If there is one medium that photography shares a common bond with, in terms of struggling to be recognized as a valid art form, it would be drawing.

You could argue that for all its worth drawing is as photographic as the plastic arts are ever going to get. Ideas, be they roughly sketched out, or finely constructed stroke by stroke, feel immediate, direct and as fluid as that impossible shot. It’s no surprise then to see that drawing’s role in arts is often confined to initial concepts and the support of deeper investigations. Recently these preconditions of the medium have been overturned as so many artists are either primarily using drawing as a practice central to their work, or simply as equal works themselves in a greater encompassment of various media.

Today’s Non-Photography Friday will highlight a few artists who use drawing as an important part of their overall vision.

Marcel Dzama

© Marcel Dzama

When I think of the popularity of drawing today one of the first artists who comes to mind is Marcel Dzama. Now based in New York, this Canadian born, Winnipeg bred, artist approaches drawing with the polish of a master and the perceived naivety of folk art. His signature craft-like aesthetic (final works are often tinted with root beer concentrate) is not only instantly recognizable, but it’s so very often copied.


© Marcel Dzama

© Marcel Dzama

What separates Dzama’s work from simply being labeled as illustration is its ability to be both mysterious and self-referential, often commenting on larger issues of the human condition. Themes of sexual depravity, loneliness, wonder, tragedy, and dreaming, proliferate each and every work. Often these concepts manifest themselves in the image of invasions of humanoid animals (bears, bats, etc) or children armed with flags, wearing tree trunks. The natural and the impossible all come alive on a barren stage of pastel and muted earth tones.


© Marcel Dzama

© Marcel Dzama

© Marcel Dzama (DETAIL)

© Marcel Dzama

More work from Dzama:


© Marcel Dzama

© Marcel Dzama

© Marcel Dzama (DETAIL)

 

Erica Eyres

© Erica Eyres

Although there are aspects of sketching, or more specifically doodling, in Dzama’s work, for an artist like Canadian Erica Eyres this notion is central to her practice. Eyres creates somewhat humorous but totally disturbing drawings, the majority of which are executed with a ballpoint pen. This not only gives Eyres’work the disturbing quality of teen doodles, but it allows her to add very fine tone and shadow which seem to shimmer.


© Erica Eyres

© Erica Eyres

More work from Eyres:


© Erica Eyres

© Erica Eyres

© Erica Eyres

 

Steven Shearer

© Steven Shearer

Another artist who uses the bare necessities of drawing is Canadian Steven Shearer. Shearer’s long-term fascination with rock subculture has led him to approach the subject with various media and, for me at least, his most compelling works are his ballpoint and/or pencil crayon portraits. Like Eyres, Shearer uses the subtle line that the pencil crayon can achieve to create expansive tone and a final result which is mostly realistic. These portraits, often very tiny, treat stoner youth, pop-icons, and Heavy Metal heroes, as Renaissance royalty.


© Steven Shearer

© Steven Shearer (DETAIL)

© Steven Shearer

 

Anthony Goicolea

© Anthony Goicolea

This last artist is someone who is pretty rare when considering a contemporary relationship between drawing and photography. Anthony Goicolea is an American artist whose drawings deal with issues of youth, male identity, and sexuality. What is particularly interesting about Goicolea’s work is that his drawings use the same properties as his trademark digital composites. Using ink, colour pencil, and various alternative treatments such as gold leafing, Goicolea layers his mylar based drawings in shallow vitrines.


© Anthony Goicolea

© Anthony Goicolea

© Anthony Goicolea

This effect gives the work not only tremendous depth (something not best represented on the internet), but it allows him the ability to play with the formal properties and concepts of layering. In his series “Underwater,” Goicolea presents his acrylic, graphite and colour pencil on mylar drawings layered in a perspex vitrine. To mimic the feeling that the characters are placed in water, Goicolea adds a central housing of coloured liquid.


© Anthony Goicolea

© Anthony Goicolea

Recently Goicolea has also used his mylar technique as a way to unite photography and drawing. “Diptychs” is a collection of drawings executed in white, blue and black ink and acrylic, mimicking the properties of a photographic negative. The “film drawing”is then exposed to light sensitive paper and the resulting image is a positive contact print photogram.


© Anthony Goicolea

© Anthony Goicolea

More work from Goicolea:


© Anthony Goicolea

© Anthony Goicolea

© Anthony Goicolea
 

• BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
• « GIFs
• » Will Steacy Prints for Sale