-This Is How I Started Out..

      Instead of posting more Art work that I have done in the last 2 years I will take you back to show  how it was when I first started. Some favourite work of mine is from high school. My favourite work is not after I went to college, even though my draftsmanship greatly improved when I went to college and even better when I got to Pixar. It is from high school, because in high school all I knew how to do is translate my thought's to paper. When I look back over my work since I've started college I see a stop in that and more of a focus to get my drawing skills better, my life drawing and paintings all greatly improved ten fold but my thinking and creativity was put on hold. I see that happen with a lot of peoples art.

I see that in a lot of blogs and sketch books these days...

      People start to post sketches from sketch books and try to do a drawing a day or post multiple drawings they did that day of people at the park or just draw for the sake of drawing...


-Leonardo De Vinci said it best, "The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, with out any reason, is like the mirror which copies everything in front of it with out being conscious of it's existence."


       Look at the picture I posted, in high school, people go through some raw emotions, sometimes for the first time, but none the less they are very intense emotions and feelings. This is a drawing i did way back then really fast, even though it sucks, I expressed a feeling. I had drawing skills that were enough to translate what I was thinking better but that wasn't the point. I drew for a reason. I drew to say something, I drew to let things out or express how I felt. I drew and didn't care if my drawing came out right, I cared about if the drawing communicated a thought. And I rather draw like that for the rest of my life than to draw perfect life drawings and masterful acrylic paintings till the universe freezes over. 

        So I have nothing against people who draw for love of drawing, I admit to doing so and filling up my last five sketch books with mostly good drawing nonsense. But again I will stress, what is the point of being an artist, (who's work is an ambassador of humanity for future generations), if you have nothing to say? I have been seeing a lot of reels/portfolios and looking at a lot of blogs. 75% of the things I see are for:
 
-For entertainment
-For showing off skills (aka trying to get a job)
-or for practice
-to draw/create pretty things because they like how it looks..


       A lot of the reels I see, they just have gags or exercises, and the typical - something that looks cool and bad ass. . (which I understand why, because that's all the time you have when you are doing it for assignments while in school..) These things you choose to make that might reflect your 'taste' but they NOTHING about yourselves. For example, how much do you realy find out about me if I just say I like the old TV show called 'F.R.I.E.N.D.S'? You don't learn anything form that just like I learn nothing form you when you make a short about a a person picking up something heavy....


      I'm guilty of doing the same for the last two years and only recently have I been using my Animation to make comments and reflect thoughts... I went home for Thanksgiving and documented EVERY drawing, sketch, doodle, shit stain, ANYTHING I ever made with a pencil or brush I took a photo of. In those old sketch books of mine there where drawings that showed me my own heart ache, happiness, cockiness, love, fear, hate, regret, want.. it was as if it was a visual diary. These drawings meant something. I look now look at my life drawing, what the HELL is a naked man holding a stick going to tell me about myself??? That I can draw proportions and weight pretty damn accurately!?
      I am so thankful and lucky to have received the training I have during college and high school But now I shall stop 'copying' and imitating what I see and start reflecting something more onto my paper.

There are some people out there that are making wonderful pieces such as Ashley Wood and Ryan Woodward. I hope to see an increase of art someday, but until then I guess I shall lead the charge on my own. 

Remember though, FIRST learn your craft, THEN say something with it.

       My drawing I posted in the beginning of this post was made when I was.. ehh.. in tenth grade, 5th period math...  I never made it into a drawing or finished it. I have tons of drawings to show but I wanted to show this little doodle that I did on one random corner of my sketchbook because it is a perfect example of me drawing down a thought in the moment, never to return to it again until today. During winter break my activity on this blog will start to slow down a bit so to compensate for me being so busy, I shall post every three days, a drawing or doodle from my very old sketch books. So you guys can have something to look at over the holidays. I don't know what I really expected to tell you in this post.. I just needed to get these thoughts out of me and I thought it might do some people good to hear what was going through my mind.


-Daniel Gonzales