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One day, during a time after i had left one job and was starting another, i was standing at the kitchen counter scribbling with Prismacolors in a sketchbook. I noticed the little box of obsolete business cards - they all had blank backs. Perfect little spaces to make a small shape, to put contrasting shapes or colors together, or make a silly cartoon character. Too small for serious art, great for quick little experiments.
Soon i ran out of business cards - and i wasn't going to use the cards from me new job, since
i actually needed to hand out at meetings etc. So i started with 3x5 and 4x6 cards. These were
big enough to make real art works on, or experiment. A large sheet of paper, such as a typical
sketchbook, just takes too long to fill in, if i just want to try some color scheme or way of
rendering an object.
When i'm out and about, hanging out at a coffee shop or sunny spot on campus, i can fool around
with my Prismacolors on the blank 4x6 cards i keep in my backpack. If one comes out sufficiently
nice, i can put it in an evelope next time i write a letter to a friend or relative.
Until recently - everyone uses email now, and i've gotten lazy and send cards made by local artists for
special occasions.
Recently, as my collaborator on art projects started an e-class on colored pencils, i got fired up to do more art. The 4x6 card thing seemed old, and the resulting pieces are too small to frame, and heck, i can't even find any, where'd i put them? So i grabbed a sheet of bristol board (my favorite surface for Prismacolor work), divided it up in rows and columns, and used each square like i did the bland backs of those old business cards.
The first such case, i had a notion of making quick abstract designs emphasizing each
of
Christopher Alexander's Fifteen Properties of what he calls "life" in anything beautiful.
(my commments on the book here) Five columns, four rows
made twenty little squares small enough each for a quick experiment. I started a couple,
but life interrupted with the usual events. I didn't get back to playing with Prismacolors for a couple weeks,
and then i started a new one - each square to have whatever i think up, following the theme of something
round and something linear, like a rectangular bar or rod. Just make up stuff, but following a theme.
Soon i made others. The one in the lower left of the above photo has the theme: parallel stripes
of colors, symmetric. One band of stripes in front with another behind it. That one is now done. Here
is a photo from last night, before i finished the framing lines separating the squares.
Some of the parallel stripes are zig-zagged, which doesn't really follow the theme, but then i can make up what i like. The details are not sharp, crisp, neat; this is not meant to be a finished piece to frame or sell or publish on the cover of a national magazine. Just quick, loose experiments to try color schemes, arrangements of lines.
One good side benefit of doing these is that the tedious, less creative part of drawing the grid and filling in the framing lets me "warm up" before starting the real art, whether one of these or an actual real art piece. Find the pencil sharpener, organize my cat-scattered prismacolors, finish forgotten tasks in the other room, etc.
last updated 2007-Feb-22