AbstractBuzz

Here are a few examples from several sheets of basic ideas I had back in 2006 for a children’s book which had been written but needed re-illustrating. However, the project never got off the ground with the original author… so I’m thinking of writing in a different vein so as to explore other possibilities with these graphics.

In the originals I managed to simplify the facial images down to five or six colours… and with a maximum of twenty marks on the paper. For example, the boy’s eyes are two marks, his hair accounts for eight, lips two, spectacles three or four, nose one or two, eyebrows two… nothing else is required to add to the expressions… no profile outline, no chin, no ears…

What I discovered, whilst simplifying them, was the variety of expressions and emotions that could be created with just a slight twist of the Faber-Castell oil-pastels, especially when drawing against the natural flow my hand was taking.

Maybe they’re not illustration material for commercial children’s books… but I’m continuing to explore this theme nevertheless.

Aug 12

One of a new series exploring the designs of General Vauban (Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban ~ 1633-1707) who was the foremost military engineer of his age, famed for his skill in both designing fortifications and breaking through them. He also advised Louis XIV on how to consolidate France’s borders, to make them more defensible.

Here I have created a deliberately confusing interpretation of one of his basic ideas and turned his “impregnable” design features into a confusing set of passages… as in a maze without a safe and sure direction of progress - or resulting in being lost without hope.

Feb 21

Continuing a new series of abstract works with black (and usually white) Conté Carrés crayons on multi-folded papers… the illusion being more fully seen with side-lighting revealing the subtle three-dimensional nature of each 65 x 52 cms piece.

Feb 20

Feb 19

From a continuing series of abstract works with black and white Conté Carrés crayons on pre-folded papers… the illusion being more fully seen with side-lighting revealing the subtle three-dimensional nature of the 60x50 cms work.

Jan 14

Abstract ~ Ed Buziak (2012)

First of a new series of abstract images I’m working on in 2012 whose original concepts connect with some of my previous works from the 1970s.

Dec 28

Another drawing of “incidental” details from my immediate environment… this cold water tap in the corner of one of the art college studios sketched or drawn during my three years there. This drawing was made with the superb original Talens & Co “Rembrandt” pastels.

Dec 24

I have always had a visual interest in “incidental” details in my immediate environment… and remember sketching his brass tap in the corner of one of the art college studios during my three years there. Usually students were not allowed to keep most of their artwork - we were obviously allowed to tout our work around when searching gainful employment after graduating - but I seem to have kept enough from my portfolio to mount an exhibition some 40 years later if I wanted to. This drawing was made with Talens & Co “Rembrandt” pastels… the constant purchase of which took a considerable amount of my meager college grant. However, I still have many of those pastel sticks… and twenty years ago “inherited” a box of another 100 colours which had been purcheased by my wife’s uncle (an artist) before the Second World War.

Dec 13

Imbalanced Flight #9

*Also posted on my GraphicBuzz Tumblr pages

Dec 11

Dec 10

Dec 08

I have walked around this mobile several times and watched the ever-changing relationships of shapes, colour and background. By including other artists’ work on “my” AbstractBuzz pages I am acknowledging their influence on my thinking and ideas, if not on my artistic output.

Dec 05

Abstract Pastel Drawing - (by a Buziak)

I’ve had this drawing in my artwork folio for around something like 30 years… so long, in fact, that I cannot remember whether I drew it in my early 30s or whether one or more of my three now adult daughters did it.

I do “associate” with the style because it is how I still express myself… but it looks equally as if by a child’s hand. If they or my former wife Roz sees this, let each other know there is a small (18 x 26 inches) puzzle to be solved!

Dec 04

Cut and Paste to Taste…

Trial and error, by definition, sometimes works… sometimes doesn’t. When I feel it doesn’t work I cut and paste to see what can evolve…

Initially, the initial red and black ink splashes combined with a few sweeps of a brush dipped in purple didn’t work… so I cut the paper into 4cm squares and reassembled them into this more dynamic matrix…