dissolving the boundary between ego and superego
this is my submission for the ‘psychedelic’ prompt for r/sketchdaily … not crazy about what the gif compression did to it (it’s super grainy, and watch the body when it goes blue, it looks like it moves) but it really deserved to be moving.
this is obviously ground tread far better by Alex Grey and other visionary artists, but if I were going to allow myself to be intimidated by the greats, I’d never make any art at all.
he’s sitting in Sukhasana pose, doing the Shuni Mudra (middle finger to the thumb), which is supposed to bring patience and discipline - two things definitely required to reach a state like this. I’ll be perfectly honest - I’ve never reached this level with just yoga, as I’ve never worked up this much patience and discipline - but with some *ahem* help I’ve slipped into this state a couple times. The D.A.R.E. cop never told us about ego death when he was showing off his little case of drugs.
The White Blind Light
Your home is still here, inviolate and certain.
Thank you, oh Lord, for the white blind light.
Jumped, humped, born to suffer. Made to undress, in the wilderness.
Our love so found a safe niche, where we can store up riches and talk to our fellows, in the same premise of disaster. Thank you, oh Lord, for the white blind light.
Let me tell you about heartache and the loss of God, wandering, wandering in hopeless night. Moonshine night, mountain village insane in the woods, in the deep trees, in the deep trees, in the deep trees. Your home is still here, inviolate and certain. Oh, I want to be there, I want us to be there, oh I want to be there, beside the lake, beneath the moon, cool and swollen, dripping its hot liquor. I want to be there. Thank you, Lord, for the white blind light.
A city rises from the sea. Let me tell you about heartache and the loss of God, wandering, wandering in hopeless night. Let me show you the maiden with wrought iron soul. Out here in the perimeter there are no stars. Out here we is stoned. Immaculate.
- Jim Morrison
Inktober #31 - MASK
Inktober is over! I’ll still be doing r/sketchdaily, as I feel like the only real way to continually improve is to keep at it every day. This was a great learning experience and I’m really happy that I did it. Maybe I’ll even get around to doing that comic I’m always thinking about, now that I have a bit more confidence.
I thought about doing something from M.A.S.K. (does anyone even remember that show?), and I ran through the gamut of various Halloween masks, from Jason’s hockey mask, to Hannibal Lecter’s face mask, to No-Face from Spirited Away, but finally settled on the most unsettling mask I could think of.
Mustard gas and chlorine were prevalent in WWI, and the British were well-prepared for it during the blitz raid bombing in WWII. They held regular drills and practices so that people would be ready in case of a gas attack. Even though that ‘keep calm and carry on’ poster campaign wasn’t displayed much, the attitude seems to have been.
Anyway, thanks for hanging in there with me for the month, and have a great Halloween.
Inktober #30 - FOUND
I had a bunch of different angles I thought about approaching this one from - founding a venture, be it a business or a country, a lost and found, and even Archimedes in the tub, having his “Eureka!” moment - but I ultimately decided on the most literal version of the word “found”, as in “foundry”. From old French, fondre “pour out, melt, smelt” (12c.), from Latin fundere (past participle fusus) “to melt, cast, pour out”, I thought this would be the most visually interesting form.
I’ve always wanted to try my hand at smelting but it seems like a heavy investment for something I might not get a whole lot of use from. A good friend of mine has a miniature crucible but in all the years I’ve known him, he’s never actually fired it up to make anything. Maybe I’ll bug him about it, just to see what it’s like without actually investing anything besides the metal into it. I wonder what was being made in the photo I worked from, as it looks like some sort of thing I’d make pancakes with.
Once again, I didn’t have enough time to put everything that I wanted to into it, but I’m happy with the overall composition and the highlights. I used the Manga Smooth brush again for the lines and the Noise Bar for the texture. When in doubt, stick with what you know, I guess.
Inktober #29 - UNITED
The raised fist is an ancient symbol - the act of strengthening the relatively vulnerable individual finger digits into a solid fist is a universal experience.
Synonymous with worker’s rights, black power, feminism, communism, socialism, anti-fascism, and (unfortunately) white nationalism, it’s been used everywhere. The first time I saw it was in the photo from the 1968 Summer Olympics, where medal winners John Carlos and Tommie Smith lowered their heads and raised their fists during the American national anthem. I was just a kid but that image struck me and filled me with questions. Then, shortly after I became aware of it, Whitney Houston made the gesture but in a whole new context - as a triumph after singing the national anthem during the Superbowl, right around the time my Dad was deployed to Saudi Arabia for the Gulf War.
It’s a powerful symbol that can carry a lot of different meaning depending on who is raising the fist - considering the white nationalist’s similar use and the fact that Trump raised his during his inauguration - but I struggled with the whole concept of “United” in a time that is so clearly divided. I went with fiery colors to avoid any obvious skin tone, though some might argue that the red makes it symbolize communism. If so, I’m ok with that. Symbols are at least half interpretation, so read into it what you need to. Buzzfeed has a good piece about the varying uses and what it means for the future of the raised fist.
Hell, there’s even a ‘raised fist’ emoji.