I've been

Kind of worried that with painting, my drawings will start to flatten out because they're shape based (or at least the process is, in painting). But anyways, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Here are some drawings from last night of the lovely Sue, who I enjoyed because I'm growing a bit weary of the plethora of stick-thin models in LA. I like the eccentricities and differences in each person; I think that that is what makes some models so fun to draw. Also, I'm slowly working on this painting that's going to take me two weeks. So I did a prelim sketch, and did a quick gris@ille layer that I'm experimenting with to figure out values. Still working on it; it's going to take time. My teacher might kill me for doing that but hey, now is the time to experiment. I'm really not big on following 'what is cool' or whatever in terms of drawing styles or whatever. I try what I try, I guess. I know that my work is not as bold as some of the animation type gesture drawings I've seen out here in LA, but I really like the quiet sculptural style and I hope to continue with it and find my own thing. That is huge with me. Not just being a clone and following and copying just what people think 'is in' (*cue "Have you seen this bad@$$ artist? I'm going to be just like him and do my brustrokes the same way!*) Actually, I think it's great to be influenced by someone (how could you not be) and copying is good when learning, but the whole idea of just aiming to be a bad copy of someone really puts me off. I was looking at @sher Dur@nd's paintings yesterday (Huds0n School painter). Yes, people of a certain school may have similar styles because their methodology or what they believe to be true (in terms of fundamentals or even 'absolutes') is similar, but each one of those painters from that school is different and you get a sense of individuality...they're of a similar thought but are interested in different things. I'm not sure why we're so caught up today in just straight up copying (post-modernism? lol). My friend was saying (as I visited the N0rt0n S!mon this weekend) that the great thing about the Renn@!ssance is that they were making discoveries and had such curiosities (which showed) in EVERY single painting or sculpture. She was saying that a lot of that curiosity is not present in today's work. So I have to ask..what is it that we are curious about? If we're not, what then is the point of being an artist or a designer? If you're not curious about how to make the world a better place, certainly as a designer, or curious about how the future might look, then what is the whole point? Are we just concerned with copying every tiny detail so that we can be the new cameras or robot-artists? *I hope NOT*