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Thursday, May 14, 2009

I've Gone Dotty!

Cooper, Morrison and Clapton
Early on I realized that trying to paint normally as one would with a brush wouldn't work well on vinyl. It ended up looking blotchy or too thick. In the back of my head, my high school art teacher's favorite project helped me figure it out. Dots.

I've described my work kind of like a reverse newspaper photo, with the density of the dots of paint creating the illusion. What was this project Mrs. Kahn loved so much that gave me the idea? Using only dots to create drawings with a very fine point rapidograph pen. I was in her elective class 3 years and each year we'd do these things and have a book printed of the whole classes' work. They were insane.

high school rapidograph drawing
The idea stuck in my head from such a repetitive action so much so that after high school I actually was planning on trying one with colored ink. Yeesh. But, the theory is really useful. With enough care, volume can be created with smooth surfaces, and edges can be defined without solid lines. Indeed, the best lesson for me from the whole thing was that using lines to create shapes truly flattens objects, breaking the illusion of real substance.

This, along with my lessons from sculpture, are why I start in the middle of shapes and shade outward, bringing the volume out of the dark into the light.

It's also why I have to paint to music with a beat to it to drive my wrist's repeated dabbing.

Peace.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome Work Daniel Got to Love the Beauty in your Art!!!
Thank you for sharing....:)
Caryl- @zion13

Katana Barnett said...

what a fantastic way of working! i really enjoyed looking through your work, & for an artist, there is always a curiosity "how did he DO that!" Thank you for answering it! I have never used a rapidograph pen, but am curious to try it now. One of the fantastic things about process is observing the way it changes things- like your shading and elimination of line. Beautiful!