Female Face in Pen: Catching Depth of the Face

This is a rapid sketch of a female face. I had just finished looking at a book of textile patterns from Mexico and the cheekbones of a photographed woman draped in colorful fabrics caught my eye. I sketched her after I turned the book into the library, so this likely does not look anything like the actual woman in the photograph.

The cheekbones were very important to this sketch. I was playing around with the idea of catching depth through lines. That is why the neck is vertically divided into parts.

I just noticed that the faint shadows of the drawings on the previous pages are slightly visible. That was not intentional.

I hope you like this! 

River and the Sea

An arrow, blue, points at a floating spot of purple graffiti. In the right hand corner, a partly visible skeleton dances. Rays of blinding white light. I like this a little, just due to the random blobs of color here and there.

I did this using a mouse and sketchbook pro, 2011. I hope this isn't as visually ugly as the "migraine headache" drawing.

I have a lot of free time this summer, so I will likely be adding more drawings.

Thanks for stopping by!
~Maya

Narcissus' Musings For May 28th, 2012

I am not liking "Migraine Headache" anymore. It gives me a headache just looking at it. That was the point, but still, I am not liking it. If I delete that picture, it is because I could no longer stand its presence.

I wish there was a way to upload music that I made on Ableton, Live 7. There is only a posting button for images and videos. Maybe I will make some sort of abstract video and use that song as a soundtrack.

I am feeling very creative. It likely has to do with the fact that I am no longer taking 15 units at Fresno State. Now that I have free time I have been listening to music, making little beats on an outdated version of Live, and watching endless versions of Nyan cat. Yes, Nyan cat, that internet meme. It can get a little addicting.

Stay tuned! More to come in the next few months. If you are here for the first time, hi! My name is Maya. I like to make art. I am not that highly trained, but I enjoy creating art. I took one and a half years of drawing at Fresno City College. That is the extent of my educational training in drawing or painting.

I am a senior at Fresno State taking summer classes in order to graduate before August. Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to check through the older posts. I post ninety percent drawings, paintings, and computer software drawings. The other ten percent is this, little written blog entries about art. All the art here is my own, original pieces I have done in the last decade.

Migraine Headache: Novice computer drawing

This is a fast computer drawing I made using Sketchbook Pro 2011. The inspiration came from listening to Art21, the first episode of the fifth season, Compassion. I had it streaming on my computer but I had the drawing software program running which filled my screen, so I just drew while listening to the descriptions of the creation process without seeing what the artists' artwork looked like.

I drew lots of lines using my scroll pad on my macbook. It is interesting using a scroll pad and not the conventional mouse or the typical drawing tablet with artificial pen. I like it, it is an unusual experience. I am limited by a 3 by 2.5 inch space where my finger can roam. My lines are always squiggly and never straight.

I have really grown to like the filler bucket tool. Filler bucket is a little icon that looks like a bucket of water and you click on an area that you want completely filled with a specific color. It is like painting in a matter of seconds. I like this. It lets me think larger than I normally think. Normally I will overfocus on one section of the painting and try to combine colors. I normally do not like solid colors. This software makes me think of solid color differently. I like it.

I hope you like it! It is not elegant, not pretty like the last image I posted, that pink and white flower. It is ugly, and I like that ugly. I like the man in the bottom right corner. I feel like him sometimes, focusing on something nobody else can see, feeling sensations nobody else can feel. He barely notices the light that lands on his face. 

Flower with Sketchbook Pro: Beginner level

I have not really used Sketchbook Pro as much as I would like, due to homework and artist's block. Here is a flower I drew using an economical PenPad Tablet and pen. I felt like posting something though, so here is a flower. Thanks for stopping by this little blog!

Design--Freehand

This is a freehand pen drawing I did yesterday.

The blue and yellow tints are accidental--I had to fill the picture with light because I took the photo with my cell phone and my shadow was visible. I might use something similar to this on a brochure I am creating to commemorate May Is National Mental Health Awareness Month. I am manning a booth on campus to celebrate and I need a brochure to hand out. Unfortunately, the NAMI brochures cost 20 dollars for 50 brochures and they won't come in time anyways (4-5 week wait). I will just make my own brochures to hand out and get them printed cheap through the campus bookstore. 

As you may know from reading the first blog entry, I had started this blog to help raise funds for a mental health organization. Sadly, their funding fell through and nobody seemed particularly interested in my artwork, either. C'est la vie! That's life. On the plus side, I now have an outlet for my creative side and I am still interested in raising awareness on behalf of those who live with a mental illness. 

I bought an art book to display for the Mental Health Awareness Table. It's "Martin Ramirez: The Last Works." Ramirez was an immigrant from Mexico who was found to have schizophrenia and became institutionalized for the remainder of his life. What is great about him is that he overcame his disability and made beautiful art, which is now world famous. His artwork is mostly patterns of lines and curves. He draws a lot of railroad tracks and various religious icons. 

I first saw one of Martin Ramirez's pieces during my intermediate drawing class when the professor brought in her art book of his artwork. I was immediately captivated by his sense of symmetry and his mastery of hypnotic lines. I remember that my hands were stained with charcoal from drawing class and that I had to wash them for about 3 minutes before they were clean enough to touch the crisp, white pages of my professor's book. Once I turned the pages I didn't want to give up the book because the images and the story behind them moved me.

Tuna--Fruit of the Nopal (CACTUS FRUIT)

Growing up Chicana I learned a lot about the cactus, namely, that it is edible and delicious. 

My grandmother used to have a collection of

cactus plants when we lived out in Kingsburg, California. 

Some of my earliest memories are of

watching her cut the plump tunas off the nopal. 

Tunas are the fruits of the cactus and that is what this

photo is of. Cactus is called un nopal in Spanish and it is part of our cuisine. 

To eat, one must first wear gardening gloves to cut the tunas off the cactus, as the cactus has thorns. Then, you remove the rest of the thorns off the plant and peel the skin off the tunas. Inside, the fruit is bright red and soft. You eat it as is; no cooking or spices required! 

The cactus that the tuna grows on can be skinned, cut into strips, seeped in water, drained, and eaten.

It has a sort of slimy texture, so it is an acquired taste. 

However, once you get used to the tangy taste

you grow very fond of laying some nopales down on your omelette. You can top this off with a sprinkling of crumbly Mexican cheese. Nopales are said to be good for warding off diabetes.

I think I will draw some tuna now. Tuna is sort of a symbol of my Chicana heritage, and I think I will go draw some cactus fruit now! :)

Narcissus' Musing 1020

The last two weeks have made me appreciate how subjective a drawing can be. To one person, it might be something charming and delightful. To another, this same drawing might be tacky or poorly drawn. To the artist, of course, you either want to destroy the image and deny you created it or bathe it in love and workable fixative so that nothing can ever smudge its precious image.

I am a flip-flopper--I will love my drawing one moment and then fight the urge to tear it into pieces and apologize to those who had to bear the sight of it. What can I say---artists! You know the type.

I am getting Sketchbook Pro in the mail soon--along with a cheap tablet that I will use until I can get the hang of computer art. Hopefully, I can create something to post here. I am taking a lot of classes and I haven't had time to really create. Everything has either been a quick sketch or a piece that I did for others and with their opinions in mind.


I am looking forward to using my new software. I have lots to draw. Leaves, flowers, my reflection in the mirror.

I once had a professor of art ask me why I drew myself over and over again. She had this curious look on her face and I wanted to tell her something deep like "I am in search of myself," but I told her the truth---"I can't afford a real model." So if you see like 50 new drawings of myself I swear it's not because I am really, really vain. I draw myself because in these times of extreme copyright infringement hysteria, I can't use anybody's image except my own (unless it is for educational or satirical purposes, so says the law). So if you get really sick of my image please email me your photo and I will draw you instead. Just kidding.

Self in Thought

I did this with a pen on old sketchbook paper. It's a self-portrait done in a rough sketch. I like it though, because it has interesting shapes.

Guadalupe

This is a rapid sketch I did of the Virgen de Guadalupe.
In art history class, which I ironically failed, we had to sit through many, many versions of the Virgin Mary.
I found a lot of them to be colorful and radiant.
Mine, I feel, is a little more stark. Her features are sharp, angular, pointy. Her shawl is marked with rough lines. That's just what came out of me.

I'm trying to draw something on commission and I'm feeling artist's block. I can't draw what I've already drawn...my mood changes, my life changes, and so does my ability to create art. I'm afraid this person will be unhappy with my artwork, as she has already taken a liking to an older painting I did, and wanted something similar. I am starting to realize how ephemeral the artist's moment of creation is---it comes and just like that it vanishes forever. I can't recapture that moment, that stroke of paint, that image from the past. But maybe I can make something new...something she'll still like.

Beauty Pill

This is a collage I did today from an outdated fashion magazine. Yes, I know, the words are all backwards, but I had to hold it up to my imac to take this photo, so please accept my apologies.

There is a kind of resentment lots of women feel towards modern beauty standards. We put some women up on a stage and expect the others to either conform or get out of our sight. I find this terribly upsetting. I was sort of venting my sadness at not being able to conform. I'll never be Marilyn or any waifish woman, but I can create artwork with next to no money. Does that make me pretty?

Aftermath

I did this for an intermediate drawing class. I used charcoal, charcoal pencil, kohl, white chalk, and red nupastel.

I like this sketch because it looks urban: cluttered, busy, dramatic, and claustrophobic.

My teacher liked it a lot, complimented me, and then asked me to please follow the instructions next time. I forget what the assignment was, probably to use gesture. I always got that: love it, but it's not the assignment.

Next up: some new pieces.

Narcissus' Musings, 2

I haven't created any new art due to a tragic death in my family. However, I feel the need to transform my anguish into something positive so I'll be drawing this week and posting new pieces. It won't be anything fancy, just plain old sketchbook paper, but I'd like to share it with the few people who stop by.

A friend asked me if I was afraid somebody would steal my ideas since I post up my artwork. I replied that even if somebody would do that, the difference is I can keep producing new original art and the copycat can't. Plus, it's kind of an honor to be copied, in an illegal, copy-right infringement kind of way. It means I've done something worth stealing, and that's not easy to achieve.

So my goal for next week, aside from studying for my Arabic 1A and British literature classes, is to create something worth posting.

I like to create art not just because I feel an unstoppable urge to produce art, but also because I can adorn the walls of my room with my own work instead of shelling out hundreds of dollars for a Jackson Pollock print. I can surround myself with beautiful creations without paying lots of money. This is especially good since I'm broke and waiting on next semester to start so I can get my grant money to buy new canvas and yes! real oils!

With This Arm I Draw

This is all plain charcoal, white chalk, and a little dark kohl. I did this about a year ago and it's one of my favorites due to the expressive quality of the line and the chimera-like flower above my extended arm.

I like to think of this as a stark self-portrait, as I am not smiling or posing. I'm actually drawing myself as I draw. I also included a flower in the background whose petals were falling off as I drew them, thus making it rather difficult to catch the whole flower.

I like the stained window motif in the background. It's kind of my wry attempt at chiascuro, an art technique where white and black are placed in juxtaposition.

Narcissus' Musings, 1

Periodically, I might post just writing, as I love to write about art.

I have a book in front of me to inspire me (hasn't kicked in yet) called Mikhail Larionov and the Russian Avant-garde. It is an excellent book detailing the Rayonists of the early 1900's. I just wish it had more color photos, as Rayonists were well-known for making exquisite use of hues. By chance, I stumbled upon "head of a bull" which Larionov did in 1912 (also called "the farm"). It's black and white with rays that strike the head like a halo. These "sun rays" are reflected in the composition of the bull itself through the design of the nose and flared ears.

I did my own head of a bull, called "bull-headed" and this can be found in this blog. Rather than use a background, I just did the head itself, because I didn't want to detract from the bull. Now I see that it might look a little empty, having seen Mikhail Larionov's bull head. I don't know what I can do to make my bull's head have a background. I filled it with so many lines that I'm afraid I might make it look cluttered.

I guess that's the art process of learning as you go. Something finished might look bare and unpolished a year later. It's the curse of the artist, to mature after you've created so much!

Unfinished Portrait

I'm posting this because I am really fond of this wannabe German Expressionist piece I did about a year ago. I used Vine charcoal, white chalk, and kohl.

I'm actually a little afraid to do anything to it. In fact, it was propped up on a board for about a month before I realized I was not going to finish the background. It's just one of those pieces that will haunt me for the rest of my life, as in, how could I have successfully completed a composition? Sometimes you just have to let your art stand, even if it means leaving it alone unfinished. Sigh.

Lightning, Thunder, and Sun

This was all done with crayola oil pastels. My budget doesn't cover those fancy Van Gogh pastels that are for sale at the art supply store, but I think it worked for this image all right.

Sorry that the photo is crooked. I haven't figured out how to crop in picassa yet, plus I'm lazy.

I also used a little bit of yellow splashed poster paint over the top to sort of mimic chaos.

I might have been a little hyper-active when this was created. I'm sure you can tell by the shapes, colors, and overall presentation that I was "up", manic, if you will.

I think the inspiration for me was this moment of pure elation I was feeling---hope for my future. I was also surrounded by friends and I think it comes through. Even though it's "spiky" and "chaotic" there's something exciting and unexpected about it, like lightning in the middle of the day. My favorite bit is the green circles creating a larger curved line with black spikes, outlined in blue and splashed with yellow paint (mid-right).

My Canvas is a Full-Length Mirror

I used poster paint on these full-length mirrors. The front is still a mirror but I painted all over the back. I'm more fond of the red and blue one with the serious black glyphs than I am of the lighter one. I did the red and blue one (on the right) several years ago. Then that mirror broke and my mother went and bought me a new mirror, which I promptly painted all over, much to her dismay.

The one on the right is more serious, more nightmarish than the one on the left, which is sort of dream-like and humble. If you zoom in on the left canvas, towards the bottom where the maroon circle is, I used pelican ink to create light lines.

I consider this to be an expression of Pollock-esque painting. He is one of my favorite painters and I love to imitate him and even when I'm not intentionally imitating him, I wind up with something that reminds me of "Totem" or or another canvas.

Reunion

I did this for an intermediate drawing class at Fresno City College. The assignment was to find an old object and transform it. I had a broken watch that I wanted to use. I decided to imitate Van Gogh, but using only black and white. Then, I wanted to do a Pollock-esque effect with a bottle of pelican ink my professor had handy. I turned the clock into a globe, beneath a starry sky, with time exploding as two figures meet.

I used vine charcoal, white chalk, kohl, pelican ink, and a band-aid.

Dissident

I published this on-line for a local arts community, my.fresnoarts.net.

I used wax crayons, nupastel, and a fine pen to do this piece. It's from one of my sketchbooks. I originally did this for my intermediate figure drawing class. My professor liked it, she even said it was beautiful, but that I didn't quite follow the assignment's instructions. I was supposed to use gesture (an art technique) and I was supposed to use charcoal. Inspiration can be fussy!