Friday, May 20, 2011

Now a Deviant

Image: A cat is shown biting the bow of a string instrument, which he pushes away with his foot. Caption:
"Hey Diddle Diddle (because, let's face it, if a cat was given a fiddle, this is probably what he'd do with it)"
was the first (and up to now, only) thing I drew specifically with the purpose of uploading it to DeviantArt.

So, yeah, I've created a DeviantArt account. When I started this blog, I was focused on telling two stories: the avatar story and the (as of yet unbegun) Jane's story. Every drawing I made, was a means unto that end. I was trying to work professionally; keeping to the clean, computer-made look. Whenever I did draw something on paper, it was as reference for when I "inked" it later on the computer, as happened with Jane.

But Christmas changed that. The fact that the computer was being used half the time, and I was royally sick the other half of the time, meant that when I went on the computer, I needed to make the most of it. I needed to sit down with something done beforehand.

I started drawing by hand again, thinking it was faster. By the time I realized it was not, it was too late; I had already rediscovered my liking for it; I had re-kindled the flame.

Starting April 26, I began drawing things just because they came to me. Any other day, I would write down a description and find a way to work it into something bigger… but there was this urge inside of me that made me just take out a pencil and paper, disregard the fact that I was in a vehicle in motion, and draw. Maybe it was because I knew I couldn't fit it in anywhere. Maybe it was just too over-the-top ridiculous, but there it is.

Image: Frank (the human) smiles uncomfortably at the camera, as he attempts to draw in a bus seat where everything bounces exaggeratedly.

I thought "okay, it was just this one time;" and indeed, for a while my drawings were again only what was planned for the Blog. But the urge to draw things out of nowhere came again… and again! And (despite finding a use for the latter one) I realized art had become an end onto itself. I was no longer resorting to it to illustrate my blog posts or tell my stories; I was doing art for art's sake.

Of course, I could've just posted them all stand-alone –like I did with Hippotising– but the truth is, I've been thinking about creating a DeviantArt account for quite some time; even before I started doing those random drawings.

You see, behind every two-dimensional piece of art, there's a lot of work that goes unseen. I have brought some of it to light with the how I made my avatar posts, but those are on hiatus until I get time to draw a small explanation; and are, in themselves, an unexpected amount of work.

What I'm trying to get to is that the base pencils have a magic of their own, distinct from that of the finished drawing. Seeing how something was made also has a magic of its own. Unfortunately, the way I've set up this blog, those things don't really belong here.

As this blog has grown, I've created a set of rules for myself; rules which I feel now constrain me. It's a bit like SimCity 4.

Okay, that example just came right out of nowhere.

image: a man is shown from behind pulling something imaginary; in the distance, an island rises from the water matching his pulling gesture.
Not really. You see, SimCity 4 works by letting you first create the geography in which you're going to play the main game. Thus, it is perhaps the only game where you can say, WTF? Who put this river here? Oh, that's right, I did.

Since DeviantArt doesn't have any structurization rules beyond those intrinsic to a file repository of its kind, I hope I can put all that stuff I've been wanting to show, without having to offer much explanation as to why I'm doing this-or-that in such-and-such and order.

Of course, since the "rules" were created by myself, there's nothing that prevents me from trapping myself again.

5 comments:

  1. Art for art's sake? When will the madness end?!

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  2. Maybe I should use the March Hare as my avatar

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  3. Recent comments not working on main page? (And, after scrolling down, here?)

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  4. Yeah, that sometimes happens. No idea why. It usually fixes itself by the next day

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