Illustration Friday: Messenger

I happen to think that musicians, especially folk musicians who have had no "classical" training, and who live very close to nature, and who play directly connected to the currents of the universe, channel messages from the gods. It's not in any specific combination of notes, or rhythms, or anything else that can be named, but it's there, deep in the music, and it can only be reached through it. Or by doing things like walking long distances in the woods, or floating all alone in the middle of a lake.

This was the last of the four African musicians that I started in February, and I just found it--the sketch and the splattered paper--waiting for all the ink hatching.

Illustration Friday: sink

Okay, I made this picture just for this topic. It was supposed to be someone sinking back into a swirl of negative thoughts, a miasma. I am totally swamped with end of the semester grading, and trying to sort out all the messes I've let accumulate all semester, and feel like it would be all too easy for me to succumb. My model actually looked desperate, like there was no helping him.

But somehow he turned out looking positive, like he's totally enlivened, invigorated, by tapping into all the wild craziness around him, so it's not fitting my idea of this topic at all. And now that I think about it, that's the way I probably am too. I may feel desperate, and all too susceptible to sinking into the morasse (however you spell that word), but it just won't happen. I put on the emotional brakes, and ignore it, and pay more attention to other things--like the web of tree branches against the gray sky outside my window.

This picture also reminds me of my very first picture for illustration Friday, that I posted in January of 2009, almost three years ago. I've really come a long way since then, and made a lot of pictures.

Hardingfele guy

I made this one months ago, and was never satisfied with it. I don't think I ever posted it, since it's bigger than my scanner. But it sat above my art table looking at me every time I came into the room, and I never knew exactly what to do about it, but today it occurred to me that some white pencil might relieve some of the dead space, and so about a minute and a half worth of white pencil drawing helped a lot. It doesn't look much like it here (using a camera with a flash isn't too cool), but I thought I should post this because I've started three other pictures that I'm very excited about, and look forward to finishing sometime in the next couple days....

Same Guy, Different Instrument

I didn't realize this was the same guy, but it is.....