SWAK
Graphite on Bristol Board
November 2008
Source photograph courtesy of the lovely Kerianne.
The decisions I made concerning this piece are as follows:
*I needed some pieces for the 9X12 Works on Paper show coming up. So the choice of ground was pretty much well-decided since everything for that show either had to be on paper or made of paper. At this point it was just a question of which paper. I chose Bristol Board because it's sturdy, it was white (I have drawing paper, but it's a creamy-white, and I was planning on this being a graphite piece, which is another decision right there), the vellum surface wasn't too textured for my pencil work, and most importantly, it was what I had available right here. Funny how that works out.
*I wanted a large margin of white surrounding the finished drawing to act as an ersatz "mat". None of the pieces in the 9X12 show are to be matted and/or framed -- they just have to fit in a 9X12 envelope. There's a LOT of work hanging in the show, so having a good-sized border around the image would help to draw attention to it by giving it a bit of visual "space". It's very easy to go into sensory overload at the show, especially since everything is hung very close together. This, of course, gave me a size limitation which leads to my next decision --
*I really, really dislike the thought of folding up my artwork to stuff it into an envelope, so naturally, the piece was going to fit onto a 9X12 piece of paper, minus a generous border, which meant that 8X10 was out, as it would not give me the space I desired. I also wanted it to kind of be a more standard-ish size for ease in subsequent matting and framing. I chose 5X7, almost arbitrarily but not quite: I have a 5X7 template from some scrap Bristol. Having these templates to draw around makes it very easy to figure out where the edges of your piece are supposed to go, and I highly recommend them.
*Given the limitations already decided upon (small size, graphite drawing), I decided I wanted a more intimate piece. I personally believe that drawings tend to be a bit more intimate than paintings, especially smaller pieces. When I saw the original source photo I ended up using as a reference for this piece, I knew I had to draw it, and this provided the opportunity. Given the small size, I had also knew I had to crop in quite a bit, so I knew I'd be homing in on the incipient kiss. The source photo has a beautiful sense of emotion to it that I hoped to distill a bit by narrowing the focus to where one almost couldn't see the faces. I kind of wanted a sense of facelessness overall, just capturing the very lowermost portions of their faces, but I couldn't get a good crop that would exclude the boy's eye, keep the girl's nose, and maintain that gorgeous negative space between the two. In retrospect, I could probably knock off about an inch from the top and the right side for an even tighter crop, but what's done is done. Although I still have an eraser . . .
*And a very quick, tiny sketch, approximately 2" tall and 3" wide. Not very proportional to the final piece, but it showed me the approximate placement where I wanted everything to go. Emphasis on "approximate".
*I decided to lightly cover the picture plane with a light layer of smudged graphite so that I could work up to the lights (by erasing) and down to the darks. Interestingly, a large section of the girl's shoulder shows this layer, illustrating how much I did have to go either way to get the lights and darks.
*I really liked the soft, lost edges occuring at the boy's chin as it recedes into darkness, so I definitely worked to emphasize that.
*The last decision actually came as something of a surprise to me: originally, I just wanted to have a dark section of negative space between the two faces. That's it, just a dark shape against which their features would pop out. But as I worked on it, I considered having a couple/few spots that were slightly lighter, to indicate a fall of hair. I waffled back and forth on it while I worked, and finally decided to go ahead and do it. Now, honestly, I think it could have worked either way, but when I did it, DAMN! It really made the whole piece fall into place, giving it a great deal more intimacy than it originally had, so I'm glad I did it.
*Title: I really have a preference for either short, one-word titles, or very, very long, almost-complex sentence titles. I wanted something succinct, since this is a small piece, and perhaps indicative of the sense of closeness, of the incipient contact about to occur. Unfortunately, the best I could do was "SWAK" (translation: Sealed With A Kiss). Either that or "Ohhhh, What's THAT Taste Like?", which is a line from the film Drop-Dead Fred, and I really didn't think it would communicate quite what I wanted. (Although, if it had been up to my husband, he of the dignified look and puerile sense of humor . . . let's just say that there's a reason why I no longer ask him for help with titles.)
All in all, it was a pleasant road to travel down, and the results please me. Would that all my decisions were this easily made!
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