What I've (re)-learned about my work while illustrating countless brown paper bags, is my overwhelming tendency to simplify. I understood this at the age of eight, but at 28 (0r close enough) I am still trying to understand the 'why'. It was frustrating at a young age, I could sketch things well, but I made them, as they have been labeled, 'cartoony'. Vases, wheat, people, everything drawn down to it's simple form. I have never arrived at a point where I've fully given in to it until I came to these paper bags.
The combo of endless paper, unforgiving marker and finite time have brought me to a point where I just sketch, unconcerned about the detail and more about the form... if concern even enters my mind.
This really doesn't mean it is good... it means I end up with endless simple forms... normally monsters. Another thing I've embraced... something Wendy Froud reminded me about Jim Henson... he liked monsters. And so do I.
Monster bags here I come!
1 comment:
Your aesthetic is for simplified forms, but I wouldn't compare your pieces to cartoons. Superficially, they appear similar. However, the look of cartoons is the result of the streamlining that was necessary for the mass production.
Besides, when was the last time inmates fought over a Family Circus clipping?
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