May I Introduce To You, My Sixteen Year Old Self

Funny I remember looking a lot cooler than I look here ~ rockin' my handmade "Rainbow" shirt. Funnier still, I remember those girls on the bench looking a lot more feminine. Oh, to be sixteen and immortal again...Nah!

Life Drawing

Here‘s how one of my days went recently. A young lady at work; mother of three, in her thirties, and has the most beautiful hair I have ever seen.  I make excuses to go up to her register just to look at her. Those of you that know me, can you see me doing this?

...of course you can!

She's cool, and doesn’t even call the cops. One time I came clean with my desires. I just blurted out, “You need to let me draw your hair!” ~ I was actually surprised when she said yes, and floored when she offered to be my life drawing model.

I started thinking I better step up my game, or she’ll think I’m a hack. And of course I’m far from that. Still, I wanted to do a good job. All the while inside my sixteen year old self is hi-fiving everybody in sight! She was nervous but excited to do something new. She had lost weight, and found a surge of self-confidence.  She did great. And why not? She really is beautiful head to toe…inside and out.  

I had a great time too. I love my job!

I love drawing the human body, there is nothing like it. The way the light falls on skin, and muscle falls on bone. Nobody is the same.  We talked while I drew her; I told her what I was looking at; what I liked and why. It probably was a good thing for her to go through. I know how much the female body changes after a bunch of kids go through it.  It was good for me too; strengthen my confidence.

Because of time restraints, I basically had two pieces. I sat on them ‘cause I didn’t want to screw them up. I found out a long-long time ago not to force the art. It  will take care of itself, and it did today.  I’m still surprised at how I pull this stuff out of my head. What you see is the work in progress. It will be a 11” X 17” poster when it’s finished. Because it’s kind of a playing card design, I’ve given you a flipped version so none of you will have to do a hand stand in front of your monitors! I’m happy with it so far. Updates tomorrow.

2/27/12 ~ So it's tomorrow. Turns out I was closer to being done than I thought! Keeping it simple. Keeping it clean. Whatever that means. Our fearless model suggested our final design's orientation (which figure is where ~ comes in handy when they get signed)

 3/9/12 ~ I'm here looking over some of my art pieces, and found the original scans of this project. Once again I'm taken back by the beauty of watercolor and ink on the right paper..

Self Portrait 6 & 7 [D~evil & D~vine]

Mental Health ~

Who can say too much about it? I know I can’t.  It was suggested by someone in the "feeding and caring for dept. of the mentally ill"  to use my mind’s version of reality on a new art project. Always agreeable to such things I said “Sure."

Who hasn’t seen the angels and devils pop up on the shoulders of cartoon characters? [Kronk was the first example I thought of!] But  I never thought to actually draw any ~ until now!

I found the devil part quicker to imagine and easier to conceptualize. Why? No it's not because I am a devil~ Don’t jump to conclusions ~It was so easy, because Pride [arrogance], Envy, and Rage, are my biggest adversaries. I've  been dealt some harsh opposition  from those guys for a very, very long time.

The blow fish thingy was fun. Red shoes, glasses, and goatee had to show; It is me after all! The green with envy umbrella shirt was the last to show. Fun!

Now the lil’ cherub, “The good part of me”, took longer to get the perspective needed for a worthy portrait. Well, and for those that know me, to see that clearly is part of my problem isn’t it? The Divine in all of us is always getting portrayed as the weak and fragile part of our psyche. In these animated fights between good and evil the Divine always seems to get its ass kicked!

It doesn’t help me much to see this part of me as a cute, butterball, and NAKED? ~ baby angel. I mean really? Would it kill anyone out there to give me a bad ass warrior angel? [laughs] No but seriously, what's that about? Ah! of course; this is still art as therapy, and this is where we work this crap out!

I like this assignment. That’s what you get to take with you ~ what are your devils and angels, and what do they look like? Peace!

"Look What I Can Do!"

All Hail The Return Of Harvey Wood!

In the spirit of "You start somethin'; You finish somethin'", ideas are rolling again to get Harvey Wood published. 

~ Stay tuned.

Art As Therapy (Part 3)

Color and line set a mood ~ or can give the artist’s mood a way; either way with this next piece I wanted to see if I could get everything in order to create a happier piece. The idea came from this idea I had. She had not painted anything in a long while, so I told her we should trade portraits.

"I'll do one of you and you do one of me!" ~ great idea.
This is the one I promised her. I'm still waiting for mine.

This piece I pick proved my point. Set your mind to it
and you can squeeze out a little happy on to your canvas.

Happy in = Happy out!

Art As Therapy (Part 2)

I've talked a lot about color, line, and how my mood had a part in the last self-portrait. So now we need to talk about the creative process itself. I realized something the other day about my art, and life in general; Try this with me.

Look at something ~anything, a horse, a house, a word~ anything. Hold it in your head. Now try to draw it. Hard as I’ve tried, from conception to delivery, I lose a lot (sometimes all). I do realize that sometimes it turns out better than the picture I had in my mind, because of the variations.  I did one for you just so you can see what I mean. The top one  is what I saw in my head. The other is my translation. Far from a perfect rendering, but it has more of my own voice. This one is ready for a card to someone I love.

My point is ~ we have an idea in our head whether it’s a horse, a house or how we treat each other, and it rarely turns out how we think it will. Here is the art as therapy part; by embracing the good parts of  your art piece or life and holding on to them, we can begin to see the perfection in the imperfections...

...or something like that.