As mentioned before, I am reading Erik Reece’s Utopia Drive. If you missed it, here is a link to the page ARTLESS ART, which brings a Shaker sensibility to what we do here at Transparent Drawing. And also very recently, we have broached the subject of NATIONAL WORDS. So in this spirit of words and […]
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28Nov
2016
WATER SOLUBLE PENS 1
2016
Some pens are water soluble. In our continuing exploration into drawing instruments that are water soluble (see WATER SOLUBLE PENCILS, for example,) how about water soluble pens? Most felt tip and ball point pens do not advertise themselves as being water soluble. Some will say that they are water insoluble, and we will look at […]
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25Nov
2016
ARTLESS ART
2016
Artless art is a term coined by Eric Reese in his book Utopia Drive. He applies it to his description of the work of the Shakers. Link here if you need a refresher on the Shakers and their enormous influence on design in America. Reese writes; “One feels tempted to say that Shaker design is […]
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23Nov
2016
DRAW IN WATER
2016
How wet is wet? Very. On the page WATER SOLUBLE PENCILS 2, we introduced the concept of drawing on a wet piece of paper. And I am finding that the wetter the paper, the greater the range of expression of line that you get when you draw in water. The image above was taken with […]
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21Nov
2016
CHUANG-TSU AND THE CRAB
2016
We heard the story of Picasso and the Chicken. We closed that page with the proviso that we didn’t know if it was true or not. So I wanted to record a similar version of the same story. Let’s call this version Chuang-Tsu and the Crab. Calvino, in his Six Memos for the Next Milleneum, […]
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18Nov
2016
WATER SOLUBLE PENCILS 2
2016
These pencils are great. Per the previous WATER SOLUBLE PENCILS page, I did what I said I was going to do. In the drawing at the top, I first wetted the paper completely. And then I did my drawing, using the 36 POETIC IMMORTALS as form inspiration. And I was so surprised by the vitality […]
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16Nov
2016
WATER SOLUBLE PENCILS
2016
I tried out a water soluble pencil this morning. I didn’t know they existed. I was looking thru the Dick Blick pages, and then realized something like this was made. So I ordered a couple to see what their effect might be. The pencils are called Derwent Sketching, and they come in various solubilities. They […]
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14Nov
2016
WORDLESS ART
2016
“Architecture seems to be confined to drawings and hope. Can this essentially wordless art – that is, this art that lies just beyond the reach of words – negotiate the barriers of its present circumstance?” This quote is from Steven Holl’s Pamphlet Architecture #5, titled The Alphabetical City. (p71). Here is a concept definition of […]
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11Nov
2016
POETIC IMMORTALS
2016
On a recent excursion thru the Metropolitan Museum, I came upon these ink drawings, shown below, of famous Japanese poets. The drawings were done by Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828) and are titled The 36 Poetic Immortals. Traditionally, the drawing of each poet, which amazingly included 5 women, included one of their poems. So as usual, I […]
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