is why our first drawings of people are often simply heads. While we know bodies are attached, most of us remain rather vague in our understanding of this. Just think back to your first full figure drawings and you will have to agree with this! How often have we got going on a drawing and had to stop to wonder just how is the shoulder attached? Where is the elbow, I know they have to have hips, etc.

Focus on the Face

Our focus on the face is, I believe one of the reasons we have such difficulties getting both facial and body proportions correct. We all tend to make our figures a bit top-heavy. We are still putting mental emphasis on the head and face.

Even with our drawing of the head, we tend to over draw the facial features and under draw the rest of the head. Leave some room for the brains people!

Still, we first recognize people by their faces more than any other body part. We have all seen those game shows where men were asked to pick out their wives by just their legs, or some other body part, and we all laughed when most could not do it. Just the reason why so often the rag mags get away with pasting Celebes heads on other bodies in Photoshop.

The Link Between The Symbol And The Meaning

The link between the symbol and meaning, that ability to make that connection is what makes written communication possible. They way we assign meaning to a learned symbol. This same learned response however, can be a stumbling lock to learning to draw well and accurately.

These learned symbols are shortcuts that speed up our drawing, in the brains attempt to change drawing into writing. The very speed of these learned response engender sabotage any advancement in drawing and art. This leads to the frustration that causes so many to abandon art in their pre-teen years, with the idea that “they have no talent”

Drawing is more than talent

Drawing is not about talent, but skill learned and applied. A certain gift is helpful. But what is really needed is desire and a willing to unlearn what one thinks they know. When we are learning to draw we need to fight this mental shorthand and learn to refocus on what we really see. We have to see the real shape of things.

Teaching

I teach drawing

I love drawing

But unlike what some people believe, it is not easy

It takes practice

Skill
Learning
Observation

Practice

Lots and lots of practice

You learn to draw by drawing.

Everything

Everyday if you can

I teach drawing
To adults
Children
People

They believe in me
I tell them I can teach them to draw and they believe me

They have trouble with their drawings

“ I just want tear it up”
“I am going to start over”

No, I say, we will work on it

“tell me what is wrong”

They believe that I can, I have told them I can. What a sales pitch, what am I going to do?

But then I look

Think
Observe

And we work on them.

They can be saved.

They will not be the best drawings, but they are working drawings and they are learning drawings.

And they learn

With each drawing, they learn

And they get better,

But the real secret is that with each of their drawings I get better.

I learn to see more clearly.

I have to know what to do. So I have to think

Art happens in the brain.

It is a problem to be solved but it has infinite solutions

I come up with the answer from somewhere, from never land, from ever land from that infinitely that lives within the finite brain.

They expect me to know so I do.

That is its true beauty

All the answers to unasked questions!

Art is beautiful simply because it is art.

Expressionist Art

Twentieth Century art baffles a lot of people.

They know it is supposed to be good, but they just don’t get it.

An exhibition of Robert Motherwell’s work is coming to town. The publicity about this exhibit extol its virtues to the public, trying to entice a largely resistant public into viewing his work.

In preparing her piece on this exhibition, the reporter was looking for a quote, something to make a largely confusing and un-untellable show explainable. Why should be see this show. Why should ordinary people in this economy care about the works of Robert Motherwell?

So, she asked me.

At first I panicked. Why ask me? Do I look like I know? This is a serious question. How would I know? Am I going to be exposed as a fake? I am simply a working artist, a blue-collar artist. Not some high-flaluten super educated art historian. Then I looked at her note, and noted the name. Motherwell, Motherwell, sounds familiar, Oh yes, I know this guy! I checked a couple of books to make sure I had the right person, the old brain-box is not what it used to be. But yes, I know this guy. So, happily I gave her what information I had, and my honest opinion on this man’s work, and impact on the art world of his time. Everyone is happy, and article came out, and she did a really good job of it. Being a struggling artist, I am happy for any recognition and getting my name in the paper without getting arrested is something to be proud of.

I sent a link to the article off to several friends and family members. Well, my sister wrote back to me that she enjoyed reading the article, but hoped this person’s art was better than the one image printed in the paper. I had to blink. I got out my paper, and looked at the image they included. Yes, that is one of his pieces, and while not my favorite I rather like it. It is very simple.



To my sister, it bears a striking resemblance to an ink blot test. As for it being good art, she just doesn't know why that is considered as good as say a Rembrant.



http://www.putnamstandard.com/main.asp?SectionID=39&SubSectionID=42&ArticleID=2369

Now, I like Robert Motherwell’s work but I do understand what my sister is getting at. His work is condensed, and mature, but also not something the average run of the mill person gets. When I think of all the work and effort that the curators of both galleries, both the receiving gallery, The Clay Center for the arts and sciences in Charleston, WV, and the Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charlotte, NC I have to be concerned on how successful they will be on introducing modern, contemporary art to the general public. Oh, us art lovers will enjoy it, but how many of the other people visiting the Clay center will really get into it?

I know they want the general public to connect with this stuff. They struggle to bring the best to their museums and galleries. But I wonder if showing the best is really the way to go about it. I wonder if they showed the more ordinary pieces, what they dismiss, as not up to par or beginning pieces people might get a chance to understand what the "major" pieces are all about. Often people look at the end results of a lifetime of artwork and just scratch their heads. It is like reading people the ending of a great novel, when they have never read the book, and expecting them to get excited about it. There is no context, and frankly, modern art needs its context!

When showing contemporary art or expressionist art, you really do need to fill in the context. The why of the work is as important as the work itself. If you only show the work but not the story behind it, you leave so much of the work unexposed.



So showing the whole story, the art in context to its time, and to the art that preceded it, lead up to it, helps it make more sense.



We who live art have already made this journey, and sometimes we forget that others have not.

*-*
The accompanying photo is of a small painting by me, "Alien Sky" and not Motherwell.

Keep Your Pencils Sharp!

Were you the one in class who got into trouble for going to the pencil sharpener too often? Were you fussy about the marks you made?

I was. I hated trying to write with a rounded lead. Hated it! The legacy of being told not to “waste time” “stop fooling around” and get on with your work is hard to break.

However,

You get no points for drawing with a “dull” pencil!

Sharpen up those points!

Having a sharp point on your drawing tool makes the creation of precise lines and points much easier. It will also allow you to create lines of different style and weights evenly and gives you much more control over your medium.

This is not school, and you can stop any time you want and sharpen up that pencil. Carry with you a neat little sharpener, something with a lid. And try using a sandpaper pad or Emory board to touch up the point when you are away from home. I draw with a mechanical pencil when I am sketching, but still touch up and point with a small Emory board from time to time.

Even guys can carry a small one in their wallets. Simply twist the lead around it to bring back the point. The fine side of the Emory board is also good for cleaning off your eraser. Sometimes they get dirty too, and leave smudges on your paper that are impossible to get off.

Studio Catastrophes

Disaster in the dungeon

or

What happens when people work in your domain without respect.

Over the last month, more and more boxes and things have ended up in the area known to many as The Dungeon, a.k.a, my studio. We are completing a major renovation upstairs, and the logical place to stash things temporally in the way is downstairs, this is especially important for things I am afraid others will not treat as delicately and carefully as it should be, such as my good china and crystal. But additional things seem to have found their way down there instead of out to the trash or recycle, such as the old bedding, various baskets and containers, both full and now empty boxes, paint cans, tape and assorted tools, none of which are mine.

Then the guys when down to work on the electrical wiring upgrades for the kitchen. They need to get to the fuse box, which was in the laundry room, next to the studio space. Well, when they started to route the new wires, they move the washer, putting the drain hose in the sink, when they put it back, you guessed it, the did not put the drain hose back in its pipe, but left it hooked over the sink, not securely.

I started a load of wash, and when it started to drain......

All over the place, the hose sprayed like a wild animal, not just down into the sink, but the pressure made it jump around soaking everything, including my clean clothes that were hanging up waiting to be taken upstairs or ironed, and the rugs, please don't mention the now dirty-water soaked rugs. It washed down my small cabinet I keep cleaning supplies in (which are now clean, but some not useable). Fortunately, or not, depending on your point of view, I heard it, came racing down the stairs, turned the corner, to get it in the face!

This is why I am not on top of the dungeon itself, which I need to be literally! All the mess had to be dragged out, and much of it landed in the area I fondly call my studio. So the Dungeon is a mess in which I cannot find my drawing table, much less my pallet. Until this mess is conquered, no art will happen down there.

--
Working in a basement studio is not ideal, but the vast majority of artist work under less than idea conditions. That does not seem to affect the quality of work we can turn out. The almost stunning work that people through the centuries have done under really appalling conditions sometimes is a testament to the inner vision of the artistic mind