Here is a look at the drawing's bones. What you see here will soon disappear under layers of ink. I find these line drawings have a beauty of their own, which is why I always take the time to make a high resolution scan of them before rendering. The ink looks a bit darker here... Continue Reading →
I came across this image while poking around on the Morgan Library and Museum website. It's a beautiful sketch by Audubon. In the notes I discovered that Audubon had written a few lines in graphite on the back of the paper. I don't know the circumstances that would have enabled Audubon to work at such... Continue Reading →
Last summer, my friend Steve Venright, and a car load of his wonderful family, came through for a visit. I've known Steve since we were teenagers (gasp). I just found this photo, which I had quite forgotten about, in my camera. It's a good one don't you think? Besides being an amazing poet, Steve is... Continue Reading →
Fellow London artist Sarah Legault's animated film Dear Love is now available on her Etsy site. When I received mine, I found an actual book from the film enclosed in the DVD case! This film is visually beautiful as well as genuinely moving. I hope you'll check it out. - Richard.
Last summer I spent some time photographing things in my garden with a macro lens. Some of the pictures were put on a blog called Nocturnalogic, which I have since discontinued. I have salvaged the images and added them to a gallery as part of this blog. Simply mouse over "Gallery" in the header and... Continue Reading →
Tale of Tales is a beautiful animated film by Yuri Norstein. This book by Clare Kitson is an in depth look at the making of the film, which examines many of the director's influences. The book is filled with fascinating background material, photographs and conceptual work. From Wikipedia: "Tale of Tales, like Tarkovsky's Mirror, attempts... Continue Reading →
This book was given to me as a Christmas gift. I've admired books by Porcupine Quill in the past but somehow I never came across this one. The pages are filled with the fantastic etchings of Rudolf Kurz, an artist living in Canada. They are presented as full page spreads or details carefully placed to... Continue Reading →
I'm ending the week with this new ink drawing called Forbidden by the Deep. I took the title from a quote by Leonardo da Vinci that I came across in Ian Leslie's wonderful book Curious. "I came to the entrance of a great cavern, in front of which I stood for some time, astonished and... Continue Reading →
This fall I will have new artwork in a very special group show (I'll talk more about the show later, once it has been properly announced). I'm planning two pieces for this show. To that end, I started a sketchbook dedicated to all of my ideas for these pieces. I find that it's helpful to... Continue Reading →
I just finished coloring this drawing. The actual ink was done earlier in the year. Over the last few days I've been focused on digital coloring. My motivation for stepping outside of my usual analog mode of working (painting and drawing) came from looking at the works of some other artists: Moebius, Mignola and Tomine.... Continue Reading →
Richard A. Kirk | Visual Artist | Author 