Breviloquent + Chockablock
breviloquent: speaking or expressed in a concise or terse style; using brevity of speech. chockablock: extremely full; crowded; jammed: a room chockablock with furniture and plants.
breviloquent
adjective
speaking or expressed in a concise or terse style; using brevity of speech.
I wanted simple and striking for this word. Something with brevity and impact.
Breviloquent is exhaling stress and anxiety in a single breath. It’s the sigh of your friend who just poured out their worries. The sigh communicates how they’re feeling more eloquently than the words. The next Word of the Day, and this painting’s companion piece, chockablock, illustrates the chaotic mass of stress and anxiety that is being exhaled.
I found a reference image that was roughly what I wanted, then dusted off the pencils, erasers and other drawing tools I haven’t touched in 10 years. I don’t really draw. It takes a lot effort, and because I prefer to keep things clean I don’t like my own style of drawing.
Something that’s important for beginning artists to understand is that it takes a lot of time to develop your personal art style. There’s trial and error, recreating other artist’s work, hours of practice. My drawing “style” is sketchy and unformed because I’ve never devoted time to refining it. I’m more interested in ideas, in working with metal, playing with paint. My overall skill as an artist would be significantly greater if I were to focus on basic drawing skills (an in-depth understanding of lighting and proportions are universally helpful, regardless of the medium you’re using).
The amount of time required when I draw is another reason I tend to avoid working it in as a design element. I probably spent about 1 1/2 hours on the face, an area about the size of a business card. The final product is what I would call “good enough.” I’m not 100% happy with it, but for the most part I captured the feeling I was going for. I try to approach these 6″ paintings as a testing ground for future projects. Incorporating a feeling of experimentation makes it easier to let go of perfectionism.
chockablock
adjective
extremely full; crowded; jammed: a room chockablock with furniture and plants.
Chockablock is the companion piece to the previous Word of the Day, breviloquent.
When I read breviloquent, I knew the idea I wanted to represent, but not how I would do it. Because I’m a few days behind every word, I read the next one, chockablock, and immediately had this image of how jam-packed our brains are with thoughts and worries. This image was partially informed by a similar concept for a painting that’s been in progress for years. I decided breviloquent would be the exhalation of these worries, so I did that piece first. Getting the faces to line up, with the same pencil depth/shading was difficult. With the painstaking painting of the brain words this second piece actually took longer than the first, but I’m mostly happy with how it turned out.
Breviloquent is exhaling stress and anxiety in a single breath. Chockablock is the piece illustrating the chaotic mass of stress and anxiety that is being exhaled.
I used words or partial phrases of what many of us are thinking during COVID-19. The full list below:
- confusion
- how will i pay bills
- kids
- when
- what about
- hope
- what if
- will it end?
- panic
- should i
- fear
- breathe.
I’m not intending to create pandemic themed art for this 100 Day Project, but it’s such an ever-present thing in our lives it’s hard not to. There’s a reason art is so often social commentary. Artists tend to be introspective and attuned to the world around them. It’s hard not to see what’s happening around us without letting it bleed into our art.
