A Resolution
Sometimes it takes something terrible to make you realize that you are squandering your creative potential. Sometimes dark and horrific things happen, and they terrify you to the point that there is no excuse to hold back the light, because it could be snuffed out at any minute.
My resolution this year is to be comfortable spending more than one day on a project. Normally I worry that if I leave a project unfinished the final result will be different. And it’s true if I come back to a project on a different day it’s almost like a totally different person from the one who started the project is guessing at what the original artist was trying to do. Some days I am much less inhibited by my inspiration and I’ll draw listlessly and make tons of mistakes in the process of experimentation.
The Drawing
This drawing was inspired originally by a design element on the handle of my grandmothers family silver, and a suggestion my brother made that the devils tower in Wyoming looks like a tree stump. On the handles of the steak knives there are two motifs one is of oak leaves and the other mistletoe. This heirloom came from Germany where these plants held cultural significance.
The fine lines were drawn with a Pilot Metropolitan in Noodler’s Black Eel. The thick lines were drawn with a Chinese pen I’m pretty sure is meant for calligraphy. It has a felt tip and I will be using it more. I would have more information about it but all the literature it came with was in Asian languages. The color was done in water colors.
I definitely made mistakes in this project beginning with the composition. I enjoy how the base of the stump portrays the Mesa type taper toward the ground. However I drew no branches on the facing surface which I would change if I had the chance. The phillotaxis of the leaves being based on an ornamental motif has little variety. Where an oaks leaves takes on a variety of morphologies over its life span. The paint is a bit blotchy some areas are super saturated and others are very pale, and it comes across poorly in the scan.