William T. Ayton Blog II

Trees and Tree Men

Posted by aytonart in art, drawing, tree man on July 20, 2011

Trees and tree men have long been a significant element in my work. The image of a human sprouting branches and becoming treelike is one I find oddly compelling. There are myths and legends of treelike beings in several cultures that I know of, but I think this originates back to Hieronymus Bosch and the tree man in the “Musical Hell” panel of the Garden of Earthly Delights triptych. When I was a teenager I had a poster of that panel on my wall, and later, when I lived in Madrid, I could visit the original (though not frequently enough, in retrospect) in the Prado.

Here, below, are 4 new images (done with the brush pen, my new drawing tool — see post below) that deal in some way with this theme. All images are 16.5″ x 14″, from 2011.

Bosch's Tree Man Goes Walking

The Tree Man Laughs

The Branch Manager

The Rise of the Man Tree

My new brush pen

Posted by aytonart in art, drawing on July 6, 2011

Recently, I’ve been using a brush pen (made by Pentel) in my drawings. It was a little pricey ($16 from a local craft store chain) & only came with 2 ink cartridges (I’ve found I can refill the cartridges with regular ink — a little messy, but worth it economically speaking). In any case, I’ve found that the brush pen gives a very usable flowing organic line that is mostly brush-like, but sometimes marker-like. I’d prefer if the the pen gave more of a fine art “brushy” line, but it’s more than fine for now, & hopefully at some point the technology involved will improve and close the gap. Apart from the quality of the lines it produces, the main benefit of the brush pen is that I don’t have to constantly dip the brush into an ink pot, which makes drawing easier and faster. Here are some of my more recent drawings with the instrument in question:

Primavera Unraveling

The Head that Imagined Itself into Existence

Among the Roots of a Great Tree

All of the above drawings are done with the brush pen on paper sized 16.5″ x 14″, & all are from 2011.

Some drawings of heads on tinted paper

Posted by aytonart in art, drawing on June 18, 2011

Here are some new drawings of heads I’ve been working on, done on tinted Canson drawing paper. The drawings are executed in china marker (an indelible sort of pencil/crayon used for drawing on glass, plastic, china, etc.) and ink, and I find that the combination of the 2 drawing media, in conjunction with the hue & texture of the paper, adds another dimension to the artwork.