Currently in the works here at the studio are a series of drawings composed of cardioid shapes. The shape is named after the Greek term for heart because of it’s heart-like shape. Although it looks kind of like a kidney or tomato shape to me. If you’d like to learn more about cardioids take a look at the Wikipedia Cardioid entry.
Drawings all begin with very rough sketches, or noodles as I like to call them.
To start many very rough sketches on tracing paper were generated quickly— overlapping, connecting and arranging various configurations of cardioid shapes. I wanted the hearts to appear to interlock in some of these sketches and to create a more curvy sensual shape in others. For some reason that e. e. cummings poem kept repeating in my mind.
Tightening up a few rough sketches.
Next I narrowed the scope to a few rough sketches that spoke to me and executed tighter versions of sketches using my smaller gears. The tighter sketches are drawn at a reduced size from the final drawings. The two examples shown below are for my “Torso” and “Cadence” drawings.
Fine-tuning position of cardioid figures in a final drawing.
When I moved on to the actual drawings I used tracing paper overlays to fine-tune the position of multiple sets of cardioid figures. The photo below shows one figure composed of over fifty line plots and a tracing paper overlay used to determine where the second figure will be drawn.
I’m continuing to investigate addition variations on this cardioid theme as I’m enjoying the challenge of the minimal shape. The aesthetic is very similar to my ellipse drawing series.
Follow me on Instagram @marywagnerinc to see some of the final cardioid drawings. I try to post a few times a week on instagram but I’d rather be drawing than posting on social media!
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