Weird Wednesdays Instalment 2: Personifying Inanimate Objects
Welcome to instalment 2 of Weird Wednesdays where I post some strange inspiration I find that helps me create artwork. Last week I talked about Furry things that inspire me and not all of those were animate or even alive. This week I would like to tell you about some inspiration I find in objects that resemble something animate or alive. A lot of artists like to draw people and I agree that they are an interesting subject. I do find that drawing static objects is much more agreeable because: a) They don’t move or run away b) I don’t have to worry about any awkwardness with my artist’s stare c) There’s plenty of subjects that have the same aesthetic as live people or creatures.
Let’s talk about some of the things that have the qualifications of a, b and c.
Statues - Statues are an awesome subject. Another artist has already done the hard work of rendering the live subject into an inanimate object that is now in front of you to draw or paint or sculpt from any angle without it moving or thinking I am weird as I stare at it to study it. It’s easy to find local statues and an image search on the internet gives huge possibilities.
2. Dolls or figurines - Dolls are creepy I would never own one but if you want to draw people, especially children this is your best bet. Although I dislike dolls very much I am including an image of a neat one created by a Seattle artist that is creepily realistic while obviously inanimate and unreal. Here’s a link to an article about her dolls if you are as fascinated as I am:
http://seattlerefined.com/the-show/seattle-artist-creates-creepy-dolls-for-a-cause
3. Digital or print photos - I was in an art class where the instructor said that it’s not creative to draw from a photo. I disagree, because you don’t have to make your drawing or painting exactly like the photo! And you can combine several images into one image for your artwork. The photo only needs to be a reference and the possibilities are endless. It’s great practice to draw people from photos and avoids the awkwardness of a live sitting. I am including some examples of my artwork that I used photos as a reference.
4. Someone else’s artwork - As long as you make it your own and don’t copy it down exactly or make a forgery there’s nothing wrong with being inspired by others artwork. The art class I mentioned earlier had us walk around the room and “steal” ideas from each other’s drawings. It’s actually not stealing it’s more like learning from others work and if you traced it or tried to draw it exactly like the other artist it’s actually more work than drawing it yourself and still probably won’t be exactly the same.
That’s all I have for today for some ideas about objects you can use for inspiration and reference in your own artwork and a peek into where I find some of mine. Until next time - stay weird, and stay brutal!