Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Rite - 18

Further stippling of the shadows achieved, and more trees being laid in as well...

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Rite - 17

As can be seen, the snow is slowly being progressed, and the figure's shadow is in progress...

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Figures and Morality Reviewed

This from the past, August '04... worth looking at again...


Perhaps the most troubling aspect, when dealing with figures in a work, is whether or not to clothe them... most artists do not, as said, think in terms of the fact that whatever is included within a work is, by the fact that it is included, of fundamental importance... by the same token, what is NOT included is also making a statement of fundamental importance - the fact that it is not considered of major importance... clothing, even for an artist, is generally regarded as a norm... yet the fact that a naturalness - nudity - is being covered, is making a statement regarding one's relationship with the universe...as Rand pointed out, 'Art is not the means of literal transcription... this is the difference between a work of Art and a news story or a photograph.'... as such, what is shown in a work of Art pertains to one's fundamental view of a person's relationship to reality - which is why so many artists use the nude in their works, to establish the sense of universality, that what is shown pertains to all time... to a rational person, there is no problem - what is pro-human is to the good; what glorifies and/or accentuates human qualities is to the good [and a person's sexuality is very certainly a human quality] [and the first step towards showing that is portraying the naked figure]... the difficulty, then, lies in confronting the culture, which is, in many respects, in am anti-human viewing of one's self - thanks to the religions within it... because this has been the dominant - indeed, for most, the ONLY known code - there is difficulty in being able to mount a cognitive defense against it for most artists... even more confounding is being able to express sexuality of humans in a work - indeed, one would have less problems showing a bull mounting a cow than to humans lovemaking - and oddly enough, easier to show lovemaking than to showing explicit sexual arousal... in common parlance, this is called pornography - in fact, it is a religious attack on the sexual nature of human beings, and it is in knowing the nature and proper purpose of Art, and the rational ethics behind that purpose, that there can be a defense against this anti-human ranting...

Rite - 16

For the most part, the open ground and shoot are done... now, on with the rest of the snowy ground... then the rest of the trees...

Friday, February 13, 2009

Rite - 15

More additional work on the snow... and on the ground around the shoot...

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Rite - 14

And back to the snowy ground, along with the open bare ground around the figure - as well as beginning the shoot...

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Rite - 13


Back to more trees...

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Rite - 12


As said, am on the shadows of some of the trees... and am getting this very lightness by holding the pen, a Staedtler .05, against another finger which hits the board just before the pen does, thus letting the tip just barely touch, and a finer dot achieved...