06 April, 2010

your opinion

i spent 3 years on this ink drawing and would just appreciate some comments... good or bad.

Reply

42 Comments

Jodi Bilske 06 Apr 2010

Wow congratulations Brian, looks great and loads of detail.

06 Apr 2010

Ann 07 Apr 2010

Hi Brian, what a fabulous drawing. I am sure you'll get no negative criticism about this amazing work of art. I love the fish hook above the eye. If this has meaning, I'd like to hear all about it. Ann

Hinsel Scott 07 Apr 2010

good stuff. nice lines, nice detail.

3 years? nonstop? what size is this piece?

Brian Wingender 07 Apr 2010

thanks everyone for the comments! a couple of you had some questions concerning this piece. i'll give you the inside scoop... 3 years to draw? yes and no. depends on how you look at it. i am not an artist by profession, in fact i'm just a factory worker who loves to draw. this is part of the reason why it took so long to create. finding time wasn't easy! i started this piece sometime in 2006 and signed it in 2009. no, i did not work on it everyday. there were times that i would sit and draw on it for 8 hours at a time but there were also a couple of week-long stretches in which i didn't even want to look at it, but for the most part, yeah, it was a non-stop project. really depended on my mood for the day. MOODS... this brings me to the meaning of this image. i was (am) going through some hard times and always used my artistic ability as a way to release my frustration, but this picture didn't start that way. one day on vacation, a friend of mine and i walked into a tattoo parlor to get some price quotes. while browsing the parlor i saw a small picture of a tattoo that i liked. it was a picture of an eye glaring through a keyhole (and simply just that... one eye, one keyhole, nothing else). since taking pictures with a camera in a tattoo parlor is frowned upon, i burnt this image into my mind and brought it home with me. i began to draw out the "eye in keyhole" just because i was bored. soon the drawing got the best of me and so did everything else in my life. money, women, jobs, and friends weren't going so well. so i'd sit and draw. not answer my phone or door. just draw. every bad mood i got in was another portion of this drawing. like i said, it was a way to relieve frustration. to this day, i still have an ex-girlfriend (whom i was dating on and off through most of it) that swears this image is all about her! not true... its about me.

well... how does the story end? late 2009 i was browsing the internet and stumbled upon an exhibition being put on by a highly recognized arts center in my home town. the exhibition was called "eight counties". it invited all artists from all areas of media in the surroundig eight counties of my home town. as i read on i found out that the entry deadline was only a couple of days away and the only picture i felt was worthy of entering wasn't even done yet! at this point i had never entered my art into a contest/exhibition and felt a little out of my league. but still i owed it to myself to try. i entered. about a month later, i got a letter from the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, WI. i couldn't believe my eyes! i was accepted. 520 artists entered this exhibition, each providing 3 works of art. of the 1,550 works of art submitted, just over 100 made the final cut. i was (am) proud to be one of them! on opening day of the exhibition an awards ceremony took place and 20 people recieved awards. on january 24th 2010, i recieved an Honorable Mention award for this piece. it remained on display at the arts center for 3 months and on march 22nd 2010 i brought my baby home. since then i was offered a job as a tattoo artist. i accepted. i'm now a factory worker during the week, a tattoo artist on the weekends, and a lonely artist always, but hey, if i wasn't sad, lonely, and depressed... what would i have to draw about?

actual image size: 20" x 26" (unframed) 100% freehand with black ballpoint pen

Brian Wingender 07 Apr 2010

i forgot to mention... surrounding the keyhole, you'll see symbols. these are not just space fillers. i designed a symbol for each letter of the alphabet and wrote my own saying. this saying is what made me decide to title this image... INSTINCT.

i have quick zoom feature enabled on my portfolio for this image if you'd like a closer look. thanks everyone!

Ann 07 Apr 2010

Brian, thanks for sharing a part of your life and about the origins of this drawing. Glad you had your art for therapy during your dark times. Congrats for the show, and best of luck to you in your career, women and make sure you keep drawing! Ann

Gage Downs 07 Apr 2010

omg three years? how big is it? lol but it looks great

Hinsel Scott 08 Apr 2010

good work brian - thanks for the extra info! quite a large piece too. i totally dig on the time restraints that the "real world" puts on us...god, i've got so many half finished pictures on my hard drive...maybe when i retired i will have time to finish them and get famous before i die ; )

keep creating!

bobby mahaffey 09 Apr 2010

great job brian, i dig it

12 Apr 2010

Mark Adams 14 Apr 2010

Excellent drawing! I love the ideas! Funnily enough I have a fascination with eyes through keyholes and have a couple of paintings on my portfolio depicting that sort of image. They're nowhere in the same league as your picture though!

Great image and great skill and interesting about what you said about the whole process.

Brian Wingender 14 Apr 2010

thanks everyone!

Nashlon Jackson 20 Apr 2010

wow 3yrs i dont have the patience i commend you on that excellent detail

Jack Brauer 26 Apr 2010

Great pen & ink drawing Brian. Very interesting piece of art. The longer you study it, the more you see and then try to investigate the meaning of what you are looking at. Love it. Jack

Brian Wingender 27 Apr 2010

Thank you Nashlon and Jack. Jack, your comment could not have been anymore meaningful to me than it was. I love the fact that you said "study" and "investigate". I put a lot of time and effort into this piece and appreciate you taking time out of your day to study it! thanks guys. brian

Ivy Moses 30 Apr 2010

amazing piece, and story

christopher yap 03 May 2010

nice art!

Brian Wingender 14 Nov 2011

I love being able to go back and read all the nice comments left from fellow artists! You guys are great!

Gail Caduff-Nash 14 Nov 2011

my two cents: you could take up writing also - intriguing piece of work. i also wonder how big it is. and did you use ink washes also? btw, every artist starts out as a non-artist. i was in printing for 20 years before calling myself an artist and went on to do house painting. art is a tough task master and leads to all kinds of angst. re: this picture - seems like the 'eye' is being forced to look. i don't do ciphers so i don't care about that stuff. i just see that this is a labor of love and i'm glad the judges saw that too. you've got the right idea about exhibitions - they are to challenge you, not impress others. and i have paintings on hold for years sometimes while other take an afternoon to finish off. try doing more than one at a time. good expressionism. keep doing it as long as it helps. hope life's going better.

This discussion continues on the next page...