Page Two
Male film stars' faces of the 1930's and 40's had a quality you don't often find in those of today's actors. That was the quality of character. Actors today look like fashion models with few, if any, lines in their faces to make them into individuals. Actresses generally lack distinctive faces too. Most actresses and actors today, if seen on the street, would simply appear to be just another attractive face unless you were someone who followed that actor's career closely.
I chose to do a small series of drawings based on Martha Graham because, frankly, she fascinated me. I had seen an American Masters special about her on PBS followed by renting a tape that had a short documentary about her and two of her performances. The thing that captured my imagination was how she was able to make movements of the human body say so much - as much as you could say with more complicated mediums such as film and literature. Dancers as a subject also lent itself to the next thing I wanted to do in my drawings, which was to work with composition and eventually master it to the point where I could create my own original compositions.
Charcoal drawing doesn't necessarily have to be confined to the artfully-lit photographs of the golden years of the silver screen, although you tend to get better results with masterfully shot stills from the era. This drawing was done as a gift and is of the recording artist Enya. The original image was from the inside of a compact disk's booklet. There wasn't much detail in an image so small and the original photograph was so softly lit that it was a challenge to invent the missing details.
People, for the most part prefer color to black & white and often dismiss it too soon to discover the beauty that is is possible for it to have. For this reason I've been attempting to find a suitable color medium that I can feel comfortable with.
Watercolors and acrylics have left something to be desired because of the manner in which they work and pastels, although seemingly similar to charcoal, work in a different way. All of these mediums fight me in one way or another and don't give me the satisfaction of charcoal.
My experimentation with mediums continues. I'm about to try oils and feel good about the possibilities I hear about this medium. I've recently tried sculpture and like how it feels so far and look forward to doing some serious sculptures. To get a feel for it I've made a hand puppet and have just finished a ventriloquist's figure and I find some aspects of working with the materials similar to charcoal. Once I have completed some actual sculptures I'll probably include them on this page.
My exploration of art has occasionally taken me into the realm of commercial art and I've discovered many illustrators from the past who deserve almost or every bit as much respect as the most famous artists in the fine arts arena - people ranging from Charles Dana Gibson and his exquisite pen and ink work to painters such as N.C. Wyeth.
To the left is a logo I designed for myself.
I'm hoping to become a much better artist as time goes by and master the art of drawing, sculpting, and painting.
My most recent work:
My most recent watercolor
