posted: May 20, 2013

These images are from a sporadic project inspired by the timeless theme of The Folly of Man. As Bruegel's archtypical depiction of the fool or everyman (Eyke) used popular 16th century visual devises to convey meaning through mataphor, this version is contemporarily similar but intentionally less direct. Perhaps it's the fatigue induced by the illustrator's requirement to "illustrate", most often through established metaphors, or maybe it's the magnitude and complexity of the theme, but the ambiguity allowed through the use of vague metaphor seems appropriate. Still illustrative, only by more distant means.
These are improvasations that build and break (through their own bouts of folly) on the way to completion.
In regard to improv, Laurie Anderson said for her a piece is "finished when I can't fix it anymore". It was never really clear to me whether she meant that the piece was "finished" or if she was "finished with it",--big difference. These are all somewhere in between.
All 20"x30"ish, acrylic on paper.

posted: February 15, 2012

Every Friday I get a little gem in my email, a seemingly dashed-off little drawing of some seemingly incidental moment.
I say seemingly because on the surface that's how they might appear. But to anyone who spends time trying to Draw, these are feats of nuance and sensibility that belie their facade. They take the cynicism out of the cynical, and the sentimentality out of sentiment to humorously reveal something honest and real.
I've been looking at Shepperson drawings for a long time, and astoundingly, they just keep getting better. Here's a link to Rob's blog, where among other good stuff, he also posts his TGIF drawings.
http://robshepperson.blogspot.com/

posted: October 10, 2011

posted: May 23, 2011

Color theory is a bore. I tried to learn it, but the rules get convoluted so quickly just steps beyond mixing compliments,--and the results are forever unpredictable.  My intuitive sense goes toward grey, warm and cool, and it fails or succeeds without regard to amount of effort applied or degree of desperation. Step outside the safety of local color, and all bets are off. One thing I've learned: put a little red in it, and it might look like you planned it (or at least keep it from cadaver dead).
Some "color theory" exercises; portraits of musicians.