Distracted? Let them doodle!

Hi again!

I did these blue ballpoint pen drawings in the margins and backs of my art theory print-outs a few weeks ago. I decided to try and space out my posts a bit, but I think the space got too large! They are sort of procrastination, but then, I could always say that it was practice for art and my Body of Work. Which is true - come on, every drawing no matter what it is, is practice - so its no lie.

This is essentially how i learnt to draw. When I was about 6 or 7 I supposedly spent a lot of time tracing pictures in magazines, then when I was older i graduated to drawing in countless notebooks, then to drawing in the margins of my (non-book) school work.

So... this is what I do for fun!

Random faces and parts of faces...
... And the photo that inspired them. This is part of a work by Patricia Piccinini - the face wasn't the focal point of the artwork, but it fascinated me all the same. In a way, she seems to be plastic, or perhaps some sort of unreal mist. I used the play of light on her face as a reference for most of the drawings here. This is the mouth and nose of Jackson Pollock...... And the photo I drew it from. Pollock is one of the more well-known Post-Modern artists, you may know of his famous and energetic drip-painting technique.

And the culmination of my distraction! I was happy to find that I could draw a whole face reasonably with this type of drawing. I like the way it creates depth and a sense of form.

VAPD update

I've been doing some work in my VAPD (Visual Arts Process Diary, that is), working slowly but hopefully steadily towards my body of work.

These drawings are UNFINISHED and I'll likely revisit them a couple of times, or even totally change them. I just need to start drawing and let the images develop themselves. Is anyone else like that? You try to, on Day 1, make concrete decisions and stick to them, but it doesn't work; you get bored, you feel like you made the wrong choices ... Happens to me all the time. I find it helps to keep my options open and not place too much importance on one idea.

Anyway, here's some drawings and writing.

Beading!

I spent this past week working on two pieces of bead work - hopefully I can integrate them into the final work... I hate the thought of doing all that work for nothing!

(semi-)finished!

also semi-finished, as in I may revisit this piece and rework it or add to it. I had thought that I could add a pathway winding through the middle... possibly!

I used two old rags - from my Dad's workshop as the base for these. The beads are the seed-bead type common here in the Philippines, and I chose them randomly on purpose. The use of beads is significant in that some of my earliest and favourite memories are of making bracelets with these beads on the back porch of our house. We used to have a great time!