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Jabiru
September 1, 2006
Jabiru at the Dallas World Aquarium, 24H x 18W inches graphite on paper
Post-dated note: Accepted in the J. Mane Gallery’s Fins, Feathers and Fur 2020 exhibition, unfortunately no longer shown in the gallery archives in 2022.
“Drawings have a job to do: to provide viewers with more than just a pretty picture. There are tones implied through those tones!”
Jabiru are large South American prehistoric-looking birds standing 4-5 ft. high. Reference photos for ‘Jabiru’ were taken at the Dallas World Aquarium, where I’ve spent many visits watching a pair of them interact. Fortunately, I can usually study them in silence, because everyone else’s attention is on the flashy coral-colored flamingos just down the aisle.
Before starting I envisioned a drawing based on Japanese principles of using fewer lines and shading, with empty spaces considered as much a part of the drawing as every mark.
This is not the prettiest subject, precisely one of the reasons I chose to keep the drawing soft. By purposely compromising the values and using a lighter touch, my hope was that the viewer’s response might be pleasant before thinking “ugly bird”. To explain further, the Jabiru’s feathers are pure white and its head including beak are very dark grey, almost black. I was stubborn about the style staying gentle and simple, having negative space speak as much.
Whereas a photograph utilizes the whole range of dark and light values, copying everything, a person chooses the amount and quality of dark and light values to apply in order to attain the intended the effect on our emotional impressions.
The Jabiru’s huge beak strikes a strong silhouette by shape alone, so to lessen the impact of the large, odd shape on a fairly empty page, extremes were avoided even though the bird’s beak is quite dark in reality.
I really want stress here that a drawing is not a photograph, and a photograph is not a drawing. Photographs might be the source of inspiration and for details that memory has missed or forgotten. Illustrations that are copied with attempts to produce an exact visual likeness, relying purely on the photo, lack a certain warmth no matter how well rendered they are. Art involves the human factor. A photo is a product of a machine; the visual details are copied with no sense or emotion; it does what it’s been designed to do. Drawings are subjective representations of all that we sense as well as see.
We interpret character of a subject not only visually, but also through our multidimensional senses.
Categories: animals, Art for sale, birds, Dallas World Aquarium, drawings, exhibitions, graphite, illustration, inspiration, pencil, Realism, Texas | No Comments »
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