Towards Winter & Other Recent Artwork
A painting and numerous drawings of mine from these past few months.
For this post I offer you no political nor controversial topics, but instead drawings and a painting of mine from these past few months for your viewing pleasure. If this post interrupted you in the midst of doom scrolling so much the better!
The two charcoal drawings above were each done over the course of a couple afternoons, with indirect late afternoon light illuminating the subject matter that I had set up by the window.
The four sketches above (the leather work boots, a deer’s skull, and a toy horse) were all done very fast: I did them as demonstrations for students during some classes that I taught recently. Each one was done in 30 to 45 minutes with various pauses during that time to stop and explain what I was doing and why. Having to execute them fast and leave them unfinished keeps them fresh and spontaneous.
The above two studies based on historical photographs I did a while back, but I didn’t get around to photographing them till just recently.
Over the years I’ve sketched tons of portrait studies based on old black and white photographs. The reasons are several: Firstly, it simply makes for good practice, and honing skills.
Secondly, it is interesting to see if I can add something in my interpretation - that is not just to objectively reproduce the information from the photo in a drawing but to see if I can breathe some new energy into it.
Thirdly, it compels me to study in detail the composition and lighting used by these old photographers many of whom who were masterful in these areas.
The above two sketches were studies I did in preparation for an oil painting as I had originally planned on executing the sketch “Elephant in the Room” (that I used as the cover illustration for my Vaccine Evangelists, Apostates, and Apologists essay) as an oil painting, though I’m thinking I may have said what I wanted to say with the sketch alone.
I hope you enjoyed the artwork: more paintings planned for this year. Both allegorical/political and non political pieces. I have numerous other commitments though so we’ll see how many of the paintings I intend on doing I actually get around to executing - probably few but hopefully many.
A portfolio of my artwork can be viewed at either of my websites: Original Paintings – Fine Art Prints
Good stuff! Thanks.
Possible alternate title for "Seashells and a Skull": Conches-ness.
There's something very Steve-Coogan-ish about Alfred Stieglitz.
"...though I’m thinking I may have said what I wanted to say with the sketch alone." — No doubt, and doubtless a sketch is worth a thousand words, but the painting said it all.
Excellent work, Jordan! I love the variety of line thickness/texture in your charcoal works, it's really unique.