Category Archives: My Drawings

A Tribute to Lucian Freud

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Lucian Freud, Girl with Fig Leaf, 1948

Celebrated painter Lucian Freud (grandson of that other Freud), passed away last week at the ripe age of 88, leaving behind an astounding body of work (see the New York Times article here). I’m sad about his passing of course as I’m a big fan of his early drawings which I discovered through a great book I made sure to get my own copy of called Lucian Freud on Paper. I thought I’d do my own kind of tribute by posting an art project I did a while ago (still ongoing) which was inspired by a drawing of his called Girl with Leaves. Just visit here to see what it’s about.

Not That Kind Of Bi.

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Girl with Pink Scarf

At some point in the past couple of days, Mimi decided she wanted to join Facebook and start making new friends. Who was I to stop her? As it is the poor thing only gets to hang out with Fritz and I and whatever guests happen to drop by my place every once in a while. Since I won’t let her go outside (for her own safety and my peace of mind), I figured Facebook was the next best option as a virtual playground. I’m not sure what she’s up to exactly, but all I do know is she’s been hogging the computer and that after only a couple of days she already has more friends that I do, among which (to name names) Christopher Hitchens. How she managed that, I guess I’ll never know for sure.

Mimi and I started a Facebook group called Not That Kind Of Bi. Essentially I’d like it to become a forum for people to exchange about mental health in general and bipolar disorder in particular in an open, relaxed setting. I want to do something about helping to lift the taboo because it concerns everyone in the end and Facebook is just the right kind of forum to do it in. If you’re not on Facebook yet, Not That Kind Of Bi. is yet another good reason to sign up.

Illustration by Smiler 2001(?)

Painting Noises

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Vicky Tansey, a fascinating woman probably in her sixties and in much better shape than I am, is considered to be one of Canada’s leading pioneers in the art of improvisation as a dancer, singer and visual artist, and is also an accredited Tai Chi teacher and Buddhist practitioner, according to her bio on the Visual Arts Centre site. I discovered her great enthusiasm and intensely physical approach to painting and drawing today during the first in a series of eight classes titled Painting as Expression, which is geared toward “beginners, and those who want to begin again.”

To start, she had us twelve students—all women, save one brave man—sit in a circle to introduce ourselves and describe what had led us to choose this particular course out of the VAC’s vast curriculum. Next thing we knew, we were making marks on paper with our eyes closed while engaged in a series of contortions; moving our bodies around our limply held “broken” wrists; drawing, arm extended, from as far from our easels as possible while standing on tippy-toes; with charcoal sticks held on our chest—like knives in a stabbing motion—following movements she performed for us with complete abandon, then switching hands and doing it all over again. Vicky was clearly right in her element. The rest of us were predictably inhibited and feeling foolish at first, but these exercises got her point across: if you want to be expressive in your art, it’s got to come from your whole being and not just from an ideal in your head and a carefully held paintbrush positioned at a perfect angle. As it happens, just the type of exercise I had signed up for.

First painting exercise: cut out four pieces of “found” cardboard, cover with gesso, then make marks with charcoal on each “canvas”—again with eyes closed and using the techniques we’d just explored—all based on vocal noises she made—much to our great amusement. Then, using only gesso and a paintbrush, she left us to our own devices to paint over the drawing in order to create new images from the initial markings. Making pretty and colourful images was discouraged—the point was to explore gesture and learn to follow our instincts. Each student managed to end up with very personal interpretations and image styles, almost surprising given the limited resources we were allowed. Just in case you’re curious, here’s what I came up with:

Cartoon Face
“Cartoon Faces”

Clouds
“Clouds”

Yellow Submarine
“Yellow Submarine”

The Bull
“The Bull”

The names just describe the images that came to mind as I was working on them.

Illustration Friday: Electricity

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"Electricity"

I based this drawing on a Man Ray photo aptly named Electricity (1931). I used dry pastels this time — the first time ever as far as I can remember, and I can’t say I’m enamored with that medium. I’m not crazy about the final result either, but what I am happy with is that I’ve gone out of my comfort zone and experimented a little which to me is the whole point of participating in Illustration Friday.

To view other my other Illustration Friday entries, click here.
To view other participants’ work click here.

Drawing by Smiler

Illustration Friday: Wrinkles

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Colette
Collette Burns, born July 2nd 1923.

I met Colette on a cold spring day last year as I was taking a walk on a busy Manhattan avenue. She was inexplicably parked in her wheelchair on the sidewalk, apparently taking in the sights, with a small boy by her side, who turned out to be her grandson. For a fraction of a second I thought she was a homeless person, especially since she looked so wild with her hot pink lipstick liberally applied well past the contours of her lips, but I quickly realized this wasn’t the case. We talked for a long time about life and death and metaphysics and I told her I felt like I’d met an earth angel. She seemed pleased by this, and not terribly surprised.

To view other my other Illustration Friday entries, click here.
To view other participants’ work click here.

Illustration by Smiler

Illustration Friday: Primitive

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Black Girl Study

Primitive: not derived, original, primary. Assumed as a basis.

Aside from being stunningly beautiful and the fact that I would have drawn her regardless of the prompt, I find this tribal woman from Africa to have the kind of features which are so well proportioned that she could be a template for women of all races.

To view other my other Illustration Friday entries, click here.
To view other participants’ work click here.

Illustration by Smiler

Illustration Friday: Fail

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Illustration Friday: Fail

What gave me the idea for this illustration was last week’s Illustration Friday prompt, which was “Save”. I quickly realized I wasn’t going to finish on time, but then when this week’s prompt was revealed I realized it was all part of the same story.

One day I was walking along a footpath lined with trees when I found a small baby bird in distress. I was barely eight years old, but understood that it must have fallen out of it’s nest. I gently picked up the little bird and ran back to my father’s place, eager to show him my finding and start taking care of it myself. Since we didn’t have a cage to put him in, we decided to keep the windows and doors shut so the bird wouldn’t escape before it was strong enough. In the meantime, it could practice flying in the apartment.

I told three or four friends about ‘my’ bird, and they were eager to see it. After I’d shown it to them we all gathered around the couch and started playing games. When I noticed the bird wasn’t making any sound, I got worried, so we started looking for him everywhere. I was suspicious that someone had let him out, but then I noticed that the large piece of cloth which covered the couch bunched up on the floor. That was the one place we hadn’t looked yet. I’ll never forget the terror that gripped me when I realized the bird must have made it’s way under there as we trampled around all over the place. And sure enough, when I lifted the fabric, there he was… dead.

So there you have it. My intention was to save the bird, but because of my lack of attention, I failed to do so. There were other such small animals who met an untimely death under my care, but this bird (and another little creature I may or may not bring up in another story) have always stayed with me for some reason, even though they would have both have naturally expired close to thirty years ago now. I wanted to make sure the bird I drew was a decent approximation of the one in the story, and looking up small birds living in Israel found this lovely Olive-Backed Pipit, though of course the baby bird I found was smaller still than that. May he (or she) rest in peace.

To view other my other Illustration Friday entries, click here.
To view other participants’ work click here.

Illustration by Smiler

This is a Sketch

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Sketch Birdie350
I did quite a bit of research to find this specific bird. It’s called an Olive-Backed Pipit. I was looking for a small bird that is found in Israel, and this is one of them. I’ve never drawn a bird before, much less researched the various species, but it’s for a specific project I have in mind. It might fit into the theme for Illustration Friday — which is “Fail” this week — if I finish a version I like on time. In any case, there’s a bit of a story that comes with the bird, which I will recount when I show the final version. Whatever it ends up looking like, I almost don’t care because doing the research was the part I enjoyed the most so far. Oh, and drawing too, that was okay.