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!

Vids!!

For my Body of Work major HSC project, I had to make a proposal/report type thing to show that I've actually gotten some sort of start on my work! This was meant to be in the form of a video.

I tried to upload it here, but no luck, so check it out on youtube.com:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP7_y8D9KRo

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qGXJY1I8V0 by 'ozzyindajungle91'

(copy into URL bar if the hyperlink doesn't work :)

Recent drawings

I drew these while we were driving to Cagayan from Malaybalay - a cool mountain road. I was trying to draw continuously, drawing the things I saw along or on the road on the same page, as it came. It was fun and fast!





These three are trial illustrations for a book (about missionary member care) that the authour talked to me about drawing for. They'll probably get a lot better after I've drawn in this sort of style for a while. In order, there's someone getting a shock (don't really like this one), someone being suspicious, and someone being overloaded (I like this one).





This is a small doodle I drew June last year. I really liked how it looked so I tried to draw something similar yesterday.


1st try: This was without reference to the original. I don't like much about it except the how the hairstyle looks (however impossible it may be :)


2nd try: This drawing has its flaws (the mouth, which I like by itself, is a bit too low down; the eye looks nice and clear but a bit too slanted) but I like it much better.

Kaamulan drawings

'The Filipino throws himself into group activities with great enthusiasm.' was going to be the catchy title but its just a cartoon and therefore needs no title, right?

In the parade a few weeks ago the male dancers, every now and then, would do this huge shout-and-dash sequence which was actually very cool.



Later, but before i had looked at my photos, I tried to do a small pencil drawing of one of the female dancers. This is the sequence. My drawing of people is fairly random - it usually starts with an eye or two and works down from there.





Interesting how different she looks with her eyes fully drawn!

There's some major problems with her pose and costume, but it was never really meant to be a 'good' drawing... its purpose was more ejust to capture the feel and general ambiennce that I remembered from some of the girls.

More Kaamulan pics

check out the dude in the front's hair!! What I love about Filipino festivals is mostly their huge vibrancy and sense of easy-going effevencence. Which, yes i realise it, is a bit of an oxymoron. Sort of.





The main reason i have photos of Kaamulan posted is because I'm using it either fully or partly as my inspiration for my Body of Work. Hopefully I can pull off a narrative/illustrative type work based on it and perhaps the theme of 'journeys'.

Kaamulan

Finally get to write here again!!!

Anyway, a few weeks ago we were in town (ie a non-jungle place) and watched a festival. It's called Kaamulan and is based on the tribal cultures of Mindanao. I thought the parade was fantastic!One of my favourite parts of the street dancing was the dummers. This kid here was directing the ladies on traditional drums. Others were mostly on top of large floats. They were so enthusiastic that the floats would be bouncing up and down in time to the drumming!These kids were so cute!!
The whole festival is so brilliantly Filipino - tribal and town culture seemed to compliment eachother well.

Postmodernism

This has been a slow few weeks for me art-wise. Which is not good, because now I should be getting inspired and getting started on my Body of Work, one of the single most important things in this year.

1. I'm either NOT very inspired, or too inspired about anything and everything to focus.
2. I'm NOT getting started because I'm not getting enough time to get into it.

Why on earth do we have any subjects besides art? (just kidding!) I know it won't take too long before i start getting back into my art-zone. Hopefully.