Unfortunate Sunset

Ye Coulds!

Lord the Ocean is Big

Empty like sunshine.

The Empty Joy

Empty!

Guts Drinking River God

I think the thoughts that went into this one were something like, “Hey I kind of liked drawing ole Ladon eating some clouds.  I know!  I’ll draw him slurping up some clouds and pegasus guts. Yeah!
No, that wasn’t a good idea.  I started to get into drawing his beard/river currents but even fun drawing could not sustain this one.

Eater of Clouds, Eater of Continents

I had to take a break from my large drawing.  There is a little sticking point that I need to think more about before I erase a hole in the paper.

One of the thing that is going well in the large drawing, directly carried over from the rivers of everything/nothing rabbit pictures, is that THE END OF ALL THINGS is conveniently located off page.  This is good because to give form to these things might seem weak or ineffectual.  However, as I have been drawing I realize that even if I try not to, I still sort of think of these things in somewhat human, or at least figurative terms.  There seems to be a disconnect between what I have drawn and what I can conceptualize.

So, while I am trying to hammer out my bands of color and bands of not color, I thought it might be a good idea jump right in and give form to THE END OF ALL THINGS, and I knew right where to turn.  I hope I have made no secret of my love for Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. Its one of my favorites from childhood, and I can remember basing entire superhero teams on the illustrations.

I took a shot at Ladon mostly because he looks so cool.

There are no Starting Points

This is sort of an upside down view.
It is a lot more map like than I thought it would be, but that should still work.  I am at the awkward place where I hope this isn’t as silly as it seems.

Clouds With Out Faces

I thought about titling this post “When You Draw a Cloud You Draw the Sky”, but then laughed out loud because that has to be the lamest title for almost anything (I did a quick google search to see if there was anything with that title and thankfully there was not.)  Despite the lame titles it inspires, there is something really great about loosing track of which side of the line represents the figure and which represents the ground.  My original idea was to paint a light wash over the sky area (this would also emphasize theerasures ) in the painting but now I am not so sure.  I still have some color ideas for the lower part, the sort of full abyss thing I have been working with, but if I don’t use color on the sky the whiteness of the clouds wouldn’t resonate with the whiteness of the empty abysses (also planned but now possibly being unplanned.)  All in all, right now I am being confronted with the kinds of mysteries I like to experience while I work.

Not Sure Where I am

Throwing caution to the the wind, I stretched a 60″ x 45″ (or so) piece of watercolor paper, sketched out a few thumbnails and started drawing some clouds/continents/shapes in the top left-hand corner.  It is fairly slow going, mostly because it is hard to make something look perfect when you are not sure what it is you are drawing until after it is drawn (a lot of looking and erasing, drawing and re-drawing).  The time line for this project is quite different from my usual work, and since I sort of use my blog to keep myself on track I will be posting periodic updates.

The initial impetus for this came from a couple of different areas.  A few weeks ago I was looking over my work for a piece to submit to a local art show (a benefit show for the Tillamook United PAWS).  I had mixed feelings.  Sometimes I was really with the work, but sometimes it was very underwhelming.

Also, I have begun to question the rabbits (or any of the figures for that matter.)  I don’t know why I frame so many of my problems around the figure ground relationship and the pattern/not a pattern, but it keeps coming up.

Attack!

Shadow boxing and solitaire should be Olympic sports.

It Won’t Work That Way

I don’t find this one particularly convincing, but I had to try out the dash-fade.  I also think this one sheds light on what I liked about the last one.

(A little story, mostly so I will remember.)  In my first try at graduate school my carpool friend was an animation major.  Her first projects were to do one short film where the figure moves on a relative stationary background (like a LoonyToons Cartoon) and the other had to be a figure moving through a room, where the figure remains relatively stationary and the background is continually redrawn (like a chase scene from an old old cartoon).  I think if I can work with the sort of inevitable journey type feeling the constantly redrawn backgrounds produce, I might be on to something.