Dots and Lines

This week we're looking at two class projects.

This first one is an illustration involving the use of "stippling" i.e. lots and lots of tiny dots when properly put together create an image. My instructor told that me when she was in art school she had a teacher who was very strict about stippling technique. She warned me that if I chose to go the stippling route for my illustration that she was going to be very picky.....and she was. I remember attempting this illustration at least five times, making improvements and understand the concept better as I went along. I ended up using 5 different pen tip sizes to create the effect. What started out as a tedious and somewhat stressful task, by the final version had become meditative and relaxing.

 

What we have next is a project where we took an ordinary house hold object, in this case my pocket knife, and were required to render it in four different ways: Realistic, High Contrast, Silhouette, and my personal favorite, Gestural. These are all pretty self-explanatory with the exception of the Gestural. The Gestural is done very quickly (under 15 seconds) with the idea being to capture the essentials of a given object using the least amount of lines. The Silhouette was made with cut paper.

 

                                                             My favorite pocket knife.

    Realistic

High Contrast

 

Silhouette

                                                                         Gestural

Intense Critters

This week we will look at a Color Theory class project from my first semester as an art major. The students were asked to choose from a number of color theory concepts, and then find an interesting way to demonstrate them. I went with "Intensity", which in this class was defined as "the shifting of one color to another, showing gradations in between". I think intensity is a poor term to describe the incremental changes that occur between one color and another, but I decided to play along anyway. I chose to use purple and yellow which are on complete opposite sides of the color wheel from each other. This would allow for the opportunity to show a substantial shift of color. I worked with acrylic paints because of familiarity, and ease of use.

This was a wide-open assignment with only a few parameters. So I took this opportunity to begin exploring that mysterious Third Dimension that I had heard so much about. In order to reinforce the idea of a visual color change, I wanted to also show a physical evolution of some kind. After a few sketches and prototypes I had a population of whimsical little "critters", that showed nine different points in the "evolution" from purple to yellow. The critters were molded out of a clay polymer that is then fixed, and hardened by baking in an oven. Then I mixed and made quite a few paint swatches where I worked out the color progression. Not an easy thing. Most of the transitional colors are muddy and unappealing but they are necessary to illustrate the concept. It took several coats of paint to get decent coverge on the critters.

The wooden base was originally going to look like a painter's palette, but I was cautioned against that as it was "too obvious".  So, I chose instead to make it an ambiguous organic shape, painted in a medium blue-gray.

I post certain things from this blog onto Pintrest, and I'm pleased that this particular project has been "re-pinned" a few times onto other people's art boards. I do indeed appreciate that kind of validation from complete strangers.

What Is It Then?

Its good to be back after having a few weeks off. I'm tanned, rested, and ready to bring you more of your beloved BuckToonz.  As an experiment for the summer, we're moving our weekly post day to Mondays. I think being able to view a freshly minted cartoon each Monday will be a nice way to start off the work week. If Mondays don't work for you, then just let me know. But it probably won't change anything.

My art courses are continuing to influence the concept and subject matter of my cartoons, and today's post is a good example. This post was inspired by something derived from one of my art history classes.

I once came across a definition that classified cartoons as, "Neo-Surrealist Art". That sounds kind of cool doesn't it? I may start using that term and begin introducing myself as a "Neo-Surrealist".  It sounds quite a bit grander than just "cartoonist", don't you think?

Moving on....

Today's neo-surrealist illustration is my homage (and perhaps my apology) to René Magritte, one of the greatest Surrealist painters of all time. An early painting by Magritte was titled "The Treachery of Images" and it features a (smoking) pipe. Just a pipe by itself in the middle of a canvas. The caption below it read, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe", which is French for "This is not a pipe." Right, it was not a pipe; but it was a painting of a pipe. Good old René was challenging our perceptions about art...or merely screwing around with us. Maybe both. You decide.

Want more? For yet another power tool punchline go here.

Email: buckdawson62@gmail.com Please put "BuckToonz" in the subject line.