Open publication - Free publishing - More drawings

Greetings. I have recently compiled much of my work into a magazine. It is officially known as The Doodle in print, but on the web, I have elected to title the web version Pencil People. I created the magazine through the use of Macintosh InDesign, a computer application that you may or may not have heard about. The magazine features many of my most recent pieces, as well as the stories behind many of my more obtuse pieces. Go ahead and give it a look.

Special Edition Post- Art Gallery Visit

This week, I visited the campus art gallery for my portfolio class, and on display were the works of one Debra Kayes.

I didn't really know much about Debra Kayes until I visited this gallery. Mrs. Kayes apparently works as an art and design teacher at Chicago's branch of Collumbia College and as an art major for MUZZLE Magazine. She also has a post-bachelor major Certificate for Graphic Design that she received in 2009, and a master's degree in fine arts, painting and sculpture.

I found the pieces she created to be fairly interesting. She describes the inspiration for her works as thus:

" I make use of simple organic forms to explore the ways in which creatures large and small group to gain safety in numbers. Layered and repeated elements allow individuals to act as one. Yet, through investigating patterning techniques like emergence, gang-mentality, and swarm theory, I have also found interest in the benefits of biodiversity, abnomaly, and metamorphosis. My approach intentionally forces me to be perceptive and open to change, with moments of hilarity, so I can discover modification and mutation, speaking to the fluid nature of groups quickly adapting based on local information." 

 Atlas of Men is mixed media , which would appear to be Mrs. Kayes' favorite method of creating art, comprised of wood and paint. I think what Kayes did with this piece was look at the cut of wood and see different, naturally-formed shapes as peoples' silhouettes, and colored them in.

 I believe that the idea that Kayes is trying to convey here is camouflage; how animals blend in with their surroundings. I believe that the title itself ties into this theme in that people often try to conform to some standard, much like how an animal uses camouflage.

 

Multiples in Part, I think, was rather interesting, being made from folded up tissue paper and printer paper to resemble a reef of various corals. I believe that the title of this piece refers to how structures of coral come in separate groups, but are all connected in a way.

See/ Sea seemed like a very inexplicable piece, being various painted wooden blocks arranged in piles about the room. I feel that this relates to animals' methods of safety in numbers in that animals in large groups will often scatter about so that it will make it harder for a predator to get them. The title, I believe, refers to how this method is practiced mostly by marine animals, such as fish, and it makes them difficult to find.

     This final piece, Account, I found to be the most interesting , being, at its core, a giant wall of paper hands that must have been exceedingly difficult to make them all exactly alike and arrange them as neatly as possible.  In short: it seems simple, yet complex.

         

     I believe that the theme of this piece is how large groups of similar-looking animals will come together as one to avoid being attacked by predators, who see them as bigger than they really are. The title alludes to importance and worth, which you would think a small creature would lack until a great number of them come together in a large group.

Week 12-11th Portfolio

For this week's assignment, I was tapped to create an image portraying a representation  of a common saying or expression taken literally.

The saying I have portrayed here was "Shooting fish in a barrel", with a shady-looking man pointing a gun, ready to fire, into the mouth of a barrel of fish down at the docks.

I created this piece with pencil and paper, and gave it color through the use of colored pencils. I elected to outline the man and the barrel with black pen to make it stand out against the background. I had numerous ideas about what saying I could adapt into a literal representation of it. I had pondered over "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse", "Mind your P's and Q's", "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth", and "Poor fish". That final idea triggered my decision to use the one that I went with. 

The first detail that should capture the viewer's attention should be the very essence of the gag. There's the gun, there's the barrel labeled "fish"; do the math. The next most noticeable detail in this piece, I think should be the man who's about to shoot the fish. The clothes that he's wearing, as well as his bald head, suggests that he lives a life of piracy. The striped shirt he wears is very similar to the ones worn by buccaneers in so many pirate stories. The final detail to be noticed is the setting. The darkened building off to the right and the discarded rope and bottle suggests that this is sort of the "bad part" of town. 

Week 11-10th Portfolio

I was assigned this week to create a piece that featured numbers in it, so I came up with this piece:

Multiplying...

   I created this, as usual with pencil and paper, and colored and outlined it with colored pencil. I came up with the image when I figured that the piece needn't be specifically about numbers, but just have numbers in it. When I think of numbers, I usually think of math. Thus, multiplying, which I worked into a visual pun: "multiplying like rabbits". However, as some of my peers suggested, I included some more rabbits in the background to have it make sense a bit more.

  What I have created here is a brown-furred, blue-eyed rabbit puzzling over a scoll with a near-impossible multiplication formula. He holds a pencil in one paw as question marks swirl about his long-eared head like flies on a summer day.

  What should be noticeable first in this piece should be, I think, the equation that the rabbit is working on. I did used a calculator to perform the equation and wrote down my calculations as I went along, for the sake of accuracy. The next thing to notice should be the expression on the hare's face, which suggest concern or befuddlement. While the viewer looks over these details,  they will probably notice the third element: the pun. Get it? Multiplying like rabbits? Tee-hee-hee.

Week 10- 9th Portfolio

     A very scary Halloween to all! This week, I was assigned to create a piece to dedicate to someone, be he living or dead. I chose to dedicate mine to William Gaines, creator of such comic book series as Tales From the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear. He was also the original publisher of one of my all-time favorite magazines, MAD.

Tales From the Vault of Fear
I created this piece in my usual method of pencil and paper, as well as adding a splash of color to it, which was done with colored pencils. I had originally intended it to dedicate it to a student I saw present his works. He displayed a series of book covers he had created, which really captured my interest, especially his treatment of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Inspired, I did a quick sketch of a book cover of my own, depicting Robert Louis Stephenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.However, when I learned that the piece could be dedicated to anyone, I decided to dedicate it to the crowned prince of horror, Vincent Price. But, considering that I drew much inspiration from the Tales From the Crypt comics, I decided to pay tribute to Mr. Gaines.

What I have drawn here is a ghoulish little man who would no doubt feel right at home in the Cryptkeeper's crypt, or the Old Witch's lair. A vampire bat dangles from his extended finger, and a raven is perched on the corroding dagger lodged in our creepy friend's skull. As a noose dangles around his neck, he holds a leaking beaker of frothing, sizzling poison that leaves boiling puddles on the ground.

I think the first major detail that viewers of this piece should take notice of  should be this spooky gent's eyes. One of the is stitched shut, while the other has a pair of unnaturally- wide lids, the lower of which dangling past his mouth. The second thing to notice should be his otherworldly skin tone  a pale yellow that suggests the quality and texture of moldy cheese. The final thing to notice should be his hunched-over posture, which makes him look a bit on the loony side, as if you haven't probably already guessed.

Week 9-8th Portfolio

      This week, I was tapped to create a drawing that was inspired by a work I saw at the Art Institute. I what I created was inspired by Exquisite Corpse, a collaborative piece created in 1928 by Yves Tanguy, Man Ray, Max Morise, and Andre Brenton:

Exquisite Corpse, 1928 

Mating Call

   I created this piece with pencil and paper, and used colored pencil and marker I obtain a similar style to the piece it is based on. I have taken it upon myself color my works, since I used color in my previous two pieces, which were received well my my instructor and colleagues.

     What is depicted here is a bizarre creature constructed of various musical instruments (his feet are bulb horns, which was mistakenly cut out of the image) calling out to its mate in a most unusual fashion. There really isn't any point to this work other than to be surreal for the sake of being surreal,which, admittedly, could also be said for most of my other works.

   The first thing that should be noticed when viewing this piece are the various instrument parts sticking out of the creature's anatomy: the bagpipes tubes and cymbal sticking out of its head; a concertina and a clarinet for arms; a tambourine on the tip of its tail; and a drum for its body. The second most noticeable detail should be the way the musical notes flying out of the creature's mouth appear all crooked, which suggest a few sour notes, much like how the mating call of a moose sounds.
The final most noticeable detail would be the appearance of the horn coming out of the creature's mouth, which I drew as such to provide a similarity to Exquisite Corpse. 

Week 8- Seventh Portfolio

For this week, I was assigned to create a piece of art that included blue in it. In response, and in regards to the Halloween season, I crafted this:

Blue Boo

      I created this drawing with pencil, as usual, and I made it blue with the use of markers and colored pencils. For this work, I drew inspiration from the artwork of Disney Imagineers Mark Davis and  Claude Coats for Disneyland's famed Haunted Mansion attraction. I had originally envisioned drawing a a corpse, frozen blue in a block of ice, but I soon came to the conclusion that that would be too gruesome. 
    
     What is essentially drawn here is a blue free-floating apparition dressed in his Friday (the 13th that is!) best: a ragged old sport coat and a patched bowler. He clutches a suitcase in one ectoplasmic hand, and a rusty old candelabrum in the other as he makes his way on his haunting spree.

    I think that the most noticeable detail in this artwork is that the candelabrum is colored differently than the rest of the ghost, which indicates that it is the only "corporal" object in this piece.  
 the wax dripping from the candles, and the flames billowing outward. This would indicate a sense of rapid momentum. The second most noticeable thing should be the condition of the phantom's clothes, which suggests that he was a hobo in a previous life, which should be implied also by the spirit's suitcase. The final most noticeable detail would be the wax dripping from the candles, and the flames billowing outward. This would indicate a sense of rapid momentum.