The Human Canvas - Turn the other Cheek, Treebeard!

 

Turn the other cheek? And Treebeard?

We'll get to that.

Meantime...

 

 

To start, we knew we wanted a tree.

An oak, perhaps? Anyway - something deciduous.

 

 

This gave me a chance

to play with smudges and smears - kinda letting

the drawing find itself.

 

No REAL rules or picture to follow.

Just let the pen drag and lift when it wants to.

Then ya get a trunk. 

 

Especially when you add a couple layers of color.

 

 

The other thing we knew,

beyond wanting a tree, was to have the roots become

a bit of an arm band.

 

 

After adding the

final layer of blue - the darkest you see - I decided

it ended up with just a bit of a Tolkein feel. Something that

may end up on a calendar or Middle Earth

art book or something.

 

So... Treebeard?

 

Well, we got Treebeard

directly from Tolkein, or indirectly

via Peter Jackson.

 

 

Treebeard was an Ent.

He may have even been the oldest of the Ents.

The Ents were, in essence, shepherds for the trees. 

And, as Orcs had no particular respect for trees, Ents

held no particular kindness toward the Orcs. Long, long

ago, there were actually Ent-Wives as well, but had been

driven away by Sauron. Saruman, while under the

influence and ally of Sauron, destroyed SO many

trees that, well, the Ents becam a major force

in the defeat Saruman.

 

So that's PART of the reason for

the Treebeard reference. Also, Jason here

didn't have a beard when I saw him last.

 

He didn't have a tree either.

Treebeard.

 

And "Turn the other Cheek?

Well, I think the first photo you see on this

entry looks a BIT like a butt. That's all.

Go look again.

 

More Human Canvas on the way.

 

Oh! And don't think the

bad jokes vague references won't continue either.

But these references DO get me some accidental traffic

from people Googling Tolkein stuff.

The Human Canvas - A Calming Pool... and Aquaman!

Here's a quickie.

Mike.

We saw him on the previous post,

The Human Canvas - A Tree of Life and New Beginnings.

This was later that same night.

And no matter WHAT I had in mind artistically, my wife was there saying, "Draw Aquaman. Draw Aquaman. Draw Aquaman..." - something like that.

Mike's a swimmer.

So...

Aquaman...

And Mike...

And the mirror.

Thanks Mike.

These were both fun.

And thank YOU for stopping by.

And possibly - for being the next canvas.

I'm always looking.

Please check back.

Gives this site a bookmark.

Coming soon, a REALLY cool hummingbird

and flower combo done on a dear friend in Colorado.

And most of these

adventures can be seen through

tabs near the top of this page. Some really fun stuff.

Some really cool pieces as well.

Okay.

They were ALL fun!

The Human Canvas - A Tree of Life & New Beginnings

sO MEET mIKE.

oOPS - dAMNED CAPS LOCK.

There we go. So...

Meet Mike.

Mike had shown me

some pictures of his dorm, which included 

something REALLY cool that he had created.

We'll get to that in a bit.

Meantime - the photos he showed me...

and the story he told...

That's what led to this session - with

something quite specific in mind. I told him about it.

He was up for it.

It started with a bit of a wash - just a

smear of some color for use in the background.

A long time ago,

this smear was the UNsuccessful

attempt at erasing. Now it's become another

method for me to employ. Something

I tried out just earlier this year.

To do this...

...Which became this...

...And finally - this.

THIS - was a COOL experiment.

But back to Mike.

After the wash, we start

with a bit of a "Tree of Life" kinda picure.

Then we go back in with another wash.

This one ends up being simply a light green at the

 base of the tree. The important thing though

is that it remains more subtle - allowing

the tree to be just a BIT

more bold. 

After that... have the earth crumbling away beneath it.

A bit more detail...

...And now let's talk

about those pictures from his dorm.

This wonderful tree you see

in the picture below was done with Sharpie,

and created over a long period of time. If you were

able to look close, you MIGHT see that this tree is made up entirely of writing.

You'd have to look REALLY close.

He did the writing as a rather personal journal,

and kept it rather hard to read. It was something public,

yet hidden. A retrospective AND existential

examination...

AND a wonderful art project.

But since this writing/drawing of the

tree in his dorm was a rather cathartic release for him...

...I wanted that earth crumbling

away beneath the "Tree of Life" to end up in a pool.

A cooling, calming place...

A place to find some peace...

...A place for re-birth.

Thanks Mike.

Thanks for the canvas... and the story and pictures which inspired it.

And thank YOU for stopping by.

And for being next. I'm always looking for the next canvas.

To see ALL the adventures

of The Human Canvas,  there are a few

tabs near the top of the page.

"The Human Canvas - The Begining" "The Human Canvas 2011" and The Human Canvas 2012"

Thanks again for looking... AND for spreading the word to a new audience/group of potential canvases.

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The Human Canvas - The Fluidity of Trees... and Lions

Now this...

Was a successful experiment.

I know.

I keep on referring to these

Human Canvas sessions as some sort of "experiment".

Truth be told, each session usually IS an

experiment... trying some new image

or method... or both.

This one started...

with me talking to a woman about

doing a session with her, and she mentioned

that her daughter was thinking about a tattoo

(okay, more like really really really wanting one),

and this might be a good way to

"test the waters".

We didn't talk about it before I came over.

I just knew Lexi wanted a lion, and thought this might

be a cool approach.

LOTS of step by step shots on this one.

It's a cool slideshow, if ya have that option.

Starting with a quick line drawing...

Only to smear it out,

making it more of a general wash.

Later this'll become a mere suggestion of a shadow.

At this point though, it'll let me lay down the image...

without having to be precise.

Okay.

That done, let's go in with

one color to start to find a lion within the

rough marks I laid down.

I have to admit -
I thought of attempting this design
after seeing something similar on a shirt O' mine.

But it's only similar.

There's no WAY I coulda recreated that.

Besides, this soon lent itself SO well to having

a flowing, "see what happens as we go" kinda thing.

Organic, if you will.

Now add another color for some highlights,

as well as a bit of further definition. THIS blue,

while it works well aesthetically, I picked this shade soley because it's amongst her favorite colors.

At least...

 that's what her Mom said. 

Lexi's back was to me the whole time.

And here we are! Turned out nicely.

All it really IS though...

Is a general wash with one color...

Followed by two colors. The first to draw,

the second to accent (which allows you to "correct").

Thank you Alexis,

thank you Christie, thank you Sierra (who was next)

and a big thanks once again to Mike Munoz - photographer

for the evening.

And thank YOU for stopping by, coming back, AND letting me draw on you next.

Catch the begining of this whole adventure through the HUMAN CANVAS tabs near the top of this page.

Thanks again.