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September 10, 2008
#3 exchange sketchbook: brian prosser
by sven at 3:00 pm
More sketchbook exchange pictures. These ones are for Brian Prosser up in Seattle.
Prosser labeled the first page of each participant's section with a ballpoint pen -- so I did an out-of-the-ordinary cover page. The colorful letters at the bottom are punched out; you're actually looking through to the next page.
For whatever reason, I wasn't in a collaging mood yesterday. So I did a lot more painting than usual.
"Glum Tree" and "Ghost of Thought" are my favorites this time around. For "Glum Tree" I started very dark, and built up successive layers of lighter colors. I used some dry brush technique to give it a sense of texture.
For "Twenty-Six Down" I laid down a base color, then scribbled in pencil. I used a sharpie to outline the images that popped out of the chaos at me. Then I painted the ones I liked most. There's some stream-of-consciousness text to the right just to fill the space. It reads:
twenty six down up again out the back door running hallways in hospitals where highways intersect noise and mosquitoes dropping a glass of water and forgetting the bird. the river falling twenty six down from the table to the floor, the fork hits standing up and water courses through its tines the refrigerator is a city of snails beware the frog living there, the king of a swamp beyond this particle board passage twenty six down
Do I know what it means? No.
For this one, I laid down a basecoat of black acrylic. Then I scribbled with colored pencils -- which really stand out! I touched up the image with a few outlining strokes of paint. I was surprised at how much the image looks like it's being illuminated by black light.
More stream-of-consciousness text, using four different pens, just to create texture. The skeleton was painted in india ink on tissue paper, then applied using a glue stick. I really dig the translucency: I can imagine how you'd do this using PhotoShop -- but no digital modification occurred.
"Illuminate": Brush and ink. The spaces are filled in with acrylic.
"Box Door": Lots of layers of acrylic, piled one atop another, using a very scribbly hand. I was going to use this as a background for something else (I dunno what) -- but I liked it too much as-is, so left it. Jackson Pollock-y... But with structure hiding just below the surface.
Prosser has pages at the back of his sketchbook where he's hoping folks will do some collaborations. I figured I'd start one off by painting a gradient that implies sky and grass. I'll be curious to find out if anything ultimately comes of it.
posted by sven | September 10, 2008 3:00 PM | categories: sketchbook