Doodle of the Day - The Tormented Artist Cliche

somewhere in los angeles among the mix of actors, stereotypes, and expectations, there are creatives who think they need to play the role of crazy tormented artist in order to succeed. i suppose if you can play the part and mold yourself into that perfect cliche, people might follow to embrace you as an artist. but for the rest of us normal-looking folks, we're just tormented. lol.  

i don't mean that we talk to little birds on our shoulders that only we can see, or that we cut our ears off and mail them to past lovers -- i mean tormented in that we are consumed by creation and destruction. put aside common money sob stories or substance abuse which may apply to people in any profession. art is not a "fun" pastime; it is a person projecting his anger, frustration, compassion, and love.

artists ponder their creations everyday, even during mundane daily tasks. they think about the next steps to take in the current pieces they're working on. they contemplate destroying their work. they struggle with insecurities about whether they have any talent at all. they question what the heck is the point of creating art anyway. they fight their feelings when the feelings disrupt the flow of a piece. or they barf up their emotions in the form of scribbles in their sketchbooks.

tormented in that sense.

i suppose a lot of my recent work isn't quite the eye-pleasing decoration that people like to put on their walls. fuck it. if i wanted to decorate i'd be a party planner.

Artistic Study -- Honing Skills Through Portraiture

My friend Abigail was nice enough to sit for half an hour to allow me to quickly sketch her portrait. This is what was created in that time limitation.

Even though my current direction in painting is in the realm of abstraction, it remains necessary to know how to draw! This includes drawing from life, still-lifes, landscapes, interiors, figures, and the ever-challenging portraits.
Banksy made an interesting observation when he said: "All artists are willing to suffer for their work. But why are so few prepared to learn to draw?"

Drawing a portrait with a fixed time limitation is indeed a challenge and an excellent way to hone drawing skills. With drawing expertise comes the knowledge of line, shade, and composition -- the building blocks for creating a good painting.

To an artist, painting something completely abstract is almost the same as painting something realistic. Both are simply illusions created on a flat plane using color -- it is texture, brushstrokes, line, juxtaposition of color, contrast and subtleties which give a painting life, whether it is a portrait of a person we recognize or a form of something incomprehensible. The only difference, as I see it, is that an abstract painting is a blind process, meaning there is no final image the artist is aiming for or needs his painting to look like (unless he is using an abstract photograph or Photoshop -- ugh!); rather, painting abstract is a bit like a leap of faith, using a set of tools and skills to hopefully create something meaningful in the end.

The necessity of having drawing skill is further exemplified by the great Pablo Picasso. He could draw like the old masters when he was 15, yet he still decided to abandon the representational approach as he helped pave the way into abstraction, becoming the most famous artist of the 20th century. He did this with drawing expertise.