Chloe is a supernatural artistic talent who should be rich by now. Her natural style is a kind of elaborate caricatured classical realism.
Or should I say surrealism? Anyhow, she has an amazing observational ability. she sees forms within forms to such an extreme level, that I can't imagine how complex the world must look to her eyes.
She is also is very articulate and has written some of the most thought-provoking comments on this blog, although lately she has deprived us of her wisdom.
She decided a while ago to try her hand at something much simpler than what she normally draws - cartoons. She came up with these sketches of my characters and some others. I think it's very hard for her to boil things down to such simplistic rules and concepts. Her natural instinct is to make every drawing have hundreds of different planes.
Some of these interpretations of George Liquor are downright scary1
Here's Jimmy....
Here's her interpretation of Marc Deckter's style
So, I talked to her a bit and tried to convince to lower her I.Q. to the point where she could use just a handful of simple rules to draw cartoons.
There is a missing step here. She sent me a bunch of Bugs Bunnies from model sheets awhile back that were sort of halfway between the above and below drawings. She liked to use a thousand lines where just one would usually suffice.
Here she finally got it down to the simplicity that you need to draw good cartoons.
She still has a slight tendency to make things kind of wavy, as if the characters are made of flowing liquid, so I just suggested she try to make them a bit more solid.
If anyone ever figures out how to harness her talent, watch out.
I bet she feels guilty drawing this simply.http://chloepaintings.blogspot.com/
Chloe should meet Adrian, a kindred spirit.
36 comments:
Great stuff. Looking at her personal work I'd never guessed that she could pull it back to a more commercial level. But she sure did.
Jesus, those are beautiful
I love Chloe! But, she knows that. :O)
She needs to hurry up and move out here.
- trevor.
I saw her pictures when I first came here, I still think that it's scary. If she starts to animate I think toning it down would end up as a requirement! Her cartoons would probably be so complex yet really likeable!
that's the stuff that makes lesser souls just wanna up and quit this business...
or make stronger fellows wanna work harder than ever to keep up.
These are drop-dead gorgeous!
Some of the earlier drawings remind me of Richard Williams's 'Christmas Carol'...but way more animated. (Apologies to Mr. Williams.)
Too, it's like George Liquoir and Jimmy were taken back in time to an era of 19'th century classic illustration! These drawings are so beautiful, they should hang in the Louvre.
By the way, does Chole already have an apprenticeship with you, John? Good idea, that.
Wow, you feel like you can just reach in and feel the 3-dimensionality of her drawings
i didn't see a link to her blog. please post one!
She should never tone down anything, I reckon...
Yay! She is my favorite classical artist in the blog-woild!!
Plus, the awesome drawing on top is my head, given the special Chloe treatment!!!
KICK ASS CHLOE
I feel like any of her drawings could be transformed into moving images; mostly 'cause they all seem to be moving already.
I remember looking at her drawings months ago and nearly queefing out a golden egg.
Oh! I'm overcome! My face is red!
Jeez I'm a mental case.
I love simple cartoon drawings, I really do, I just didn't think I could actually do them.
Thank you John Vincent Trevor Niki Stone Elekid and Patrick, and Kevin and Elliot and Kali and Marc.
Click through my profile here to find my blog.
I think John's picked my most busy scary drawings here to make a point, but that's fine.
Egon Schiele meets Spumco!! Brilliant!! I especially love the top one!! ;D
Wow, amazing stuff!! And I'll have to second Stone here.
I can't wait to see more from you, Chloe!
Una barbaridad!¡!!
I love Chloe, her drawings are like the greatest nightmare ever. I keep imagining body parts and forms of wrestlers and big cats attacking me in 1950s 3D and then starting to melt all over me. David Cronenberg would love her stuff. Michael Barrier wouldn't.
She's actually transcended realism.
Plus she usually does give the best, most articulate comments.
I just realized what her drawings remind me of! You know when you've just killed a man, and you go to wash off the evidence and a drop of blood falls into a glass of clear water and starts spiraling into all manner of crazy shapes?
That's what her sketches look like to me, except instead of a drop of coloured liquid, it's a man dissolving and spiraling all over the place into the most interesting creative shapes imaginable.
wow! Chloe, you embrace drawing what you and no one else sees, which is sadly rare these days. I long to be that self-assured and unapologetic about my art.
I think the frightening aspect comes from the rarity of seeing something so unique and unafraid. It's probably soul-shaking to some because many souls have something to be shaken about. I know I do. Thank you for shaking!
Hmmm, I see more than a little bit of a Francis Bacon vibe in her work. And that can only be a good thing in my book. He is easily my favorite painter of nightmares.
Looks like what you'd have gotten if they'd slipped Michelangelo some acid. Amazing work.
Oh yes... who's Adrian?
Thank you John, this blog was educational for me.
And kind of embarrassing for a shy person... but in a good way.
I think some of my complicated drawings are ironically a bit like 'blind person' drawings where I refuse to see the big picture and sort of feel out the forms across the surface like you would with your fingers. Cartoons are more about seeing the whole picture from the start, not just growing it like neurotic smoke. It's very good discipline for me.
But your blog and ideas have had a big influence on my drawings for a while, even if the actual work has looked like the opposite of Stimpy at times.
And you are quite right about the wavy lines, I noticed that myself when I was trying to get more solid with the construction drawings. I have a meaningless habit of using loose s-shaped lines, I guess because they look nice in some situations. But if I hadn't been trying to draw Woody Woodpecker correctly I might never have noticed that.
And since this is my little moment, I'd also say that I never aim for grotesque or ugly... I aim for some kind of unique truth, and if I stop and look at certain faces and certain things, the weirdness is right there.
Maybe I do aim for grotesque if the drawings of Grunewald or Durer are grotesque, but I also think they're mainly beautiful. So it's a particular kind of beauty that comes from not idealising or sanding down lumpy edges.
Yeah there are some echoes of Francis Bacon but Chloe imparts an original heartfelt outpouring of planar simultaneity. The austere formalist Bacon was only that.
did you and david choe have a love child?
Yeah that's what real artists are like.
Chloe's incredible work is very original! no one draws like her! She's also a very loving/lovable friend, not to mention extremely beautiful!
God when I look back at my comments I sound like a wazzock.
But I do rather enjoy my new status as a label.
Is that Catstello at the bottom? That looks awesome, as does the rest.
Yeah, I like Chloe's fluid lines style too. It's similar to Marlo's only more peaceful somehow.
I see what she did to George Liquor and Jimmy the Retard. I wonder how she'd handle my Censor Monkeys.
These are terrific!
My favorite is the first page of Georges. There are little story panels in heliotrope which George barges right out of.
She seems like she gets real pleasure out of just putting pencil to paper. I love the way her sensuous line scoops forms out of sheer blankness.
Chloe's classical chops & the direct, cartoony cogency of John's simple design combine to make some fabulous hybrids.
Chloe's drawings are very animated and elegant. The elegance of her drawing and the, in-elegance, of some of her subject matter, Guiliani, Spears, wrestling, is an interesting quality.
For the record, I must confess that given a choice, I'd only go for women who are as intelligent and creative with words and imagery as Chloe.
Unfortunately, they seem to be making themselves disappear while the fashion-conscious "I-I-I-me-me-me" brats take up all the social space. Not fair.
I never noticed the similarities between George Liquor & Kurt Angle.
Interesting you said grotesque (Bizarre or fantastic in appearance) because that's the first thing I thought of when I saw these. At the same time they are absolutely beautiful and full of motion. I especially love the figures made out of, what appears to be, smoke.
I look forward to seeing more of your work.
Chloe Cumming said..:
"Thank you John Vincent Trevor Niki Stone Elekid and Patrick, and Kevin and Elliot and Kali and Marc."
And you can thank me as well, and many others.Fasinating. I'd like to see a picture drawn by you of yourself..:)
i shat myself looking at these.
i know nothing.
Post a Comment