At the outset of most drawings I accept the fact that my mark making is… not delicate. I’ve mentioned it in previous posts that I have worked against it to challenge myself and this post is no different! An artist I have always admired since I was little because aunt was such a huge fan is Michael Parkes. He creates beautiful, delicate images that tend towards the surreal and sometimes fantastical. One of the reasons he is such a draw for me is because even though everything feels cohesive, he never feels the need to overfill a background or root his image in any kind of reality. Essentially, he just makes what he thinks is cool and makes the background conform to it or hardly bothers with a sensible one at all. Mostly though his figure work is what is most impressive. He believably distorts figures and bends them to his will but even grossly distorted figures can still be beautiful.

This brings me to this drawing. It is not a direct copy of any of Parkes’ work, nor does it share much in common stylistically, but in terms of content, composition, and delicacy it is obviously drawing inspiration from his work. I look to his (and others) work to try to pry myself from heavy handed mark making (it can get tedious sometimes) and the result this time, was in my opinion very effective. This drawing isn’t breaking down any huge artistic barriers but it does very effectively achieve what I had set out to do when making it.  A lot of artists, especially modern ones, turn their nose up at making something that is just “pretty” but sometimes for some of us? That can be genuinely challenging.  So even though some of my lines portray my brutal nature please enjoy this very purposefully dainty drawing.

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