Pen Sketches & Devils of the Tasmanian type

Here are a few pen sketches of possible subject matter for a new project.  I have a tendency to avoid working with mediums that aren't easily fixable when you make mistakes....gotta get over this.

Interesting fact about Tasmanian devils--they are on the decline due to something called (DFTD) Devil Facial Tumor Disease, a transmissible cancer, meaning that it is contagious among the species.  Transmissible cancer is rare in humans.  It spreads from one "devil" to another "devil" by bite wounds that occur when fighting.  Devils with the disease develop tumors on the face and mouth, are eventually unable to eat, and starve to death---a horrible way to go.
 Just speculation on my part,  but it is interesting that the possibility might exist that individuals whom fight less may be more likely to survive and pass on their peaceful(?) genes.  Typically Nature seems to be unconcerned with moral goals but here might be a case where peace is favored.  Ironically the devils may be evolving into angels after a few Darwinian generations...?
By the way, if you ever listen to a recording of the noise a tasmanian devil makes will understand why they've been given their unfortunate name.

Traffic

My experiment in posting a video.

(may take a while to come up)

A video for the truely bored.  Only using one lane--- but they stay inside the lines pretty well. 

Ostriches, wrinkles, and large scale drawings

Here is the progress of my attempts at rendering a life-size ostrich with mixed media on a large Fredrix "watercolor" canvas started earlier this year.  I find that drawing things on a larger scale is almost another art form.  It also becomes a task requiring more physical activity (which is probably good for you too).  I've only drawn on this scale few times before working on this project.  Without thinking, I started with a pencil sketch and painted a background on the un-stretched canvas with a dilute ink mixture which caused some serious buckling.  After many an hour of ironing it to a flat state I started painting/drawing with ink, gouache, and pastel.  I looked at what seemed like a million images of ostriches before drawing the first smaller version. (Without having a live ostrich to pose it can be tricky to come up with a novel natural looking stance.)  Not sure if it is coincidence, but usually after starting any project I always find that your subject pops up in life somehow.  In this case the HP tablet commercial with Russell Brand and the ostrich seemed to be all over the place--all I could think is forget the tablet, that lucky guy, he has the real thing running around his place!  Honestly, I started the project before seeing the commercial. 

I want to darken things up (I always tend to go too light) and add a sky but wasn't sure yet of how to display an un-stretched canvas which is where I've left off.  I may sew a piece of canvas across the top and put some eyelet holes from which it could hang. (I'm thinking kind of like the Leon Golub canvases.  Speaking of which here is a link if you haven't seen any of his work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0IiAYeHKBc )

Welcome to my blog

In keeping this blog I hope to motivate myself to finish some of the projects I start that have gone to the waiting place (sometimes never to be revived).  I hope that this space can provide others with links and media to inspire or be useful in some way.  There is so much I have learned simply by seeing the process of how others go about creating art. I am grateful to those who share their methods.  I don't consider myself a writer so bear with me thru awkward text.

Art can be a new way of seeing, thinking, or using your senses to experience the world.  I love the feeling of allowing your world to expand when you see the same ole same ole in a new way.  Possibility is freedom.