John Storm Art
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Expressive Drawing - Spring 2015

This past spring I took an Expressive Drawing course for my grad program and posted my work on this page, check it out.

Assignment 6 - May 8, 2015

For our last assignment we were to think through the various techniques and approaches we used throughout the semester and to choose one to pursue further.  Although I enjoyed each project, I really connected with the collage based assignments.  I chose to go with the "make a small collage and then draw it a lot bigger" technique.  So I pilfered through my stash of collage material and put together a 9x9in. collage.  My next step was to blow this thing up on a 5x5ft. piece of paper.  It was a lot of fun and check out some of the process pics below.  
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the collage (9x9in.)
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the drawing (60x60in.)

Assignment 5 - April 12, 2015

"Nature with nature."  This assignment was a lot of fun.  Basically, we were to find subject matter from the natural world and re create it using natural materials.  I chose an image of some cacti at a local arboretum near our home.  They have an amazing cactus garden and these purple dudes caught my eye.  I started a base with some coffee grounds to get a sketch going and added a light ink wash of line-work using a twig.  Next, I used these little spikey guys I found outside my school, not sure what they're called but they looked cool.  Then I used leaves from our oleander tree to paint in the colors and lastly to place the spines on the cacti.  
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Finished piece
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Photo of cacti

Assignment 4 - March 14, , 2015

Inspiration is everywhere.  This assignment of finding a book that inspires us and create two collages based off of said book.  The collages were limited to a 5 inch square and were then cut in half and combined.  With the new combination collage we were to draw the design freehand on a larger piece of paper.  Finally develop the drawing with any media of our choice.

I have been tremendously inspired by various street artists.  The book I used for my information was "Street Art: The Complete Guide."  I pulled imagery from some of my favorite street artists like Space Invader, Os Gemeos, Barry McGee, Shepherd Fairey and The Toaster's.  I used mostly Prismacolor markers and Sharpies to add color as well as other media.   I had a lot of fun with this assignment, check out my process below. 
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Combined Collage #1 (5x5in.)
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Drawing of collage #1 ( 22x22in.)
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Cutting up collages.
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Work in progress.
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Almost there.
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Combined Collage #2 (5x5in.)

Assignment 3 - February 17, 2015

"Collage to drawing" - for this assignment we were to research the work of collage artists like Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Hoch and Robert Rosenquist.  Inspired by their collage aesthetic we were to create a few small collages (6x6in.)  The next step was to choose a collage and enlarge it on a piece of paper by drawing it free hand.  Step three was to then erase portions of our drawing and to use a projector to project the original collage image on top of our drawing.  Using one color of a we were to then draw the projection on top of our drawing and achieve balance between the two.  Check out my take on it.
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Fish, Finger,Car and Chopsticks (collage 6x6in.)
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Freehand drawing of collage (graphite, 22x22in.)
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Projection drawing (prismacolor, graphite 22x22.)
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Detail of freehand drawing.
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Erasing the fish.
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Projection drawing underway.

Other collages created for this assignment...
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Espresso, Homer and a Burning Car (collage 6x6in.)
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Mona and Muybridge (collage 6x6in.)

Assignment 2 - February 6, 2015

For this assignment we used a live model (thanks Roger!) for our subject and completed several rounds of blind contour drawing.  Once the blind contour drawings were finished then we developed a comprehensive drawing of our subject by layering on the spontaneous history of marks.  It was a lot of fun but I think the prime of the drawing happened in the about round 2 or 3 of the blind contour drawings...
Time lapse video of my drawing session for assignment 2.
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Assignment 1 - 1/30/2015

"Take a large piece of paper and put up a drawing board situation where you are standing.  WITHOUT LOOKING AT WHAT YOU ARE DRAWING (this is very important), work on a "blind contour" drawing of a still-life---no more than 2 or 3 objects.  You can select any media you desire as long as it's "dry" media.  Work to make your eyes "feel" the object and transmit that thru your hand to create an image that allows the surrender of control.  After sometime, you can look at it, but you must switch media once you do so, and draw again, super-imposed on the same drawing, using the same approach.  Do this two or three times to get a complex image of non-objective oriented mark-making.  

The next phase is to take that same drawing and do a full on STUDIED version of what is before you...right on top of the blind-contour stuff, creating a drawing with a depth of layers.  
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The still-life.
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Round one - pink highlighter.
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   Time lapse video for assignment 1.



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The set-up - table meets table.
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Round two - purple prismacolor marker
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