As any would be artist will know the further into the practice of your chosen craft you plunge the more avenues of exploration open up to entice, excite and frustrate you.
I feel I have now established a pretty firm base for the assault on drawing I have been planning for years and actually doing eff all about now and laid a fair; if not modest foundation in terms of drawing production – NOW – I remember quite a few years ago scaling down the size of my drawings to suit the size of my working area; this should only have been a temporary fix for short term problem – problem is it wasn’t short terms and the procrastination begun. Perhaps in the context of my life it had always been a problem but was then graphically illustrated and the spotlight shone on it by a staggering lack of work being produced and any work made was of a minuscule scale.
I digress.
I want to begin to work at the scale that I consider my work to operate best at…large.
I have been working mostly in sketchbooks for years now (very on and off) and only in the last few months of 2014 did I venture out onto paper that could stand alone as pieces in their own right.
Best thing I ever did. It helped me regain a slipped identity and a slightly crushed sense of self worth.
I always thought my drawings had most impact when on a large scale to draw in the spectator who can then discover the more intricate details of my work…exactly what the smaller ones do not deliver in my opinion. Watch this space and I will post some of my progress. Incidentally it is a bit weird that I talk exclusively about my work whilst never posting any; so with that in mind I will endeavour to post some examples. I welcome all comments…actually no bad stuff thanks (joke).
As I fall further and further into a world in which I can only describe through my drawing I feel I am growing increasingly aware of what could of been…
I think anyone with any life experience or regrets will be able to tell you that there can be nothing worthwhile gleaned from this rumination that is at present running its course through my mind.
In the spirit of being honest and frank about the ups and downs of the procrastination of a working man I would say I have felt slightly glum at the thought of what I could of put on paper should I have committed fully to my craft as opposed to working and eking out pieces as and when I can.
All this said I think there can be some positive pulled from this inferno of negativity; the fact that being aware of what might have been can and should only spur me on to try these things and aim higher in what I am doing.
A very quick post to…erm…well brag that I have managed to sell a piece of my work. All joking aside I’m very happy at this unexpected piece of good fortune.
I cannot quite believe it, I’m very lucky.
Follow your artistic convictions.
I’m not sure how to think about this new element that has crept into my work – colour. Colour – this is a perfectly natural part of…no essential part of most artwork to some degree. For me I have avoided it like the plague, not because I really wanted to – or that I had no use for it; but because I am colour blind. For years now I have been fascinated by the qualities and the value of the simple drawn line, it’s power to convey thoughts and feelings, it’s abilities to present energy and information – but now I have found it is not enough; and I say this in the context of knowing there is a whole world of colour (options) for my work and only having a limited perception of its uses.
This coloured crossroad not only comes with benefits, new avenues of exploration and potential enrichment for my work – it comes with problems. Garish colours, colours that lack any subtlety – or worse the wrong colour or the lack of awareness that colours have mixed and created something that I did not intend or lend the piece connotations which are obvious to those with good colour vision but undetectable to me.
Perhaps what I should do is embrace this lack of awareness and make the colours big and bold and vivid? Who says internal dialogue is unhealthy?
