This semester has actually been a pretty prolific one for me, artistically. Pretty regularly I’ll take study breaks that consist of splashing out a crazy lady watercolor/ink drawing of her brain busting out of her skull…
This one was done when I was supposed to be studying for cognitive psychology, which was a lame stretch of an excuse to stop studying, haha. I love all the rich layers that are only there because I kept changing my mind on how I wanted to draw this. I did like four different kinds of brains and you can see them in various places, even though I came back to my original design. It’s just a bummer because there’s more of an emphasis on the figure than I wanted. I’d already done her eyes by the time I wanted to switch designs, and they just would not go into the background, so I gave into their alluring power. I love the spidery effect that the ink got when I laid it over wet parts of the canvas.
This one I just started before class this morning and I finished it tonight. For a few weeks I just had the text block; I was trying to make a similar piece as to one I did a few months ago, but the only line I liked in the words is the one that I left un-blocked. I added blue today and had to rewrite the words because I thought originally that using my watercolor pen would be a good idea…so they smudged out immediately. I liked the text better before…but besides that, I totally love the watery effect and especially the little dimples of color I got in that bottom portion from pressing my fingertips into wet bits of pigment. That beautiful bottom arch was an accident; I was just spreading pigment around like crazy, and of course I titled the paper, and all the color ended up converging in that graceful line at the bottom. This piece is bigger than my scanner and there was a pretty gradation on the top that had to get cut off, but it was less important than that bottom arch.
I started this piece last week after talking to a classmate who puts pigment down first and lines down second when she works with watercolor. I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to put over the pigment, though, which is why in some places the colors line up nicely with the linework but not everywhere. The only part I’m really disappointed by is how dark Micah’s face got. That blue nose kind of detracts from a lot of the lightness of the image. Also, the only reason Ingrid’s on a stool is because I significantly screwed up the placement and proportions of the bodies, hahaha.
Say hello to the piece that inspired my latest loosely begun novel! Of course when I’m stressed out but feeling creative, I can’t do much else but resort to my comfort cast — Andrew, Micah, and Ingrid/Sophie (and usually Danny…sorry buddy, maybe you’ll be the villain). So I didn’t even plan this, I just dove in with pen and put Andrew in the usual teaching position, Ingrid in the dark and curvy position, and Micah in the obnoxiously enthusiastic position. Time-Painters is going to focus on Vidasche, a legendary painter that can create images into the past, and his two apprentices. Ingrid is a young, jumpy girl with a mysterious past, and Micah is an arrogantly self-assured art student that is searching to get more out of his artwork. Time-Painters will have a lot of ethical questions about how a Time-Painting can and cannot be used, and the differences between realism and surrealism…hopefully, when I have more time, this project will come all the way into fruition, instead of just me dinking at it like right now.
I also did this piece when I was stressed and was unable to produce anything more complicated (though right after this I started that watercolor of Ingrid and Micah above). He’s just…pretty.
