The Making of "Patience" and "Intuition" - Twin Allegorical Illustrative Drawings

"Patience" and "Intuition"...

Concepts of value in the human psyche. Skills of perception and volition that are strengthened with time and self-discipline, or honed and refined with care, and experience.

*Scroll down for the content artist's statement

"Patience" and "Intuition", respectively, *custom framed, pre-show photo - May 2016

My notable colleague Evan Kitson curated this show called "Beyond the Surface: A Survey of Contemporary Drawing", bringing together the drawn work of artists from the East Coast metropolitan area.

I knew these two concepts that I had been long wanting to put to paper would be the ones I would contribute to the exhibition.

The concepts are near and dear to me, for philosophical and personal reasons. Once I had articulated the intention for each of the drawings for myself, I set to work visualizing the composition and working with a photographer friend to create the figure reference I needed, using myself and the choice model and friend for the other image.

Here's an idea:

Sample photo ref for "Patience" drapery...

 I tend to doodle out my initial composition thumbnails at true 'thumbnail' scale, about an inch or so large, in the "ideas" sketchbook I have... I get the thoughts down fast, scramble them about a bit in various iterations, then go to the best ones with full scale gusto.

And so begins the drawing - I'm not bashful about going all in, especially for a show:

I work with reference that I take myself, if I need it, and I work all by eye, I do not trace, I create my content drawing loosely, building up internal structure abstractly into cleaner, attentive, representational form.

It's easiest and most natural for me to find outer contour by the dictation of gestural and circular mass structure; in other words, the final outline of a figure, for example, becomes more accurate through first understanding the internal, underlying anatomy, as well as impression of character. Structure defines likeness.
Start from within, work your way out, and you won't have to erase so much, or get so lost along the way.

Working with your own likeness can sometimes be a bit weird, but you have to look at the process as another objective study, stepping away from personal preconceptions as much as possible and exploring what you know of yourself with your inherent insight, but leaving behind insecurities and grand projections of self-image.

I think artists naturally have more of a capacity for doing this, though, because our sort of permanent job description is to observe everything, and that means we have an inclination to try and look at ourselves more curiously than others might face themselves.
It's just a theory, but this is my experience.

I think if you're more willing to draw what you see, not what you think you see, the result will be more honest, and it will inspire more response in others.

Here, below, I am content to leave what I've sculpted out of my portrait for now, and continue developing the posture, the torso, the mass of the body, and it's lighting.

You can see down towards the pelvis and the abdominal section how I'm refining the circular structural shapes into a cohesive whole, and etching in rough sections of tone to then smooth out into a likeness of skin and shadow on skin.

That tricky hand holding the dirk, or dagger, will come later.

Below are the sweepingly loose circular structure shapes I've jotted down to get a sense of where the osprey bird will go, in relation to the figure. It's a rough impression of the inner 'wiring' of the bird's body, but that's all I need. I can refine from that, looking at my reference. And I can let little impressionistic moments from this stage linger in the final definition, to give it spontaneity and breathability.

Using an example of the process from "Patience" now, you can see the open and gestural swipes from my brush, which I used to add depth of tone and texture to the final drawing. This was a series of layers of fairly dry washes of watercolor.

I tend to geek out over simple moments, like taking the tape off the parameter of the final drawing, and seeing the stripes of natural white against tone and messy medium: #artnerd

The final art for "Patience", 7x9 1/2":

Artist's Statement:

     “Patience” is a personified illustration of the virtue and burden behind personal resolve. Calmly tenacious, centered within evergreen wisdom, there is a kindled strength to the seeming vulnerability of slow growth.

     

The final art for "Intuition", also 7x9 1/2":

Artist's Statement:

“Intuition” represents, in a parallel manner, the inner sage, that swift perception, a vital philosophy for free spirit and accomplishment.

     Together, the quiet volition integral to these indomitable realms partner the human icon with universal totems in their own symbolic environment.

"Intuition" has already been SOLD, through Red Raven Art Company:

"Patience" is still available for purchase, custom framed, original art:

*Fine Art Prints of "Patience" and "Intuition" are available through my website

-Mairin-Taj

"No Man's Land" - Allegorical Portrait from Concept to Completion

Like any concept, the initial visions of imagery and mood, message and methodology are springboard material at best; they are made of stuff that evolves, and is meant to mature as the idea is seized and formed by the artist.

I usually conceive of a few key words or phrases that represent the initial spark of the concept, and help guide the process of bringing it to roaring life.

In this case, I was working with the key word Soldier in my mind, as a I gathered additional information to then execute the concept into a final result.

Soldier evolved as it became evident that the title begged for something a bit more atmospheric in its description, as in a place, or a state of mind, more specifically. I didn't want the title "soldier" to leave the viewer stuck on the loaded iconography of what we currently think is a "soldier". I wanted the title to allude to there being more than the soldier of today, or the soldier of last century, or even the social, political archetype of the soldier figure, alone. I wanted it to be psychological. I wanted it to trigger the elusive, vaguely defined "no man's land"notion of a complex inner state, emotionally.

Perhaps this piece is an inside-out and backwards portrait of what the perspective of seeing through the psychological state of No Man's Land is like.

This final piece grew out of an exploratory study of the idea of "Soldier" I had - Again, that initial concept was a spark, but I knew it would not come to fruition through the creative process in the same form it began.

Here're some sample images of building up the first study to get more clear for myself exactly what I needed to articulate:

After the first small rough, you'll notice the final first study is quite textured, for my usual approach - I was playing and exploring, chasing something I wasn't sure of, and seeing how much I needed to push and pull the mediums to possible catch it. Here is the final:

This study was on a 6x6" loose hotpress watercolor paper sheet, trimmed with a deckled edge.

So I took a step back from getting to a point where I didn't have any other points to get to, for this particular study, and I looked at it with devil's advocate eyes, fresh intentions come readily to light for the concept's trajectory... What if I smoothed it down to push it back, going at it delicately, tenderly, instead...

I had a number of questions to answer, and once I did, I started again, this time with the final piece in mind.
Here's the way this more mature approach took form:

First, the watercolor on the natural white hot press paper! THEN, the graphite structures...

And now building likeness of my portrait first and foremost through layered form and structures, in graphite...

Loosely, generally addressing the broad shapes within the skull and flesh to create presence...

Be gentle and patient with your build up of layers and structures - Get the structures solidly, don't get lost in distraction at the final result.

The eyes are taking form, and therefore emotive impact, slowly building up.

A little gentle scumbling of layers along the negative space...

Almost there, but not quite. A good several more layers and details to go.

Matte medium and acrylic working it's way in through the layers...

I had to put some brush splatters in for the ash and other particulate...

And the final, signed piece:

"No Man's Land" - 6x6" - Mixed Media, 2015

There is elemental symbolism and primal allegory intended in the simplicity of this and similar works. I think there is much more depth, more human experience, behind the concept of "No Man's Land" than we give credit in this modern era's understanding of soldiers and war. 

This piece goes beyond the geographical battle field, and beyond physical isolation, or doubt, or displacement, though, those are in there as well.

The white feather, sent aloft, is an English symbol for cowardice. The flame is a universal aspect of life and spirit, verve, hope. It is important here that the eyes, the vision, is darkened, but still looking out. And it is important that the palette is pushed back, in an unidentifiable ash of atmosphere.

Keep the Fire. 

Contact me directly here for any inquiries on the availability of "No Man's Land", or for archival art prints of the work for purchase

-Mairin-Taj