John's Art Work
This was probably not the first drawing I ever did, but it is the oldest one I could find. I am assuming it is a drawing of me, or it could be one of my family members. For the most part I was a pretty easy-going little guy back then. I still like to make happy suns in my art work.
This is a pencil drawing I did of my Grandpa Ray. I needed my subject to remain still. So, I waited for my grandpa to fall asleep on the couch and then I proceeded to draw him. I was in elementary (probably sixth grade) when I drew this picture.
For a brief period I was really into He-Man. This is my pencil drawing on green typing paper of one of the characters from the He-Man series. Based on my signature at the bottom I probably drew this in fifth or sixth grade.
I did this pen and ink drawing of the Mona Lisa over thirty-two years ago. This was part of my early stages of pen and ink drawing. All the lines in this picture are the same direction (vertical), which was very challenging for me.
When I was sixteen, I went through a brief phase as an artist and struggled to finish my pieces. I am sure this frustrated my art teacher. This struggle birthed my early dabbling into abstract concepts and opened new avenues for my drawing. I started this porch drawing and after about five days into it I decided to go a different direction. Even though I failed at drawing this front porch, I succeeded in drawing my first abstract picture.
I started this steam train drawing with the hopes of finishing it and getting myself out of my artistic funk. I committed myself for over a month working on the train details and dark shadows. However, after a month a grabbed a pair of scissors and some magic markers and gave it a psychedelic look. I have always regretted my decision to not finish my train drawing. I proved to myself I could draw something ultra-technical, and then I stopped. Twenty-five years later I went back and drew another steam train and finished it (future steam train post coming).
It took me about one month to paint this psychedelic peace hand. I hid the words “peace” and “love” in the painting. I painted this in 1989,
When I was a senior in high school my art teacher let me create my own art class called Independent Art Study. For one of my assignments I wanted to draw my self-portrait. I did not want to draw my physical portrait (too easy), instead, I wanted to draw my insides, my internal self-portrait. I had a 3' x 6' sheet of paper and every night I drew a little bit of myself. This project took me all winter. When I took a picture of this drawing, I couldn't even fit all of it in the photo.
This is a pencil drawing I did of my dad when I was in elementary. My dad was an auto-body man and spent a lot of time working under cars. For a bigger guy I was amazed how nimble he could slide under a car. Once he got under a car he would always yell, “Johnny, get me a 3/16 wrench!” and I would inevitability come back with the wrong sized wrench. My dad had a lot of patience.
When the Phazer first came out it looked so cool, like something from the future. This was my dream snowmobile. We never got this snowmobile, instead, my dad bought a John Deere snowmobile (340cc) whose top speed maybe reached 50 mph downhill with the wind on my back. I drew the Phazer on notebook paper, probably because I wanted to stare at it secretly in class at school. This was probably one of my first technical drawings.
My art teacher, Dave Guenther, introduced me to pen and ink drawing. In the beginning I used a fountain pen. Each pen had interchangeable tips and each tip had a tiny ink reservoir. I would dip my pen into a glass ink bottle then draw with it for about one minute then dip it back in the ink. Fountain pens were famous for being ultra-messy and ink would often drip off the end of my pen without warning. The black dots on this picture are from those drops of ink. This is one of my very first pen and ink drawings. My technique was very planned and deliberate. The idea is to create textures and shadows by layering multiply lines in a variety of directions. I have retired all my fountain pens and now I use technical drawing pens.
Here is another one of my pen and ink drawings from 1988. I was still in the early stages of learning and developing my technique. The lines in this drawing were so crazy straight, I think I may have used a ruler. The idea for this drawing came from a band called Undercover and in one of their songs there is a line, “through the hands on the cross, out of the grave, and into my heart.” This was my first-time drawing something spiritual and dear to my heart.
Here is another drawing I started and just couldn't finish. I think I had a lot of stuff going on inside of me when I was a teenager (pen & ink).
I did this drawing in junior high. It is the first and only time I drew with white ink on black paper.
I painted these triangles in high school (1989).