Getting There
Figure Foiled
Ancestor Figures
One consults this quicksilver analyst this parroting psychiatrist this counsellor whose Da Vincian observations, conclusions, notations are inverted on its walls.
One sees the impossible: flesh | mind | spirit & only will at hand to construct a harmony.
One reads a Rorschach world of ravages with each new day’s inscription engraved upon this wailing wall.
One sees the analyst reflect a target in his lidless omniscient stare.
This time I will insert one of my YouTube videos, a drawing of my niece Jenna –three years old this week– but drawn a couple years ago.
My prime goal was to avoid cute; difficult to do in drawings with very small children, but the reference photo was all about her unusual sleeping pose, a superb, very unusual, neatly folded, accordion-like composition. I would only need to follow its lead and focus on that dynamic pose she had been so used to, and which had been so practical in her previous life.
As the drawing went forward I photographed its progress moment by moment, eventually arriving at what seemed a satisfactory finish. The drawing resolved itself without effort, and later on it was very easy to convert its dozens of stills into a video format.
For the music also, since I so enjoy creating the odd piece, I decided to take the most challenging route and discover whether something in a jazz mood might be less cute, less cloying than a lullaby. I think I found it.
The blend of image/music is surprising and, personally, is as close to flawless as I could hope.
This is one of my favourite ways to initiate and complete a sketch.
I don’t want it to be photographic so I am relying on a memory of a situation I thought had great visual impact: a fisherman pulling on his waterproof pants. A photograph of the action would actually impede my drawing because I would get entangled in its details; when I only want the completed drawing to focus on abstracted essentials memory is the best tool as it will leave room for a creative remembrance.
Drawing with a dry/semi-dry pen allows me to lightly indicate the figure and work out good proportions. After which I go directly to the heart of my intent—fluid pose and positions of arms/legs plus the lines of the clothing which will describe the critical motion. Those centres of clothing stress I build into strong visual presences with a very careful eye to placement, to composition, to textural variation, to maximum effect created with minimal input. This allows ample room for imagination and suggestion to complete the work in the viewer’s eye.
Fillière © Apr 5 2019
fillière 