Wednesday, February 22, 2012

540 - Mr. Buns Goes For A Ride



There's a lot to say for this piece without actually saying much about what it is. 

First, this design is not my original idea.  In Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where I took some time off for a vacation, there is a lot of public artwork.  The Mexicans have a different sensibility towards art than anywhere else in the Americas.  The way they produce and procure art maintains a vibrant national home-grown industry.  While some of the tacky souvenirs that the tourists buy will have a "Made In China" stamp, most are "Hecho En Mexico".  That's something different than from Canada, where our national flags are made overseas, our maple syrup comes in bottles manufactured across the border, and Disneyland at one point owned the rights to the iconic Red Serge uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 

Mr. Buns is public art of a sort: spraypainted graffiti on a wall along one of the shopping promenades.  Rather than being vulgar or shocking, much of Vallartan spray art seems to be whimsical, or at least that's what I saw.  Rabbits riding a sausage-mobile might have hidden meaning I am not aware of, but I thought they were interesting enough to copy into my sketchbook.  I have no idea who originally drew this image, or if it is even truly original. 

Vacation meant that I more or less abandoned my sketchbook.  Looking back at JSVB, my last sketchbook entry was a whopping five weeks ago, Entry #528 "You're Deer To Me".  Sketches can take a long time to render, so it's not always been easy to find the time to work on them.  Other projects have more utility or glamour as well, and compete for my time.  Finally, sketching is difficult for me to gain proficiency if I have left off doing it for a while.  In any project there are dozens of factors that need to be measured and applied, and it's easy to miss on a trusted artistic approach or forget some tiny but critical technique.  Things that have been forgotten must be relearned through hard work and practise.