B22: Pretty Common, Alright

Drawing the Swigert Commons at PNCA in-class. I'm ambivalent about this one. My rendering/execution I find utterly boring, but I'm happy enough with the composition. It's kind of an interesting place in there, if you can find a decent spot to sit. Fountain pen and brush-pen for the filled-in bits in the ceiling.


By the by, "that's so technical!" is not an awesome compliment. Think about it. Would you ever tell a chef that? "My goodness! You're so good at reading the lines on a measuring cup and slicing cheese evenly!"  The implication is that the food tastes like shit but you've got to find something nice to say so you compliment the guy on his fine motor skills and visual acuity.

1 comment:

  1. Well I don't think "that's so technical" is saying much in the first place. I think people sometimes want to say something but don't know what to say and things like that come out. Sometimes they know what they want to say even, but aren't sure how and the wrong things get said that don't explain what they mean. I probably do that a lot when my unparalleled powers of rambliness combine with my extreme urges to comment let the artist know that what they did riled some sort of emotion/response in me whether or not I can explain it...
    Blahblah, in any case, I'm not sure what you feel this is boring. (I assumed it was because you know where it is/the things outside the drawn image/how you might prefer it to look/etc???) But I think it's got a little narrative to it which is quite intriguing. The first thing I thought was "who/what is going to come through that door?" and then "what is that person doing there??" I decided it was some sort of scientist/inventor working on some blueprints and that this image fits into a comic.. And, actually, I like that it feels like I'll never know the wider story surrounding it. I also find that the lines are very sure of themselves (not too sketchy and not too heavy) which I find very appealing in illustration, but not terribly common. I guess that sort of line confidence just comes with a lot of practice. But to you maybe it's just an observation piece.
    All that said, in general, I'm usually more at a loss for what to say because I connect better to characters and their stories/actions than to objects and scenes.
    I imagine, if other people are like me and they admire the linework of a piece, one of the first things they think about to say will probably be something along the lines/feel of "I love the technical skill there!" or something like that as there is (usually) no conceptual or narrative element to comment on or not much to be said.

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