"Vaulting"

The sketch is just a guide... it a viewing of several little oasi, pits in the rocks wherein vegetation has taken hold, and show a sort of progression from isolated one on left to several on right... that is the idea anyway... is on 32"x40" foamboard [acid free of course]

Publish Post

"Runaway" - Finished

With a final layering, of black cherry, it is finished...

"Runaway" - 6

The next layering is dark green...

"Runaway" - 5

The second layering of the back ground is tuscan red...

"Runaway" - 4

Using Verithin canary yellow to line the shelf edge, and Prisma canary yellow for the rest, then added mineral orange, chocolate on the ring markings, yellow ochre, tuscan red, sepia, and Verithin dark brown over the ring marks again... then blendered...

"Runaway" - 3

Turning to the cherries, used crimson lake, scarlet lake, crimson red, tuscan red, with Polychromos white for the highlight... the bowl - used peach beige, chocolate, sepia, tuscan red, dark brown, and chestnut, again with Poly white for the highlight...

"Runaway" - 2

The grisaille is done in Prismacolor ultramarine blue on Stonehenge paper... the size is 8"x20"...

"Runaway"

It seems that, for now, my inner being seeks showing various still life visualizations - so am doing another variation on my 'bowl of cherries' motif, this time showing a smaller bowl filled, and a lone cherry way over on the right... again it will be colored pencil, tho the size is yet to be determined, even as it will likely remain the 20"x30" or even the 10"x20"... in any case, will try to concentrate more on the detail of the simple objects, even as they all come from my imagination...

"Rite of Spring" - 22

And with these, am again setting this aside for a time, to get involved in rendering more still life, and a landscape or two... this was done primarily for personal enjoyment anyway, as well as an exercise in seeing how extensive I can get stippling on such a scale [and which will eventually have all the board covered]...

"Rite of Spring" - 21

Am down to the last four tree trunks...

"Respite" - Finished

"Respite" - 6

Added another layer of yellow ochre to the wall, along with tuscan red and light sepia [Polychromos], and is seen, of course, as well within the vase bowl... then shading with indigo blue on the florals, vase bowl, bowl, cup, and shelf... then beginning using the blender, as seen in a partial on the vase bowl, showing the difference...

"Respite" - 5

Turning to the vase bowl, used blue slate and true blue... and yellow ochre for the background wall... and added jade green and light aqua to the cup...there needs be another layering of the wall to match the layers within the bowl, then other colors will be added... and the chopsticks need now be defined crisply... oh yes, and white was added for the reflections on the bowl...

"Respite" - 4

Turning to the shelf, first used Verithin dark brown to lay in the grain, then layered light umber, sand, tuscan red, dark brown, indigo blue, and another layering of dark brown, using the sharp edge to go over the lemon yellow lining the top of the shelf...

"Respite" - 3

And the rest of the lilies is done...

"Respite" - 2

Did work on the top calla lily, and leaf... lined the vase bowl with periwinkle as it, tho clear, will be blue tinted....

"Respite" - WIP

Using colored pencil, on 9"x12" Stonehenge paper, am imagining a bowl w/chopsticks, cup, and water ikebani of calla lilies... the bowl is mostly done, but much remains on the rest - and, of course, the shelf and background have yet to commence...

The Moral View and Sense of Life

One of the things am coming to see, for the time being, is a need within me to doing more still-life renderings - not the usual flushed with loads of objects kind, but as have been at times doing, simple yet discrete objects all pertaining to specific themes, and all the themes of course being as aid to life enhancement, to the increase in grasping metaphoric relationships which broaden the awareness of how affirming to life many of the objects are taken to be without given conscious consideration... for the time being, this will mean smaller works, yet each a soothing and uplifting moment in the sense of life of being rewarded for the inherent goodness of being human and striving to utilize as much as possible that most human attribute - the reasoning mind... this is not to say am abandoning "Rite of Spring" - it'll continue, tho perhaps at a slower pace, partially because it is almost done, and it is a private rendering not likely for now to be able to be shown in exhibits... nor is it to say "Vaulting", the next landscape being readied to render, will be put off... merely that there will be moments of shifting in thought, relaxing moments, in which will do these small [9"x12"] renderings, then be back at the larger rendering...

Rite - 20

Closing in on the trees, having now only 9 left to render out of over 60 some - which is why this has taken a wee longer to do, not in terms of hours on it so much as the on/off given to the stippling and the pain in my hand in so doing this... but - is is at last really beginning to look like a pen/ink painting, and there is again an increase in excitement at its progression...

Moral Statements and rendering - Reviewed

From August '04...

It is my impression that those who claim that one cannot show much if anything of morals in a rendering, say such because they do not have a clear understanding of just what constitutes moral statements, other than thru literature... it is very instructive, therefore, to remember that ethics or morals is the science of VALUES... i know i've said this more than once, but it bears repeating - because most persons have a confused understanding of just morals or ethics consists of... VALUES are what a person seeks to gain and/or keep... they are acquired thru choices... but the only values really worth seeking are VIABLE values... when i gave that list of alternative things to look for in assessing a rendering, those were value expressions, and the answering of which of the alternatives expresses the morals involved - and these are indeed applicable to ANY rendering, including still-lifes... in fact, historically, still-lifes were the most profoundly expressed renderings involving morals, wherein the symbolisms were often very blatent, even if the morals expressed were factually anti-human - that is, not in the best interest or well-being of the person... there's more to this of course [there's ALWAYS more], but the point which should be kept in mind is to consider everything in terms of VALUES - what is chosen to be put in or left out, where, how big or little, how clear or obstuse, and so on... once there is the understanding that the moral or ethical is the viable values chosen, then it becomes clear where and how to see the expressings in the renderings...

Figurelessness in Rendering - from earlier times of '04...

A second major aspect to rendering is when figures are NOT used, at least directly, but rather the effects of humanity are portrayed - either as still life, or as part of scapes [landscapes, seascapes, spacescapes, and so forth]... it is only when no figures or human effects are used that there can become a problem... this is because this absence of humanity is making a value-judgment, an expression of a fundamental view of humanity that says that humanity is not considered important enough to be in a landscape, etc., or that his/her presence is not considered to be a natural part of the world... this is, of course, a profoundly anti-human notion - even if it is not given thought to as being as such, or not intended as such... once again, however, knowing the nature and proper purpose of Art, and the rational ethics behind the purpose, allows that there can be a defense against it... yet - even as landscape, a case can be made on the 'benevolent universe' premise, thru the use of metaphoric personification... this has to do with the fact that 'man is the measure of all things' - in the nature of acquiring knowledge, and this is because measurement is an anthropocentric [man centered] process... the concretes, the specific images which a person directly grasps, are the basis and the standard to which everything else is related... if you add to that, that 'Art is not the means to literal transcription', and recognise that there is little need, if any, for rendering in a recorder mode, then thru personification there can be a pro-human stance given utilizing the non-human in the rendering...

Rite - 19

For now, the figure and trees shadows are done, and am back to finishing the trees... then will go and finish the snowy grounds...

Rite - 18

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

Rite - 17

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

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...

Rite - 15

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

Rite - 14

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

Rite - 13

Back to more trees...

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...

Rite - 11

Tho there are more tree trunks yet to do [they run from the third from the left to the end of the board, plus a couple more singles on the left], am going to turn to doing some of the snowy ground, working out from the base of some of the trunks, up to near the Mother Earth figure, where bare ground will be... then will return to finish the trunks...

Rite - 10

Rite - 9

In addition to the trunks, have begin secondary stippling of the figure - here seen in the face and neck and upper right arm and breast...

Rite... 8

Slowly working my way across the forest...

Rite - 7

As said, am now in the process of foresting the background...

Rite - 6

This is how it looks on the full board... and the close-up shows the two step means of doing the trunks - first getting the major details and shading, then going over with a fine stipple to tone the rest...

Rite - 5

Now that the head has been done, the trees commence... there is more refinement to do, but it will wait until all the rest is in... note that this version of the figure has her in orgasmic mode, which is the rite - the means of fertilizing Spring... this will be more apparent when the wet bare ground and shoot is rendered...

Rite - 4

Almost done with the figure - just the head to do... refinement will come later, when the trees and snow are laid in... as one might notice in this WIP, this figure is not just a nude, but a naked woman - that is, her sexuality is very present... properly, this is as it should always be, for such is how humans are born, naked and it is our naturalness which as humans we should proudly carry thru our lives - and if to some this is somehow a so-called obscenity, those are the ones who suffer moral degeneracy, not just in their [bottom line here] hatred of the human, but in their gall of seeking to force that to others... this is not a light matter - it has already been claimed against "First the Sand...", where the hairy pubes of the woman bent over making sand castles are clearly shown [tho no more so than any other part of her body in such a position]... for sure, tho, I will not let dog mentality dictate my art....

Rite - 3

A wee more done... stippling is slow in that there needs for me many breaks - the hand aches easily, and the eyes cease to focus after a time [tho looking away a bit helps in that]...

Rite... 2

Been a wee slow with the rendering, this being the xmas season and much business elsewhere, but some work has begun on the actual rendering... the Staedtler pens make much finer stippling than the Microns, so is better, tho slower... as is noted, I render not just nudes, but naked, as that is how humans are, and I glory in their full natural sexual/sensual beauty... those who are offended by such are, as such, anti-human and to the extend those chose to seek curtailment of showing the full naturalness - they are immoral... also, to be expected, this is not the usual view of 'mother nature', tho it certainly does justice to the rite of spring motif...

"Rite of Spring"

Have decided to begin showing works in progress, as much to keep aesthetic matters more at hand as to enliven this blog, allowing more focus on issues where needed to be seen... this hs the preliminary sketch... originally it was to be a large rendering, on the order of 48"x96", but events of one kind or another have caused it to be reconsidered such that now it is to be done on a 32"x40" scale... all in stipple, with the shoot being in color... the original idea was to have the figure colored, too - chocolate - and indeed it may end up as an overlayering when the work is otherwise done... only the figure, btw, has been transferred to the board - the trees here will just be as guides, and this whole section here will comprise the upper right of the board, with the fore trees forming a line leftward to the edge... and a distant cityscape will be seen behind this, with a snow ledge between them...