52 Fridays - Doodle Dan

 

I don't doodle enough, but I did this week. Doodles are generally idly done while thinking about something else, so they are, I believe, a connection to the subconscious. With my other, more formal drawings, I can be too conscious at times, thinking too much about the drawing and how I am doing it and that it had better be good. Doodles are the opposite of that. I'm just playing, making marks and not trying to make a "good drawing". I often throw them away. I saved this guy because I like it. It's on a scrap of paper I used for my daily To-Do list. The back of this note was filled with small tasks that have been marked through. There's one task at the top of the drawing, "LATVIAN", my reminder to take an online Latvian lesson and next to that, WALK, which I also did. Then I noodled up this little guy in a couple of minutes. I like the looseness and energy of the line. It has a bit of a 1980s feel to it. Do you doodle? If so, do you ever save them?

Happy Friday again and welcome to June!

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52 Fridays - Unknown and Toothless

 

Greetings and Happy Friday! Have you ever felt like a toothless unknown? I know I have, so when I saw this toothless fellow, well he's missing one tooth, I had to draw him. He's another find from Instagram, this one came from the account of artsafricains.bakongo. Unfortunately there is no listed information about where or what tribe or anything, hence the "unknown" factor. If anyone out there can tell me anything about him, drop a comment below. I used a basic black ballpoint pen to sketch him out and finished with colored pencils.

Thanks' for stopping by and have a good week!

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52 Fridays - M-78 a.k.a. MoonFace

 

This week's drawing is from a miniature carving (less than two inches tall) I did called "M-78". It's carved from a Hickory Nut husk and was part of a series I was working on called "Lo-Fi-Ga" which I have posted about many times before. I also wrote specifically about "M-78" back in August 2015 (ye gods has it really been almost six years?!). My fav quote from that post is:

Is he a secret agent? Is he a wrestler? Maybe a secret wrestler? He is marked and mysterious and blind.

 My girlfriend Ieva thought a good name for him would be "MoonFace", so maybe that's what the "M" stands for. What do you think he might be?

Happy Friday. Keep smiling and don't let the bastards grind you down.

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52 Fridays - Acorn Head - Ibibio

 It's week twenty of this fifty-two Fridays drawing project and this week's subject is an African mask from Nigeria of the Ibibio people. Another wonderful image harvested from the seemingly endless treasures to be found on Instagram. Sidebar - I'm no fan of Zuckerberg and don't like that Facebook (also don't like Facebook) now owns Instagram, but it's tough to find a better place to look at such a wide variety of different kinds of art easily. Maybe Pinterest? (What's your favorite site to browse art?) I'm constantly adding new images to a saved collection in my IG account, so there's always several things ready to draw.

I found this Ibibio mask on "afrikaria" and it is the third image in a collection of masks depicting disease and deformities. I will likely draw the other two masks sometime in the future as I find them all to be fascinating. My immediate response to this mask was "Acorn Head" and I intentionally exaggerated the shape of the top of the head to convey this. It also reminded me of a series of tiny carvings I worked on for a time called the "Lo-Fi Gods" that were carved from Hickory Nut Husks. Maybe I'll do a drawing from one of those next.

I've mentioned in the past that I sometimes struggle with my inner critic as I draw, but this week I tricked it by telling myself this was just going to be a "warm-up" drawing before I started the real thing. The critic was silent and I did my work. Truly, all art is just "practice"; a ritual of creation that exercises the soul. That inner critic is also the voice that tries to talk me out of going for a run or eating healthier food. This voice is not my friend.

See you next week.

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52 Fridays - Chokwe Mask

 

Another Friday already. This year is flying by, unlike last year, which seemed to last for ten years. Now that I am all vaxxed up (get your shots you swine you!) I'm beginning to get back out into the world and it's good. I'm returning to a more normal rhythm of life, so the pace is picking up. Starting to look forward to going to the movies again and hanging out in restaurants and pubs. 

So what does that have to do with this week's drawing? Absolutely nothing at all!

This week's drawing is a Chokwe Mask, an image I found on the Instagram feed of johngrahamtribalart. A quick bit of research shows me that the Chokwe people live in south central Africa where the Congo, Angola and Zambia are today. I chose this image because of the tight framing that fills the space, for the big, alien-like eyes and the expressive mouth lined with the sharp teeth. I used an ordinary black ballpoint pen. As is often the case, I began doubting what I was drawing, resisted the urge to abandon it, but fought through and kept with it and like the final result. I don't know why I make the drawing process so difficult. 

Did you make anything this week? If not, get your ass in gear, time is a wasting.

See you next week,

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52 Fridays - Nosferatu

 

Welcome to week eighteen of my "52 Fridays" drawing project. This week's drawing is "Nosferatu", which I drew from memory. It was inspired by an Instagram post by "instahorror" which is an image from the TV adaptation of Stephen King's "Salem's Lot" (1979). In that story he is referred to as "The Master" and scared the crap out of me when I saw it as a child; still creeps me out. There are of course many other versions of Nosferatu on the screen, the most famous being the first one from 1922, directed by F.W. Murnau's version. The German actor Max Schreck portrayed the creature in that film and his strange, expressionist style continues to be an influence to this day. I'll be doing some drawings of his version at some point for sure. Today's version is quite different than the "Salem's Lot" inspiration, which is fine as I purposefully chose to work from memory because I wanted to see how different my version would be and what I changed. The shape of the nose, addition of big eyebrows and larger eyes seem to be the biggest changes. Maybe next week I'll draw from the photo.

Have a good week!

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