Artists' Building

©chris mesarch 2010

This is the page I've been working on for a couple of weeks.  It started with a doodle I did in a very long meeting for my day job a year and a half ago.

The B & W Railroad Journey

Before I started the book, I hadn't been on the B & W (black and white) railroad for a long time.  I was on the color trail.

"Life On Mars", © chris Mesarch 2006

 

 

But for the last four years, it's been the black white train all the way.  It's starts with a pencil on paper, and there's no stopping.  Or perhaps, it's better to say there are many stops.  Many that have nothing to do with my book, but are because of the book, because it made me want to draw lots of different things in black and white.  I loved the film from erasing that formed on the canvas covering my drawing table.  So I drew on canvas.

"Shadows in the Courtyard"

From this photo taken of shadows on concrete.

Unintended masterpiece?

© chris mesarch 2010

A friend showed me about a hundred photographs from her childhood.  This snapshot was taken on the boardwalk at Yosemite.  Did the photographer know he or she had created a masterpiece?

Unintended Symbolism

Interpreting symbols and hidden meanings is not something I do, and there are no preconceived symbols in Life, Still.  But even I noticed that birds are a recurring theme, and are definitely a tool for expressing feelings without words.

The 7 habits of highly effective people. . .

Or why I got up at the crack of dawn on my day off and then went back to bed.

Not pictured:  VACUUM ME, READ ME, STRAIGHTEN ME, CLEAR ME,

Doodle Drawing Dream

Doodle

Drawing     ©Chris Mesarch 2010

Dream

Doodle Drawing Remembering Drawing

Doodle

Drawing    ©chris mesarch 2010

Remembering, Drawing

Don't be cruel to a heart that's true

This graphic novel grew out of my frustration dealing with parents who wouldn't get help, my decrepit father and my mom in the early stages of dementia.  In one of the first drawings, my negative feelings are clear.

She didn't want to stay put for her pacemaker operation.

Did I expect her to acknowledge her growing confusion for my convenience?

My heart and my drawings softened as I learned more about caring for her.

Please verify

So that we may verify that you are who you say 

you are, please enter all the characters you see below in the space provided.

Am I Blue?

YES! I live in Massachusetts!

Going backward to go forward

Back to this, one of the impulsive doodles that started me on the LIFE, STILL journey in 2006.

That led to this a  year or so later.  Perhaps the balloons should say, "HI MOM MY EYES ARE CLOSED, BUT I CAN SEE THAT  YOUR ARM IS FROZEN AT A WEIRD ANGLE, AND YET IT'S IS TOUCHING MY STOMACH.", "HI, CHRISTINE, I HAVE TO TOUCH YOUR STOMACH, BECAUSE, AS YOU CAN SEE, I HAVE NO EYES.  ALSO NO RIGHT ARM."

Some months after that, a redraw to prepare for an ink drawing.  "HI, MOM, HAVE YOU BEEN LIFTING WEIGHTS?  YOUR SHOULDERS SEEM LARGE, AND YOUR HEAD HAS GOTTEN SMALLER."  "HI CHRISTINE, ARE YOU STANDING ON A STOOL?"

"Hi MOM, YOU REMIND ME OF BABAR WITH A SHRUNKEN HEAD ON HIS NOGGIN""HI CHRISITINE, YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'RE TRYING TO BE A SUBURBANITE."

Today. 

why is it so much fun to draw faces?

Reluctant blogger

I know I should be posting.   I'm working, but this is what I want to be doing:

©chris mesarch2008

 

clearest to me so far

Of all the 30 or so inked drawings I've done for Life, Still this one is my favorite.  It has qualities from the pencil versions and the ink versions.  It isn't rigid, it leaves possibilities to go in different directions and still stay true to style.

©Chris Mesarch 2008


It reminds me of the drawings I did in high school.

 

What doodles become

This doodle

became this drawing

Which became this trial inked drawing.

I'm still torn between pen and pencil for a final medium.   We Are Alone by Miriam Katin  is a graphic novel which uses pencil for it's final drawings.  They are wonderful.

  

How It Started, "Life, Still"

It started with a casual doodle, four years ago, one day in my studio.

 

Now it starts like this:

page 1 ©chris mesarch 2008

Third Redraw

Not only did the second redraw look like a farm, it was incorrect.  Attempting to draw a clearer version of my neighborhood of 20+ years, I added a street.  Blame it on bronchitis.

This
             





 Should have been this

which is a redraw of this

and in the book is
supposed to be a
profound contrast to
This   
This book has about 700 drawings. 

Redrawing

Looking at first post, thinking:

Redraw drawings to be more easily read.

When redrawing, keep the life of the original sketch.

And still make a good drawing, but clearer.

(Why am I putting an unflattering picture of my hometown up first thing?

I love my scrappy town. it's not fair to a "we try harder" kind of place.

On a good day it's all I could want.

Like today, gray, drizzly, "Sketches of Spain" on the radio,

I'm in my studio drawing).

 Whoops, now it looks like a farm.  I'll finish it tomorrow.