Does Real Life Really Matter?

(Does this look like a pepper? )

So, for a long time I was very much into doing collages. Why? Because the art work could look nothing like anything that existed in real life and still be deemed legitimate art. I could call myself an artist and not really have to stretch myself to far. Of course, that's not what I told myself at the time. Oh no, I told myself that I was being interpretive and "capturing the essence". Eventually I realized that I might just be... well, lazy. I figured that I might as well at least "try" to develop some techniques in drawing and painting still and real life. If I chose that outlet long term, then so be it, it'd be an added bonus...but at the very least it would help my artistic development and help me in my collages, since otherwise I'd be limited to pre-existing images. So I sought out to do a few still life paintings and see what happened. The top painting is simply a red pepper from the supermarket across the street from my house (in case you couldn't tell)...later that night it went into a stir-fry dinner. The second is an apple (this one is more obvious I think.) And below is a friend of mine who came over to model for me and then promptly fell asleep. Thank goodness he did actually, he was motionless for at least 30 minutes.

(Sleeping Beauty conked out on his Handsome Boy Modelling Session)

I'll later post other drawings that I've done. I am currently taking Frank Porcu's Anatomy Drawing Class at the Art Student's League in NYC which proves to be quite a challenge for me. More on that in an upcoming post.