Horsepower

Disclaimer: Comments of all kinds welcome! Please feel free to make suggestions, I don't bite!

OMG!! I haven't had this much fun drawing in a while (probably not since the shoe still life)!! This was the second assignment for Drawing III. We were assigned to re-appropriate a master work from a given list of artists by putting in recognizable imagery of modern times. I have been so burnt out on drawing portraits that I was becoming agitated looking through the master works. So many people, so many faces, so familiarly boring to my eye. So, when I saw Gericault's "Study of a Dapple Grey", I really wanted to find a way to make it work within the guide lines.

I don't remember how they idea initially came to me, but I know I had been tossing and turning in bed for nearly and hour when it did. I've been noticing a trend in what I've been drawn to lately. Lots of robots and machinery. When I finally came up with the concept, I was so excited that I already knew I wasn't going to take no for an answer from my instructor (though he's pretty laid back, so I didn't believe it would be a problem).

This is also the first piece I've done in class that wasn't 100% from observation. I also did not Photoshop the parts together prior to beginning the drawing. My instructor keeps saying "When does this [the drawing] become more than this [the reference image]? I know you can render images as you see them, but how can you make it more?" So I brought all 5 reference images in printed on separate sheets. It was actually quite liberating. I had no clue exactly how I was going to make these mechanical, interior parts visible. I think this helped the execution happen more organically, though. The thought was that it would either be a cut away, or some sort of transparency. Due to the organic approach of just letting it happen, I got both qualities.

The interior is a motorcycle engine. I found a picture of pretty minimal setup so that I could get in a draw all the little parts. Obviously, there's a gas cap (though I've been calling it the 'ass cap'), and it's relatively close to the reference image. Same with the headlights. The accordion type tubing on the leg and neck were a bit more removed from their references. H.R. Giger was one of the people/things my instructor advised me to research when I showed him the idea. When I think of Giger, I think of Aliens, one of my all time favorite movies. The tubing was loosely based off of a couple reference images I printed of some Xenomorphs. I ran short on time, though, so I couldn't do much with the background. I think it helps the piece, though. The initial thought was to create some sort of blueprint/schematic design in the background, so a nearly blank background isn't too far off from that.

I'm really excited to more things like this. I don't know that I'll be able to fit the theme into every assignment, but I'm damn well going to try.

EDIT; I finally got a proper file uploaded. I'm not sure why I was using that uber wrinkly one before, but it's fixed now. The file is acually big enough that I can actually offer this as a print now!!

Supplies: 30"x40" (largest so far) 300 series charcoal paper, charcoal
Time: approx 20-25 hours