Experimental Drawing Techniques - Week 4

The last week of the Experimental Drawing Techniques class was spent creating Exquisite Corpse drawings. For those not familiar, Exquisite Corpse is a collaborative drawing/painting technique where you continuously create a piece of art based on what was created previously. This technique was originally practiced in the 1920's by the Surrealists, who combined mind-altering substances with intuitive and improvised art making.

For this particular exercise, we folded pieces of paper into quarters and then each person created a "panel" and passed it on to the next person. The next person didn't know what you made but was able to play off of some colors, shapes, or lines that bled onto their panel.Then they created something in response to what you created, and passed it on...and so on...

Here are some example panels I created:







And here's a finished piece of one Exquisite Corpse drawing I started:




Finally, here are all the Exquisite Corpse drawings from the class:



Overall, a very good class that I got a lot out of. It brought on some new creative ideas but also loosened me up and helped me develop ideas and create in different ways. Particularly, I had fun experimenting with ink and drawing objects from different perspectives while giving them unusual textures.

Experimental Drawing Techniques - Week 3

This week's class helped me break free more than expected but also helped me focus. We were assigned to bring in an object - something mundane that might evoke an emotion or personal meaning.

I chose to bring in a rubber door stop from my studio:



We sketched the objects during various warm-up exercises:






Then added textures, rubbings, masking and more media that created some interesting abstractions:







Experimental Drawing Techniques - Week 1

Last week, I started an experimental drawing techniques class. A lot of the theories and techniques are based on Surrealism. It was a fun first class -- learning some new techniques and playing around with different materials. Below are the results of the first class.

Acrylic ink, watercolor, and conté crayon art sticks on Bristol paper. The last one is on Yupo paper - a smooth, translucent vellum material.





I'll be posting more images from each class for the next few weeks...



Static Abstractions - works in progress

This has been a month of abstract experiments and trying out new ideas for paintings. For the last few weeks I've been working and re-working the below paintings. I've been using different techniques such as masking, screen printing, drawing with paint markers and conte crayons to build up the many layers.

You can see through to previous layers much like what you might see on an old building with peeling paint and old signage or paste-ups. Still more to go on all of these (or maybe they'll morph into something else). There's a lot going on in these (and on my mind lately) so I'm calling them Static Abstractions.







Traveling Thoughts - a self portrait

I haven't done a self portrait in years and decided to make one this week. It's an experiment in media and a little different in style than usual. I collaged maps from my travels along with sheet music on mat board. The drawing is done with conté sticks and charcoal.

Traveling Thoughts (self portrait), mixed media collage on mat board, 22x28, 2012

Here's a detailed view:

Traveling Thoughts (self portrait), Detail


New directions - mixed media water tank

Water Tank (Chicago Maps), mixed media on panel, 36x36, work in progress, 2012

This painting is a new direction for me. I've been wanting to loosen things up lately and this piece is getting me closer to what I envision.

It's a mixed media painting where I collaged maps of Chicago on panel and combined layers of acrylic paint and oil bars. It's been fun working on a solid wooden surface again and applying a new technique.

It's just about finished and it already has me coming up with more ideas for the next piece in this new series...


New Show of Screen Prints - Scot's Bar

I started working with an art rep recently to have my work placed in different venues. The first show is now up at Scot's Bar in Ravenswood, just off of the Montrose Brown Line stop.

I'm showing a mix of my screen prints featuring rooftop water tanks. There are several pieces from each series included in the show:



Rooftop water tanks are a unique architectural feature in cities - especially Chicago and New York. They are a link to our industrial past and a disappearing element of the cityscape. Due to the decline of these structures, I've been making it a point to photograph them when I see them. These photos are then used for reference in my cityscape paintings or as the main focal point of my screen prints. 



My screen prints are created using multiple layers of ink and paint. I like to work quickly, so screen printing lets me create many images at once. They are created as part of a series, but each piece is unique and one-of-a-kind. I enjoy the multifaceted process of screen printing and the experimental nature of the medium that sometimes leads to happy accidents, contributing to the unique quality of the print.