Whisper Gallery II
The first edition of Whisper Gallery featured 15 steemit artists who, over 15 weeks, participated in an art whisper trail. The trail follows the concept of a game popularly known as Chinese whispers but also by various other names: telephone, grapevine, gossip or my favourite - secrets. This brainchild of @mrblinddraw showcases the creative strength on steemit with each week bringing a new surprise with a different artist.
I loved the first edition and eagerly awaited the #whisper post of each week. So when @mrblinddraw wrote to ask if I'd be willing to participate in the second edition of the gallery, I responded with a very enthusiastic yes.
Fête de la Musique
The seed for my whisper was @dunsky's Whispering which featured a cassette character with headphones.
Music was obviously on my mind. What I've noticed about being on steemit these past few months is that I subconsciously record the works of my favourite artists in my head and can feel my own style changing based on inspiration from others' posts. Some prominent ones that influenced this post are @enternamehere's #drawitagain post about taking something you drew a while ago and exploring how far you've changed in your journey by redoing it in your style now.
I drew something for the fête de la musique back when I was in France and was quite proud of it. In a fit of blindsided infatuation, I gave the drawing away to a guitarist without ever having taken a proper photo/scan of it. Back then, I worked strictly in black and white and could not think much in colour. I've changed since then and I was curious to see how I would redraw this particular piece.
I like drawing the disintegration of objects. @dunsky's cassette made me think of how it had replaced the gramophone and in turn was replaced by the cd, which in turn has now been replaced by digital music tools. @heymattsokol's recent post about numericals as a universal language had us discuss the importance of the zero in our world. The zero is responsible for math as we know it today and for binary code, an integral part of computer science and programming. Music is also now processed as ones and zeros so that we can listen in through digital players.
In a way, this piece could be a whisper amongst musical devices - a game through which each device shapeshifts to adopt a new form while retaining the essence of the original whisper.
Other steemit inspirations include @soulturtle who was saying something about doing some music-related art a few weeks ago and @soundwavesphoton's username which I absolutely adore.
The Process
It was a difficult choice between sticking to black and white penwork and using watercolours. I knew that bnw would look better; I'm more confident with just the black pens. But I've been obsessed with watercolours ever since I bought myself a small travel kit to use on my train rides and felt it was only fair to myself to show this change in preference. It would be okay if it didn't turn out well, I reassured myself. And so I started quite apprehensively. My process is similar to any standard process, I guess. Sketch, Ink, Watercolour, Black Blocking (could not sit tight until I got to this part), more inking.
My scanner is dead so I relied on a phone photo to take the image photoshop where I wanted the cd to disintegrate into 1s and zeros. For me, mess is more. So I made it as messy as I wanted it to be.
Et voilà! The fête de la musique is less than a month away and always makes me want to go back to my home in Tours to celebrate it. This helps me remember the festival by.
Watch @mrblinddraw's page for the next artists on the trail. I don't know about you, but I'm sure as hell excited.
Wow, that's gorgeous! I've never thought about doing a piece of art 'again' in order to see how you've changed as an artist, what the new skills would change to a piece. Although I do it too as a photographer: I go back to old pictures and edit them again - I often interpret the moment differently or am just more advanced in editing, so it will completely alter the end-result.
Love seeing your thought process and creative process - I'm now starting to ponder on my interpretation!
Thanks!
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Yes, I'd never thought of redoing an old piece of art. @enternamehere put that little seed in my head with her post on the theme! I like it because I think everyone's constantly evolving as an artist - tastes, preferences and styles are in constant flux. It's nice to look back at something and see how you would reinterpret it.
Thanks @soyrosa! I'm really curious to see how you're going to take this forward!
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Fantastic post! I included you in my weekly curation Ocean of Art!
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Took a look at the post and I'm stoked to be on there with such talented artists. Thank you so much!
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Great work... All the memories with the cassette, I remembered recording tracks on the radio in order to make my own mixtape. Now, I look for a portable cassette player, but expensive...
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Thanks, @heroldius! Do you still have casettes? My mum gave all of ours away at some point of time.
Do you have a particular kind of portable player in mind?
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No more cassette in my home too... Just if one day I find a cheap one in a garage sale. Nostalgia ! :-)
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Naice! Loved the vibrancy, life, and evolution visible in your art piece, and also the evolution between piece 1 and 2.
Nice touch showing the progress as a GIF!
I'm planning on actively diving into the steemiverse soon, so we'll probably see more of each other!
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Thank you!
Vibrancy is a nice way to put it, I guess. I think the second piece has developed a vibrancy that the first one made up for in being bold.
Hope to see more of you soon!
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To whom do I shout, look at this post? Brilliant, comprehensive, creative, informative. I love the first drawing, but the update is more dynamic. It somehow evokes sound. If these were hanging on my wall, I think I'd save the first for quiet moods and the second for my more vivacious self.
Well, well done. Wish I had influence to get this the attention it deserves.
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Your words warm my heart, @agmoore! That you commented here is all the attention I want. So thank you.
Yeah, I wish I still had the first one, I want to put them up side by side.
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We've all been there before, some more than others.
This is the perfect start to Whisper II, by making a festive gathering of reworked instruments. Thank you for the shoutout, so glad to play a little role in your orchestra of ideas. Looks like your color exploration turned out just fine! The color is part of what makes the second work more airy and dreamy to me.
BTW, how did you make your gif? It's clean and clear. The times I've used them in the past for progress shots they have always been sub-par, so I avoid using them (I don't have PS) :\
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I've been there a bit too much, apparently. I'm in half a mind to ask for it back.
Thank YOU for putting little seeds of thought in my head through your amazing work. My colour exploration was okay, not so bad. I obsessed a bit about the blue in the bottom left but hey, mess is more.
Haha, my gif is made on PS. I don't know how else to make them. I import all my photos into one document as a separate layers. I turn on the animation timeline. I convert each layer into a frame. And then set the time for each frame. It's a quick job! You should get PS. I'm not sure how much I'd get by in life without it.
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I feel you on giving away too many pieces. As artists, we want to share/give away our creations as sign we care, yet giving ourselves away like that can have unexpected consequences! In my case, I have practically nothing of the art I made in my youth, before my 10+ year hiatus from making art. It was all gifted or trashed, so today I have very little to show from that time in my life. Boooo ;]
"Mess is more", good one! Despite my fondness for organization, I like it. Color has its place of course, yet something about the starkness of black and white is timelessly appealing. Maybe because IRL we are usually inundated with color, submerged in it practically.
Thank you for explaining me the gifs! Yeah, I've used my phone in the past and it's not even worth exporting really. PS is somewhere in my future, after the laptop upgrade. I'm in a phase of building up right now, working towards some important goals. Once those are met, then the material things will come :D Thanks Manou (may I call you Manou???).
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Strangely enough, I've actually never been able to part with my art. It takes a lot for me to give it away and I'm learning now to let it go slowly. I never wanted to sell my art either because I didn't want to be doing it for the money. Which is why steemit is so great. I haven't made much but the thought of monetising your artwork on a platform like this is redeeming enough.
Yeah, the contrast that plain black and white creates is just addictive. How true that maybe it's because of our lives in technicolour! It builds a nice image, prompts me to want to try to draw something that flows from bnw to colour.
Of course, you can call me Manou! Hit me up whenever you feel like talking about the building up phase.
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That's what's up!
Your generosity is deeply appreciated, Manou. Trust me, I will keep the lines open. You put a great smile on my face!
BTW, I've got another tessellation post coming up. That art party really got inside my head (in a good way).
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Ooooh I'm looking forward to it. Can't wait for the day where you can come to one of our art partiess!
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@manouche This is just astounding. I love the perspective, how things appear to be disintegrating or aging in front of us. Colors are on point, the 1's and 0's represent computer and blockchain well. The tape and record is connected. It's all just really amazing.
We're up! https://steemit.com/whisper/@mrblinddraw/whisper-gallery-ii-week-i-featured-artist-is-manouche-next-week-is-soyrosa
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So glad you like it, @mrblinddraw!
Yes, I also liked the idea of the 1's and 0's because it represents the computera nd the blockchain. Plus the soundwaves on the horizon is how we see those 1's and 0's on our computers!
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Ooohh!! This is cool! I'll be jumping in in a couple weeks. Will be interesting to see what direction this goes...
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It was nice to follow the first edition of the gallery and watch all the whispers take different forms every week. Now, I'm even more excited for the second edition to see how everyone else takes this forward!
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Oh @manouche, this is an amazing artwork. Thanks for sharing your gift with us.
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Thanks for checking it out and letting me know! I had a lot of fun doing it so thanks to all the people on here for encouraging projects like these.
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Oh my god !! never thought of doing this myself but now looking at your work I am actually thinking why I never did this ??!!
And you did a great justice to the original one and has ended inspiring lots of artist like me.
Big fan of you for this particular girl <3
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Thanks, @komal! You should def try to redo some of your old artworks and let us now what you get up to!
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amazing idea :D
would be coming up with some in few days :))
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Awesome idea, there’s alot of details in this artwork. I like how a remake can tell how much we improved with our artwork
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Thanks @errymil. Yeah the idea of drawing it again really shows that you can never draw the same thing twice. I like detail, in general so I'm glad you noticed it!
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