Saturday, July 3, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 297

Title: In life, the visible surface of the Sperm Whale is not the least among the many marvels he presents. Almost invariably it is all over obliquely crossed and re-crossed with numberless straight marks in thick array, something like those in the finest Italian line engravings.

5.5 inches by 8.5 inches
ink on found paper
July 3, 2010

8 comments:

  1. Wow. Love this one. Very Japanese patterns. Excellent linework.

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  2. wow! is what i was going to say... all that oriental spirit and minutae. love it!
    lizzyg

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  3. Thank you Aaron. While I was working on it, I wasn't thinking of anything specific, just concentrating on filling the space with patterns and line work. My wife came in to the studio / closet and peeked over my shoulder and right away said that it reminded her of Indonesian or Japanese theatre masks, which I thought was very accurate. And now that you've noticed that too, I have no doubt those images were lurking in my mind as I worked on the more figure-specific patterns.

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  4. Hannah, when it was finished, my wife said that too! Especially since I was recently blogging about how in spite of her copious ink she does not have one designed by me. We are both thinking that this might be her next tattoo, which is especially interesting since that wasn't at all what I was intending while I was working on it. A very happy accident.

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  5. Thank you Lizzyg. It's funny, I have noticed that whenever I am at a bit of a loss as to how to go about constructing an illustration, I kind of default to the media I am most comfortable with from years of practice (pen and ink) and the style that I am most used to (ludicrously detailed, like this). At times, I feel I should be pushing myself harder to explore other directions in art, but when I make something like this piece it really feels like "home," in a weird way.

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  6. Wonderful. Love this one.

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  7. Thank you Chris, I am really very pleasantly surprised and happy with how well this piece was received. Strange that this one simply developed, almost subconsciously, while I was pushing the pen around on the paper.

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