Blast from the past

This piece is the last of the series of geometric colored pencil pieces. Not a good picture and there's a lot that could be better about it but I do like the design and the colors.

colored pencil

9x9in

Blast from the past

I like this design a lot, also the colors. I really like the circles and squares and the way they interact together. I probably will do more versions of this again in the future. That's something that I love about geometric designs, they're incredibly versatile.
 Also can we take a moment to acknowledge just how far I've come in photographing my work?

colored pencil

9x9in

2007/8?

Blast from the past

I think this piece is from when I first learned how to draw a star with geometry/compass and straight edge. I like stars but they're hard to draw. In first grade I couldn't draw a star very well, I hadn't learned the trick for drawing them and so a friend who was Jewish taught me how to draw a six sided star or Star of David, it was easier, just two triangles overlapping and going the opposite direction. Humorously I think I probably made a Christmas tree with a Star of David on top. Anyway eventually  I did learn the trick for drawing stars, but I loved being able to draw a perfect, or near perfect star. I also loved the idea that I could draw another star inside that star. This piece resulted I guess. Also blue and yellow are some of my favorite colors so I chose them for this piece. I love prismacolor's Copehagen Blue, which is what this color is, my copenhagen blue is probably the shortest of all my colored pencils.

colored pencil

9x9in

2007/8?

Blast from the past

 colored pencil

9x9in

I like the colors and the simplicity of the design of this piece. I love sacred geometry and all it's possibilities.

Blast From the Past

This piece is from some of my first forays into sacred geometry. At this point in time I used colored pencil a lot, I don't so much any more. I do really like the color choices on this piece though. I don't remember why but I decided to tear it down to the size seen, not the best idea that I have ever had.

colored pencil

2007/8?

patterns unlocked

I have been wanting to use this pattern for a long time but I haven't been able to figure out how the pattern works. On Wednesday I came across a picture on the website for The Prince's School of Traditional Arts. Which gave me a starting point for figuring the pattern out. This was my first attempt after looking at the picture.

It was not a great attempt, but after looking at it more closely I was able to replicate the first piece of the tessellation (is there a term for that?).

After making the beginning of the pattern I had a hard time figuring out how to make it tessellate, short of cutting it out and using a pattern. There's a lot of extra lines and circles in the picture above from failed attempts.

After more trial and error I seemed to be on the right track, except that my page was too small.

On the bigger sheet I was able to make the pattern work! In this post it doesn't seem so exciting but it's been very exciting for me to finally have figured this out.

Tip: patterns like this have a lot riding on accuracy and so I use the attachment on my compass that lets me use a mechanical pencil so that the lines are small and accurate.

Let me know if you'd like more info on how to draw this pattern.

Sacred Geometry: A Primer

Sacred Geometry tip: making complex designs can get confusing. Example:

Hard to tell what it is I'm going for with that and to get lost in all the lines.

In this one I was working on the same pattern/design but with the colored pencil I was able to separate elements of the design.

I was really excited to have figured out a good way to incorporate the pattern I've been working with into a finished piece. I got the nudge in the right direction through this piece by Whitney Johnson. Here's the piece.

untitled

prismacolor and graphite on illustration board
2011

detail

Here's a sneak peak at a new piece. It's graphite and prismacolor.

Here is the almost finished product of the circle pattern study, quite a change from it's beginnings.

So a while ago I started drawing and with one thing and another I just now finished it. As I was drawing I was reminded that one, it's really better to draw with one source of northern light rather than one or two sources of southern light, northern light is more consistent; and two, that it's better to do these sort of drawings from life in one go if at all possible because then you don't have to try to replicate the set up that you formerly had.

detail

The study continues. I decided to take another shot at what I started out to do when I ended up with this. When I got the final product, I didn't really care for it as much as I had thought I would and so I decided to add some color. I don't have pictures yet of the colored final product but is interesting to really pay attention to how various elements will effect a piece.

I really like the pattern of four circles overlapping one, but it is very different visually when the sections are filled in. With sections filled in the pattern is bold and graphic it's different and it's not really what I'm looking for but that's what what a study's all about I suppose. It was interesting to see the difference in it when I made the background green, also, note to self: pay attention to how the pattern lays out, and whether there's half the design hanging off. On the plus side of this study, I've been wanting to use color for a while but not to paint, which led to the use of prismacolor pencils and I do like the jewel tone colors. I apologize for the blurry photo below, I would love to be a great photographer but I am not there yet.



I went through most of my time studying art not having any one clear definition of art, this may seem strange, I'm sure that in almost any other branch of study the course of study would and could be clearly defined but to ask the definition of art, even or perhaps especially in an academic environment is likely to produce a heated debate because just about everyone in the room has their own opinion and most of them do not match up. I have adopted a definition offered me by my mentor, who was reluctant to offer it, I think it was one of my last years of school that he named it: art is craftsmanship plus inspiration. I feel good about getting behind such a definition, I don't really care for the phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" taste may be in the eye of the beholder but whether one loves something or not does not change it's beauty. An example, both farm land and red rocks can be beautiful sights to behold, after driving through either for long periods of time I'm not crazy about either but that doesn't change the beauty that's there. I'm not crazy about tapestries or needle point but there is, or at least can be, real craftsman(woman)ship involved in making them. Right now my work, by the above definition is not art, it could be craftsmanship or in some cases, as the piece photographed, not even craftsmanship. Not every piece I make has to be art, but I hope that as I progress I will make fewer pieces that are craftsmanship or less. I'm starting out and even prodigies (not that I am or was one) must progress or they go backwards. Some things to think about for me and anyone who reads.