There are, broadly, two fates open at the end of 90-110 hours of nearly continuous pixeling (or any such activity, really, the matter of it being pixeling is in essence moot). A regiment which, for the most part, included breaking for one daily meal during the hectic period between the end of the school day and putting the kids to bed before returning for the night shift, and finally falling into a restless sleep, the sort which always seems to cruelly accompany unsustainable working hours. The 20 hour possibility space existing somewhere in the fugue, a it-must-have-been-at-least and it-couldn't-have-been-more-than estimate as certified and bondable as any trade labourer hack who measures with an extended arm, winked eye, and thumb to heaven.
The first fate (N.B. the usage of fate rather than choice, because it is not a choice), is burnout. Even chartreuse hard hatted artists know the risks of extended production, the last half-inch of dregs from a pint of unfiltered inspiration being best left undrunk. But drink I did and but for the grace of Thalia evaded, this time, that dark place.
The second fate is to take a quick break, a couple of real sleeps, maybe bang out a quickie :mindblown: type achievement, a (Thalia laugh track here) fae-brator, and then continue the journey of art / soulcraft largely unscathed. Like falling asleep at the wheel and waking up to find yourself safely at your destination, an ill-advised strategy, generally, the risks far outweighing expected payoffs.
Such is the context behind this piece. A continuation of my experiments in style, informed only tangentially by 18 portraits, and put to use in a new direction. Experimentation is, really, far too formal a phrasing; the proverbial "dicking around" suits my disposition, and the disposition of Thalia, I imagine, far better.
Process? I applied negative space techniques (frankly a longer/stronger aspect of my style than the feathering but I digress) to a simple portrait and then started cutting and pasting the bits around and abstracting detail into the rectangle colors. The end result is very abstract, yes, but each piece of the abstraction, having been taken from a less-abstract portrait, has a reason for existing. Like dumping out the puzzle pieces from a jigsaw and preferring the resulting garbled image to the one on the box.
I don't suppose I'll be rerouting into highly abstract art as my new main but I do suppose that such ventures are the fissile core of my self-development. |
