The Bottom of the Sea

Here is the fifth installment of the Yeti saga.  I think it is going well, slow but well.

Today I would like to write a little about inspiration.

According to the fossil record, horses once had hands.  Unfortunately the dinosaur book that I have checked out from the library does not have a good illustration, or at least a satisfying illustration.  From time to time, I find myself wishing I had a solid, historically accurate, illustration of a horse with hands.  I also feel that if I could draw better, perhaps I could create this illustration.

Yesterday I checked out Animal anatomy for artists : the elements of form by Eliot Goldfinger.  Looking at the bone and muscle structure of horses has intensified my interest of seeing a picture of a horse with hands, but at the same time has made me realize that it probably would not look as impressive as I hoped it might.

This new knowledge has created an interesting contradictory feeling within me.  I think this feeling is inspiration.

Science (Transparent) Fiction

Still moving with transparency.  And kind of groaning over the last blog entry.  My story should have spoken more about the close ties between the faded and the transparent, and less on the watcher.  I should have personified memory or something.

I am happy with this new painting, although one of my close friends said, “what is that? a milk jug rocketing into space?”  This comment has lost some of its sting now that I have written it down, but needless to say this is not a picture of a space bound milk container.

One thing that is kind of new to these paintings is the shadows on the rhododendron.  I think that was a good feature, especially when it is found next to the flat color of the rhododendron through the milk container.

To Fade or Transpire (Transparentness)

I know that transpire has nothing to do with transparent, but it is too interesting of a word to leave out completely.

I have become very interested in the relationships between fade (fading) and transparent (becoming transparent).  I think these ideas are important to me and important to watercolor in general.

For example, what marks the past?  I sort of think relics and monuments from long ago mark the past, but it is really our memories that replenish it and keep it from fading.  However, even with our memories, relics and monuments working together, the past seems to fade.  It does not go away, but becomes transparent to our memories.

Now something that is transparent is different from something that becomes transparent, but I sometimes wonder how great a distinction this really is.  If things are transparent, they cannot fade, at least in visual terms, because if they are transparent there is nothing to fade.

Concrete example, lets say there are two birds watching a hedge.  If a rabbit runs by the birds will watch it and then, it will slowly fade from their memories.  If a transparent rabbit runs by the birds will never notice and there is nothing to fade.  Now, what if there are hundreds of thousands of transparent rabbits?  Or the birds are transparent?  It seems a little silly because I do not think my ideas are there yet.

100% Allegory, non-GMO

While not especially apparent in this photograph, the area where the line falls behind the milk carton is really pretty nice. As dumb as this sounds, you can really paint cool transparent things with transparent watercolor (My library now subscribes to the OED and I was tempted to use the word diaphanous in this sentence, now that I know what diaphanous means.)

I am only sort of happy with the rabbit in the carton. I think the color is little too saturated, and I am not really sure why I placed the rabbit there in the first place. I guess it kind of reminded me of a picture on a fruit box. If anyone is selling an apple that tastes like a rabbit who has drank too much milk, this painting would be perfect for their crates.

Part Four of the Yeti

This is the fourth part of the yeti series and things are now starting to get interesting.  If it is too hard to tell from the illustration, the yeti lives in a tree, on a rock, in the middle of the ocean.

I have a watercolor painting that is complete, however I want to look at it a little longer before I post it.