Briefly before visiting Athens, Georgia I started a lil’ drawing project of my own. The purpose is to generate in a relatively rapid amount of time- hundreds of drawings. Upon coming back I’ve worked a little on it each day but kinda lost some steam. Hopefully I’ll finish this up soon.
When ya set out to draw that much, it can be intimidating. So I decided to take it bit by bit. It can be difficult to try imagining and constructing hundreds of environments and interesting images. You’ll drive yourself insane doing the same thing over and over hundreds of times. Therefore, this kinda forces you to step out of your comfort zone and make images you wouldn’t immediately think of doing.
The system I set up for myself was this. . . Draw 10 images on some archival typing paper with regular ol’ graphite pencil. Spending real little time on them, 1-3 minutes pretty much. Then I take each of those drawings and use that as a starting point for 10 additional drawings. These drawings are also not very detailed and not much time spent there either. The main point is to limit yourself to one image then try re-imagining it. Would ya use different characters, a different perspective, different line qualities, a different approach to the same basic action occurring within the image. And then, with these 10 per 10 [or 100 drawings] I then draw 3 more images based upon each one [300]. These three I’ve spent more time on, but still, when using small and cheap paper such as this the images don’t seem super finished or special- so they’re still pretty loose. I’ve done the first 10, the first 100, and about 60 or so of the 300. I think I’m now getting to an interesting point with the 3 drawings. I’ve been testing a variety of tools and techniques for the 3. Lots of ink washes of varying colors, then trying images with a limited palette, micron pens, and watercolor pencils.
one of the original ten drawings. diving.
one of the subsequent ten based off the above. variation 1 of the dive.
another variation of the dive.
third/10 variation of the dive.
one of the subsequent three drawings based off the first variation of dive.
2/3
3/3
1/3
2/3
3/3
1/3
2/3
3/3
These are the earliest ones I made. They’re pretty similar and not really too interesting. Just some basic variations of representations of water, and tools used to make the drawing. The later ones get more interesting. But who would want to scan hundreds of drawings in one night and post them all at once.
Maybe some etchings or larger works will come from these. One thing that will come which is a main reason, is the adoption of new personal visual rhetoric. After drawing stuff so many times you start to take a level of posession over it. I should become pretty confident with working out pool-side or water imagery. But more than that- in the later ones to reject what I initially did with these drawings, which was rely upon my figurative drawing skills, i explored more and experimented more with plants, backgrounds, design, color, mark making tools, and more. These fresh new ideas will carry into the art I make after this so I will have a greater library of knowledge and imagery to work with subconciously since almost the entirety of my work is made without visual references and purely imaginary.
