"there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion" Sir Frances Bacon, "Of Beauty, Essays" 1625
One might be forgiven for thinking this piece a surrealist response to Aubrey Beardsley’s illustration, The Examination of the Herald from Lysistrata, but it is in fact a meditation on vision (see previous posts). I hope you have enjoyed watching this process. This work is available for purchase. Please message me with any questions.
I started working on this new piece today on a block of 140lb Arches hotpress. Tomorrow I’ll start the real work of rendering the image using diluted inks to model the forms. As I go along, I’ll post some progress shots here on the blog. Although I did many works with this technique in the past, its been a few months, so I’m looking forward to it.
I took advantage of a very rainy May weekend to finish this new piece called Atropa. It was done with .13 & .18 Rotring Rapidograph pens. I hope you enjoy it. The work is available. If you are interested, drop me a line.
– Richard
For some reason, I neglected to post the completed image of this piece. Here you go, along with a few details. This will be part of the Fiends of the Dark online exhibition by WOW X WOW. Stay tuned for details!
All images © Richard A. Kirk. Any reuse is strictly prohibited without permission of Richard A. Kirk
This watercolour is a study for a future oil painting. I wanted to give the figure an avian quality, hence the placement of the eye. The whole piece hinges on that pitiless eye! I think it’s also quite funny. I have a series of paintings in mind featuring monsters in remote outdoor settings. I plan on doing these in the coming months, probably spread out over the year. If you’re wondering what that might look like, Tadpole Tales (below) is the kind of thing I am talking about. Each medium has its own qualities to recommend it.
2015
12″ x 8″
ink on 140lb Arches hotpress paper
All images © Richard A. Kirk. Any reuse is strictly prohibited without permission of Richard A. Kirk
The Dark Bead is finally finished!
This image shows the completed drawing, The Dark Bead. You can see details and work in progress images in previous posts. The Dark Bead is an ink pointillism drawing done primarily with a Rotring .13 technical pen, and a Koh I Noor .18 for the outlines. As is typical for pointillism, this drawing took many hours of work. I chose this style for its soft gradations and ability to deliver fine detail.
A theme of impenetrable mystery is at the heart of The Black Bead. The narrative revolves around the nature of the bead and its import to the creatures. The bead represents any kind of mystery and proposes that any mystery can seem magical until it is understood. The drawing also raises questions about the cottage in the distance, the identity of the creatures and the setting. It is deliberately non-committal about the time period, suggesting an otherworld scenario; a liminal place of change.
Up next is a larger piece for a show coming up at Copro Gallery later in the fall. Stay tuned.
I now have 10 giclee prints of my drawing “The Drowned Library” available in my print webstore.
