ink

little walnut drawings

Here's a look at the tools I'm using to make my walnut drawings.


This view gives you an idea of how the whole nature of the process of drawing informs what the work will be in the final state. The process is the drawing. This has been the case with all the drawings I have been making in 2014. No emotion, no memories, no composition. No consideration for anything but making the marks. No standing away from the drawing and assessing it.

The process makes its own demands

IN THE STUDIO : making walnut ink drawings

I've been making these very small drawings with walnut ink. They feel old, they feel like small twigs in the woods, they are cryptic.

I determined some criteria for making them based on the ink. The ink is in a very small pot. It is handmade and has a handwritten label on the lid. All of these details ask one to slow down and appreciate the moment of placing a sheet of paper on a drawing surface, opening the ink pot slowly. and dipping the pen.

Each dip and mark are their own voice.

in the studio : october

Two of my new series of drawings. Starting number three. I'm cutting new sheets of paper today. Hopefully I will be able to start one or two. It takes some waiting since some marks are made while the paper is wet.

I trimmed another strip of paper and will stretch new pieces for Sunday/

In the studio : August and yellow drawings

I have been working on this drawing on and off for months. It goes on the wall, into that flat files, and comes out again. This is a ritual for this piece. But this week I was showing it to artist Amy Ralston during a studio visit and what I need to do next became clear. The drawing is on the wall and we'll have a conversation later today that I think may end our ritual.

Yellow seems to be the color this month. I also have started a line drawing on Yupo that i'm really starting to embrace.

indigo experiments

Last week I began testing an indigo ink.

I have made a series of drawings since March that are the result of repetive marks and the visual rhythmns derived from the depletion of ink in my dip pen. When I make these drawings my mind is empty and the result of the process is a complete surprise.

3 or more hours

I made this drawing after the splat. 

I had finished the splat drawing but I really felt as though I needed to make another. From previous experience I figured I might be able to make another small drawing in the three or more hours I had left in my studio day.

Making this drawing actually surprised me. My ability to maintain an even tempo and distance was quite easy. I am really please with what it turned out to be. 

new series unnamed drawings

I've made several small drawings rendering repetitive marks to create patterns. These drawings are part of continuing experimentation on rhythms created by the repititive marks using tools that must be dipped or filled with limited amounts of pigment. 

The changes in the marks are a direct result of the depletion of the pigment. I'm working on both large and small drawings. Looking forward to making more.

In the Studio : late March

I began a series of marks on a piece of engineering vellum this past week. It revealed some very compelling patterns. After a very interesting conversation with art bud Brian Dennis I took to a new drawing. Looking to make a larger drawing. One with the same mark over and over.

These images are my first effort. The rhythm/pattern is revealing itself.

This is the result of three days of drawing. I'm looking forward to working on this drawing again and the others that will come after it. I have a whole drawer of Yupo sheets that can be the surface for these drawings.

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