TORN!

RIO

This week I am taking a workshop from the fabulous Derek Gores.  His collaged images made from magazines are spectacular and I was excited that the Santa Clara Watercolor Society was bringing him to San Jose.  My goal is to learn his process and then, somehow, incorporate it into what I do.  This process is amazingly difficult.  Just tearing paper is maddening.  It will tear fairly straight in one direction, but is almost impossible to control the tear in the other direction.  I desperately wanted to cheat and use a scissors!  I started carefully watching exactly how Derek was tearing the papers and got a little better at it.  Using text as form and value is an exciting element in this kind of work.  Derek's transitions are amazing and everyone in the workshop will never be able to look at a magazine in the same way again. 

 This was a large canvas and I am pleased that I was able to finish it in three days.  Tomorrow I will do a smaller square.  He suggests doing a simple single object like his demo of a shoe which I have posted below.  It is tempting, but this is a signature object for him and I don't want to do something so associated with him.  I decided to do a head (surprise!) with the idea in mind that I will then combine it in some way with other things to create my own look.  I don't know exactly what that might be, but I have a few ideas rattling around in my head.  I will probably do a number of different combinations just to see how it might work.  This has been a very enjoyable workshop and Derek is a very knowledgable artists and excellent instructor.  Everyone is producing amazing work.

RIO (STEP 1)

Here is how this piece looked after a few hours of work.  You can see part of the drawing that hasn't been covered yet.

This is Derek's demo of his iconic fashion shoe which was our demo for today.  If you click on the image it will come up in a new screen and you can see all the fun details.  

DEREK GORE DEMO: RED SHOE