I had kind of a breakthrough last night. You’re probably thinking the drawing above is kinda silly. It is. I sat down and drew it as fast as I could, without any editing, any preconceived idea, and with a ball point pen. The breakthrough was the idea of making small-scale works which could be silly, ridiculous, bad, or wonderful. It’s just a way to experiment, but will eventually produce more complex and sophisticated results. I realized that small drawings, or even paintings, can be scanned at extraordinary resolution, and thus printed at enormous proportions. For the investors, there’s even an original to be purchased. Since they are small, shipping isn’t a problem.
Something appeals to me about sitting down with a smallish piece of paper and some simple tools and having a go at it. It’s like telling someone who makes music on the computer, “Here is a guitar and a chair. Let’s see what you can REALLY do.” You can’t just make it so big that it’s automatically impressive, as contemporary art usually does. You’ve got to rely on your imagination and skill. Also, I was not entirely sober at all when I made this.
I thought I could produce these works while I am making my digital art, probably fusing the two here and there. What I especially like about the drawings is they allow for wild-ass, spontaneous, complete freedom of expression. Some could be serious and take a lot of time, and others could be quick, or even bad.
About this shark. I think I’ve now spent more time writing about it as I did making it, but, check out the teeth. they rotate, as if on a conveyer belt, so the bottom teeth are actually upside down and the points are facing the gums. The gills seem to flay out, the dorsal fin wraps around in a sort of South East Asian arabesque (it’s where I live, soooo…), and the body wraps completely around so the tail meets the chin, and also seemingly forms legs or a sort of tie or scarf. The curlicue on the chin is really a local influence from the Nagas outside of temples.
As opposed to my infinitely editable and perfectionable computer work, this was a one-shot hit or miss. I like that this kind of drawing allows me to be humorous as well. I can’t even imagine all the possibilities of what can be made just using drawing and a little painting on paper.
~ Ends
Not only did I make this on the spot, within about 15 minutes (I think), I also decided I would sell it for somewhere between $100 and $200. I settled on $175.
WARNING: If you don’t want to endure the self-promo stuff I have to do to try to keep afloat, stop scrolling now. Content here is always free to you, but if someone wants a print, or to help out, I need to make that possible. I also offer prints for a minimal profit above production costs. In other words, they are inexpensive.
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Art & Crit by Eric Wayne 