Category: sketching

Things I Learned Hanging With “the Guys”

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 16 Comments

 Home after almost two weeks of hanging with “the guys” … my husband, his best friend, my son, his best friend, and another newbie. I started sketching; they fished. I did some proofreading of an old novel; they fished. I played video games or watched movies on my iPad; they fished.

You get my drift.

I learned a lot about myself on these long days of self-entertainment:

  • Trader Joe’s little exotic meals (for lunch) aren’t as exciting as they lead on to be. My own pasta carbonara is much better….
  • The supposed “sex” scene in my novel really has suddenly put me off. It was well written and said a lot without saying ANYTHING, yet I found the whole section not really relevant to the rest of the tale. I wonder what that says about me….
  • I should have bought quality sketch paper and colored pencils and gel pens to my art fest. Now that I’m really into it and want to do more, I realize I should have bought quality supplies instead of colored pencils that have been in a Ziploc baggie for ages…..
  • Coming up with abstract ways to display common words has been fun and challenging. Never thought I had it in me…..
  • I enjoyed being alone 8 hours a day without having to think about laundry, dusting, dirty dishes, or a hundred other household chores watching my every move…..
  • If I decide to do this again next year I will need a car at my disposal. There were second hand stores, art studio tours and Dairy Queens waiting for me to visit….
  • Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu are poor substitutes for 1940s Film Noirs on You Tube…..

How have your past couple of weeks been?

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — James Lipnickas

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James Lipnickas, a New Haven, Connecticut-based artist, creates towering sci-fi structures filled with futuristic labs, clashes with aliens, and massive laser beams shooting from rooftops.Working in graphite, Lipnickas uses heavy shading to shroud his architectural renderings in mystery and unfamiliarity as tentacled creatures crack through the walls and humans become science experiments.Mystery is a strong theme in his work.

He has always gravitated towards reading and watching stories involving detectives, the supernatural and the unexplained (UFOs).Amidst the machines and eerie contraptions, the artist interrupts each building with a level containing a garden bed or an illuminated tree grove.He finds inspiration in his wandering mind, envisioning absurd events that could occur in ordinary situations.His black-and-white images are set in rural environments, where cabins and lone wanderers are beset by tentacled, multi-dimensional beasts that seem curious or passively destructive.“The future holds many unknowns (technology and lifeforms).  We can’t forget the natural world while we move further from it,” Lipnickas shares.More of James Lipnickas‘s magical sketches can be found at http://jameslipnickas.com/.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — DZO-O

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Under the odd name of DZO (in capital letters) is Olivier, a self-taught artiphist, symbols explorer, and freelance designer from the South of France.Thanks to a family with an artistic affinity, Olivier graduated from the School of Fine Arts of Toulouse and begun a successful career in graphic design.But with the creation of the artistic counterpart that is DZO, the French artist wanted to go deeper into his exploration of the “noosphere”, a philosophical concept about human thought.

His dynamic drawings are incredibly complex. They swirl with archetypal figures, animal totems and symbols that threaten to burst off the page.

His art speaks to the old etchings and engravings of religious and occult manuscripts while it flirts with alchemy, witchcraft, and blasphemy. 

It is at the same time disturbing, haunting, and stimulating.His intricate drawings, full of enigmatic detail, mix sensuality, darkness, and mythology.The message beyond the lines have a seemingly secret meaning, surrounding the world of DZO with mystery and fascination. More of DZO-O‘s mesmerizing work can be found at http://www.dzo-o.com/.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Claire Scully

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Claire Scully is a multi-disciplinary professional Illustrator, author, and educator specializing in drawing.Her creations focus on patterns and lines constructed through minute details.In her own personal research and drawing practice, Scully strives to answer the questions of “what lies beyond the horizon” by looking at the notion of landscape, memory (both individual and collective), and projections of the unknown.

She has a keen interest in traditional drawing methods and classical techniques and their place within modern contemporary illustration and image generation.Scully’s work plays with narratives and scale, moving through strange utopian and dystopian worlds and parallel universes with juxtapositions of the unexpected.Her talent lies in detailed drawings, her creations full of mesmerizing lines, curls, and shadows.Her finesse is highlighted in every drawing and sketch, bringing the creative process into the forefront of all her interpretations.

You can find more of Claire Scully’s work at http://www.clairescully.com/. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Zinovii Tolkatchev

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 9 Comments

Zinovii Shenderovich Tolkatchev (1903-1977) was born in the town of Shchedrin in Belarus.

In 1928, Tolkatchev studied art in Kiev and in 1929 held an exhibition on the death of Lenin.  In the thirties, he illustrated books, including works by Gorky and Sholem Aleichem, and exhibited the series, “The Shtetl”.

From 1941-1945, he served as an official artist in the Red Army. In the summer of 1944 he was attached to the Soviet forces at the front after the liberation of Majdanek, and afterwards to the forces liberating Auschwitz.

Horrified by what he witnessed, Tolkatchev spent over a month painting scenes from within the newly liberated death camp.These drawings were supposed to depict the moment of liberation from the point of view of the liberator: the excitement and happiness of the prisoners receiving the Red Army soldiers as saviors.

Shocked by the actual sights he witnessed, he often depicted Jesus as an actual camp inmate, wearing a striped uniform marked by every possible defamation sign – the Jewish yellow star, the red triangle of political prisoners, and the individual prison number, the numerical tattoo on his lower arm can also be seen.
His Majdanek paintings became one of the earliest artistic series to publicly document the Nazi death camps.Tolkatchev accompanied the Nazi Crimes Investigation Commission to Auschwitz, arriving within hours of the camp’s liberation by the Soviet Army on January 27, 1945.Using only materials immediately available, Tolkatchev made many of his drawings in pencil and on Nazi stationary taken from the commandant’s office.Looking back on his work, Tolkatchev wrote, “I did what I had to do; I couldn’t refrain from doing it. My heart commanded, my conscience demanded.”

More of Zinovii Tolkatchev‘s inspirational work can be found at  https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/art-liberation/tolkatchev.asp.

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Kelvin Okafor

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Kelvin Okafor (born November 1, 1985) is a British artist of Nigerian descent who lives in Tottenham, London.

He draws very lifelike portraits of ordinary people and celebrities using pencil and charcoal.

His style is known as Hyperrealism.

He brings portraits to life, as if they were standing right next to you.  

Ultimately, Okafor intends to create art that prompts an emotional response to viewers.

More of Kelvin Okafor‘s amazing works can be found at www.kelvinokaforart.com.

Sunday/Monday Evening Art Gallery Blog — David Martin Stone

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Illustrator David Stone Martin  (1913-1992) was one of the most prolific and influential graphic designers of the postwar era, creating over 400 album covers.

Much of his work spotlighted jazz, with his signature hand-drawn, calligraphic line perfectly capturing the energy and spontaneity of the idiom.

Born David Livingstone Martin in Chicago, he later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and began his career as an assistant to the social realist painter Ben Shahn, designing murals during the 1933 World’s Fair.

Martin spent the remainder of the decade as art director of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and served during World War II as an artist/correspondent for Life magazine.

After returning to the U.S. he mounted a career as a freelance artist; in 1948, he also began teaching at the Brooklyn Museum School of Art, followed in 1950 by a year at New York City’s Workshop School of Advertising and Editorial Art.

Martin entered music illustration through his longtime friendship with producer Norman Granz, designing hundreds of now-classic cover paintings for acts including Count Basie, Art Tatum, Gene Krupa, and Lionel Hampton.

Martin’s work has exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and others.

More of David Stone Martin’s magnificent album covers can be found at http://www.birkajazz.com/archive/stonemartin.htm

Sunday Evening Art Gallery Blog — Leonardo Da Vinci

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 9 Comments

We all have heard of Leonard Da Vinci‘s paintings Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

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But Da Vinci was so much more than a painter.

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Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath, having been a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.

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He spent a great deal of time immersing himself in nature, testing scientific laws, dissecting bodies (human and animal) and thinking and writing about his observations.

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 This was at the same time as King Henry VII — swords and maces, leeching, pestilence, and non-existent technology.

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That is why, when you are an artist, your mantle is wide and long and                   all-encompassing.

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You are a multi-colored rainbow of curiosity and creativity.

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Just like Leonardo.

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More of Leonardo Da Vinci’s works can be found at http://www.leonardoda-vinci.org/.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Ramon Bruin

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I have heard that life is nothing but an illusion.

Then what would you think of Optical Illusion..ism?

 

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Ramon Bruin, born in 1981 in Alkmaar, The Netherlands, graduated in 2010 from the Airbrush Academie in Lelystad, The Netherlands.  In 2012 he made a worldwide breakthrough with his own invented style which he calls ‘Optical Illusionism’.

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Optical Illusionism is a combination of drawing and photography. Bruin creates drawings that come to live when photographed from the exact right angle.

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Ramon Bruin makes you want to reach out and touch his creations.  As if they existed in your own three dimensions.

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It takes incredible hand and eye coordination to bring a creation to life. To give it breath and depth.

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But it takes less than a moment to appreciate the same.  Less than a flash to marvel and appreciate.

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And all the while you wonder — how does he do that? And like the true magician, the truth will be always elusive.

And that is the beauty of it.

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To find more intricacies of Ramon Bruin, I encourage you to go to his website, http://www.ramon-bruin.com/art/ .