I drew this last night as sort of a practice round for a more complicated/contrived piece I have been working on for a while now. I have been trying to simplify my process and final outcome, and I think I finally have a hang of it at least for my personal work. This piece is only four “color” separations; black, semi-opaque white, and two different transparent greys. I have come to the realization that adding any more separations just complicates the whole thing and makes it a muddy mess. I should also point out that this is probably one of my favorite pieces I have done in years. I have been slowly but surely trying to work the “mystery” back into my work, and I think I finally stumbled onto the sweet spot. That, or I have been looking at way too much of Sam’s work.
This “mystery sweet spot” is something I am constantly flirting with, and once in a blue moon get right. Things tend to lean towards too overtly sexual or too overtly creepy, and it is a rare occasion when I hit the mark in between. I think it mainly just has to do with my emotional state at the time. I had mentioned in a previous post doing “I need to get laid” drawings, which obviously usually entails the image being too overtly sexual. The “mystery sweet spot” seems to usually involve an emotional state that the insufferable Stephanie Brown refers to as my “unicorn” phase. After hearing me complain about women and dating for years, Stephanie started saying that I thought of women as unicorns…or in other words that they are rare, and beautiful, and mysterious, and terrifying, and for the most part untouchable. So somewhere between being bitter and tossing and turning in my sleep, I can actually make a good drawing every once in a while.
On a side note, I notice this morning that a lot of print orders through Big Cartel had been being sent to my spam folder. That will be rectified this weekend, and I apologize for anyone that has been waiting for an obscenely long time. Thanks a lot Google.
