|
Building Floating over Domed City
For the start of spring term of 2001 at the International Division, I discovered my time was better used listening to the lectures and keeping my eyes busy doodling. So I went to the Co-op store and bought a notebook of blank paper. The sheets were thick and the pen I bought to go with it nice and fat. This was the first page of that notebook. What I consider the first Superdoodle like the ones that follow. It still retains a bit of comical simplicity. Too bad parts of it have been smudged, but the beginnings of the random black and white imagery of whatever I fancy are there.
L'Aircraft Carrier
Originally I did not have titles for these drawings, but have decided to add them for the sake of this webpage. For this one I choose to plagiarize a joke from The Daily Show. It works. I was actually trying to draw surreal boxes when I moved onto a bubble. At some point I decided to draw an aircraft carrier. It does not look like a very good aircraft carrier, but that is the beauty of black and white drawing, you can draw over your mistakes. Hence the cracks/lightning/checkered pattern. Also, despite what others think, that is supposed to be the French flag hanging from the center of that arch thing, ala Arc De Triumph, but people seem to not see that.
Rolling Balls
Not much to say about this one. I made it in my performing arts class as the teacher talked about Kabuki. Or was it Bunraku? Anyway, it does sort of have a Yellow Submarine-esque feel to it. Plus, a fellow classmate gave it his seal of approval (cropped off in the scan).
Fuji, Image 1
I started this drawing while killing time on my first day of class for winter term of 2003. I intended to draw Mt. Fuji somehow, and somehow it became rather eerie looking. Kind of like a geological lava lamp. It took a whole cartage of ink in my fountain pen, as did most of the following drawings.
Fuji, Image 2
This is the image that started the series of Fuji pictures. After I made Image 1, I was going to sketch whatever caught my fancy. But after about ten of those comma-shaped things, I began to see the shape of Fuji, and an obsession began. Adding a moon to the image give it a definite sexual undertone. Whatever it may be, it is easily the most abstract of the images so far.
Fuji, Image 3
This is my attempt at illustrating a geology textbook. Actually anybody who knows geology would hardly consider this drawing educational, but it still has a very dynamic look to it, and relative symmetry, so it's all good.
Fuji, Image 4
Everyone says this is their favorite out of the five images I made in early January of 2003. It is also the one with the most ink. I used a fountain pen, a disposable Japanese calligraphy brush, a real Japanese calligraphy brush, and various inks like western calligraphy ink and watered-down Japanese calligraphy ink to get all the different tones. And I am still not satisfied. This is the only drawing of the first six that I used a reference. I looked at a map of Tokyo briefly to judge the shape of the peninsula and bay. The drawing isn't really to scale, and it is obvious how the stars were drawn. But on the grand scale it looks nice.
 Fuji, Image 5
This was made the same day as Image 4 and is the first of the Fuji images that does not show the entire mountain. I also like the web-like look to the landscape, but the fundamental problem is that with the angle that it is sketched and how wide Tokyo Bay is, Mt. Fuji would have to be five-times taller than it really is. That and I could not get Tokyo Bay the right tone.
Fuji, Image 6
Made in early March of 2003. It is an interesting concept with the Dutch angle and the comical look of it. But the dividing line between water and land is not as good as it could be, and the sun burst never looked quite right to me. Fuji, Image 7
Made this on April 4, 2003. I like the idea, but the execution worked better in my head. I used two source photos for this one. One was of a 747 that I took, and the other was of Fuji, that I took from a 747. There are several things I am not satisfied with in this sketch. First is that the mountain is too real looking while the rest of the picture is not. The shadow is too big on Fuji, and the com trail shadow doesn't bend too well, as well as Fuji's shadow being just not right. Plus the wavy look to the image is a problem with the scan.
Source photo of 747 Source photo of Mt. Fuji Fuji, Image 8
This is an attempt to improve off the angle and execution of Image 7. Here the clouds and the mountain are more uniform in style. Though I could stand to ink in the mountain more, and unfortunately, the clouds are tilted.
Fuji, Image 9
Feh, I can do better. Made in late August 2003 with a charcoal stick.
|
