Tripping Over Perspective

size: 8 x 10”
medium: cut paper on wood

Given “Travel” (the theme of the recently wrapped-up Sound of Scissors), most folks would picture the glittering lights of Paris, the sun-baked desert pyramids of Giza, or the stone noggin chorus line of Easter Island. Then they would draw that picture. I, however, am not most people. By which I mean that I never get to go to any of those cool places. Instead, my mind wandered to the kind of travel that I do get to enjoy.

Evidently, the kind of travel that I enjoy begins with me dipping my head into any convenient hole or hollow whereupon it is rent from my body molecule-by-molecule, cast through time and space, and finally bonded to the underside of a nebulous, floaty, precipitation-prone bundle of gasses.

On the other hand, I coulda been thinking along more metaphorical lines when I was sketching out this moody forest scene. Something about how different experiences force us to re-evaluate the things we’ve always taken to be universal. Perhaps travel inside ourselves. Maybe even a short trip through the metaphysical astral plains. Y’know, that sorta high-minded nonsense.

As for technique, I’ve been playing around a little bit more with combining built up layers with “traditional” Japanese kirie (dark linework as the top layer with any color added underneath) best seen in these funky foreground grasses. Basically, starting in the middle and adding out the color layers in two directions. It’s fun, and allows for some great texturing. It also adds a little to the amount of time it takes to finish, especially when it comes to gluing down that dark layer.

I’m continuing to experiment with mixing these two techniques in some of my other work as well. It’s a nice way to distract my mind from not having any time to fly to Paris or Egypt or…hey…is that a hole?