No Home Anywhere Else: The first two images are commissioned paintings. Early versions of Animus of Treacle make up the third composite image. The last image is from the original version of Archimboldo Ant Farm. I later de-cluttered the upper portion of this picture in favor of a simpler background. The finished work made be seen on the first Gallery page.
Color Pencil Sketchbook n1: One Christmas I received a small 4.5" by 7" sketch pad that included color pencils. I draw in it during particularly slow teach days. The pencils are admittedly inferior but workable given restraints and time restriction. The first sketch was committed to paper around March 2014. Here are the best drawings from the book.
Color Pencil Sketchbook n2: A second sketchbook was started in July 2021. This pad is smaller than the first.
Sketches and Preliminary Work: Ink and pen drawings, manipulated drawings, and tablet drawings from various projects.
If one has an opportunity to view the early works of a known artist, one may glimpse flashes of the unqiue creator they will become, but, often as not, one finds conventional subject matter rendered conventionally, such as any teenager may attempt. One is never sure where the switch gets flipped.
Pre-Book Art 1975-1977: I still possess a small number of early comics dating from grade school around 1967. These are discussed on the last page of my Comics Portfolio. Other types of drawings at this time included fictitious rock stars, monsters, and doodles. These last examples were made in my late teens when I drew very little.
I made several unexceptional oil paintings in my late teens, as well. It was clear from those studies, which included copying from other oil paintings, that I understood the technique, but I did not pursue the practice until my painting classes commenced at MSU in 1983.
Art Books 1978-1982: I submitted examples from my early art books to The Memphis Academy of Art for scholarship consideration. (I may have submitted the actual handbound books.) I received an honorable mention, but no scholarship.
My first art book, The Clay Pigeon Sonnets, was completed by 1980. It contained graphite drawings stained with oil paint. In 1978, I was a music major at a junior college, and then, around 1980, I became a music composition major at The University of Memphis (then called MSU). This oil/graphite technique was used to make illustrations for my musical compositions.
I acquired rapidograph pens during my brief detour through the graphic arts program at The University of Memphis in 1981, which followed my detour through music composition. Where piano performance was an obstacle for me as a music major, hand-lettered type was an obstacle for me as a graphic arts major.
Though my final three art books included rapidograph pen artwork, acrylic replaced oil as my preferred painting medium for paper. I acquired acrylic paints for foundation classes at The University of Memphis prior to starting studio classes, and made use of them for personal projects. This Dali-inspired portrait of Katherine Hepburn dates from 1981-82.
I made four art books in total. Here an acrylic and oil drawing are shown side by side.
Sigourney Weaver, painted with acrylic on paper, was too large to go in an art book. Its creation coincided with foundation classes at Memphis State, but it was otherwise a personal project. In lacking inked outlines, Sigourney Weaver was a painting and not a drawing. By this stage I had already started painting in oil on canvas, so this was a natural progression in technique.
Fetish for Organization: Like many autistics, I have an obsession for organizing things. Around 2024-25, I divided my drawing output into five plastic containers: three for my comics (1988-2015), one for my mature fine arts drawings and sketches (1998-current year), and one for non-archival drawings, drawing papers, and what not. Each container is further broken down into plastic folders.
I replaced my old fake leather-bound portfolio with a new one of modern design around the same time. This portfolio contains drawings, watercolors, acrylics, and mixed media works on paper from my undergraduate years. Many works, such as the portrait of Sigourney Weaver, are too large to fit in one of my containers, so are stored vertically in this portfolio.
Though lacking the finesse of later works on paper, these works is generally better than my canvas paintings of the same age.
As for the above art books, they are stored in a separate oversized tub away from my other drawings. Why I have not destroyed them yet is a mystery.
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