Wednesday, March 2, 2011

John Kenn

This is a drawing by the artist, John Kenn. He's actually a writer and director for children's television shows, and he only draws on his spare time. Pretty much all of his drawings are done with ink on post-it notes. The ink pen is my favorite, and preferred medium choice, and I also like to work quick on smaller scaled projects. The fact that he seems to work expeditiously, and with limited tools is what draws me to his work. In short, it's something I would do. But that aside, what I think is particularly exciting about this drawing is it's theatrical composition. There's a small child on a beach to the right of the image, looking off in the distance at this ominous, black tentacle-mouthed monster. There are birds hovering around the monsters head, and a somewhat violent sea of waves approaching the beach's shore. The image is haunting and dark with an intricate, but loose attention to detail. The sky is decorated with quick, short arches that become more condensed towards the top of the image. The beach is lightly decorated with dot markings to represent sand. Nothing in the image is completely black either, it seems as if the monster was filled in with rapid and short pen strokes. The yellowed color of the post-it note also kind of makes the less detailed parts of the image glow from behind. He tends to draw monsters and children strictly. I love this guys style so much, he's one of the more inspiring artists that I've come across this semester.

http://johnkenn.blogspot.com/

3 comments:

  1. You're right about how well the Cthulhu-esque monster stands out.This is a very interesting, but simple piece to look at. The way the two look at each other creates a certain tension.

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  2. I like how this feels like a moment captured in time. There's so much movement within a still image. There's definitely an intense feeling between the two characters. Very eery.

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  3. Cthulhu's eyes and the girl's face really stand out from their surroundings due to their lightness. It really makes the interaction between them very powerful.

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