I'm not there, 7th of January 2012.

The other day in the weekly shopping - pushing the cart, looking for usual pleasures and those I want to experience for the first time. Perhaps this cheese, looks good. Or smoked salmon with the addition of chilly. Not too expensive.

Still, it was something different this week because I was trying to find some present for my nephew who has a birthday. And so I found myself in the "school" section. There they sell notepads and pencils of a poor quality, pencil sharpeners, erasers, rulers and goniometers, pencil cases, markers and felt-tip pens, pens, a folder containing a collection of paper sheets for drawing, watercolors and ink. Huh, it's been a while since I've seen something like that. Thirty nine kunas. Nine sheets for watercolors, nine of this sort, seven of that sort, another nine in color, cardboard, paper for collage. And all that in A3 format. Nice. I am turning the folder around an I remember my elementary school. I didn't like the visual art education in my elementary school. I especially didn't like working with the brush and watercolors. All that mess, spilling of color, completely out of control and completely irreparable once it slips in the wrong direction. And that happens just about immediately after you take the brush in your hands.

And it seems to me that those teachers of mine didn't know much. For example, I cannot remember that somebody ever told me that the art of drawing is, in essence, the art of measuring. I also cannot remember that somebody told me that the drawing should be started with straight lines, recognizing angles in the object one draws. These are important and basic issues that I learned only when I started learning to draw in my own arrangement. Too bad. But, in our educational system, one needs to learn just about everything on his own. That is how I, after finishing the physics faculty, had to spend another five years learning physics (mostly thermodynamics and statistical physics).

I won't cry now and I return to the subject of this post and the images that I want to present.

Of course, the folder didn't finish with my nephew but with me. I will see what is the quality of the paper they sell. The one I used until now was much more expensive, but I cannot complain. I want to continue with my "art education" and move away from the drawings and painting in the "grayscale". I want to know color. My beginner's attempts are shown in this post.

These are the illustrations of the scenes from the movie >> I'm Not There by Todd Haynes in the watercolor technique. One could also say that this is another post on Bob Dylan. The two previous posts are >> Bob Dylan revisited (June 2011) and >> Bob Dylan in Zagreb (June 2010).

This post starts with the illustration (above) of Heath Ledger who portrays Dylan in the >> Blood on the Tracks period.

Only when you start painting you notice some aspects of color that eluded you before. For example, the parts of the movie in which >> Heath Ledger acts are in bluish and grey tones, while the parts with Marcus Carl Franklin (the image above) and Richard Gere (the image below) are in the shades of green and yellow. Mind surely grasps these aspects of the movie, but in the case of most viewers, only subconsciously - once you concentrate and put it all down on the paper, this "manipulation of colors" becomes evident.

Watercolor is really a messy technique which, for now, I cannot tame in the way I want. All the images in this post were made in different ways and I am not entirely happy with either one of them.

The irreversible and endly nature of every stroke in the watercolor technique is burdening. It is almost impossible to repair a mistake, and adding new layers of color over it results regularly in the "muddy color" look of the spot. I recently read the post on the blog of >> James Gurney who brings an interesting quote regarding the >> ink and wash technique and its relation to life and the inability to take back our words and deeds. He ctes >> D. T. Suzuki, who is one of the well known promoters and interpreters of (Zen) Buddhism. He says:

It is pretty similar with the watercolor technique. And concerning life, Christians would probably say that Jesus died for their sins, so they would probably not agree with Suzuki. His thinking is quite familiar to me, but also quite burdening.

Richard Gere (above). I could never stand that guy, but he played quite a good role in the movie. Not irritating as usual. The detail of the image is shown below.

In the end, the watercolor painting that I am most satisfied with (below). In my opinion, it is the high point of the movie, the song Going to Acapulco performed by >> Jim James and >> Calexico. Great cover and James sings as if he is crying. The white painted face is, of course, again a reference to Dylan, from his >> Renaldo and Clara period.

In case somebody is interested in the technique I used to make this watercolor painting, in the series of images below I show the different phases in the creation of the painting.

Graphite pencil and ink (above).

Graphite pencil, ink, and red (above).

Graphite pencil, ink, red, brown, and yellow (above).

Graphite pencil, ink, red, brown, yellow and green (above). Hmm. It seems to me that I again "overburdened" the watercolor. I should have stopped with the version with only ink and red. This is the main problem with the watercolor technique - one must struggle to keep it "light" and "transparent". I didn't manage to do it yet, but I'll continue trying.

Last updated on 7th of January 2012.