Self Searching - A Collaborative Drawing with Myself

in surreal •  7 years ago  (edited)

I started this drawing in 2005 and after intermittent work, I finished it in 2008. I used Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph pens with India ink on nine pieces of 11 X 14 inch bristol paper. The total finished picture is about 33 X 42 inches (plus space between panels, mat, and frame). This was a collaboration with myself. Why? Because it was easier for me to draw little things at night on a board while watching a movie with the family or whatever. I wanted to do I a series of small pictures that would ultimately fit together as one larger piece.

NinePanesThought.jpg
Here is an image of all nine pieces together

This drawing (or series of drawings) took a while to do, and although I didn't keep up with the time hour by hour, I do know that I have at least 300 hours in it. Crazy, I know.

Before doing this piece, I had done numerous collaborations with other artists, some of the collaborations were done in with hiding most of the work by the other artist under paper until the final image was revealed. I decided to do this one in a similar way in that after I finished the first piece, I lined up the next piece drawing along the edge only, then put the first piece away and finished the second piece without looking at the first. Each subsequent piece (panel) was done in the same way, and by the time I had moved along I really did not remember what I had done on earlier pieces. Eventually, I finished nine pieces and put them together. I decided that I liked individual panels better with some white separating the individual panes or panels, than all mashed together. This better represents the idea that they were done separately (except at the edges), but still shows their strange relationship to one another.

Here are each of the nine individual panels

SelfSearching7.jpg

SelfSearching8.jpg

SelfSearching9.jpg

SelfSearching4.jpg

SelfSearching2.jpg

SelfSearching6.jpg

SelfSearching3.jpg

SelfSearching1.jpg

SelfSearching5.jpg

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Love this one Joe! So awesome and weird :D

Thanks 😜. Yeah pretty weird eh

This is a stupendous effort! I personally love pen and ink drawings and these are so incredibly beautiful.

Thanks so much

Impressive!
That is a seriously intricate drawing. I like it :)

Thanks. Ha. Yes it is 😀

Reminds me of the British artist, Ian Miller.

Thanks I’ll check him out

These are just gorgeous, Joe :) The amount of symbolism, detailing and surreal elements in each piece is simply amazing ! * __ * Together, they look like a landscape that comes from a long, strange dream. And by themselves, they are separate and unique and wonderful !

upvotes and resteems

Thanks! Yeah, I guess I live in a dream. Ha

Long and strange. Yeah 😀

:D

Do you get your inspirations from other particular artists? You have such a distinctive style that I really, really like :)

I feel there's a bit of Hieronymus Bosch in your pieces, as well as a few other surrealist artists...

Actually, until I was a teenager I lived in an artistic bubble, so to speak, and really did not know anything about other artists. By the time I took some high school art classes and started learning about some actual artists , I had already developed my own style. In fact, when I was 18 and a senior in high school, I was compared to Bosch when I won some big competition. I had to look him up. Ha

Aaaah, that's so cool :) Your style isn't very much like anyone else's really. Just the level of details is the thing that reminded me of his paintings. But your style is very unique and distinctive. I love it very much. I look forward to your future pieces, Joe :)

Waw

thanks !

fantastic, they're like the whimsical love child of Max Ernst and HR Giger

Ha! Those freaky jokers! Awesome.

Wow. This is intricate and beautiful. Upvoted and resteemed.

Hey Joe - what's up with you? You ought to post again on Steemit! I hope this reaches you, otherwise I have to bug you on Facebook!
I tweeted this on my VAG Twitter account:
https://twitter.com/visionaryartcom/status/1033701525074403329

Impresionante trabajo, cada imagen es un microuniverso; valió la pena el trabajo de 300 hrs. Lo certifico.
Saludos desde Venezuela.

Thanks very much :)

Nice, super detailed!

Thanks Chris!

Amazingly done ! Every detail is drawn beautiful.

Thank you!

So cool, wow, these images are so amazingly detailed. Yeah, 300 hours, sheesh, that's a dedicated energetic effort.

Ha, yep, they take a while! Dedicated, or crazy? ha.

That is very detailed work Joe. Interesting evolution of an artwork.
Upvoted.

@joemacgown - I hope you will post more on Steemit! A number of our friends have joined up, and hopefully there will be more. I am following all those I had become aware of being here. I posted this 4 days ago, and just now I edited the post to add you:
https://steemit.com/art/@thermoplastic/artists-from-the-visionary-art-network-on-steemit
This post I shared on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/visionaryartcom/status/966640512378785793
as I do with most posts of the artists from our VA community.

I will gradually start adding more here I think. Ha, you know how it is, hard to keep up the many sites now! Crazy and fickle world of social media.

I know. I am on many sites, forget how many, and sometimes when I do an image search I see my stuff on a site where I ask myself: how did it get there, until I realize that I did it and am on that site!

Hi Joe! I just signed up to Steemit. Nice to see you here! This is a rally cool series/piece! I hope you're well!

Beautiful work, reminds me of the drawings of Ben Tolman. Would recommend checking him out.

Ha, yes, I know Ben. About a year or two after I started this drawing, I did a collaborative Exquisite Corpse drawing with him, then I helped him out with the Antipodes Project, and actually took over the project later when he got busy. I worked a lot on one of the pieces in the project called "Kilroy Was Here" (picture below) and also on a fourth one that is almost done. If you don't know about our project you can read about it on my website: http://joemacgown.com/Antipodes_Project.html. Super cool collaborative project.

01Final_20 Pieces.jpg

OH ok, I didn't realize who you were until I looked at your website. I can definitely remember when all of the surrealist inkers were collaborating together on DeviantArt. It was a cool time.

Yeah, a very awesome project! :)