Le Artiste.

I use to draw and paint a lot more than I do these days. I took just about every art class in high school there was, and spent my spares and lunch periods taking other art classes I wasn't officially in, for grades I had already completed. I'm not a fantastic artist, I know this. I've stated in previous posts that I'm capable of forming fantastic ideas of how things should look, and I wish desperately that I could hook a printer up to my brain and put it on paper. Sadly this isn't the case and I'm left with the skills that I do have to attempt to create the picture in my head.

The current project I'm working on is merging the image of The Maxx (from the comic of the same name) and Evangelion Unit 01 (of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame). So far it's working out pretty good, but as I work on it more and more it's looking a little less like the Maxx and more like an Evangelion that's totally jacked. I think it's going to take a few more sketches and some colouring for me to see it differently, and who knows if that will ever happen.

I've tried my hand at a lot of different kinds of art. Sculpting, painting, drawing and stuff that falls in the middle of all three. I find that with painting I'm very capable of working with colour, and I have a good grasp of how to bend it to my will. It's with form and subject matter that I falter. It's the same with sketching. I've always been able to tinker in abstract linescapes that don't really accomplish anything, but ask my to draw a person and I appear to be drawing with my off hand using crayons. It's not pretty. Sculpting is a little easier to create a desired image. My hands listen better to me in three dimensions than they do in two, so creating an object that I want to look a certain way is fairly easy. The issue here is that clay isn't cheap and unless you have access to a kiln it's a fairly wasted endeavor. Besides it's not like you can carry sculptures around to show people. That is primarily why I draw. To convey an idea I have in my head to someone else as clearly as possible. It doesn't matter how cool something I can conceive is if I can't adequately show it to someone else.

I am a bit of an art snob though, when it comes to drawings I see on the internet or even in books. Especially when it comes to fantasy and science fiction pieces I'm very picky about them. One of my favourite artists in this genre is the famous Masamune Shirow. His work is eye candy, but after a while you begin to get more critical about pieces that look very similar. He's discovered a formula for making pieces look technical and he exploits in. Not unlike J.K. Rowling's fame with Harry Potter, Masamune Shirow's fan base is very devoted and sometimes a little blind to things that can appear a bit lazy. Another artist I'm a fan of is Korean Hyung-tae Kim (or Kim Hyung Tae over here in North America). His use of colour and anatomy are so graphic and overwhelming that each image demands a certain amount of time in order to let it sink in visually.

I should get back to drawing if I'm ever going to finish this Maxx Unit 01, but I'm concerned that it - like so much else I start - will remain unsatisfactory and ultimately unfinished like so much of my art.