For all those who follow this blog (and you know who you are) sorry for not posting for a while. I'm gonna' blame it on being out of the country for the last two weeks.
Just got back from an inspiration trip to England. Saw a lot of great sites, hung out in some great museums and did more than a bit of sketching. It's the latter that I'll be posting for a while.
This first is from the Camden Town locks. I've never seen one of these actually working before so it's pretty cool to watch boats as they "step" up and down the river.
Plus there's a ton of fairly odd shopping in that district.
STRANGERS
(a silent play with no words spoken whatsoever)
By Eleanor Tylbor
GUY1 walks across the stage and is approached by GUY2.
GUY1 waves at GUY2 but GUY2 doesn't wave back.
GUY1 waves at GUY2 again, smiling.
GUY2 ignores him and turns his head sideways.
GUY1 rushes over to him and taps him on the shoulder, forcing GUY2 to acknowledge his presence
GUY2 turns to face him, pushes him backwards and attempts to rush away
GUY1 blocks his departure with an extended arm and moves his face close to GUY2's face, and points to his face
GUY2 backs up and attempts to flee
GUY1 chases after him but GUY2 moves too quickly.
GUY 1 drops his head and shakes it slowly and his shoulders droop indicating dejection
A FEMALE APPROACHES.
GUY1 lifts his head and focuses his attention on her. He scans her body with his eyes, taking in her figure. He smoothes his hair, fixes his shirt collar and adjusts his pants. She is reading while walking and he makes a point of bumping into her.
FEMALE, startled, drops book and takes step backward.
GUY1 smiles and bends over to pick up book. He glances at title and points at her - then at himself.
FEMALE grabs book out of his hand and attempts to move on, obviously leery of GUY1.
GUY1 extends his arm and touches her shoulder. She whirls around and hits him squarely across his face. He reels backwards and places his hand on his face, shaking his head in bewilderment and shrugs his shoulders
FEMALE removes her purse that is hanging on her shoulder and hits him on his shoulders - then focuses her attention on the book and moves on
GUY1 drops down on to the floor, drops his head and it's obvious by his heaving shoulders that he is sobbing. He shakes his head in frustration while pounding the floor with his fists.
He suddenly jumps up after spotting a CLOWN, who is puffing away on a cigarette. GUY1 jumps up and down in excitement, runs towards clown in an attempt to communicate with him
(END OF SCENE 1)
I’m happy to confess here and now that I’m a girl who likes her mascara, and it’s a rare day that I appear in public without it. So, imagine my delight when our new book Clean came along. In it the author, Virginia Smith, explores the development of our obsession with personal hygiene, cosmetics, grooming, and purity. In the first of three posts, I’m happy to present the below short extract from the first chapter of the book.
Dirt is only matter out-of-place and is neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’. Nature does not care what we think, or how we respond, to matter in all its forms. But as a species we do care, very deeply, about our own survival. A dense mass of human history clusters around the belief that dirt is ‘bad’, and that dirt-removal (cleansing) is always ‘good’. The old Anglo-Saxon word ‘clean’ was used in a wide variety of situations: it was often blatantly human-centred or self-serving in a way we might call ‘moral’; but it was also used more objectively as a technical term, to measure or judge material things relative to other things. It was thoroughly comprehensive, and unquestioned.
Preceding all human cultural history however – certainly before any human history of personal hygiene – were billions of years of wholly a-moral species development. The exact date one enters this endless time-line is almost irrelevant; what we are really looking for are the time-spans or periods when things speed up, which in the case of homo sapiens was somewhere between c.100,000-25,0000 BCE, followed by another burst of development after c.5000 BCE. Throughout this long period of animal species development, all of our persistent, over-riding, and highly demanding bio-physical needs were evolving and adapting, and providing the basic infrastructure for the later, very human-centred, psychology, technology and sociology of cleanliness.
It is difficult not to use ancient language when describing the egotistical processes of human physiology – routinely described as the ‘fight’ for life – and in particular, our endless battle against poisonous dirt. Much of this battle is carried out below the level of consciousness. Most of the time our old animal bodies are in a constant state of defence and renewal, but we feel or know nothing about it; and the processes are virtually unstoppable. We can no more stop evacuating than we can stop eating or breathing – stale breath, of course, is also an expellation of waste matter. Ancient scientists were strongly focussed on the detailed technology of these supposedly poisonous bodily ‘evacuations’; and modern science also uses similarly careful technical terminology when describing bodily ‘variation’, ‘elimination’, ‘toxicity’ or ‘waste products’. In either language, old or new, inner (and outer) bodily ‘cleansing’ is ultimately connected to the more profound principle of ‘wholesomeness’ within the general system of homeostasis that balances and sustains all bodily functions.
Further extracts from other chapters of Clean can be found on Virginia Smith’s website.
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Missed you, David! But these look great! And, I'm glad you could get away.
Thanks Marion! Traveling always make you appreciate coming home. Now I just gotta' get caught up on all my projects!
Wow...David these are by far my favorite of your sketches. Can I ask (again), what media you were using? And maybe your process?
Anytime Andrew -- the drawing of the lock is classic "Quick Sketch":
- A rough lay-in with 30% warm grey marker.
- Then start defining the forms with a G-Tec-C4 pen (pretty fine thin line), spending more of the time on the area I find most interesting.
- Back in with the 30% marker to get lights and darks and shadows.
- Discover that 30% is now too light and doesn't add anything (get mildly annoyed) grab a 60% warm grey marker and actually get something done.
-Grab a 90% warm grey marker and knock in the darkest darks.
-Get back to the hotel in the evening and toss is a little gouache for some hits of color. Try not to overwork this stage.
Wow, awesome David-thank you. I will try this out asap. Very inspirational...
I love that goucahce...