Art in Progress | Charcoal Pencil on Stonehenge 15 x 22″
I started using stonehenge paper back in college for these drawings that I would consider more of “renderings.” Meaning drawings from my own photographs and rendered with chiaroscuro and contrast for a specific look, a subject isolated in a sea of pristine white paper. Just something fun to do, keep the drawing senses sharp, and produce a drawing with some level of quality. It’s definitely different from “real” drawing, that is the brainstorming nature of sketching and the mark making and thinking needed for live figure drawing or portraiture. No matter the sterile nature of it, I’ve always tried to use it as avenue to work on the techniques in drawing hair and texture of fabrics, and a little bit of emotion–all while I think about my life and the people in it while absorbing my favorite music.
This batch of paper I recently bought from Binders in Atlanta. I got by for many years from a stack I bought in Athens years ago. That paper actually had a texture that I liked. This one is a bit more smooth. While it’s cool for some people to take photos of their stashes of film for cameras, the painter toiling away rarely has the need to document their collection of unused material that will eventually lead to unwanted half finished art. But hey, that’s not why some people get into art, or rather the dual love/hate relationship most inevitably realize this absurd thing to be.
“Whether or not one can live with one’s passion, and accept its law, which is to burn the heart it simultaneously exalts, that is the question.” – Albert Camus
