A review of my art-making history
Knowing When and How to Use the Right Tools
I’m beginning to understand the importance of using the right tools for the job at hand. This is one of those lessons based on common sense, yet, I am the first to admit that I am sometimes lacking in this (common sense, not lessons).
Reviewing my history in art-making may help me to understand my own bias with the tools that I use and how this may hinder my current progress. This is not judgement on my part, but a genuine desire to interpret truthfully on paper what I observe.
Experience and practice should inform decisions to pick up a tool over another, but sometimes, mere habit creates this decision, resulting in a mis-interpretation of the observed.
College and the Charcoal and Conte Crayon Years
When I took my first drawing class in college many years ago, I fell in love with charcoal and conte pencils. I loved being able to smudge and move values around with an eraser, my fingers, the palm of my hand, and whatever happened to be available in my artbin. The whole process was quite messy, and often, I ended up with dark drawings.
I loved drawing in this manner, and quite enjoyed playing with dark and light values. I once sat in a bathroom stall which had black marble walls just so I could draw my reflection against a dark surface. An example of the kind of fun I had with charcoal, dark & light values, and black paper is a self-portrait I created in 1993 called “Mask”.
Journals & the Ball-point Pen Years
As I began to draw more, I became more pragmatic about my tools. It was difficult to trek around the subways of New York City with big pads of charcoal paper and my conte pencils. So, I carried my journal and my handy ball-point pen and drew whoever I could as quickly as I could. This still resulted in messy drawings, with the quality of my lines behaving more like heavy charcoal marks. I’ve included some examples from drawings of NYC’s homeless (above).
The Santa Fe Etching Club Years & Printmaking
I also created etchings as though I were using charcoal. Any experienced etcher/printmaker can appreciate the quality of line and tonal value in printmaking. My prints did not have much of that line quality and rarely exhibited the crosshatching marks of a master printmaker/etcher — I did not create Rembrandt-like etchings (though Rembrandt is one of my all-time favorite printmakers. Seeing his original prints in his studio in Amsterdam was one of my highlights this past summer.) Here’s yet another example to illustrate what I’m writing about. Pictured is an etching called “Flight” ca. 1995 (right).
The Road Map From Here
My drawings and etchings remained consistent in look, feel, and style throughout the 90s. The examples above are good illustrations of what I am referring to.
I stopped consistently drawing in 2000, when I arrived in California. This post won’t discuss the reasons why. Suffice it to say that I am ready to pick up where I left off, though technically, that is not what really occurs.
I did not pick up where I left off. I am many steps back, but I am making the steps nonetheless. Taking the class at the community college was one of the best decisions I’ve made this year. The next challenge is to make more time to draw on a daily basis.
My next post will examine what I am currently trying to achieve in my life-drawing class. This involves using tools properly and knowing when to use them.
