More fun with watercolor pencils.
Category Archives: Fantasy
Cornerstone Herald
These large stones, two corners of Cordenthia, are actually moving, although so slowly, you hardly notice it.
She is weaving or manipulating the currents that move through the materials of the universe, changing all the while. This is a timeless event.
Galaxy 71602
An excersize in time and space. This has become a month long side trip while working on a “space station” that my son constructed out of twist ties during a trip to the supermarket one day. I was exploring possible backgrounds when I got drawn into this little thumbnail.
You never know when something will become so significant to you, moving forward. I told myself I’d be done with it yesterday, even going so far as to sign it. However there were some elusive parts of it, particularly the bright light at the center, that I desire to leave with a sense of having conquered it, instead of just moving on.
This picture is composed of dots. Points of ink with an archival ink pen. The reference was a picture in a children’s book of knowledge.
I am so close…
Here is the original sketch from my son’s twist tie sculpture.
And some color studies of the subject.
The Nature of Our Harmony
Watercolor Pencils created from December 2008 to March 2009.
Knowledge is power, it is true, but it depends on what you know , how you know it, what you do with it, and when you do it.
Symbolism and Ideas
Inspiration was Buddhist Sutra or teaching about Kriya Yoga, literally meaning work, working towards Yoga, which we can understand as a union, bridge, connection between our inner selves, which we all have to some extent, and the outer world, which is everything else, from your face to the farthest reaches of the galaxy.
“The organs are the horses, the mind is the rein, the intellect is the charioteer, the soul is the rider, and the body is the chariot. The master of the household, the King, the Self of man, is sitting in this chariot. If the horses are very strong and do not obey the rein, if the charioteer, the intellect, does not know how to control the horses, then the chariot will come to grief. But if the organs, the horses are well controlled, and if the rein, the mind, is well held in the hands of the charioteer, the intellect, the chariot reaches the goal. What is meant, therefore, by this mortification? Holding the rein firmly while guiding the body and the organs; not letting them do anything they like, but keeping them both under proper control.” –The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
The purpose of the Stonehenge in the background is to characterize abstract ideas. Humility, in the bottommost layer, fellowship, the mid layer, and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the top layer, written in stone, as it were, embodied and connected to the cosmos by the mystery, reverence, and timelessness of Stonehenge.
The waves emanating from the hoof symbolize reflection, the passing of time, and the interdependence of everything.
The orange flame colors in the horses and spirits in the chariot alludes to a Buddhist belief originating in the Atman, or no self. The proposal is that nothing exists in and of itself for its own end.
All are conventions created for our understanding , a sort of painted reality. There are infinite levels of organization of infinite levels of things and everyone understands and sees things differently, with their own conscious and subconscious conventions, and some things are understood by multiple people or animals or even plants, as conventions. So, the question is, if we don’t exist what am I that I am still here?
Tree by the Water
This drawing was done January-June 2007.
I’ve always enjoyed the ideas of the presence of spirits in trees, water, rocks and anywhere else I look. Perhaps it is something in me that is brought out in the light when I am drawing. Look and see what you can experience. Enjoy.
When I am in the right place and time I become full of a spirit that fills me with a joy and the possibilities of all that can be. The two dimensional draws me in and I move through a most magical place where I can roam to my hearts content. Through the myriad curves and swirls of my pen I can see beyond the page and be taken away at once on a journey of spirit. It is a place where the more you look, the more you see and many things are revealed never even imagined.
This basic design of this picture was first drawn with pencil and then completed with an ink pen on an 11×14 Strathmore drawing paper with a 1 1/4″ border on the side and a 1 1/2″ border on the top and bottom, allowing for some overgrown branches.