DRAW LIKE BASQUIAT

For some time now, Basquiat’s drawings have been an outlier for me. Their bold, powerful, and elemental qualities have been enormously attractive. It is just that I had not found a way to enter into an analogus energy space in a transparent mindset till now.

The entry point for me was the perception that many of his drawings have what I have started to call a line on line mode. That is to say, a heavy line was applied, and then a line, sometimes in another color, was applied which mapped somewhat closely with the other line. There is also a contour drawing aspect to his drawings. And any time there is a contour like aspect, there starts to be a transparency. With this bold application of line, tone becomes less important. It is almost as if the lines themselves start to become tones. Or it is a blurring between line and tone.

This link will take you to a smattering of Basquiat’s drawings. Or you can enter the terms “Basquiat Drawings” into an image search. I encourage you to do this, to at least re-acquaint yourself with his energy.

In my drawing at the top of this page, I used my line on line perception to begin to knowledge a holistic form. Or what I am describing might be similar to Automatic Form. I started with some geometric knowledge of a crane housing that I took in Sydney: I drew these first lines in the wet. And then I tried to apply a Basquiat like bold line overlay. I finished by applying tones which might start to suggest a holistic form.

The freedom to draw outside yourself. The freedom to Draw At The Boundary Of Form. For me at least, finding an entry portal into Basquiat’s energy space was liberating. This makes me wonder, what if Basquiat was not limited by Representational Spacetime? If he weren’t, you’ve got to believe that the forms he would have generated would have been out of this world.