sketchblog review [11 September 2010]

[11 Sep 2010]
Today marks the beginning of my online blog journey of self discovery, personal growth and development.  My final destination on this journey will hopefully culminate with my own design firm.  I am positioning myself by going back to school to do just that; I am finally doing what I would love to do, which is be creative. I love art, I love homes, and I'm excited about the marriage of art and homes merging together in the wonderful industry of interior design.

Where do artisans gain inspiration from a variety of sources...

• Books
• Music
• Nature
• Museums
• Television
• Print Media
• Food
• Fashion
• Anywhere
• Other Artisans

My inspiration this week comes from http://anthonyzierhut.com/main/.  I love this artist's work, because I'm a huge fan of gesture drawing.  It's the type of drawing that I find most natural to the way that I draw.  I find that gesture drawing is freeing.  It provides the most freedom, so that you're able to glide your graphite, your charcoal, your pen or whatever medium of your choice across the page or even off the page.  It's almost like your hand has a mind of it's own, when you allow yourself to become one with the item that can make indentations or imprints onto the page.

Color:
Anthony Zierhut, utilizes watercolor in a way that is very realistic.  His use of shading, and ever so subtle changes in the use of color are all very complementary. The items that are monochromatic, are beautiful to view.  I loved the color purple that he utilized with "Lily practicing for a performance", he utilized, black, white and purple.

Black and White:
I love his collection of camping sketches, he takes the viewer on this camping journey with him, it makes you feel that you are there. It's not just a dusty, dirty campground, it's family, it's life, it's things to do that will bring you back into the simpler things in life.  Such as when his daughters are reading, you can't see their faces, but you can see that they are engrossed in what they are reading.  It makes you long to just relax and sit back and listen to birds chirping, water running and the sun hitting your face as you just read that book that you've been dying to read.

Organization:
I love the organization of his sketch blog.  Being able to search the blog is key, you're able to see how a series is unfolding through the movement from one sketch to another.  He also let's the viewer know what medium he utilized in his sketch.  The viewer is able to be transported along with him as he tries out new tools.  He utilizes:

• Watercolor
• Pigma Micron
• Pencil
• Ballpoint pen
• Uniball vision pen
• Photo
• Fountain pen
• Digital color
• Acrylic paint
• Sepia Wash
• Pastel smudge tool

Some of these items, I've heard of and others I want to research, to learn more about them, and more importantly to utilize them. 

Visual Representation:
He utilizes storyboarding which is a great tool, it moves you from one frame to the next. It's like a great recipe, it gives you the ingredients, but it also shows the mixture and the final product. He also uses animatics which according to Zierhut, it's the "motion of storyboarding". 

I am going to close out my first trip, through this sketchblog journey, with saying I can't wait to post my own work, I hope that my colleagues, mentors, peers and professors will enjoy.