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Online surreal art on display, just pick a gallery and click.
Surreal black and white art sketches and drawing here, just click to peruse.
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A few works of amateur surreal poetry can be found in this gallery.
Odds 'n ends of miscellaneous artwork are here.
Hello? Hello? What are you doing up there?
Some of the pen & ink drawingss feature three seperate inking fields: crosshatching realism, pointillism  and contourism!

NEW ART AS IT IS CREATED...
SURREAL BLACK AND WHITE ART -- BEHIND-THE-SCENES
I started working on this piece of surreal black and white art QUITE a while ago--six months or more at least (01/24/04). Unfortunately, while it sat, so did the cat (on it) and the dust (everywhere else). But I finally finished cleaning off my drawing table and it is time to clean out my pens and get started creating a brand new work of surreal black and white art! The first new major work created in YEARS! I'm going to try this with the fancy expensive art pens I've had forever and rarely used. I've never cared for them. I prefer the subtlety and nuance of a good old fashioned ball-point (you'd be amazed at how many different lines I can get out of one of those <lol>). Unfortunately I can't find one with permanent ink. I guess we'll see what happens :)

TITLE: "The face I show to you" © Chris Eisenbraun 2006.
Click here to go to the beginning of this set.
Click here for a close-up look at the most recent artwork.

 
Surreal black and white art by an American artist.

Posted Mar. 13, 2006: Finally, done :) It's ironic that this work of art concerns time because it has taken such a LONG time to complete (more than 2 years if counting chronologically <lol>). Tooo funny :) Another irony? The day after I finished this, a note came in the mail from our local St. Petersburg Art Center announcing a new member's showing. The theme of the show? Time <g>. Can you guess where this pen & ink drawing is aimed to make a debut? Hmmm.... <g>. Still not sure if this is the keeper title and I'll take GOOD, solid straight-edged photos AFTER I get the frame on this baby. Will probably catch the news up on the website then too :) But for now? A really good feeling of accomplishment :) Finally. A NEW piece.

Click the image to the left for a CLOSE-UP view of this (finally) completed, surreal pen & ink work of art.

Surreal black and white art by an American artist.

Posted Mar. 01, 2006: This weekend I spent a lot of time pushing things back and bringing other things forwards -- adding depth to the drawing and increasing the variety of greys :) BIGtime. Lots of little things like darkening Dali's shadow and fracturing the sky; pushing back the castle by adding layers of grey atop the dots, etc. Trying to turn the picture on the paper into something more like a space where the paper becomes more of a portal that you are looking INTO, AT the image <g>. In other words...a lot of subtle, fine-tuning sort of things. This is the dangerous part...where you can over-finesse the image. Every artist has a hard time letting go of a piece and saying, "This is done." It's a very hard place to realize: the stopping point. Sometimes you only realize you are there AFTER you cross the line and that's not a good thing. NOW... it's time to stop finessing and finish :)

Click the image to the left for a CLOSE-UP view of what's new.

Surreal black and white art by an American artist.

Posted Feb. 22, 2006: You know, I think that I have NEVER spent so much time on one drawing...and I'm not talking hours here, I'm talking YEARS <lol>. Too funny. Last year was a doozy. Long story which I'll post to the news one of these days <g>. Oh well. For all the time in between and the fact that last year I did not pick up a drawing pen once(!)...things are going kinda smoothly now. This drawing is ALMOST done. Wow. It's a really long story but I am really happy about it all. Lots of baby steps and I am just about to have a truly NEW piece DONE (even if it is a couple of years old <roflmao>). Stay tuned, we're almost at the end of this one :)

Click the image to the left for a CLOSE-UP view of what's new. I've tentatively named this artwork, "The Face I Show to You." One of my favorite parts of this drawing: Salvador Dali drawing his own melting clock <g>. Too funny :)

Surreal black and white art by an American artist.

Posted Dec. 06, 2004: it took a lot of dancing around the fact before I could pick up the pen to draw Salvador Dali <jeez>. I had to get determined, read at least four chapters and THEN nerve myself up enough to grab the pen <lol>. I know, I know, I put Dali in there so there was no one to blame but myself <g>. I just didn't want to screw it up and ink is SO UNFORGIVING! Drawing recognizable faces is VERY hard, if you are off by 1/1000 of a centimeter you change the entire expression of the face. This was the hardest part of the drawing left to do. But Dali (as a symbol) works wonderfully, he actually acts as a key in some ways <g>. NOW, it's a matter of trying to see how the rest of the sketch is supposed to be (I have no clue how the clocks are supposed to look). This part is easier to draw but also somewhat intimidating. BUT that's how it's going to be, until I get enough practice in: intimidating. Oh well, some things are worth the effort :)

Surreal black and white art by an American artist.

Posted Nov. 15, 2004: I can feel the beginnings of how it should be... I actually managed to find time to draw both Saturday AND Sunday! I was SO MAD at myself for not getting to the drawing last Sunday so I cleared off time Saturday evening TO MAKE SURE there was time this weekend! I got so far into the work that I woke up wanting to pick up the pen! This hasn't happened in years. It felt really good. Unfortunately I couldn't start drawing right away. But that's okay. That's part of what I'm learning how to balance right now: responsibility AND creativity. As a side note: I have been using reading (sci fi/fantasy) to help get in the right frame of mind for drawing -- think of it as a bridge between realities :) This is how I did it BEFORE I discovered drugs and drinking. Guess what! It still works (and without all the side effects of the latter method <roflmao>). By Sunday I was so far INTO the art that I jumped straight from here to there. No bridge because it was THAT strong. Wow. I KNOW this is something that is going to have to happen A LOT before it becomes instinctual...but it felt so good for it TO HAPPEN at all. Very cool :)

Surreal black and white art by an American artist.

Posted Nov. 5, 2004: The really sad thing is that this drawing should not be taking so long to complete, I'm just THAT busy. No time for TV <a sardonic "darn" goes here>. The cool thing? This is the fifth work of art underway this year! That may not sound like a LOT to many but it's a huge milestone for me :) You might call this the warm up session for what's to come. I say this, because so far I haven't really started anything truly original to this time period, I'm just catching up stuff that's been in the works for a really long time. I have another huge work in my head that I started to draw out a couple of times (a few years ago). Probably, once that's done, we'll be into new territory. I'll let you know when we get there <g>.

Surreal black and white art by an American artist.

Posted Oct. 18, 2004: No matter how busy I am, I am REALLY trying hard to pull Sunday's off for art. Period. It's getting easier to do and may actually become a habit some day <lol>. I hope so :) The first time I turned the computer off for an entire day, it felt VERY weird. Now, I find that I like the feeling :) We'll see. The Sunday thing...I think it was Paul Gauguin who started out that way: as a Sunday painter. He turned all of his Sundays into painting days. This is how he became the painter we know. Painting on Sundays... I liked the idea and it seemed like an excellent path to use to get from where I am now back into what I used to be <g>.

Surreal black and white art by an American artist.

Posted Oct. 11, 2004: well, after four different hurricanes (in a row), there is finally time to get back to day-to-day living on the weekends <lol>. LAST weekend I meant to start drawing again but unfortunately all the hurried and repeated packing for disaster meant that pieces were all over the place. Prepping your house for disaster in a short space of time doesn't always leave a lot of time to remember where you PUT everything <g>. It took a whole day just to find this sketch, the pens, the photos, etc. What a trip. I knew I put this stuff somewhere to be safe, I just couldn't remember where I'd put this stuff to keep it safe. Anyway, my hand is still out of shape because I haven't set up a consistent ART time but I decided to plunge into this one anyway. Sometimes that's the only way to do it: just go for it! This sketch was drawn over a year ago so I'm not really connected to it right now, but it will make an EXCELLENT practice piece :)

Surreal black and white art by an American artist.


Posted May 24, 2004: a sidebar on the progress of this particular piece is posted under doodles <g>, click here to view.

Posted Jan. 24, 2004: I darkened the photo up a tad so you can actually see the pencil. We're almost ready to start inking it in. I must admit I'm a little nervous. It took a few days to get the pencil together and my chops are rusty. Very rusty. Oh well, I've had to restart drawings before. Keep your fingers crossed <g>.

Posted Jan. 24, 2004: most good pieces have a number of different photos involved because I rarely have the luxury of working with real models. Oh well and life goes on :) Anyway, the drawing part of this piece is 99.99% finished. This is the part I dislike the most, because this is where you have to get everything PERFECT (proportions, flow, etc. etc.). It sucks to spend almost a month inking a new piece of art...just to find out you got the proportions wrong way at the beginning. Believe me, it becomes all you (or anyone else) sees. So, this is the uptight part of the whole process <lol>. Unless, of course, you're doodling. Doodles can become quite big and involved, but they are another matter entirely <g>.

Look into the mirror...how deep does it go? Symbolic meaning is right below the surface.

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