maciek-jozefowicz

[maciek-jozefowicz]

“Venice”

The color doesn’t add anything to this drawing. It only dilutes the bold black-and-white graphics.

The music adds sooth. It’s soothing, though inconsequential. But then that is what a relaxing day of fishing amounts to.

But the drawing is not about fishing. Fishing was an added afterthought. This drawing is Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”, if “Rear Window was a comedy.

[maciek-jozefowicz]

“Wild”

I used color to enhance the humor in the drawing. The wildman is not crawling through the wilderness, as would be expected, but on a hard floor of tiles decorated with flower patterns — modern wilderness.

I should have added a large flat screen tv in the background running a nature show, maybe showing a lion hunting a zebra, or something of that sort. (But I got the idea just now. Too late!)

[maciek-jozefowicz]

“Inscrutable”

The coloring doesn’t make sense. The music doesn’t make sense. Hence the title.

[maciek-jozefowicz]

“Ferrari Foot”

Not only does color make these drawings prettier, it also helps to strengthen the idea — the foot looks high performance, like it belongs on Usain Bolt.

I like the way how incomprehensible doodles were transformed into recognizable objects. Doodling is a great way to generate ideas. And it’s fun!

This is where drawing digitally is an advantage because it allows you to easily tweak lines without the drawing becoming muddy.

I imagine that there will come a time when all students in art classes will be using digital tools rather than pens and pencils and paints; when the chalkboards (which used to be called a blackboards until the word was deemed to be racist) will be replaced by giant, thin screens on which art teachers draw with digital “chalks”.

[maciek-jozefowicz]

“Heavy Smoker”

The music I designed for this is simple, but it exudes “coolness”. The three instruments — upright bass, Chinese drums and piano — sound good together. The grand piano may be the greatest instrument ever invented. (Of course I’m not playing the physical instruments, but their digital approximations available in the GarageBand app.)

[maciek-jozefowicz]

“Trendy”

I’m unhappy with the coloring, but not unhappy enough to re-work it. (So much to do, so little time!)

I would characterize the Western culture as being the culture of shoppers; shoppers desperately trying to buy happiness. “Happiness is Shopping” (or vice versa) would be an apt slogan.

But there may be something in the pursuit of happiness through shopping. I suspect that there are chemicals involved. In other words, shopping may be like drug use (that ultimately ends in addiction). I suspect that there are chemicals released in the brain, endorphins of some kind, when one makes a purchase. These endorphins are like a hit of cocaine or heroin or marijuana. They produce a temporary feeling of joy, of pleasure, of “happiness”. But the high wears off and it becomes necessary to shop again. And again. And again. This is good for economy and it has made a lot of people rich.

The more significant (i.e. expensive) the purchase one makes, the more endorphins are released in the brain, and the more joy/pleasure/happiness one experiences.

Art dealers realize this and price their fine art accordingly. Imagine how much happiness a millionaire experiences upon purchasing a $50,000 artwork. That’s quite a hit of endorphins to the brain. Now imagine how much happiness a billionaire experiences upon purchasing a $5,000,000 artwork. That’s almost an overdose of endorphins released in the brain. No wonder billionaires look so happy. They’re high on the endorphins released after their latest purchases.

There is a marketing lesson for dealers and artists to be learned from this, a lesson that astute dealers and artists have learned. Selling art is selling happiness. And it’s not the quality of the artwork that brings happiness to the buyer, it’s the price of the artwork that brings happiness to the buyer.

The work of the dealer, as well as that of the artist, is to convince the buyer that the price of the artwork represents its value and, even more importantly, that that value will increase over time. The thought of a potential profit one can earn from a purchase of an artwork results in another, even stronger zip of endorphins to the brain of the buyer.

[maciek-jozefowicz]

“Racecar”

I designed the music to be a story, an unsentimental tragedy — the racecar’s last race. After a powerful start, one can hear the progressive break-down of the car, ending in a spectacular crash. The furious rhythm and the loud, distorted guitar seem appropriate for car racing.

I’m pleased with the music, even though the music doesn’t sound pleasant. But car racing does not sound pleasant. The sound of car racing is the sound of power and speed. This music is the sound of power and speed, and the sound of the danger that comes with power and speed.

I like the concept and I’m satisfied how it is expressed by the music. It’s not sophisticated, but it is inventive. It doesn’t follow the typical song structure formula.

I was thinking that it would be useful for Apple to teach Siri how to sing and incorporate her (her?) into the GarageBand app. Then allow the input of text and the ability to link that text to notes. The new instrument in GarageBand would be the human voice.

Songwriters would no longer be beholden to singers to voice their music. It would be important to provide a way to adjust the tone of Siri’s voice though because it would get very boring very fast to hear thousands of songs being sung by the same voice.

Then Apple should link GarageBand to iTunes and allow creators to upload their music to iTunes from the app — a revolutionary new process of music making and distribution. (Music companies would not be happy.)

[maciek-jozefowicz]

“Unhappy Chair”

I had as much fun creating the music for this artwork as I had creating the artwork, which is the illustration I used in the video reading of the poem (which I already posted). I have a lot to learn about music and it will take me years to learn it. I started the process last year. But meanwhile, I am having a blast creating music for my art videos.

[maciek-jozefowicz]

[172] “Cleopatra Ascending” — Wattlebird, Materials Group (Procreate, GarageBand, LumaFusion, iPad, Apple Pencil).

My intent is to bring art into the 21st century, to create an art that represents our age, the digital age. To create a new way of experiencing art.

This video is an example. The art of the 21st century is not a static image. It is something organic, alive. This video is not a mere record of a creation of a work of art. This video is the work of art itself, the art of our age.

What is significant is that the video shows the entire “birthing” process, from start to finish. It shows the development of the idea as well as the finishing of it; accompanied by music, which, I expect, will play a more important role in my videos as I get more adept at creating it.

Imagine seeing this video on a wall on a canvas-like screen (the thinness of an iPad) 6 feet wide and 9 feet high, with surround-sound — that is the art of the 21st century.

My goal is to be not only one of the great artists of the 21st century, but one of the great creators of all time, creating in three media — art, music and writing. I expect it to take at least a decade, probably two, but I am slowly progressing towards that goal. And having fun doing it.

[maciek-jozefowicz]

[171] “Superdad” — Avalon, Materials group (Procreate app, iPad, Apple Pencil).

I used the same brush for the drawing and for the coloring, which wasn’t so in previous drawings that I colored.

Usually, color is an addition prettying a picture. Occasionally, it is used for mood to enhance expression. Here, I use color to add meaning that wouldn’t be noticed without color — I link the three cars in the background below to the three figures using color and thus create a kind of mini-allegory. I’ll leave it to the viewer to interpret its meaning.

Another way that color enhances the meaning of this drawing is by linking the figures — there is a little of the father’s blue and of the brother’s red on the yellow costume of the girl; reversely, there is some yellow on the father’s blue costume and on the brother’s red one.

[maciek-jozefowicz]

Here’s “City Playground” in color. Rather than simply posting the videos that Procreate creates, I’ve began refining my presentation.

[maciek-jozefowicz]

“Poetry Moment 3: Unhappy Chair”

The illustration in this video is superior to the one I rejected. I’m happy with the linework and the coloring.

[maciek-jozefowicz]

REJECTED! I was unhappy with the drawing or the coloring of this illustration which was created for the third Poetry Moment video. The lines are thick and clumsy and the colors muddy. I decided to try again. Good thing I did because the drawing I included in the “Poetry Moment 3: ‘Unhappy Chair’” video is superior. The linework is crisper and the colors look better. And it has some additional humorous details.

[maciek-jozefowicz]

“Bugboy” — Clouds, Elements group (Procreate app, iPad, Apple Pencil).

I’ve finished exploring all the brushes in the Procreate app (though I still have about 50 videos to show), and now it’s time for me to work with color. I don’t enjoy working with color, but I realize the difference that it makes in the look of the artwork, so I’ll force myself to do it. In addition to creating new, full color drawings (for the Poetry Moment series of videos), I will color some of the drawings that I’ve already created. Like this one.

Surprisingly, coloring this wasn’t as painful as I imagined it would be. And the color does make the drawings look prettier.

[maciek-jozefowicz]

“Poetry Moment 2: The Breakup”

I finally figured out how I want to present my poems through videos. While I don’t like the drawing or the coloring here, I like the concept — reading a poem from my book while showing the creation of the illustration for that poem with added background sounds to add interest, and, if I get adept enough, to add humor and drama to the reading and to the drawing process.

[maciek-jozefowicz]

When I read that Oxford’s Word of the Year for 2024 is “brain rot”, I was reminded of my drawing “Office Zombies” and of this poem, which appears in an illustrated version in my book “HMPH!” and in an unillustrated collection from which I’m reading.

I’ve been rereading “My Silly Poems” and the poems still make me laugh. I enjoy their inventiveness and wit. It’s satisfying to like your own work. I think I’ll do a series of videos entitled “Poetry Moment” in which I will read poems from this book while showing the making of the illustration for each poem.

To prevent brain rot, I am exploring new apps (among other things; I will not allow my brain to rot until I’m dead and buried and then it can rot naturally). This video was created using LumaFusion, a video editing app I am in the process of learning how to use, Procreate, which I’ve already used for over a year, Affinity’s Photo 2, a Photoshop-like app that I decided to use with my iPad, instead of the subscription-based Photoshop (I avoid subscription software as mush as I can), and Apple’s GarageBand.

GarageBand is not an app for professional , and being a professional doesn’t mean one is excellentmusicians, which is perfect because I am not a professional musician. It offers a slew of different instruments to play around with (I’ve used the erhu, a Chinese, two-string, violin-like instrument, for the background music in this video), and I intend to play around with them a lot. From now on, I’ll be including sounds in all my drawing videos. The result will be something between music and noise — a not-unpleasant (hopefully) background sounds that will make watching the videos more (hopefully) enjoyable.

[maciek-jozefowicz]

“Venice”

I’ve posted the drawing before, but this one has background sound created using Apple’s GarageBand app.