Trippy Meniscus

18 in. x 18 in.
Pencil Drawing on Paper
2016

I can not think of a more accurate name to describe this drawing. Trippy Meniscus.
And in case you are still wondering what a Meniscus is, take a moment and rewind to your good ol' high school chemistry class and realize it's the curved surface of a liquid in a tube ;)
And if you still don't know what I am talking about google it.

Have you ever tripped on acid? Hopefully not because yeah, let's not be stupid. But if you have, maybe you hallucinated.
Can you imagine a bad trip?
Think about tripping and then looking into the meniscus of your drink.
. . .and then. . . before you know it, you're in a whole new world.
Call it surrealism.
Call it a bad trip.
Call it whatever you want, because this is up for you to decide.
This is up for your interpretation. This is up for you to unlock the meaning of it according to you.
One of my favorite parts about this drawing is that no matter how many times I tell people that the bottom is the skull, they will flip it around the other way because there is no right way and that is what seems right for them. Different orientations give a different sense of unity and balance. This drawing seemingly has no gravity.
(Now for your sake, below I will provide the drawing in the opposite orientation)

This, believe it or not, is another Rosenquist inspired drawing.
Thing is about "art projects" is that I have a tendency to do whatever the fuck I want within the limitations of the project.
My absolute favorite part about drawing is having a vision and seeing it unfold in front of my eyes. I let my imagination run with some ideas. I play around, reorganized, let chaos happen, and try to make sense of it. I hate formalism. I hate straight lines and rules and doing things a certain way. Literally worse art project I ever did was painting triangles INSIDE THE LINES. FUCK INSIDE THE LINES. I wanna bend the lines. I wanna create new lines. I wanna make a mess, but then make sense of it.

Drawing doesn't require a whole set of different kinds of pencils. ALL YOU NEED IS ONE PENCIL. And things can happen.
One regular #2 pencil can create magic.
Now I'll admit what I used for this drawing was:
#2 pencil
Eraser
Kneaded eraser
Tortillan
Ebony pencil (To push those darker values)

Now my art teacher(who is amazing), numerous of times got on me for not pushing my full range of values. I NEVER WENT DARK ENOUGH. And it's literally my worse weakness, and I tried so hard to go dark enough on this one, but of course still got a point off for it.
I spent probably 30-40 hours on this drawing.
Now for accuracy and times sake, I used griding and scaling to help lay out a foundation and then let everything go from there. You can't grid and scale a giant ear that you are creating.
Now I sketched this before drawing, and found inspiration from old magazine clippings (much like my man Rosenquist).

The left side started with a delicious scoop of ice cream dripping down into a hand holding a skull. The arm seemingly goes upward forming the hair of a girl falling into time. Another woman up at the top, whispers a man into her ear, spilling the secret into the woman down below as she splashes upward. Is she even a real woman? Or an image made from simple water? Perhaps she is liquid. She melt into the drawing and splashes out of it.
On the right, the hair mirrors the curvature on the hands. Strong praying hands form into the crowning leaves of a pineapple above. As if she is praying to the king above. And then, to offset this overflowing array of imagination. A sub. Yes, a sub. Full of chicken, sauce, and veggies is placed in the top corner. Because after all that, you gotta satisfy a hunger.

Interpret how you want. Let the meaning, be one that fits to you.

Yours,

Truthtalks

*side note: Sorry for the slight glare on the drawing in the corner with the sub. Took the photo with my phone.

Progress Photo: