I've been switching off days lately of drawing and painting, and I've also started using micron pen for my drawings rather than pencil. It's been a good change for me a stretch if you will, When I draw I rely on shading but with the pen and ink it's always the same shade and so I have to figure out different ways to accomplish the same goal. It's a good challenge for me, gets me out of my comfort zone. I've been liking the results so far.

Piece of the Week

I've been trying to keep the piece of the week more recent pieces but today's piece of the week is from a few years ago, but I only recently was able to take a decent picture of it.

Joachim and Boaz
watercolor and pen and ink
9x9in
2010
Series: Choices

This piece is called Joachim and Boaz, the names of two columns/pillars that I believe were in/at Solomon's temple. I believe that pillars/columns as the above, can be symbolic for a transition, moving from one thing/place/etc. to another.
Update, so after I wrote this post, I went to Wulf's exhibit at the Springville Muesum of Art I noticed this painting of a similar title.

This is what the little card by it had to say about Joachim and Boaz.

Blast from the past

I found some pieces from my 7th grade art class. It's a little sad how great I thought these were, it is good to know that I've come a long way though. It makes me curious, my masterpiece from that class got lost or I forgot to pick it up or something, anyway, I don't have it any more.

I thought this was really cool at the time.

This one was always bad, proof that good tools really do make a difference, also not being in 7th grade can also help.

Another masterpiece, for a while I was super into cubism.

 

Be on the look out for more blasts from the past.

Piece of the Week

Ancient Bees

micron pen and ink
2011
11x11in
Series: The importance of Bees

In researching for this series I was intrigued by the many different ways that bees have been portrayed in art in the past.

Tools of the Trade

Pens and nibs, I don't use them much but they can offer a wide range of line qualities, also mine are dirty...

Piece of the Week

This piece is about all the work that goes into making honey. I don't think we generally think about how much effort it takes bees to make just a little bit of honey. I'm always in awe of honey bees and their organization and drive to work and keep their hive alive, the fly to flowers in a couple of mile range, and keep in mind how much further a mile is for a bee. They're remarkable.

The Price of Honey

micron pen and ink

11x11in

2011

Series: The Importance of Bees

$150

Piece of the week

The summer after I graduated, I started my first series on bees. I researched bees and was blown away by the amazing creatures that honey bees are, I'm not the only one either, through out history people have enjoyed bees' honey and marveled at the remarkable little creatures that they are.
The series I created was only the second or third time I'd attempted to create a series, a body of pieces that work and build together. The series wasn't very great as a series with mostly watercolors and a few pen and ink pieces, and ideas that were loosely connected by the theme of "Bees" but some of the individual pieces turned out pretty cool.

pen and ink
2009
Series: Bees
9x9in
photo by David Hawkinson

Ps something new will hopefully be coming to the blog this week!

Piece of the Week

Spring is here, flowers are blooming and bees are out and about. As I worked on The Importance of Bees last year I was fascinated and amazed by what I learned about honey bees, honey bees have played a significant role in symbolism over the centuries and justifiably so, they are remarkable creatures. I was inspired by the way that honey bees interact with one another and keep their hive running, a seemingly ideal society of sisters.

Brotherhood and Sisterhood
micron pen and ink
11x11in
2011
Series: The Importance of Bees

Tools of the Trade

In high school I didn't really appreciate too much about my art supplies, I used whatever I had or needed. In my first high school art class we were assigned to do a study off of a drawing/etching/engraving by Albrecht Durer. I worked very hard on the piece and was pleased by the way it turned out. I used three different pens, something you could tell on close inspection. When I took the piece home I proudly displayed it in my room, and then one day some water flooded through the ceiling in my bedroom and among other things, my drawing was ruined. That year for Christmas my parents, who felt bad about what happened, got me a set of micron pens that were waterproof.
Since that time that's pretty much all I've used for my pen and ink needs art wise. They're good pens, come in different tip sizes and they've lasted fairly well. They also claim to be archival although I don't know how accurate that claim it, for now I'm taking them at their word.
I use 05, 03, and 01. The only problem is that they're not great for major shaded areas but I suppose I really should be using something else for major shading anyway.

Piece of the Week

In honor of the crocus coming up, to get snowed on as usual, here's this week's piece of the week.

Awakening
micron pen and ink
2011
11x11
Series: The Importance of Bees

Piece of the Week

This piece is from a series I worked on last year called The Importance of Bees. The series was focused on honey bees and the role they play in symbolism and folk lore. This piece features the Thriae, bee women from Greek mythology who were protectors of Zeus as a child I believe, but I'd have to go back and check my research and notes to be certian. PS the borders aren't really crooked, that's just how it worked out with my poor skills as a photographer and editor.

Thriae
Micron Pen and Ink
11x11in
2011
Series: The Importance of Bees

Piece of the Week

Here we go for the second round of piece of the week. This piece has been shown on this blog before but it's been a while. It's part of a series I did a few years back called Bees, which was about honey bees.
Having a favorite piece of art is akin to having a favorite child but I really do love the way this piece turned out.

Direction
watercolor covered by transparent paper with pen and ink
2009
9x9 in
Series: Bees
photo by David Hawkinson

I haven't been good about blogging but I'm still plugging away at my bee series. It's a little exciting and amazing how much I've learned about honey bees as I've been researching. I dream of having my own hives someday. Failing that I want to plant flowers that bees like to help out the bees that are around. Here's one of the pieces in the series.

Brotherhood and Sisterhood
11x11in
pen and ink
Series: The Importance of Bees

Sometimes I really wish that I could create pieces just like Wulf, or like some of my class mates, or Durer or da Vinci, the list goes on. I can emulate their work, I can be inspired by their work and get ideas from it, but I am not any of them and so my work can't be theirs. I've had feelings like these for ages, in elementary school art projects, when writing essays or stories, etc. All I can do is the best I can with what I've got and who knows, maybe there's somebody out there wishing they could do things the way I do them, maybe not. It's interesting to think about things like that though.

To make up for the recent lack of posts and pictures, here's another piece from The Importance of Bees, enjoy.

Divine Tears
Micron Pen and Ink
2011
11inX11in
Series: The Importance of Bees

I haven't posted for a long time, I've been very busy working on an application to have a solo show, I'll tell more about that when I know more. It's been a real learning experience for me. Even if I don't end up getting the show, I've already gotten a lot out of this. One thing that I learned adamantly is that if you can afford to have pictures of your work taken by a professional, it's well worth the money rather then spending hours yourself trying to get good images and then cropping them etc.
I mentioned earlier that I was continuing the series on Bees, but it's turned out to be a new series on bees rather than a continuation. There new series is called The Importance of Bees, by the way if you get the chance to learn more about bees you should do it, they are fascinating. Here is a piece from the new series.

Passing It On
micron pen and ink
2011
11inX11in
Series: The Importance of Bees

Pattern Study

I've decided to study patterns, I am very interested in many patterns and want to understand them better and incorporate them in my work. Think Josef Albers and his squares, that sort of thing. Here's my first study piece.

This piece is from the Choices series. The image on the overlay is the plot Joseph Smith drew for the city of Zion which was never actually built.
Interestingly this plan is quite similar to a plan for an ideal city that Albrecht Durer drew.

Planning Zion
Watercolor and pen and ink
9X9in.
2010
Series: Choices

This piece was inspired in part by this essay by Hugh Nibley and the thought that perhaps the sexes were in the best equality in more rural times when both the husband and the wife worked at home both in the house and in the fields and with more evenly distributed time with children.

United
Watercolor and pen and ink
9X9in.
2009
Series: Rose Windows

When I researched bees I found the suggestion that a swarm of bees was more like an individual with the bees being the cells, very thought provoking. In this piece I drew all the components of the swarm: the queen, drones, and workers. The bees all make up the swarm or the hive and in a way it's like a puzzle, all the pieces are needed to make up the whole.

The Swarm
Watercolor and Pen and Ink
9X9in
2009
Series: Bees

In a bee hive worker bees keep everything going, they do just about everything. I read that some people think of a hive or a swarm of bees as an entity; like we are made up of various cells and organs, a swarm or hive is made up of bees. I was thinking of portraiture and how the people in them are usually important or at least like to think themselves so. The worker bees are very important to the hive and individual people are very important to their families or fiends, community, etc.

Bee Portrait
Pen and Ink
9X9in.
2009
Series: Bees