Finishing Things

In graduate school, I had a sculpture professor who made it clear to me that I needed to finish things. Somehow from there on I started a habit of trying to bring drawings to some sort of conclusion. I draw every day and it has become a discipline: finish something (anything!) each day.

I started a new sketchbook last weekend – but I'm still finishing paintings in the old one. Here are a few of those paintings: This painting with the storks on top of the house started out as a nice Crystal City drawing. It was very colorful but that was all. I did collage a big dark cloud above the building but still it sat there unfinished. So at some point, I added rain and then it got darker and darker. I'd had this thought that some birds would be a nice touch. So they flew in yesterday and I'm calling it "finished" – but it probably isn't. Or is it?

06-06-11a | mixed media

I just like this one below too much not to show it. I thought I'd add details to the orange area embracing the ocean in the top section of the painting. But I don't think it would make the painting any better. I guess it's a bit of a "Nocturne" --just a moody suggestive piece. I like the forest just below the palace. I reminds me of the magical gardens that the prince explores as he follows the Twelve Dancing Princesses as they go to their midnight rendezvous.

06-06-11b | mixed media

05-23-11a

Really folks, it's a doodle. The snake's car is powered by some nuclear rock in the back of his contraption. I draw a lot of these, often as I watch a baseball game on television. It's just the right amount of distraction to produce good flow and I try not to get too attached to the results. Later on I tighten things up, add some watercolor or charcoal and call it a wrap. It's just one of the things I do.