anika mari

In the time that I’ve been in Mexico, I have realized that there are at least 4 different types of graffiti or wall art in Mexico City: Sanctioned advertisements on rented walls, traditional style graffiti art utilizing color, shading, depth and skill, stencil style graffiti, and regular scribbled tags of symbols that mean something to drug dealers and gangs. I find the different types of graffiti that decorate the city interesting from an artistic perspective, but I understand that a lot of people really detest it because the walls of houses are constantly tagged with the drug-dealer/gang variety of graffiti. In that respect I can understand why most people don’t really take a look at any kind of graffiti, and instead consider it all vandalism, or at least and eyesore.

But for me, I find it interesting. I haven’t spent a lot of time documenting it, but when ever I see it in the city, it does catch my eye, and I give it a moment of my time and attention. This happened one day when I was driving back to the city from Cuernavaca. Traffic was slow because a truck carrying tile had lost it’s load. We crept by a village that had a wall to between it and the highway, presumably to keep down the road noise. Like on many plain surfaces in the city and surrounding pueblos, they don’t stay that way, and this wall was no exception. It was covered with many styles of graffiti. There was one small part of one tag that particularly caught my eye. The shape of it was so organic and somehow sophisticated. Since we were driving slow, I snatched out my sketch book, and started to draw. I came up with a little motif that was totally different from the shape I’d seen that had inspired me, but I kept going with it.

When I got home, I started a series of patterns based on the shape I’d come up with. The first one I completed within a day:

The colors were easy to choose, and I like the combination, but somehow I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the overall result. I was more intrigued by the negative space (the dark blue shapes) than with the green shapes that were intended to be the focal point of the pattern.

I decided to try out a different pattern based on the shape of negative space from the first pattern:

I love the color combination of the Mulberry and Poppy Red Prismacolors. I think this pattern is an example of not knowing when to stop. The blue and the black areas that I filled in are unnecessary and really distract from the bold color combination of the mulberry and poppy red that would really be stunning on its own. I would have been better off leaving the blue and black areas as white space.

Overall I was pretty happy with the result of the last pattern, even if it wasn’t entirely perfect. But the first green and blue pattern I’d completed still bugged me. I wasn’t sure what needed to change, but I had an idea to smooth out the lines, making the shape a bit more simple, so I did this pattern next:

This time I filled in the negative areas with the new simplified motif, making the pattern a little more rapid and repetitive. I was happier with this result, but I still felt like I was missing something. It just kind of gently nagged at me for a few days until one day after my language class. It had be a long class, and I was really tired when I got home. I lay down, fully intending to rest for 20 minutes. My mind was wondering in no particular direction when an idea suddenly popped into my head. What about 8 points in the shape instead of four? I jumped right up, and sketched a bit, quickly working out the new motif. I worked determinedly, but it still took me more than a day to finish this pattern:

I liked the combination of the yellow with the blues, but I wanted to try out a couple of other color combinations, so I switched it up a bit at the bottom of the pattern.  When I was finished, I had the blue stars finished and the negative spaces colored in with yellow, pink and blue, but it still seemed to be missing something.  I added the small dots at the intersections of the lines of the grid paper with a light gray Stabilo pen.  Finally I felt satisfied with the pattern that graffiti had inspired, and so I was free to move onto the next idea if and when it would hit me.

Before I came to Mexico, I bought myself a set of 24 Prisma Color Markers. I’ve long lusted for a set of my own, ever since my oldest brother had some. I would steal them to draw with and then he’d yell at me. I think I was probably about 10 or 12 at the time, so he was either 20 or 22.

I know that when I go on vacation, I always end up buying art supplies, and usually they are kind of sub-par art supplies from the corner store or office depot or a sparsely supplied over-priced school store. I thought that the prisma markers would be perfect since they are compact and colorful, so I splurged and spent the $50 on my set of 24 markers.

The first time I used them, I pulled my most comfortable chair out onto the terrace, prepared a nice cup of tea and settled down for some drawing time. I made this series of patterns because I wanted to try out a variety of colors and combinations:

I was quickly disappointed with the overall performance of the Prisma Color markers. The color is great, but I noticed that the ink bleeds quite a bit, and the edges are always a little fuzzy. For the fine detail of these patterns, I did not get the effect that I was looking for. Some of the little patterns “work” a lot better than others. I really like the two left-most red patterns, the left most bright blue/violet pattern, the second to left yellow pattern, and all the green patterns. Some look very crappy, particularly most of the burgundy/dark purple patterns, and the two middle bright blue/violet patterns.

So for a few days I was kind of stuck. These pens just weren’t doing what I hoped that they would do, and most of my drawings lately have been heavy with detail. I could still use my pigma micron pens, but they are all black, and the using them for details and the color markers to fill in color might be ok some of the time, but I had some specific ideas of what I wanted to do, and I’d need a finer line, color marker to do it.

Luckily I found a set of Stabilo fine point markers (point 88) at the Office Depot Express near my house. When I first got the Stabilo markers, I drew some images using only the new fine line markers to test them out and get a feel for them. The first pattern I drew was of peas, using the 3 greens that came in the set:

I was happy with the color and the detail that I achieved. They don’t noticeably bleed, and they maintain a crisp edge. As you can see in the image, it’s difficult to achieve a uniform color in the solid area, but the Prismacolor markers are good for this. It’s nice to have options at least.

Feeling comfortable with my new markers, I decided to test them out for the reason that I bought them: to use them in conjunction with the Prismacolor markers. First I made a sort of “key” of the colors of the Stabilo markers paired with the Prismacolor markers. There are a few colors in both sets that don’t have a close match, but I was pleased to find that most of the colors matched up quite nicely.

For my first test, I drew these weird wingless bird hearts:

I first drew the detail of the birds with a red Stabilo marker, then I filled in the central heart shaped area with the Poppy Red Prisma Color marker. I was very pleased with the result. The color matches pretty closely, and the solid area from the Prismacolor marker is very rich and smooth. The hearts were the only thing on this piece of paper for a long time.

One day I was coloring with Prismacolor markers when I noticed that if the color dried a bit, and I colored over it with the same marker, I’d end up with a slightly darker hue of the same color. I used Poppy Red to draw these poppies (seemed appropriate both in color and in subject to try out this layering technique). I am pleased with the result. The differences in hues are subtle, but they really contribute to the delicate feeling that I was going for with the blossoms. For the stems I used the same technique that I described above: drew the shape with the Stabilo markers, then colored in the area with a similar Prismacolor marker (both dark green).

I have noticed that the Stabilo markers can bleed, and the color will run, ruining the crisp line if I don’t work quickly and precisely. I still have a lot to get used to with these markers, but it’s been a good start.

I’ve been working a lot with patterns and texture, but I’ve also been drawing a lot of little “creatures” lately. They are purely from my imagination, and purely drawn for fun. A lot of them seem to resemble sea creatures, or a cross between flowers/plants and sea creatures.

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This first image I did while I was still back in the States. I’m working on another “scene” with many little creatures while I’m here in Mexico, but I’m not quite done with it. This one’s drawn on paper with a Pigma Micron pen. Not exactly sure which width I used for this one, but if I had to guess I’d say a 03 size.

The black and white drawing on the bottom I did with a 02 size Pigma Micron pen that was partially dried out. It took a long long time, but I’m please with how the textures and patterns turned out.I used a dark green Stabilo Point 88 pen for the main part of the drawing of the sea urchin at the top of the image. I accented the dark green with a Rhodamine Prisma Color Marker, and dark mulberry Stabilo Point 88 pen. This one also took a long time, but I’m only semi-pleased with the results. Some of the shapes/textures/patterns have potential, but I think the affect was muddied, particularly at the top of the form. I do like the texture and feeling of the stripes with the dots toward the bottom, but the detail and overall effect is quickly lost toward the top.

I like to think of this as a kind of sea flower. A lot of the details remind me of part of little sea creatures that I’ve seen over the years, but also it’s very reminiscent of a blossom. I like the feeling this drawing conjures. It’s detailed and delicate, yet somehow it looks a little dangerous, like you could get pricked or like you hand could get sucked into the mouth. This drawing was also done with a Pigma Micron pen, 02 in size, but didn’t take too terrible long. When I started the drawing I had something very different in mind. I began with the circular shape and the rounded “petals” that circle the outside, but I thought it would turn into more of a medallion than a blossom shape. The rest just kind of took shape as I drew, as often happens, and this is what I ended up with. I added the little spikes that stick out at the end, which really finished the piece.