Welcome

Hello, hello! My name is Esteban Barnes - it's my paintbrush name (like a pen name, but for artists) and I have been an artist for some time now. I've finally decided to write about my work; what I do, how I get ideas, and I'll showcase some artwork as well.

- I'm an artist, should I really be writing? Maybe I should post only with pictures, like a graphic novel.

Let's Start With My Blog Name

I couldn't decide what my art blog would be called so I put some information into a name generator; it gave lots of ideas but none that really caught my eye - except the one.
Hung Drawn and Quartered, it was short and catchy: perfect. I changed the words to make it artistic, Sketched Drawn and Painted. And the original meaning of that phrase really seems to work well with art, because I draw my work and hang it up ... but I guess I don't chop it up ... unless It's terrible.

My Current Work

Currently in the studio I'm working on a still life ... because I find it more difficult to draw moving life. And I like to draw things that don't move around so I can add lots of detail.
The top picture shows the whole page; it might be difficult to see, but it is a still life of a bible and a rosary. I've been working on this for a few days now and it's really coming along nicely.

 How The Idea Came About

This idea came about when I was looking for something to draw on my big sketchpad. I decided I wanted to practice my still life skills by finding an object and drawing it without a photo. I was in my room just walking around when my eye caught a glimpse of the bible on my shelf, and I knew instantly it would work - it was big enough to fill the page and simple enough to just sketch right on the page.

At that point in time I wasn't sure if it would be just a sketch or a finished drawing - I guess it's going to be a finished drawing. I started to record it on the camera so I could make a time lapse, but I didn't know the camera shut off part way through. I ended up just photographing it instead.

It wasn't enough though, just the book in the middle of the page ... I needed something else to move the eye around. Then another idea popped into my head, a rosary would do. It goes with the bible, is linear in form (to move the eye across the page) and is simple enough. (I thought). But it turns out a rosary is very difficult to draw with all of the little parts and round beads and small details. Very time consuming.

So this is where I am, a still life drawing in progress - still lots of detail to put in to get a nice contrast, but all worth the effort.

Thank you for reading my Journal of Drawing, if you like my work (or don't) please feel free to Comment Critique or Criticize in the comment section. I will post my finished drawing when it is finished.

- "Drawing is not what one sees but what one can make others see." Edgar Degas