[YouTube video homepage here…] [N.B. Yes, I’m planning on selling this one eventually. Please feel free to e-mail me if you’re interested, Thanks!] PHASE ONE OF THREE: THE UNDERCOAT. Sunday, August 30th. [“Marfa One”, which I started this weekend.. Click on image to enlarge etc.]
A blank canvas (see above) that I finished doing the white acrylic undercoat for, earlier today. Four-foot-by-four foot. Titled “Marfa One”, it’s will be the first of The Marfa Series.
Now to get cracking on the pencil…
[UPDATE: Monday, 31st August, 24 hours later:] PHASE TWO OF THREE: THE PENCIL. [Click on images to enlarge etc.] [Close-up. Pencil lines etc.] [Close-up. Taken from the side etc.]
Yesterday (Sunday) I cranked out the pencil. Took forever, but it was worth it. Besides some very small touch-ups at the end, I did it all in one session. No messing around.
I got myself in a mind-set that, although it’s large and on canvas, it didn’t intimidate me. I just treated that four-by-four-foot, two-dimensional surface like any other drawing, like any other page in my sketchbook. I didn’t treat it like “ART!!!!”. I just did my thing and got on with it; not a lot of fuss.
I think that’s how I’ll approach all my big pieces from now on… PHASE THREE OF THREE: THE INK. [Update: 24 hours later, Tuesday, September 1st, 2009.] [Click on image to enlarge etc.]
Made a good start yesterday on the inking. Hope to finish it by tonight etc.
This is always the hardest part of making a big drawing. The temptation to “rush it” gets more and more overwhelming, the closer you get to the finish line. But last-minute rushing can easily ruin it. Oh well, I’ve been here many times before, nothing I can’t handle etc. [Update: 24 hours later, Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009.] [Click on images to enlarge etc.]
Got up this morning at 4am and put the finishing touches on Marfa One.
It’s done…
[Close-up of desertmanhattan, in its early “pencil” phase, Autumn, 2008.]
I was thinking earlier today how I had made my reputation drawing very, very small cartoons [i.e. “drawn on the back of business cards”], and now here I am, with The Marfa Series, going in the opposite direction i.e. very, very big cartoons. Two sides of the same coin, perhaps…
Yes, I’m still calling them “Cartoons”, even if the rest of the world will want to call them something else– “Paintings” or whatever. No matter where life takes me these days, I still consider myself first and foremost a cartoonist. Like I said over at Lateral Action, “I never liked calling myself an ‘Artist’. I think History decides if you’re an artist or not, not yourself.”
With the traditional cartoonist’s business model looking increasingly untenable (And it was in trouble LONG before the Internet came along , believe me), I think it’s a good time to ask the question, well, what is a cartoon, anyway?
Does the cartoon HAVE to be what it’s always been? Or can it evolve into something else more interesting? Does the cartoon have to be figurative, or is abstract perfectly valid, as well? Does the cartoonist HAVE to have an editorial or humorous slant, or are there OTHER spheres of human existence worth exploring?
It’s good to push the edges…
[Click on image to enlarge etc.]
Greetings from Alpine, Texas. I left here two days ago, and flew to New York City from El Paso [a 220 mile drive to the airport], in order to sign the the Ignore Everybody prints.
Yes, it was actually cheaper and easier to fly up there and sign them, than to ship them down here. Go figure.
After a few hours signing them at the printer’s, I rushed off the Island of Manhattan yesterday afternoon, to catch a flight back to El Paso via DFW.
I was in my bed at the hotel in El Paso by midnight. Slept like a log. This morning I went to buy some art supplies in downtown El Paso, had a bit of lunch at Rudy’s, then drove 220 miles back home to Alpine.
A quick visit, to say the least. “Welcome To The Over-Extended Class” etc.
Among my purchases this morning was a big roll of canvas. The plan is to make a series of large, 48“x48” [4 foot-by-4 foot] canvases, i.e. exactly the same height, and one-half the width of desertmanhattan. The wee sketch above should give you an idea what I’m talking about.
I’m thinking of calling these “The Marfa Series”, named after Marfa, the next town over from Alpine, 26 miles away. I drive there and back about three or four times a week; it’s one of my favorite drives in the world. The drive inspired the idea for the the series in a SERIOUSLY big way.
Some will be cranked out in a couple of days. Some will take a lot longer, even a couple of months. I have no idea where this is taking me, other than I think I’ll end up somewhere pretty interesting. Look for them for sale over on the gallery over the next few months or so, or feel free to e-mail me if you’re looking to commission one. Thanks. [Backstory: About Hugh. Twitter. Newsletter. Book. Interview One. Interview Two. EVIL PLANS.Limited Edition Prints. Private Commissions. Cube Grenades.]
