Ben post 2

This is a random fun drawing i did the other day... Random, fun & strange seem to be reoccurring adjectives of my work/doodles.

Max Ernst is a big inspiration of mine, because of his metamorphosis qualities in his work. I like the suggestions of different figures/objects in his images and how intricate they are.

I feel like you can look at his work endlessly and find something new or something you didn't see with every glance. That's something i admire and something i try to incorporate into my work.

Jordan Post 2

This artists name is Lori Earley, I first seen her exhibit at the Jonathan Levine gallery and got the opportunity to meet her. I really admire her graceful and stylized work.

This is a recreation of "The End" by Vincent Van Gogh on the back of a Drawing pad. Charcoal, White Charcoal and Pencil.

This is a drawing I did while watching TV. Its very silly. This is the type of things I do for fun. Pen and marker.

Articles from Salon

Here's a couple of brief, interesting articles from the current Salon.com homepage:

The Dawn of Photography

A discussion and slideshow of early photography (when it was still a lot like alchemy!) from an exhibition at the MFA Boston. Click here.

Vitruvian Man

And a little discussion of our old pal DaVinci, focussing on the famous drawing above. Here.

Post Numba II-Lauren

Artist: Mohsen Irani
Irani paints the 'sense of a model' because the government of Iran is against the representation of the female body, specifically nudity. Irani expresses the pains, protest, and tragic situations.

What attracts me is color, texture, and the grotesque bulges of skin. Enjoy!

Weekly Drawing: "Happy Birthday!"

 We've all had different experiences in our childhood, I for one hated having my picture taken and birthday parties were the worst. Not only was my picture being taken, but everyone was watching me. I felt their eyes piercing my soul as I opened their gift, trying to see if I liked it. Shyness produced many awkward photos in my youth, especially school photos. When I come across painful expressions or oafish poses in photos of children I can't help but relate.

Jason Moorer: Drawing Study and Select Artist – Slim Aarons

Often photography serves as inspiration for many of my art productions and I’ve been really interested lately in the works of Slim Aarons, whom I’ve been referencing for many of my other studios classes. Aarons is noted for capturing “genre scenes” of wealthy socialites, jet setters and celebrities, or as he notes “attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places.” I like the relationship Aarons makes between the figures and their surroundings. Since I am focusing on interior design as my semester subject this year, I’ve been investigating how people relate to their home environments and interior spaces and how those spaces are reflective of social, societal and poetical issues.

My studies will focus on the relationship between the interior and its inhabitant. My work this semester will comment on the conflict between old money and nouveau riche aesthetics in relationship to interior design. One of the aspects I am commenting on is how Aaron’s documentation of “attractiveness” is limited to Anglo-Saxon affluent aristocrats. This is reflective of the hyperreality marketed towards individuals, displaying a specific lifestyle that is deemed the correct way of living.

For more of Slim's Photography: http://www.photographersgallery.com/by_artist.asp?id=2

Here is my favorite scene from Scarface, where Tony Montana is watching television in his living room sized bathroom. The room is adorned with gaudy pillars, Italian sculptures and excessive amounts of gold. As ostentatious and ornate it is there is something aesthetically pleasing about this space. It is incredibly representative of the man himself as well as nouveau riche aesthetics. This semester will be fun to explore these concepts through drawing.

Jon drawing study

This is a drawing I did from two photo references for a painting I'm in the works of starting. Throughout my foundation year at my old school CCP we focused on figures and their relationship within space with charcoal practices that I've grown found of however, I've been working in graphite a lot more to break up the mediums I've been working with. I've been exploring gender roles and have been interested in the femenization of the male form in suggestive ways and in direct ways of engaging the viewer. I'm working to get in the habit of drawing/ planning paintings out instead of working directly on to the surface.

I've always held my sketch books as important places where things happen and sometimes I think we forget to use them to their fullest so I've been looking at some other artists sketch books no matter the medium they work in to see how they operate I think Stella Im Hultberg is an illustrator however her sketch book is pretty interesting...
http://stellaimhultberg.com/Sketchbook_set.html

Bonnard study

Schjeldahl on Damian Hirst

The reliably insightful Peter Schjeldahl has nice piece in the New Yorker about Damian Hirst here. Have you ever puzzled over this purveyor of pickled sharks, polka dots, and pranks? Here's some perspective.

Something interesting I found a while back..

looks like its been dead since 2010 however some of the stuff looks interesting thought I'd share.

http://sketchpages.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2011-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=1

Ben Robinson first post

This is a ink reproduction of Enrico Donati's, "Carnival de Venice". I think this is a more successful piece of mine because of how much color is involved with it. I tend to work in black and white a lot so with this piece i feel i branched out of my typical ways and touched on something new. I've been wanting to break out of my comfort zone, and by using colored ink, and colored pencils (other mediums) i feel i did so.

Mariel I

These are two homework assignments completed for Borris' junior drawing class this previous semester. I chose these because of my interest in portraiture. I've been attempting and experimenting in different respects to balance my line work; favor a more prominent line where it seems necessary, and lessen this when it does not.

This is an untitled piece by Vania Zouravliov, a contemporary russian artist. I've been interested in Zouravliov because of his special focus on line weight and detail, along with the subject matter of fairy tale portraiture. I hope that by studying more of his work, I'll be able to infuse his techniques into mine.

Jordan Post 1

This piece was a drawing I did for homework last semester. It displays my intent to exhibit what I have learned throughout my years of studying art. I find it successful although the value scale is certainly off and the decisions and smudge  shown exhibit uncertainty and frustration. Nonetheless it is a piece about death, it is what was on my mind throughout my process and I feel as though it is evident at a glance.

These sketches perhaps suggest Cacomorphobia. It was suggested to me that maybe the woman were in reality not as large and grotesque as I portrayed them to be. Although a quick sketch at a sketch club I've done recently I found this piece to have strong content. It was going outside of my usual emaciated and stylized routine of displaying the figure.

I find this piece by Egon Schiele to be beautiful. I love everything about it from the suggestion of color to content. I read it as a mother and daughter relationship and it's in many aspects meaningful to me.

Skulls and Bones

This is a still life drawing of animal skulls from Borris' class last semester. I think its one of my better drawings from that class.I was trying to show space along with form and I think I was more successful then in previous attempts. I am not a very good photographer so it is very light and I apologize.

Sex Toy Fall 2011

2011 Fall : Illustration 

 Sex Toy

Graphite on Bristol 
11x14 inch 

I took pictorial foundation last semester and decided to check out the department for multiple reasons. This was our 4th assignment were we had to construct a still life or a shadow box to drawn from. The of the assignment goal was to explore texture with mark making. I thought that in terms of a "traditional" response to a drawing I did rather well with this I like the energy and identity the drawing takes on. One of the reasons why I took the class was to strengthen some core drawing principals and to focus on drawing smaller and with greater detail in small situations. Out of all of the assignments this one is one of my favorites because its a theme I have been exploring for a while ( apart of it) and it was fun to do  and not to serious. I liked returning to a traditional means of drawing for a change in contrast to the more unconventional means. I'm in love with the tonal shifts and where the light dapples through and on the positive and negative shapes. 

I've been interested in drawings by Jason Shawn Alexender and some other artist. I'm working to more make gestural drawings and abstracted portions of it.  He's a living artist  working in fine and graphic novel (illustrative) arts. 

While it may not look like a successful drawing, I see it as the first truly expressive drawing I've made in a long time. After attempting to read the first few pages of Kant's Critique of Judgment, I laid on the floor completely frustrated, with hundreds of melodramatic thoughts about the unimportance of art, specifically my own, running through my head. I was staring blankly at the vent underneath my bed for a good half hour and I felt that the only thing I could do to get rid of the feeling in my stomach and the negative unproductive thought process was to draw, and without expectations for the drawing, and without over thinking the meaning, accuracy, or composition, I grabbed a fat lumber crayon and started scribbling like a lunatic.

"Drunks at a Window"

"Drunks at a Window" (2011) was inspired by Jan Steen's "Rhetoricians at a Window." (1661-66) My interpretation mimics the painting's composition and narrative. I believe my rendering was successfully executed: I mostly wanted to capture the energy and narrative contained in the original painting. Using graphite on sketch paper, I rendered close friends of mine in their intoxicated, naturalistic state. I also appreciated the composition of the figures and their relationships between one another. I usually like representational drawings and this is one of my most successful interpretations. Overall, it is one of my favorite pieces =)

"The Hostess With the Mostess: A Quiet Itch"

I think of this as successful drawing because it was new and liberating.  I pushed the interests I was pursuing aside and experimented with a new technique. Not knowing what the exact result would be, I used a nail to emboss the paper and then rubbed charcoal and pastel over top. I believe the dimensions are 21x13".

First post

(Hope I did this right) This is my drawing final last semester. I feel like this is successful because I finally feel confident in my value scale.