Gearing Up

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Out behind one of the outbuildings on Cousins Dean and Lori's place in southeastern South Dakota (either Marion or Freeman, I'm never sure when you leave one and enter the other) is a sort of museum to the equipment that was used on the farm when our fathers were at home. That makes sense since Dean and Lori and their kids have been living on "the home place" for as long as I can remember. Their "new" home sits on the footprint of the home in which all - excepting one - of the 9 children in my father's generation were born. If I have this wrong I will undoubtedly receive corrections from the various kin who hang out here on The Wall. The point is that the image immediately below is an item from that museum. It is called a "horsepower gear."

As I understand it, horses were hitched to the gear - much like you see on pony rides at the fair. The horses then walk around in a circle and the gear translates the round-and-round motion of the horses to drive chain motion that could power the various machines, pulleys, conveyer belts etc., used around the farm.  I have a vague memory of my father debating with his brothers as to which horses were hooked where, but I may be thinking some other horse powered implements, plows, rakes, what have you. But be that as it may that  is the "horsepower gear" from what I think of as the Schrag Farm Machinery Museum.

As is the next step in all PPP images is to use Photoshop to remove much of the image to create white space in which I draw the designs which will eventually be colored to create the final image. Here is the white space only image:

The next step is to draw in the designs. I need to remind myself, as I tend to get carried away with this step, that I will eventually need to actually color in all those spaces. Anyhow here is a semi-complete version of that step. And no, I will not share with you how long it takes to do this step.

Finally, I color in the designs. To anticipate a few questions:

1. I don't really choose the colors or where they will go. They just sort of choose themselves.  You may have heard of "dowsing for water." You take a forked stick, hold it gently and slowly walk around. When the sticks "dips" you can dig down and find water. One way color appears in my drawings is a form of "dowsing." I take the "color source," pen, marker, brush, whatever and move it slowly over the designs. It dips when it wants to color the spot below it.  .  . Or, I move back from the drawing and sort of unfocus my gaze - shifting from the design to the palette of color sources. A match occurs and I take the color source and apply it to the portion of the design asking for that color.  And I really can't offer any more precise explanation.
2. Come on, if I wouldn't admit to the time I spent drawing the designs, what makes you think I would fess up to how long the coloring takes? Let it suffice to say much longer than it to to draw the designs!
3. Why do I do these drawings? To cut to the chase, I enjoy the process. I find it calming. It makes me happy.
4. And no, I don’t see them as being influenced by other works. They have, over the past few decades, bounced between a variety of styles from quasi-representational to abstract. That too is a purely subjective process, driven by mood and circumstance.

So here is  the final version of Gearing Up!  Actually this version is a bit cropped around the edges, the result of a struggle with Photoshop. But this is about 95% complete.

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I will be glad to answer any other questions you might have at robert.schrag@gmail.com.