surrealism – Perceptive Prosections

pigeon

The categorization and organization of the specimens collection we visited was overwhelming, but in the best way possible. The amount of resources we had accessible for us to draw was incredibly inspiring. For future visits/drawing sessions, I want to begin making connections between some of these organisms and their natural forms and how they morphed from each other. Artistically, I want to begin adding some color to my drawings (looking forward to working with chalk pastels).

Initially, I began my dissection sketch of a pigeon realistically and rendered organs and body structures part-by-part with graphite in my sketchbook. I spend a lot of time differentiating shapes, values, and textures of each part, so much to the point where I began to run out of time in the lab.

I took my sketch home that night and adjusted values and had this blank space of junk (technically a bunch of cut out vessels, arteries, nerves, and tissue) surrounding the heart. I thought about waiting till the next time I go back to the lab to realistically render that area, but I had the urge to experiment with my style. I expanded from the heart by mimicking other organic and biological forms such as brain gyri, air embolism, glands, and nerves. These inflated projections stretch outwards and transversely to the sides of the wings, trapping the pigeon from abducting the wings for flight.

I was pleasantly surprised as to where this sketch took me, from realistic to contemporary surrealist. The abstracted biological forms expanding across the pigeon reminded me of graffiti art layering and forceful interruption of the landscape.

Looking at some other contemporary artists who inspired my experimentation with style:

Van Minnen:

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