Illustration Friday: Depth

If I were to give a name to my "style" of "art" (yeah, those are sarcastic quotes) I would call it endearlingly awkward. I can't draw feet or noses, I tend to forget important body parts (usually ears) and I can't draw perspective to save my soul or anyone else's. But I like to draw. I have always liked to draw, so I do. And although I always like to hear that people like my "art", I'll still make it if they don't.

This particular picture is totally me. I seem to always draw this same character and she is totally modeled after me. I haven't had that little bob haircut in years but I always have that same sourpuss look. She never seems really complete without the freckles and the rosy cheeks either.

When I draw something like this, especially on the computer, I have to set myself a limit. When I paint (which I haven't done in a really long time) I know I am limited by the medium. I can only fiddle so much before the paint gets muddy and I lose my line. But on the computer I can monkey around forever. I can keep adding and subtracting for hours. So I have to tell myself that I will only work on an illustration for so long before declaring it done. Inevitably, I will look at it a few days later and realize that I left out some important element, but as a firm believer in the...impermanence of art, the ephermeral nature of art, I try to leave it alone. I am not always successful.

Paint will fade, digital files we degrade, it all goes away eventually. If we are lucky, art created today will survive a few thousand years, although, to be honest, I doubt it. The Romans and the Greeks used really heavy stone, those have to last longer that bits and bytes. As important as art is, I think it's importance pales in comparison to the pleasure of creating it. In the end it doesn't matter if any one likes it but me. This one, I like pretty well.

How's that for depth?