Thursday, November 24, 2011

Gorilla in the mist.

Check the illusion of a whiteish outline on the green squares. 
Drips of another awkward kind.
The fog didn't lift all day, probably metaphorically as well. The wall got increasingly wet and I opted for the quick version. 4 hours at the wall, as friends would attest, is pretty fast for me.
I managed to use up some of my shelf of pinks and satisfy my penchant for psychedelic rock poster color schemes. Didn't have the back ground paint to cover what was underneath but all in all, can't complain.


Friday, November 18, 2011

New - Silver lining...


A city-guide TV show came to film in Antwerpen this week. They filmed artists, Ephameron, Steve Locatelli, fashion designer Kid Vanilla, MC Nag, myself and Im guessing others. So I ventured out for my first piece for a while. I painted a lot of it with the left and saved my less than flexible right hand for it's first workout on the outlining of this silver. I'm looking forward to getting into a serious piece asap.

Monday, November 14, 2011

My left-hand sketchbook and 'piecing beyond the piece you pieced'








So, with the injury of my right hand, I decided to give left-handed drawing and painting a try. The sketching proved more difficult. These flix show a bit of the progression. The physicality of piecing and looking just ahead of your line made for less of a challenge than making my already quite small outlines on paper.
With the left hand unable to fall into habits, lines had to be considered actions, and as with painting I had to look slightly ahead of the line I was drawing for accuracy. I think the swapping over to the other side of the body can have an interesting effect creatively. A friend said that apparently Frazetta had to change to his other hand and his work improved! Give it a crack!
The last photo here of the beginnings of an 'N' is with my left and a partially moveable right. 
 
Normally, these days, I would consider drawing my letters on paper as a loose empirical study on an idea or set of lines. 
On one end of the spectrum, the notion of a complete sketch on paper traced over in fineliner and then carried out on a wall with exactitude can sometimes feel a little limited. Although, this was at a time the only way I knew. I personally prefer to see seminal ideas with all the human imperfection.
The best pieces I see and strive for myself can look like they were hard work, are painted as best as the person can, done with an effortless appearance, but with a touch of 'perfection in imperfection' that constant forward development naturally provides. So often, writers get caught up in the 'wow' factor of a flashy piece without personalized substance that is not much more than an amalgamation of other styles and can tend to totally overlook others' solid quieter contributions to the tradition. Obviously, you want writers to appreciate your stuff, but not at the cost of the fun had with moving forward with your own interpretation of letters.
Having just enough on paper allows the recent developments to be put up stress-free and allows for a little unforeseen progression and the unexpected to happen. 
To the other extreme, complete freestyling can run me out of fresh ideas and also run the risk of creating  personal mediocrity within a piece.
 
In summation, in an issue of IGT, P.H.A.S.E 2 pointed out something to the effect of: "800,000 people out there are great at drawing, but what we do is different, it's about piecing beyond the piece you pieced."

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Hermann Zapf

While I'm too injured to write, I'm making do watching others. I remembered this vid, worth a watch.


Those of you that grew up with chisel tip caps on their paint, and markers of course, might appreciate his technique.