The link to the left goes to (considerably scaled-down version of the) (i.e. the thumbnail of the) image that stopped the computer a couple of posts ago.^[1] For that, it ought to be a really spectacular image, but though probably the best in the sketchbook, that ain't saying much, as I picked out maybe 5 worth showing out of a 200 page journal. As they say, anyone can look good if selective enough; it's doing it consistantly and to deadline that separates the sheep from the goats.

I made the image above because I wanted to practice and because I find auto trips excrutiatingly boring. I didn't intend to make what is one of the better sketches I've produced in the last decade or so; that was an accident. After thinking some more, I realized there was an unspoken assumption in my thought about why people make art. McCloud characterizes the earliest non-necessary human activity as creative—as art. (Why certainly people sitting around a campfire could and did occupy themselves inventing drawing, dancing, speech and song my rather more cynical view of human nature led me to believe they spent a lot more time establishing pecking orders.)

In other words, there are any number of ways to spend one's free time (e.g. not eating, sleeping and other bare necessities), and my question was not so much why make art, but rather why make art instead of doing some other activity, like, say playing games or watching clouds? And I said, because folks are compelled, or because as f2tE wisely observed, ‘because it's fun!’

But that's not quite the same question as why art gets made. And documenting the world was indeed a worthy goal for artists before the advent of the photography; in fact, it was f

Annnnnd, that's were my thought ends: ‘f’. Not even a complete syllable, let alone a whole word (which perhaps was ‘functional’?) Something distracted me, and that, combined so often with the feeling that I was revealing a little too much of myself in this representation of an anonymous man—and I stopped.

But time provides emotional distance, so...here we go.

I can tell it was scanned, because the source image is huge (over 4000 pixels wide). I love graphite pencil, and did invest in the giant prismacolor set (I waited for months for the stars to align to have a half off coupon during a time when the big sets weren't also on sale); naturally, I've barely touched ’em since.

C'est la vie. Now's as good a time as any to make it public, since I've gotten back into life drawing recently—mostly with graphite and watercolor. Perhaps now I'll be inspired to mix in some colored pencil;)

13aug2020, adjusted tags (removed image, added year)

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.

Sylvus Tarn