6.07.2009

Forcing Myself to Contradict Myself

Realizing it's been a long time since I've posted anything from my sketchbooks. So here's a sampling of some pages below. You can click on each image to go to a slightly larger version on its Flickr page. If you'd like to see any one of these even larger, let me know and I'll put a link up for you. Sorry that I don't make these images large in the first place, I'm just a little wary of posting high res scans of my artwork. Hope you understand!

sketches 1

sketches 2

sketches 3

sketches 4

sketches 5

sketches 6

sketches 7


Andrea and I watched a documentary on photographer Annie Leibovitz last night. Here's a quote from her: "The camera makes you forget you're there. It's not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much."

When I draw and sketch people and places around me, I lose myself in the process. Even though I have a certain knowledge of how to start each sketch or drawing, it's still a surprise to me how it turns out. And when I look through my past sketchbooks, I'm constantly surprised by the results I see on each page, each drawing. And I can remember the process I took for each drawing: from how I approached the subject, all the way to its completion. It's a funny way of looking at your work, and I like it. It's good to be surprised by your own work—that way, you know you'll never do something the same way twice. At least, that's how I look at it.

I might've mentioned it here on the blog before, but it's worth the mention again: one of my favorite artists of all time is Marcel Duchamp and there's a quote that's attributed to him that pretty much sums it up for me and how I look at what I do as an artist:

"I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste."

I guess you could say that I have a fear of repeating myself. Even though I might approach each drawing differently, I know that my overall style comes through, creating an overall artistic signature, or 'voice', that can't be denied. The end result might look similar to the viewer, but, I know personally, I took the 'road less traveled', and that my artistic journey was one of newness and wonder with each page, each drawing.

5 comments:

  1. Good post.

    Do you ever let yourself go completely random in your sketchbook? Thats what I usually end up doing and I find it de-clogs my brain and surprises me much like you were saying. I imagine too much random doodling's probably not great though - its good to look and draw from life too.

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  2. So nicely written, I know exactly what you're saying. That is a great quote too, and the sketches, as always, great!

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  3. vantazy, I do go completely random at times but it's a rare occurrence. Take, for instance, the accumulation of heads you see on my last image -- those start off without me thinking at all. Then, I start to work out various head shapes to add. It's a lot of fun.

    thanks, Elisa! Always love your work!

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  4. The sketch of Ezra is so spot on.

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