“If I’m going to Hell, I’m going there playing the piano.” ~ Jerry Lee Lewis
I hate perspective. I’m a go with the flow kind of artist. I like things that are organic and amorphous not perfectly straight and headed towards a vanishing point. This being said, drawing in perspective well is an important skill for any artist and setting my reservations aside, I am taking a Creative Perspective course this term so that I may finally get the perspective monkey off my back. Somehow, I think I will enjoy the “creative” part more than the perspective part, but that’s life.
One of our first assignments was to draw a series of pianos with a character playing on it. Ultimately, the goal is to place the piano and the character in an environment. The environment part is really the tricky part at least for me. Drawing all these gridded lines really start to confuse me. It feels like a cage trying to contain the beast that is my art. The Simian in me rebels, but the claws of rational concerns about the overall development of my art have dugg in pretty good.
Wish me luck and send me some good vibes or I may end up as just another melodic madman scratching a pencil instead of tickling the ivories. I leave you with the raspy reassuring words of Tom Waits, “The piano has been drinking, not me.”
Definitely looks like a Tom Waits or a Bob Dylan type
Good stuff!
Creative perspective huh. That sounds rad. And i rather like the cage. Embrace the cage.
Yeah, Bob, it’s definitely Bob!
I’m glad someone else has this problem. You’ve described it perfectly. Organic over organized gridlines any day. But perspective is a nice skill to have, I suppose.
@Eben: Melodic madness says it all I think.
@Joe: I am working on embracing the cage. We’ll see how it goes though.
@RJ: Good call.
@deermilk: It is a relief to see someone can relate. The way I figure it is that you should acquire all the skills you can, but stay true to your roots. Don’t let anybody steal the soul of your art. Remember to keep things in perspective as it were even if that means not always keeping things in perspective. You feel me?
Love this sketch. Makes me think of Syd Barrett… specifically the line Roger Waters sings in ‘Nobody Home’ from The Wall “…Got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains…”