096

"CLOUDOSAURUS"

095

094

093

092

091

090

089

7 headed -or- anemone face?

(this one I drew to the very edge of the page, so I scanned it to show the gnarly raw edge of the paper)

088

This is the final "drawing on a drawing". It is very raw, but I think it is good as is, because it shows some of the process as well as being descriptive enough.

087 + VARIATIONS + TRANSMOGRIFICATION

Another MACRODON that took me some time to figure out.
This is the final phase, and the one I am most pleased with.
Here are several transmogrifications this MACRODON underwent:




this is a really odd one (above), the Macrodon's upper body became it's lower body
-I felt it's legs weren't going anywhere (ha! pun intended)




I really like the last Macrodon (above), but I like this next one even more so.
Aside from the last phase (top), I liked this next Macrodon best.




I felt the initial drawings (following) were too simple and uninteresting at the time. The next three Macrodons underwent a more natural progression in change, unlike the previous four, which I feel were much more erratic.

(above) a building block in the early stages of the MACRODON tree of life.
I will likely explore this at more length somewhere along the way.

082 + VARIATIONS (with arms)

I felt like the "Walking Man-Macrodon" deserved arms, so here are a few options I came up with, once again, I made some arms I could add or remove, painted on paper attached to a piece of clear acetate.



here is the "Walking Man", like Rodin's, without arms.



in the spirit of the "Walking Man", the arms are in a sort of static motion,
as if walking.




with a top heavy upper body it seemed this Macrodon could have some big arms,
sort of like muscles here: 056.



wobbly arms



with wobbly arms thrown up, this could be another (less crazy) version of 026.



6-armed MACRODON

086 + VARIATIONS (head size)

-little head-



-big head-

085 + VARIATIONS (sketches)

this MACRODON went through several transformations before ending up as it did. Here is one of the underdrawings of the work in progress:



There were 2 predominant designs in the realization of this Macrodon. I pulled them out and enhanced them via Photoshop, to appear as they may have, had I been satisfied with where they were going. I do like them much more now than I did while in progress...



vs.



?

084

I struggled somewhat working on the last few "drawings on a drawing" I've been working on (even had to skip ahead a little to a blank page 083 + 086),but I have come to resolve a few over the weekend. Here's the first one of the weekend, started on Friday, he ended up quite similar to last post.

083

082

a MACRODON as the "Walking Man"

Tonight Olafur Eliasson spoke at the DMA -it was a good lecture, and the exhibition is pretty rad as well. The artist's primary point of view in the execution of his work is how the human body (the viewer) relates to (sizes up to, or literally measures against) the artwork -in terms of appearance, physical space, scale, distance, and time. The artist mentioned Rodin as a source of idealogical inspiration, specifically Rodin's "Walking Man" (seen below), a figure that transcends space and time, frozen, yet in motion, visually -for the viewers traveling around the sculpture, and conceptually -as the embodiment of a concrete action, indicating a passage of time and space. It is the static quality of the figure, that is most appealing to me, it appears to be in no more than an exaggerated yet powerful contraposto. However, I supposed this is where it would come full circle, as power is to energy is to movement is to space, and obviously time.



Aguste Rodin's "Walking Man"

and below, I have distorted the proportions of the illustration to more closely resemble that of Rodin's sculpture... or not.



here is my favorite piece of the exhibition - DMA gallery guide PDF # "O"

I thought my eyes would bleed science. (this picture does it no justice)

081

080

079

078

077

076

075

My wife said this Macrodon looks like a were-wolf. It does have the creeping-stalking characteristic and scary upper-body proportions of were-wolfs.

074

Spaz if you want to.

You can tell how overly freaked out (in a good way) this Macrodon is. Hell Yes. (song by Beck)

073

Macrodons are obviously intentionally weird, but there is something off about this one. weird. weird legs. wierd arms. weird perspective, weird pose, I might change this drawing completely...

072

This is how most of the recent MACRODON illustrations start -a really rough sketch of the general shape, and then I clean it up. This time I really liked the way it looked unfinished, even though it is somewhat of a mess.

*1:18 am update -just came back from the Mountain Goats/Kaki King concert at the Granada (Dallas,Tx), and it was remarkably good, they are clearly great musicians, it was fascinatingly executed live, at times very self-indulgent, but in a good EPIC fashion. Best concert I have seen in some time!

071 - DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

after completing this MACRODON, I envisioned him, more squat, shorter, and stockier, so I Photoshopped it some:



This is what I have been up to the past few days: paper-mâché He-Man Hair,
in stiff-looking, plastic-like, bowl-cut, page-boy fashion!



After all the fun with the PUMA shoes, I could not help myself,
this MACRODON's Halloween costume: HE-MAN!



and my wife's costume this year was Amelia Earhart, with some great vintage Wilson welding goggles, but in this case, visually perfect for an aviator costume, as fashionably sported by this Macrodon:



Okay, that was another, fun, ridiculous post.
I always assumed Macrodons had eyes, and well, really any other body part not previously represented in these illustrations, but putting goggles on it's "head", over it's "eyes" (and whose to say it's eyes are on it's "head"), a sword in it's "hand" (obviously gripped with fingers), etc., was a little disconcerting at the time... I prefer the vague anatomical visual description I have previously given them, so for now, I don't think we'll be seeing any paper-doll style dressing of Macrodons anymore...