Anyone can draw a line. Splotch on some colour. But what is it about some compositions that move them from so what? to wow, just wow.
I doubt I will have the time left in my personal hourglass to ever get to wow, just wow in terms of a single composition. That’s something Dad worked toward his entire life. “I’d be happy if I could paint one really good picture before I die,” he said more than once. His worst painting is better than my best effort, but two things occur to me as I write this.
First, for both of us, it was/is the striving, the journey, and the process that matters as much as anything. Yes, the end result is important to be sure, but what happens along the way is, in itself, deeply rewarding (and, yes, endlessly frustrating).
When I think about my intention with this graphic novel project, it has a lot to do with storytelling (by having words and image work together) as opposed to depiction for the sake of depiction. I think Dad’s priority was capturing the essence of a moment, pinning a time and place to the paper/canvas. The added layer that made a painting, drawing, or print different from a photograph was the degree of interpretation and manipulation. His work was accurate but not photorealistic, which means there was a lot of room between the subject matter and finished work for artistic license.
Would I call the gap between reality and what is showing up in my drawings artistic license? More like ineptitude, but there are moments when even a simple/crude drawing manages to capture something of a mood/moment/emotion that would be very hard to do in words. And so, I carry on.
Today I worked on a series of small sketch ideas from this time period (early ‘50s) - Dad looking out the window over the walled garden behind the row houses in his village in the northeast of England, then drawing what he saw in his sketchbook (sitting on the edge of the bed). I also attempted to draw him walking up the stairs in his house…
And that, as they say, is a wrap for today!
These posts are fuelled by coffee… you can buy me a cup right here. Thanks!