Friday, June 27, 2014

Hello Leviticus

I think a part of me didn't believe I would finish Exodus. This was the first time I didn't have a notebook waiting in the margins...
I completed Exodus, and headed to the art supply store with a vision of the perfect Leviticus notebook in my head: A small square black notebook  had once found in Paris. My drawing tool would be the white conte pencil I had left over, along with a wax white watercolor pencil I had picked up in Paris at the same time as the mythic notebook



The idea is as follows:
I want to continue with the primal feel of Genesis/Exodus by continuing the monochrome theme
In Exodus, I  had been using black and white conte crayon on brown paper. I found that in the course of the drawings, white had become my symbol for the presence of God--the Pillar of Fire and the Cloud were always the brightest spots in the drawing. So I thought: Leviticus, which deals with the Tabernacle, should be drawn completely in white, using a black paper for the darks. It would also add a drawing challenge of reversing my thinking, to mark the lights instead of the shadows. The square format would offer a compositional challenge.

Alas, it is not a good idea to have too clear an image of what you want. There was no such notebook to be found. After going through four art supply shops--3 in Jerusalem, one in Tel Aviv, I finally compromised. Here is my notebook--nice, thick black paper, as desired, but rectangular rather than square:


I even got a white pen for taking notes...
But by the time I finally got the notebook it was time to pack for my trip to the States. So here I am, days later, uploading my first Leviticus chapter from NYC. It's a good start to my trip.... :)
Thinking in white has been a challenge. Hope I will get more adept as I continue....


No comments:

Post a Comment