IEOUA (allegorical self-portrait)

[Anville]

Absolutley INCREDIBLE work! Very inspiring. I love how organized yet chaotic everything is. I especially like the classical look everything has. I would say these are more classical yet the arrangement is contemporary.

Im keeping my eye on you! Incredible work.

[Jasonwclark]

Damn Anville, those inks are sick like the plague! I especially like the black queen.
You'll have to save me a copy when you finish the series, so I can hang it up by my chess board and strike fear into the hearts of my opponents. Thanks for checking out the thread and inspiring me to work on my contrasts.

I went on a Coen Brothers binge this weekend, and probably spent more time watching the talking lamp than I should have. The drawing I'm working on right now is taking forever, so I decided to take a break from it and attempt another study.

Profile

[Jasonwclark]

Once my heart was captured, reason was shown the door, deliberately and with a sort of frantic joy. I accepted everything, I believed everything, without struggle, without suffering, without regret, without false shame. How can one blush for what one adores?
There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.

-G. Sand

[Jasonwclark]

Taking another break from Bridgman to work on something different.

Puppy Studies
Adventures in Puppysitting or
"Too Many Puppies" or
Waggily Tail or...
You get the idea

Watching a friend's Puppy and then having to give her back at the end of the weekend is so bitter sweet. Still, at least this way they can't say I never did adorable right...

[Jasonwclark]

55
There exists within us a power which permits the major features of the mirror image to be perceived with greater intensity, and again there is a power which emphasizes rhythmic similarity beyond the actual inexactitude. This must be an artistic power, because it is creative. Its chief creative means are omitting, overlooking, and ignoring. It is therefore an anti-scientific power, because it does not have the same degree of interest in everything that is perceived.
The word contains nothing but an image, and from this comes the concept. Thinking thus calculates with artistic magnitudes.
All categorization is an attempt to arrive at images.
We relate superficially to every true being; we speak the language of symbol and image. Then we artistically add something to this by reinforcing the main features and forgetting the secondary ones.

F.W.N (Philosophy and Truth 1872)

Study after Gibson

Which?
graphite on bristol, 14x17

[Jasonwclark]

Yea and the Nymphes of brookes and woods uppon theyr streames did sayle
With scattred heare about theyr eares, in boats with sable sayle.
His members lay in sundrie steds. His head and harp both cam
To Hebrus, and (a woondrous thing) as downe the streame they swam,
His Harp did yeeld a moorning sound: his livelesse toong did make
A certeine lamentable noyse as though it still yit spake....

Ovid, Metamorphoses XI. Golding trans. 1567

Study after Waterhouse

"Nymphs Discovering the head of Orpheus" study
graphite on bristol 14x17

[Jasonwclark]

His pursuit of Daphne the Mountain-nymph, daughter of the river Peneius, and priestess of mother Earth, refers apparently to the Hellenic capture of Tempe, where the goddess Daphoene ('bloody one') was worshipped by a college of orgiastic laurel chewing Maenads. After suppressing the college - Plutarch's account suggests that the priestesses fled to Crete, where the moon goddess was called Pasiphae - Apollo took over the laurel which, afterwards, only the Pythoness might chew.

Robert Graves, The Greek Myths. 1955

Study after Bernini

Apollo and Daphne
Graphite on Paper 18x24

[Jasonwclark]

Loomis study after Canova

Venus Italica
graphite on bristol

[Jasonwclark]

Pythagoras of Samos (570 - 490 BC) founded Pythagoreanism. He migrated from the island of Samos to Croton to avoid living under tyranny, and later he escaped persecution in Croton, only to die of starvation in a temple in Metapontum.

Cosmology: The early pythagoreans believed that the limited and the unlimited are the ultimate principles of the Kosmos. The basic cosmological idea is that definition (the definite or the limited) is imposed upon what lacks definition (the indefinite or the unlimited) to form being. Everything other than the limited and the unlimited is ultimately composed of numbers. (Here the One is taken to be the first number, but the One has a special status and may not have been considered a number. Zero was unknown to the Greeks at this time.) The mathematical unit was believed to possess actual magnitude; the abstract was, thus, considered to be concrete; hence, the magnitude of the mathematical unit serves as a kind of "stuff", along the lines of the stuff of the Milesians.

There are three stages in the development of the Kosmos: First, numbers are generated from the limited (the odd) and the unlimited (the even); second, the geometrical solids are generated from numbers; third, physical objects are generated out of the geometrical solids. Early Pythagoreanism seems to be a dualistic system, since it would appear that the limited and the unlimited are distinct and independent kinds of being. However, if the One is the only and ultimate substance, it may have been a monistic system.

-The Kosmos exists eternally, and every individual event in the universe recurs eternally.
-The human soul is immortal. It owes its immortality to its kinship with the divine and universal soul, and it can migrate from body to body. After death, it can be reunited with the universal soul if it is purified. Note the connection here with the Orphic view of the soul.
-The early Pythagoreans understood philosophy to be the means of purifying the soul. Since the human soul -like everything else- is ultimately a harmonious proportion of numbers, philosophy was seen as the method for correlating the ratio of the soul with the ratio of the Kosmos, thereby achieving a harmonious state.

[Jasonwclark]

Here are some drawings and sketches from that class I took at City College. I was going to hold off until I finished a few things I'm still working on, but they're taking a while. Maybe next week.

The instructor had a pretty hands off approach, and just told me to do what I wanted, so that's basically what I did. I guess the main thing I learned this semester was how to say goodbye to the HB pencil. I used to use it for everything, but now I think its too unpredictable and much prefer to start with B or 2B.


After Canova



Quid mihi Livor edax, ignavos obicis annos,
ingeniique vocas carmen inertis opus;
non me more patrum, dum strenua sustinet aetas,
praemia militiae pulverulenta sequi,
nec me verbosas leges ediscere nec me
ingrato vocem prostituisse foro?
Mortale est, quod quaeris, opus. mihi fama perennis
quaeritur, in toto semper ut orbe canar.
vivet Maeonides, Tenedos dum stabit et Ide,
dum rapidas Simois in mare volvet aquas;
vivet et Ascraeus, dum mustis uva tumebit,
dum cadet incurva falce resecta Ceres.
Battiades semper toto cantabitur orbe;
quamvis ingenio non valet, arte valet.
nulla Sophocleo veniet iactura cothurno;
cum sole et luna semper Aratus erit;
dum fallax servus, durus pater, inproba lena
vivent et meretrix blanda, Menandros erit;
Ennius arte carens animosique Accius oris
casurum nullo tempore nomen habent.
Varronem primamque ratem quae nesciet aetas,
aureaque Aesonio terga petita duci?
carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti,
exitio terras cum dabit una dies;
Tityrus et segetes Aeneiaque arma legentur,
Roma triumphati dum caput orbis erit;
donec erunt ignes arcusque Cupidinis arma,
discentur numeri, culte Tibulle, tui;
Gallus et Hesperiis et Gallus notus Eois,
et sua cum Gallo nota Lycoris erit.
Ergo, cum silices, cum dens patientis aratri
depereant aevo, carmina morte carent.
cedant carminibus reges regumque triumphi,
cedat et auriferi ripa benigna Tagi!
vilia miretur vulgus; mihi flavus Apollo
pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua,
sustineamque coma metuentem frigora myrtum,
atque a sollicito multus amante legar!
pascitur in vivis Livor; post fata quiescit,
cum suus ex merito quemque tuetur honos.
ergo etiam cum me supremus adederit ignis,
vivam, parsque mei multa superstes erit.

Ovid ELEGY XV

[Jasonwclark]

Study

[Jasonwclark]

Study after Rubens

[Jasonwclark]

Study after Vredeman De Vries

[Jasonwclark]

"Some bright morning...."

[Jasonwclark]

This was my final project for the semester. The assignment was to 'do a kind of still life using stuff from around the house,' so this was my take on that.


Stille

[Chris Bennett]

Hey Jason,
This last image sees you really coming into your own in terms of what you want to say, I feel. It has a viseral quality in the 'up front' display of the objects allowing you to compose in a way that you seem extremely comfortable with, thus making a very powerful piece. I would like to see more in this vien.
One other thought - it also makes a nice balance between your own fatasies and the general world of the average onlooker. What I mean is that it doesn't push people away with a riddle but invites them into a world without any conditions on them.
Really liking the work in general - it 'speaks' to me.

[CatConvention]

feist played in san diego last week and i missed it.
thanks for the sketch book comments

[trout]

nice shoes.

[Jasonwclark]

Thanks Trout

I'm still not done with the grass yet, but since we're on to page four, here is a quick study after Moebius.

Griffes D'Ange: VII
Pen and Ink 1989


I did mine in pencil though, and went blonde rather than brunette.
Finished this one with a 4B, but I kind of regret going that soft, since it was hard to keep the lines clean. I also think her legs are a little long, but I don't really mind that as much.

Here is the original, and one of the roughs I did before transfering to bristol.

[Chris Bennett]

Nice work Jason, but I think you missed the point of the Moebius by making her blonde: The combined silhouette of her dark hair and background gives a sort of overall Yin/Yang symbol shape that has the effect of making the girl look like she is in the process of descending clockwise down and around the picture. This sense of her movement caused by this compositional device gives the feeling that she is slipping into bed for you - which is where the seduction of the image comes from. The movement of the piece caused by the combined background/hair silhouette is where the eroticism is engineered rather than the charms of the girl alone.

[slipp3ry]

absolutely amazing..

[Jacfat]

Hey man, your mind is brilliant those pencils are quite breath taking hope u dont mine put one as my desktop so I could review all the details. Keep it up bro wish I could sketch like that

[slipp3ry]

ive been meaning to give you a more in depth review..

your Limnos drawing is so amazing.. I love looking and exploring all the detail and planning that went into this. The frog and the tadpoles and fish at his feet are awesome.. I love how it all flows together and every inch is dripping with detail. The overall composition is just mind blowing. Seriously I hate giving positive reviews because it is much harder for me to write about stuff that I like.. Im a pessimistic person and find it much easier to dissect work when I dont like it rather than when i do.

Also the one with the faces.. is just fantastic. It really blew me away..

Your recent portrait work is meh.. it lacks the wow factor that your other pieces carry. No offense intended! I dont konw if you plan on incorporating a background or where you are going to take the recent portrait drawing.. but as is it is not as impressive to me as your other work. And your other work is crazy impressive.

I wonder how much psilo it took .. jk

a peer of mine from college does some really interesting pen stuff that you might like.. im going to PM you his website gallery so you can check it out.

[Jasonwclark]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the feedback and kind words. No problem Jacfat, I'm glad you like it. I also shot you a PM in response Slipp3ry

For the more recent drawings and portrait studies, most of them are like practice runs and still feel pretty rough. I try to think of the smaller projects as preliminary drafts on the way to figuring out the real deal, but it's true, I often get sidetracked. Soon, I hope to start bringing things together in a way that should make a little more sense. The larger studies usually take me a while to get my head around, but I try to keep them in the back of my mind, even if I’m just scribbling and messing about. Sadly, I’m not getting much work done tonight though.

I burned the shit out of myself when I was trying to bake a french bread pizza yesterday and still can’t hold the pencil with my right hand. I tried to draw a picture of it using my left earlier tonight, but the results were pretty miserable. It was really a lot harder than I imagined; I think signing my name might have been the hardest part. Just goes to show how much we can take our bodies for granted sometimes... even just typing lefty on the boards has been giving me no end of trouble today. What the hell though, they can't all be winners right?



I have a folder full of duds, most worse than this one. I like to hide them away to spare myself the embarassment. When I was a little younger I used to get rid of things like this, but now I try to hang onto everything, even if I hate it, just in case. You never know when something might prove useful later on, and its important to stay open to new ideas and new expirements, even if they seem a little suspect at first.

Thanks again for stopping by, and a special thanks out to everyone who helps keep CA up and running. Don't forget to go swoop on Dobsky's new Perspective tutorial if you haven't already. That thing is red hot.

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Jasonwclark. Really blew m mind when I stumbled upon your drawings. You have definitely created a style for yourself and maybe it reminds me a bit of Salvador Dali for some reason. Beautiful images full of intriguing details.

One thing that struck me from the beginning was the fact that although your foreshortening and images look anatomically correct they are still lacking the 3D element. They look more 2D than 3D. This is just my wild guess for the reason that might be behind it. I've seen before when you draw a lot from photos you learn to shade a certain way which lacks of 3 dimensionality. I would encourage you to do a lot of life studies and see if that helps. I have no idea what your background is and how much groundwork you've done to create solid foundation and in case you are self taught or if you've knowingly chosen this type of style. Just though I might offer my opinion in case you'd find it useful.

All the best and keep at the amazing work!

[Jasonwclark]

Yeah definitely. I work a lot from reference, especially for the human form, so I could see that. I try to incorporate life drawing and drawing from the imagination too, but I'm constantly running up against my limitations. I think it'd be really cool to make a serious study of these things, and with other like minded people around to learn from.

I'm completely blown away and humbled by the work coming out this place and really grateful that a resource like this even exists on the internet. I already feel like I've learned more in the last year, by just listening to others and observing their work, than I did in like a decade of trying to figure things out on my own. I still have so much to learn though, especially to pull off this thing I've started. If I'd realized at the begging just how hubristic it was to even attempt, I might never have started; but I feel like have to see it through to the end now, just for my own personal reasons. Long way to go though, for sure. More focus on studies from life and memory will definitely be necessary.

Right now I'm trying to save up some cash and put together a few of my ideas, so I can maybe start taking some classes with you guys up in Northern California. I've been trying to work out some living arrangements in the South Bay, (the View most likely) but I should be close to the light rail which would be a plus. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

[Cthogua]

Hey man, nice thread you've got here. The big, intricate allegorical compositions are fantastic, I wish I had the patience for that kind of work There seems to be a kind of personal style emerging from that work that I'm totally envious of. I feel like I've somewhat lost touch with my personal vision with all the production oriented art I've done lately...I'm sure with some proper nurturing it will return though ;-)

The only criticism that I would offer right now is what has already been mentioned of your work still feeling fairly flat despite being very well rendered because of the heavy dependence on photos. It's not totally a bad thing, in fact I could benefit from more photo-ref use, but there's definitely a "look" to something that's been straight copied from a photo. I think alot of the time's its because with snapshots and outdoor photos the light isn't controlled to be more interesting or more revealing of the form and tends to flatten forms, especially with flash photography. Anyway, keep up the good work dude, I'm sure mighty works are in your future.

[Jasonwclark]

Thanks for the feedback and the support man.

The flatness is something I'm definitely trying to improve upon. I feel like I'm making some progress in that area (over the work from a few years ago say) but it is certainly something to overcome. Ultimately I would like the work to have a more coherent sense of depth and lighting for everything, but I also rather enjoy the flattening effect sometimes too, on account of the way it brings the different forms together in new and sometimes unexpected ways; so I guess you could say its like half deliberate, and half accidental at this point. The double image is something I enjoy for example, and the mesmerist aesthetic in general, so sometimes in order to push it in one direction, I'll just give something up in the other and try not to worry about it too much. I agree though, the more representational I go, the more apparent my shortcomings are made, so I know I'll have to do much more work in this area.

For the allegorical drawings, I haven’t yet achieved what I want with them, but I feel that the elements are starting to slowly come together. I don’t consider anything in this thread to be finished though. I give them working titles, but it’s mostly just so I can keep things organized in my own head. Still trying to pull together the general ideas in a way that makes sense to me, so I’ll have a clearer foundation to build upon later. One of the reasons I enjoy working monochromatically right now, for instance, is that it provides a kind of unifying order to the drawings in the interim, and leaves open the possibility to reinterpret things and take them in another direction at a later time. This is especially important at this stage, because some day I want to return to all of these pencil drawings, and hopefully bring them together in a more appropriate and sophisticated way. At the moment everything is a little disjointed, but I definitely have a plan. I hope eventually that the stuff in this thread will serve as a kind of indication of process, and maybe lend me some sweet insight in the future, that I haven’t quite thought of yet.

This is a little embarassing, but here is a sketch I made when I was 20, first semester of greek. It probably looks like nothing, but its the most important nothing in the folder for me. I’ve only showed this first one to a couple people, because its so crude (to the point of written notes even) and hard to follow besides, but this is basically where I started on the current trajectory. Everything I've done since is related in some way to this one little drawing and the thought I was having the night I sribbled it out. I've subsequently added to the thought and refined my ideas about how to approach it, but its still this at its core. I hope someday to explain a little better, but I guess I can share the doodle at least.

Thanks again guys for checking out my thread, and taking the time to comment. It means a lot

iota

1: Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2: And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4: And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

[Ramon Hurtado]

Hey Jason, great progress in here man, nice to see you keeping things moving

I love the Bridgman piece! Although I think you should have added a few bottles, I hear Ole' George-y boy gave his lectures while liquored up

Your studies are looking really nice, the one thing I would say is to watch your reflected lights, sometimes they're too sharp and too light.

Who are you studying with at City? Is it Wayne Hulgin? That guy's really cool, he's let me sit in on his class before

anyway, keep it up!

[Kagemusha22]

Just seeing how you've developed artistically over the year, was great. Makes me wonder whether I've wasted time not practicing enough... (I started drawing consistently around 16)

Anyway the current set of works being put up, are really awe-inspiring. They're surreal, realistic, somewhat-reminiscent of the classic artists. The recent work up on here really blows me away, I can't find fault with it anyway.