Sorry, been out of touch for the last week or so. I haven't stopped creating...well, for a couple days I wasn't drawing or painting but that's because I was up to my neck doing a complex photo shoot for some product clients. That, in itself, has turned into a minor nightmare, but, you gotta do what you gotta do to pull in the money. But, wow, not writing for almost a week, then now trying to get back into it...hard as hell. Especially on a beautiful day here in LA with so much else to do, hehe. But, a promise to myself is a promise.

It most definitely has been a week of sketching...again. In a way it's become my refuge for creativity. Also, a bit of a trap. It's easy to pull out the big pad, some charcoal, and just draw away with no worries about an judgement. To sit for hours just listening to music drawing...relaxing, getting that negative energy out...but, in a way it's too easy. It's become a safe comfort zone. And, I need to get out of that zone again. No rest for the wicked...and I plan to be quite wicked with my work, hehe.

So, to the art...or, precursors to art, I should say, hehe. Things are definitely shaping up nicely. Lines coming together, ideas, whatnot. My mind still has an Asian theme running through it, so, I spent a bit of time working on things related to dragons. I mean, I'm figuring out the face bits, but, the moment I go to draw a full form...that's when I realized I needed to figure out how to draw wings...and how wings attach to bodies...and a whole bunch of stuff. Like when I realized I needed to figure out how to draw horns properly. And, if you're wondering 'why bats?' It's because they seemed to have the most similar feel to me.

When I got home, though...things got a bit...well, strange. I went up on my roof to sketch. Still thinking on dragons and such. But, as I chilled up there, watching the sun set over LA, my mind wandered to a completely different tack. It was like...world events...war...where would they strike...LA...nuclear weapons....radiation...and that's where this series came from. Ideas flowed pretty quick and easy...and it was weird. Also cool. They were coming from inside my head and all I could do was to let them out on the sketchpad. I kept judgement at bay...because they're super simple, kinda weird, and I guess most people would never let themselves draw something like this...but, like I said, I kept judgement at bay and had some fun.

I think you might notice a progression, a semblance of a story, cool things. I'd love to hear what people think about these as they're my own work, not just riffing on things. Of course my unconscious mind pulled from a lot of things it's seen and experienced in the past...but, no artwork is truly original...and when they are...masterpieces :) Or, something, hehe.

Ugh. Every day I wonder WTF is creativity. What is art. What is good. What is bad. The daily debate inside my skull that I'm sure many, many people deal with.

So, this set was a different day. Well, I think the next two sets. I'm not 100% sure. So much stuff this week... But, for the first one I decided to see what it would look like if I diluted a bit of ink and used some of my larger brushes on the newsprint. First thing I discovered was that painting with a wet medium on newsprint...bad idea. It warps the paper. The ink flowed on smoothly, but, the paper got a bit distorted. Not badly enough to not do it again for practice but...not my idea of a really good idea, hehe.

There was a bunch of stuff I tried out. I retreated to familiar forms, stretched out to some new ones, and let thoughts from my own head come out. Not too excited about all of these...but my friends seemed to like some of them for different reasons. I mean, each has little pieces of a much greater puzzle that I'm building...so I'm not angry at myself, though, it's hard sometimes. I want to be so much more, but I know the time and effort it's gonna take and I'm nowhere near...yet.

This, like I said, might be from a different day, or a combination of a couple days. I went back to charcoal sketching and just ran with things. Astronauts, portraits, and would be kings, hehe. More working on lines, perspective, shading :) You know, the usual.

Somehow, somewhen, I managed to also do some ink work. Once again working on the astronaut theme. I've got some ideas brewing of how to put all these elements I've been messing with together...hopefully some of them will be coming out soon, and in a way that I can describe it as a 'body of work,' so that I can start trying to get things hung in different locations. That whole being known thing so people will buy my work...the stuff that's supposed to support me and all. I just gotta get over the case of 'yips' I've developed.

'Yips?' What the heck is that? We all know the feeling. It's the one you feel, might be feeling right now, about something you need to do, but not doing it yet has built up this wall, and fear, about if you'll actually be able to get it done...get it done right...stuff like that. Though...there might be different reasons I'm hesitating. I did do an entire wall art piece the other day on a whim so....(story for another day...soon)

I'm sure I missed something I'll discover later, hehe. There's all the sketches I did yesterday...I think like 12 or 13 or them. It was a bad day for me. My head was not my own...to put it simply. Depression was like a hammer to my skull pretty much from the moment I opened my eyes and so I used my drawing to get myself through the day. Today was a bit better, but I still feel the edges of darkness trying to creep in. Depression sucks, but at least I'm familiar with the beast that tries to ride my back. I know when to retreat and let him do his thing, and when to make my counter-attack. I might put those in a post later tonight, or tomorrow. I still have a couple other things I need to write about, hehe. Life, never stops coming at you, until it doesn't.

Thank you so much for dropping by and glimpsing a moment from my creative journey. It's been a crazy ride so far and I hope it never stops. As always I'd love to hear what you have to think, good or bad, it doesn't matter to me. You can't improve if you don't hear criticism. I hope everyone is having an amazing weekend! Be well :)

Wessel

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Crap, been so long that I can't copy and paste all my usual stuff about all the cool groups I'm a part of and what I've got for sale... My laptops about to die and no charger. So, I'll get back to it in the next post :)