#ballpoint pen
i started drawing an american bison for this bestiary of mine and started with a photo that i thought had an interesting perspective to start with. i’m trying to keep up with experiments while still working on my actual projects. so i took a gander at illustration friday’s theme and it is, weirdly enough, perspective. i’ve been wanting to try taking ball point pen drawings further as the basis for an illustration instead of using brush and ink so i thought i’d give it a go.
i realised too late in this experiment that it looks a bit barren without any real sort of background. i thought about incorporating whatever symbolic imagery that bison might have in different cultures. it seems that they’re mostly used as state symbols or in flags. so this is a flag of sorts, but the blue is supposed to suggest the sky.
if you can imagine yourself on the plain and you’re sharing opposing perspectives with this animal, your perspective might be that this is such a magnificent animal. his disposition might suggest that his perspective might be that he doesn’t like you on his land. apparently these are really dangerous animals to be around; they can outrun us and will attack if provoked. so you’re being warned as well.
not sure if i really like the result but it was worth a shot. i’ll probably give this a few more tries to decide once and for all. the original drawing is also below.
if you’ve been following along at all, you might have noticed that i’ve been throwing animals into the mix of my drawings. i’ve been thinking about personal projects a lot and have been thinking about selling prints as well. the bulk of my drawings tend to end up in my sketchbooks but i was a bit taken aback when i was told that someone wanted a print of one of my doodles. the 15 nanoseconds of fame i got from booooooom seemed to garner a nice response to the drawings and illustrations i did in my sketchbooks also.
i started just drawing animals for a change. at first i did animals which i was just plainly interested in drawing and found that i loved the freedom and difference in depicting these beings. so i kept going. while the drawings are and will be scattered among many sketchbooks i’m sure, i think i’d like to put them together and make a book out of it. i did some research and it doesn’t look any modern bestiaries exist? i guess they’re called the internets. or wikipedia. nevertheless, i think i’d like to add an illustrated companion to all of that.
it’ll be a while before i finish this but i’ll try and post every animal i draw (which i hope to be every mammal, at the very least). for the most part, this will go alphabetically but i’ll take requests to have some done earlier. let me know if you think you’d like one.
aardvarks!
…in a crushd tin box called the ttc. things are busy! about the only time i have to draw now occurs during my daily commute. i had reservations of drawing people on the subway but i’ve gotten over that rather quickly. it took a while to get used to the shakiness of the train. and you know, people moving. and leaving. here are a few to start.
pound for pound, these guys have one of the highest bite force quotients of mammalian carnivores. apparently, their hunting percentages are pretty good too. and they chirp! unfortunately, they too are endangered. they remind me of hyenas although they’re apparently weaker than those scavengers, one on one. i thought wild dog was a bit of a vague name but the naming controversy for these mammals leads some to prefer to call these guys “painted hunting dogs.” lycaon pictus in moleskine.
i haven’t been drawing as much due to holiday happenings and tinkering with my website (soon to come!). to boot i will be working on two other sites and a painting so who knows when i will get time to draw. here are some life drawings at ocad from a little while back. hope you had a nice holiday and new year’s.
one minute poses.
five and ten minute poses. you can skip over these ones now.
twenty minute poses.
so i told myself that i’ll try and do a proper illustration for IF but having just gone through my sketchbook this one seems right. there are obvious reasons and there ones that probably aren’t so clear. and that also leads me to think this one is right. one minutes life drawing poses, along with other people drawing with me, at ocad.
i’ve actually had projects to work on without much time to proper doodle. the bulk of what i’ve drawn lately have occurred on the subway or at life drawing sessions. here’s another session at ocad.
one minute poses.
five minute poses.
ten minute poses.
twenty minute poses.
she‘s got a new album called the fall coming out on 17.11.2009.
mr. penn passed away this week. i’m not very knowledgeable on the subject photography in general but i think it’s safe to say the he was one of the pioneering fashion photographers whose body of work is quite vast and impressive. his portraits were so very amazing, especially considering how he chose to light them. i’m glad he lived a full life. it seems that his stuff when produced was too ahead of its time to be appreciated fully but i like to think that he lived long enough to see it understood and appreciated.
below are drawings from a session at ocad quite some time ago. i think this was the first time i had gone in a while. life drawing is such a love / hate thing for me. i’ve been going more regularly as of late and i feel like my drawings are getting tenser and tenser. the drawings are definitely messier and i dare say less organised. i think i’m trying too hard but i still love the challenge of the setting and the various ways one can challenge oneself to draw differently. i’m not sure how much it shows but during these sessions i am trying to draw a little outside of my comfort zone.
1 min poses
5 & 10 min
20 min
