Two Drawings

Jade Harmon




 Drawing from a Song     pen and ink wash 14" x 11" 
   
    “Don’t be scared, I often go to dinners and parties with some old friends who care for me —  take me back home — and stay . . . monochrome floors . . . monochrome walls . . . only absence near me . . . nothing but silence around me.”   — Yann Tiersen, Monochrome 

        A song is so ripe with tonal emotion and easily misinterpreted story that it was risky for me to attempt to illustrate one. I had to use color and image to do the work of emotional music. Before drawing, I listened to it a dozen times and asked myself questions. What colors were the notes? Who was singing? Though not every scene worked as effectively as they did for me in song, this particular page communicates a sweet sadness I felt in the music. The soft grays and solid blacks of the faceless but supporting crowd pull my eye to the blanched man sleeping comfortably. Compared to his brightly dressed friends, the main character seems drained of something vital and will rely on their strength until he finds it.
          To me, the whole song tells the story of a man struggling to redefine himself after a painful breakup.“Anyway I’ve lost my face — my dignity  — my look — all of these things are gone and I’m tired now.” To make these drawings work, I had to piece together the tonal and lyrical clues and invent the rest. I chose a simple drawing style because I’ve found that people tend to react more strongly to iconically drawn figures. The figure is a mere sketch of its reality, like a cluster of letters communicating its truth and allowing the viewer to invent the rest. Just as a song sung in first person encourages the listener to feel they are the protagonist of the story, so too does a simplified image. Emotions are communicated quickly and impersonally, making us focus on ourselves rather than the character portrayed.









  Holding         pen and ink 

"Holding" was originally a t-shirt design for my local co-op. Without using words, I wanted to convey the hard-working and earth-conscious attitudes of its members. I also wanted to show a sustaining connection between humans and nature. In the image, the hand supports the growth of a bean seedling which will in turn feed the hand that allows the sprout to prosper. To make the image universally identifiable, I left out a body and face. The picture had to fill a circle so I curved the palm and the leaves to encourage the eye in a roundabout motion.

            In my last year at New College, I’ve turned my study of art and writing to sequential art and illustration. Pictures that tell stories as effectively as verbal language are my present passion. I’m surprised to see I was making story-drawings before I stumbled on this engrossing genre. Though it came early in my drawing study, I’m pleased with the picture’s smooth lines and simplicity. To me it tells the story of balance in very few words.