Lesson 15 : Part 2 Draped Subject

Final assignment. I guess the pressure got to me. This week, for our last assignment we were to drape a person in cloth and draw them from the waist up. I thought my photo turned out really great. But try as I might, the finished product did not turn out like I had hoped. Like I said I suppose the pressure of it being the final assignment got to me. My proportions are off and I did not effectively get his facial features close enough to identify him.

Lesson 15 : Part 2 Draped Subject

Final assignment. I guess the pressure got to me. This week, for our last assignment we were to drape a person in cloth and draw them from the waist up. I thought my photo turned out really great. But try as I might, the finished product did not turn out like I had hoped. Like I said I suppose the pressure of it being the final assignment got to me. My proportions are off and I did not effectively get his facial features close enough to identify him.

Lesson 15 : Spark Post

What to say that will go with such an unusual face?

Lesson 14 : Second Portrait with expression

I know I took at least 30 photographs trying to find one that I could draw expression with. It was hard to keep making funny faces without laughing. It was far harder to pick up on some of the contortions of the face than I anticipated. But the most frustrating part was how my photograph of my drawing was so far off from my actual drawing. I do feet I did better with this portrait than with the last.

Lesson 13 : First Portrait

I don't take many selfies so finding a photo to work from proved difficult for this assignment. I jumped into this drawing with little hesitation but kept stating out loud, "Is this what I really look like?" but with little shadow on my features it was hard to drawing this with any "body" to it.

It was gradifying to at least be able to recognize the drawing as myself in the end. I was very inspired by everyones work tho.

Lesson 12 : Color Pencil

This lesson was another fun one. My finished product turned out very different than most of my classmates.

I started with my bird which I continued to revise until the last minute. It had the dimension I was looking for but not the soul of an artist expression. The boat was fun to sketch but the color was not what I had envisioned in my head. I thought it was funny that my clouds looked more like a wave but clouds in color pencil was hard.

Next I did the butterfly. I was very proud of the body but I regreted the choices I made with the wings when it was done. I wanted it to be vibrant but I also was going to realistic. If I had it to over I would have chosen different colors.

But the goldfish and I are friends. The technique I used was to bear down with the color pencils to give it almost a paint look. It took much longer than I anticipated but I thought the colors blended well and my lines flowed well. I may add more to the background so it does not appear to be floating when I can feel my fingers again. 

Lesson 11 : Landscape

This was more difficult than I anticipated. There are more fine details in nature than in a face. For the future I will leave landscapes for paint and photography not graphite and charcoal.

It still does not look like the photo but overall I think it was successful. I could have worked all semester on this one photograph alone and still not been happy with it. My rock ledge did not look exactly like the photo but I was still proud of what I was able to accomplish. 

Lesson 10 : Perspective 1,2,3

This was a very fun exercise. We were to do one point, two point, and three point perspective drawings. I looked feverishly online for examples and plotted for days about what I wanted to draw. By this point I was craving to do something else besides charcoal and pencil.

My one point, I drug out canvas and painted. It was June and I really could have gone for some snow at this point of the year in NC. My woman is not proportional to the trees and lamp post  but it was still fun to mix paint and do something a little different. 

This one was fun to sketch because I had a tree house growing up and it was a familiar image. I also worked on practicing with texture for this assignment as well.  It drove my daughter crazy that I didn't make the ladder go all the way to the ground but I insisted that you could climb the tree to reach the ladder. 

This was my favorite perspective. I love the drawing by itself. I wanted this to look like a city of toys instead of buildings. I knew I wanted to use Jenga blocks but it took longer to decide on the rest of the town of toys. I had a hole where the bear is for the longest time until my daughter suggest the bear. I colored in this photo digitally in photoshop. I was a little rusty. I am used to modifying in photoshop not actually coloring in.

Lesson 9 : MIDTERM

So this week we had to upload our final product for our midterm grade.

I photographed so many items for this project but now that it is complete I am very happy with my choice. My teacher made sure to note that I should include the reflection in the glass. When I would get stuck with, " why does that not look right" I would pause and superimpose my drawing over the original picture in photoshop before I began again. This was very helpful.

Lesson 8 : Midterm Preview

For this lesson we had to choose something to draw for our midterm and begin working on it. We had to upload our progress thus far.

I worked really hard on this project and was proud when it was finally competed. The texture in the moss was challenging but when I let go of being perfect about it, it began to resemble the object more. I can still see where I was off but overall i was pleased with the result. I just wish I had learned to work with the shading stick more before this project. My  hands would have been so much cleaner. 

Lesson 7 : Contour and Negative Space

This assignment made me realize I don't see as much as I think I see and how important it can be to sketch out the contour of something before you outright tackle it.

I first began with literally drawing the contours on the light bulb itself to give me a feel for how to proceed with the rest of my objects. Some contours were easier than others but overall I felt confident in what I was submitting.

I had fun with the negative space around the chair project. It was with this assignment that I began to feel free to put some of my own little touches in. 

Lesson 6 : Paperbag

I was having a rough week when this assignment was due. It is extremely hard to draw and focus when you are have vertigo and vision problems but I still think I gave it a good shot. I began seeing details that would give my drawing life and I also realized my eraser was my my new friend and as important as my pencil. I had always felt the only purpose for an eraser was for mistakes but with this assignment I began to realized it could give me better definition and would help me tremendously with my creases. This was also my first successful attempt with the charcoals.

Lesson 5 : Soda Can

This assignment was very eye opening. When i first drew it I thought, "Hey, not bad." That was until I put it side by side on the computer to post for the assignment. I quickly realized many of my proportions were way off. I also got confused by the title of the assignment. "Value and Color". I thought we were suppose to draw our crushed can in color. Big mistake that cost me a few points, but thankfully I was not alone. Looking back now I think the teacher meant for us to use different shades of grey to represent color but I still felt it was unclear.

Lesson 4 : Texture

In this lesson we gave texture examples a whirl. I saw that many of my fellow students struggled with what that meant. Many had to google texture images. Texture is something that we draw without realizing it sometimes. I tried, unsuccessfully to find objects at home with texture. Some were more successful than others. But what I did like was this was the first assignment that perked my daughters attention. She saw me draw and began wondering, "What is Mom doing in there?"

The top was a zoomed in glance at a wicker basket that holds fruit at the house.

The second was the bottom of a garlic bulb.

The third which I actually liked was a Dorito.

The forth was a leaf and the last was the tread on the bottom of my shoe.

I was still trying to get a feel for how this class was suppose to go so it really helped to see how others presented this assignment for our discussion board.

Lesson 3 : Basic Shapes

Assignment 3 centered around being able to use your media to create an image with dimensional basic shapes. I was pretty disappointed in my first attempt to draw anything in quite some time, but with encouragement and drive from my fellow students I began to try a little harder.

Lesson 2 : Shading

Next assignment was about shading and getting familiar with the media in which we were going to work with. I can say that while it was not the most fun, I can see how it is an important process to grasp. Without understanding how to use the same to tool to create multiple effects it is almost impossible to effectively give shadow or texture.

Lesson 1 : Soooo Many Circles and Squares.

This was our first assignment for my Art 121 class. The assignment was to draw 50 ellipses and 50 parallelograms. It was very monotonous and was glad when it was over. I am posting only a glimpse of all the shapes I had to draw. Takes the cake for my least favorite assignment. I think 50 was just too many. I did get a feel for how important it was to correctly photograph my work.