John Smolko's Drawings: Energetic Scribbles

The expressive outlines and scribbles in John Smolko's artwork convey a sense of invisible energy and movement that are foundational to his artistic style.

When you see a John Smolko drawing, it's hard not to stop and take a look. His use of texture and expressive colored pencil "scribbles" add an intense interest to each of his pieces; seeming to evoke invisible energy around his subjects.

His once photorealist art has evolved into the colorful, abstract works he creates today. Since his retirement in 2008 after 35 years of teaching secondary school art, his work has been featured in several publications, included in numerous exhibitions, and has won many awards.

Art and Color 365 recently interviewed Smolko about how his work transformed to its present style and how he approaches drawing.

You've spoken of your friend, abstract expressionist Tom Lehnert, and his advice about incorporating scribbles into your drawings. How did that affect your work?

Smolko: Tom Lehnert was my best friend who passed away in 2020, and I miss him greatly. At one point in my career, I was striving to create works of art that were unique and expressive. I decided to go all linear and use only lines in my work, finding that colored pencils were the perfect medium for this. My first works were mechanical and very structured, but the colored lines and the beautiful, overlapping colors were intoxicating to me.

Around that time, I took Tom's advice to try experimenting with more spontaneous lines and found my work developing into three stages. First, I would block in colors using what I call "controlled scribbles" in random directions. Second, I used more spontaneous lines crosshatching over fields of colors as a piece developed. Thirdly, I applied expressive, spontaneous lines and worked over the entire surface that tie the entire drawing together. And these are the stages I still use today.

Your marks and scribbles create a sense of invisible energy. Is this something you're trying to convey?

Smolko: Energy is an important dynamic for my art and something I strive to portray in line and color. Everything in the natural world has a vibration or energy and even a scientist will tell you that atoms are always moving in matter, even rocks. I guess you may call this a life force, and capturing the essence, personality, spirit, or energy of an individual, or any artistic subject matter, is a worthy goal.

As an artist you want to create life in your work and there is nothing more satisfying than achieving this interpretation. I have been fortunate to have viewers tell me that I have caught the soul of individuals I have drawn. So, yes, this is something I am trying to convey.

Why did you choose colored pencils as your primary medium?

Smolko: Colored pencils are the perfect tools for mark-making and scribbling because you can achieve such a variety of lines: thin, thick, light, dark, short, and continuous.

Is it difficult to keep your scribbles spontaneous?

Smolko: As you master the skill of markmaking it slowly becomes second nature, and you don't have to actively think about it anymore. It becomes part of the process and looks effortless. And it's fun.

How do you choose a color palette for your drawings?

Smolko: At times, I'll create a piece of art using complements. Or I may concentrate on analogous colors and keep the range close for the composition. Other times, I keep adding colors to a drawing through experimentation, and experience guides me in which colors will work.

Why do you choose to draw on toned paper? What colors do you prefer?

Smolko: Colored or toned paper always helps a drawing develop more quickly. Rather than dealing with the white of a paper, the background color is already established, which sets up a unifying color for a composition and helps separate highlights and shadows faster as well.

I prefer mostly neutral colors like browns and grays. Vibrant colors develop rapidly on these surfaces, and I like the Rembrandt effect with the darker tints. The darker papers really enhance a dynamic composition.

How important are outlines of your subject in a final piece?

Smolko: I love outlines and the fact that I get to make them different colors for each work of art. Outlines define areas of importance in a drawing and clean up edges. They enhance the composition and focus attention. They are an integral part of my mark-making and I add them to my drawings in almost every stage of development. I know I can violate my outlines anytime I want to, especially in the final stage when the scribbles become longer and more spontaneous.

Does your approach change based on your subject? Or is it the same thought process to create a landscape as it is a portrait?

Smolko: If you look at my process, it appears that my approach is the same for everything I draw. I am striving to portray the same elements in each work of art but, to be honest with you, there are differences between portraits and landscapes. There are even differences from one portrait to the next.

Each artwork becomes a unique creation that demands a different mental process each time. My mental process is much more relaxed with landscapes and for some reason I am not hesitant to make mistakes with them. I have no desire to visually create a landscape exactly as I see it in life. If I distort it, all the better.

With portraiture, distortions are still fine, but I am still conscious of the likeness, and I am exerting more energy to achieve that aim. The better I know an individual I'm drawing, the more I have invested in the process.

To see more of Smolko's drawings, visit @jpsmolkoart

Some of Smolko's earlier works were painted in acrylic, rather than drawn with colored pencil, but were rendered in the same style.