Me As Escher - A Study of Stippling Technique - Throwback Thursday 1996
Back in my years at The Art Institute we were tasked with many challenges to recreate works of art from historic masters, using their techniques, but modifying the final in some way to make it our own. The goal was to learn about the technique used by the master artisan, in this case it is Stippling - using small dots to create an image.
I have always been a fan of M.C. Escher's work or as long as I can remember. As a kid I used to try to copy his various works to understand the precision of perspective he had when drawing. When the challenge for stippling came up, I knew exactly what I wanted to attempt to create. I wanted to recreate his famous 1935 "Hand with Reflecting Sphere" drawing using my own image and a more sinister version of my hand.
My final work I titled "Me as Escher" drawn in 1996
The image took me a few days to complete. I started with a light pencil sketch to rough in the features and edges, then spent countless hours with a black ink pen stippling in the image. Figuring out the distortion of my face was the most difficult part. It was around the holiday season, so I was able to use a glass ball ornament from the Christmas tree to figure out what I looked like stretched out in a reflection on a sphere.
Details of my hand and edge of reflecting sphere.
One of the challenges in stippling is there are no hard lines, all edges and divisions of shape are created with dots. To get the illusion of a line, you have to carefully and precisely pile on the dots close together to make that transition from dark area to light area. The only hard lines in the finished work are along the outline of the whole image. I did not like the unfinished look of the dots around the perimeter, so I drew a thin line around it all.
Close up details of the hand and "claw-like" finger nail.
After being reviewed by a few instructors, this image was hung up in one of the central wall achievement galleries on floor 3 (graphic design floor) for the semester.
Let me know what you think, please leave your comments below.
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Pretty awesome. I've always been a fan of Esher as well. I like how you added some different elements in your artwork. The claws give it a dark feel.
Thank you Lightiesman. Yeah, we had to make it "our own" based on the original.
Holy cow that s a brutal piece of artwork congratulations man I love it !!
Thank you Nic, I knew you would appreciate it :-) skills I'm trying to dust off and bring back after so many years.
This artwork is so dope.... I also know the technique as pointillism.... It was one time-consuming technique... Really appreciate the work that went into this artwork @steempowerpics
Hi Dean, Thank you so much. Definitely time consuming. Yes, pointillism too. We were taught that was more for painting, like Seurat and Van Gogh, vs drawing pencil/pen. But they are the same technique as far as I know. I never did any panting like this.
These are incredible.
Thank you @theyoungartisan :-) other skills from my past. I spent a lot of years doing photography, now I'm trying to get back into drawing again. -Motivation by Steemit. lol
It looks like you really had a nack for it, Im glad you arn't letting that talent lie. Have you made anyting recently? You should post some progress! I would love to see.
Thats the beauty of insporation, creates a ripple effect.
Indeed. Well nothing like this at the moment, but I have been posting entries for various art/drawing contests. Some better than others. Over time I will I'm sure.
Well I look foward to seeing them.
I love how you used a Christmas tree ornament to get the distortion, brilliant! Interesting how pointillism and stippling are so much like pixels and the dots that make up a printed picture, sorta full circle I guess.
Thank you - that is very true- dots to pixels in a few hundred years lol
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Nicely done! I'm painting with this technique at the moment. Personally, I enjoy the huge amount of time it takes. It's almost like a meditation, no?
That hand is amazing! Perfect lines and shadows!
Thank you @lenadr. The time was definitely worth it in the end. I was really happy with how it came out.
I have a beautiful and very large framed print of Escher's Carp & Koi in our study. It was a gift to me from someone I went once on a date to a museum with and they had it for sale in the gift shop, such a beautiful gift!