Art That Was Never Finished

Arguably the very best video ever posted by The Art Assignment. Extremely interesting and moving. They have disallowed posting on Facebook, so I won't put it there.

Be safe everyone, take care of yourselves and your family.

Jim Blind Contour

Jim blind contour drawing. Jim does crossword puzzles every day. 

I am not keeping a precise count. So far there may be 40 completed drawings. And many more blind contour drawings. I don't count them because they are so quick to do, and when they aren't interesting to me I don't take them further. Of course there are some completed that I am not crazy about.

So far I have learned:

• Using fluid mat medium for collage isn't good if I plan to draw on top. Mat medium is good to glue down tissue paper. Brushed over the top it makes the tissue paper more transparent. But it repels pen ink.
• I really like the tannish papers with black and white ink. 
• I got better at the blind contours so I had to switch to non-dominant blind contour. 
• I got better at remembering how many eyes I have drawn, so have started cheating at times and adding a third one. 
• I have no idea what to do with these. I keep wanting a finished project. It's my complete-ist brain.
• Adding collage takes a lot of time and thought.
• I am overwhelmed by the social part of this - blog post, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr. I need a way to streamline.

A new subject, more blind contour

Blind contour on doodled background

Jim very sweetly volunteered to be a blind contour subject. He likes the distorted effect. Above is the first blind contour, done on a book page I doodled on years ago.

Analog blind contour

This is the analog version. Compared to the digital version below, I would like to make some changes. But of course can't.

Digital version of blind contour, done in Procreate

The blind contour was scanned and imported to Procreate where I could play with things like pen thickness and was able to erase to achieve the thin white lines. I'm trying to balance having a loose drawing with the amount of detail I like. I should have used a finer pen for the analog version. As a friend likes to say "onward."

Blind Contour Drawing Challenge

Blind contour drawing on a piece of star chart

This is part of my Eileen blind contour project, which is expanding into a larger project.

Superman's Pal, blind contour on comic book page

This current group of blind contour drawings started with 12 book pages, one piece of a star chart and one comic book page. The four here are the ones I have completed so far. I painted most of the pages with slightly watered down titanium white acrylic paint to muffle the print and images.

Blind contour, hatching, collage

Then I did the blind contour drawings with a variety of pens I had on hand. Mostly Uniball Vision Elite pens, which have black ink tinted with various colors. I am still using the photos from Eileen, but will probably branch out soon. I want to try other faces and some objects, like chairs. After doing the blind contours, I scanned all the pages and imported them to Procreate on my iPad. I can do multiple digital versions and of course one analog version. These four are the analogs.

Blind contour on book page, hatching, collage

In looking at these I think there is possibility. I like the one on the star chart, mostly I think because the eye happened to fall in that light circle. (Jupiter) But I do love dark backgrounds. And I didn't even try to add collage. The Superman's Pal is appealing to me for some reason. Lots to look at, the head floats on the page. I don't like the big white bits of paper, and that warning symbol seems pointless in that context. And the drawing and the comic book page have no theme connection. The one with the postage stamps is okay, I do like the eyes high in the face. I couldn't find anything to collage on that I liked, the stamps were the closest I could come. The last one is just okay too. But I do like the different faces, including that there is one looking away from us. And there is more room for the collage in this one. Maybe it needs a pattern in the background?

If you have thoughts, leave a comment here or on Facebook. I am always interested in other people's opinions. You probably see things differently, which can be interesting.

*"A bunch" might be more accurate. If I find something else to work on, feel I have learned what I can or just get tired of the project, I will stop. If I am loving it after 100, of course I will continue.