New Drawing and a Few Variations

I made another drawing with a skewed grid of 'galaxies' as the subject matter. I place the grid in rudimentary two point perspective to give it a sense of depth and movement. A drawing like this is a perfect candidate for my 'Squaring the Square' thesis. When you take a subject that is largely squarish or rectangular, and in Photoshop, correct it using their grids as a guide to what is truly square on the computer screen, and leave the original edges of the image, you get an interesting artifact of the original that depicts the distortions along the edges. I'm not explaining it particularly well, but below are three photos that illustrate the process. The first photo is the original drawing, watercolor and acrylic paint on Arches watercolor paper, shot on the sidewalk in front of the gallery with four glass weights to hold the corners. A simple description would be a distorted rectangular grid of 'galaxies' connected by thin white lines. The second image is the same subject matter after I have 'corrected' the white grid in the original to make it square. This is a simple Photoshop step using the Distort, Skew and/or Perspective manipulations. I let the edges expand or contract as needed. And the third image depicts further manipulation of the image by bringing the original grid back to a somewhat rectangular configuration. When I look at that third image I get a sense of falling into the drawing, the sensation that the white grid of the drawing and the edges of the paper exist in different planes if pronounced. NOTE: The change in the four corner weights, which in reality are the same size, as they mutate through each step.

Untitled - Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Arches Watercolor Paper - 40 x 26 inches