Scratch That, Reverse It: Scratchboard Final

1.  Describe the subject matter and the meaning of your work.
      The subject matter is more of my same magical realism theme, I guess.  It's a girl with wings, trying not to be blown away by the wind as it pushes her umbrella upwards.  I guess a girl with wings would have very light bones, so it might be a danger that she would be blown away.  I don't know if I drew this with a true meaning in mind. I just was thinking one day, and I saw that picture, and I wanted to draw it.

2. How did you use texture to enhance your picture?
     I think I used texture to show the tension in her wings as the wind pushes them along.  Feathers wouldn't be the same without texture, I don't think.  And the water was greatly enhanced by texture, though I don't really know why that was there.  I think that the texture was one of the main points of the composition, because without it, the picture would have seemed very bland.

3. How did you balance your artwork and create a well-organized composition?
     I think that I created a well-organized composition through texture.  Also, the balance between motion of negative space and objects was very well balanced, thanks to Ms. Rossi's input.  The added feathers added a lot to the composition, and make the piece look a lot more spontaneous.  Looking at it now, I really regret the water.  Or, at least, the line that separates the water from the rest of the piece.  I sort of drew that line thinking that it would be the basis for a sidewalk, and then I misplaced the puddle, so now it's a pool, but I really regret that whole bottom third.

4. How did you imply movement in your drawing?
     I think I imply movement with the wind and the feathers blowing everywhere.  And I think the girl's basic position implies movement, because she's reaching up to pull the umbrella back down to her.  Her limbs and her hair all suggest movement to me, as does the position of her head relative to the rest of her body.

5. How could you improve your artwork?
    I could not have that bunch of water in the bottom.  I think that would make everything look at lot better. Also, I think that because this was my first scratchboard I was very inexperienced in the medium, so I made a lot of amateur mistakes.  The wings don't look all that great, upon greater inspection, and some of the lines go in funky directions.  Seeing what some of my classmates did with their scratchboards made me reconsider my skills.

6.  How did you demonstrate a wide range of shading values?
      I think I demonstrated a fairly wide ranged of shading values through the water, and the wings and the girl's clothing, especially.  I tried to make the brights as bright as they could go, and keep the darks as implied as possible, but I found that very difficult because, again, I didn't plan as well as I should have, and I didn't really know what I was doing. Also, I found it hard to take away the lights, as I've mentioned before, and so I accidentally wound up taking some of the darks off instead.  I think that if I redid this scratchboard, I would have a better understanding of what I was doing, and would consequently have a better range of shading and values.

Face Me: Final

Describe:
     So, my idea for this was that I would be slowly turning into a zombie as flora took over my body.  I hoped to show pain, by my facial expression, because I imagine it would be a painful process.  The drew the face in charcoal, with white charcoal highlights, and the flowers and plants were colored in prismas.  The paper I drew it on is a brown construction paper.

Analyze:
   I would say that this work isn't as well drawn as I would have liked it to be.  I do think that it is a good drawing, possibly one of my best, but I also really appreciate the sketch drawings more.  I think the size of the paper threw me off.  I was used to working on a less stretched out paper, so when I moved to a longer paper, the proportions became maligned.  I don't think it looks a lot like me, which is sort of disappointing, but I feel like I pulled everything else off successfully enough.
    I really enjoyed the effect the white charcoal had on the body.  It draws the eye away from the brightness of the flowers to the darker side of the face, which I feel is really important, because both sides are of equal gravity to the piece in its entirety.

Interpret:
   I got the idea for this piece from my fascination of flora and the uses for different sort of flowers.  I think that in this drawing, I've included juniper, evergreen, lichen, hydrangea, violets, Indian's paintbrush, and a rose.  Some of these I've added for specific reasons, and I think that I put the color in to also make the same point.  The color, to me, represents the beauty of nature, vs. how humans destroy the environment. But, in this drawing, the nature is the one destroying the human.  Event though it's beautiful, it still has the potential to destroy.  Maybe this just me being dramatic, but I think that the color detracts from this message, which makes it even cooler to me still.

Judge:
    I think that the effect of the drawing, over all, was very good.  Thought it didn't happen how I wanted it to, I do think that I executed it well.  I don't know what happened to the right side of my hair, I really should have darkened that up, but I think that is the weakest part of the entire drawing.  Overall, I am very proud of this. I think that I was able to use a lot of the skill I've been building up over the semester, and I demonstrated my ability to use both charcoal and prismas effectively.

Face Me: Concepts for the Final

So, we had three concepts we could choose from for our portraits: mechanical, expressive, or zombified.

Mechanical:
    For this concept I thought that I would do a smooth metal face, with seams around all the major shadows, with each shadow group being represented in a different metal color.

Expressive: 

    This was a relatively simplistic idea.  I was just going to draw me being really upset, but I was going to do it in monochromatic red. 

Monster: 

     I just did this one, because I thought it would be a cool idea.  It didn't really come out how I wanted it to, so you know.  It looks really, really strange, so I'm glad I didn't choose do to this one.  I sort of wanted the left side of the face to turn into a snout?  But the perspective would have been difficult. 

Zombified: 

     I saw this image, or an image like this, the moment the project was announced.  It's sort of a flower zombie.  And it's also expressive, because I would be screaming as I was turning into a zombie.  Because I imagine having flowers growing out of your mouth to be very painful. 

Concept

Initial planning

Final sketch

Face Me: Orifices and Miscellaneous (and Face)

All of my face pieces and the final face!  I don't think I did my hair so well, but I'll do better next time.  And my nose looks so weird but that's probably my face, and not my drawing. 

Let's Get Colorful: Opacity Project

This is my reference photo.  

1. Describe the craftsmanship of your drawing.  Is it neat and well executed?
    I think it is.  I give myself credit because it's drawn exclusively in chalk.  Maybe that isn't the best thing to say in regards to my own work, but I am proud of it.  I hope that I will eventually be able to do better with chalk, but I think that the craftsmanship of this is good considering the artistic stage that I'm at.

2. Describe how your background choices help unify the three artworks and tie them together as one piece of art.
      I think that the background really makes the brights stand out from the background, even though they're chalk and not prismas.  I also think that the dark helps add depth the objects.  As I might have mentioned previously, I don't particularly like the plain black background, but I do believe that there are several good qualities about it.

Actual piece.

3. Describe your choices of colors/color harmonies and how you used them throughout the artwork.
     I think that I used a lot of primary colors here, which really brought a lot of strength to the piece.  It really makes it stand out from the dark background, and also assimilates the white highlights nicely into the color scheme.  I am a bit regretful that both the strudel box and the counter were brownish.  I should have changed the color on one of them, or drawing something other than the strudel box.

4.  How did you create contrast in your drawing?
      I think that the color was a bit part of it. The brightly colored objects in the bottom half of the drawing vs. the dark background brought a lot of tension.  I also think that the shapes of the objects, from the more natural curve of the canola oil bottle to the sharp angles of the bread-bag's tie off also added contrast.

5.  How did you use textures, highlights, and shadows to enhance your artwork?
      I think that I used highlights the most effectively in this piece, and shadows go hand in hand with that.  Obviously I used them to show depth, and the differences between items.  I don't think I used texture that well, both because there weren't many textured pieces here, and because I draw texture poorly.  I think that the shading and the highlights were very effective, though, and added some level of realism to the drawing.

6.  Why did you choose a particular background for the artwork?
      I guess I just went with the background of the photograph.  I choose it originally because I thought it would make the colors in the piece stand out more.  More dramatic that way.  I do regret that choice now. I should have taken a better picture that showed more of the kitchen behind the objects, to add more context to the artwork. But I think it looks fine the way it is.

7. Discuss the importance of understanding the media (prismacolor or chalk) and acquiring the skills necessary to create a successful project.
       I think it's really important to understand the media and have the skills to use it so the piece looks right.  If you used prismacolors like you use chalk, then you'll be sorely disappointed, and vice versa, because the properties of the medias are different. Obviously.  But if you misunderstand what you're doing with them--for me, prismas are about getting very intense colors and details in a small area, while chalk is about getting colors over larger areas of space, with fewer details.  It's important to understand this so you don't approach the medium and the piece with the wrong intention. And that you have the skills to execute said goals.

8.  Describe any difficulties you had in creating your drawing and what could be done to improve your drawing?
   I think that I could choose a better composition, or have more patience.  As usual.  I was very annoyed with the chalk pastel, because it kept smudging and the colors stopped looking as I wanted. And, as I previously mentioned, I do sort of regret the composition I chose, and I wish that it had more complexity and depth.

Let's Get Colorful: Dum-Dum

This is my Dum-Dum!  I started out doing light layers of green as my base color.  For the lighter sections, I went over the green in yellow and for the absolute brightest parts I added white highlights. For the shadows I worked in a progression of blues, with my darkest value being purple.  I think the lettering on this was pretty poor, and I actually forgot a line of words.  I don't think the shading on the letters was all that good either, and the perspective was a bit off. If I'd paid a bit more attention to detail, I think I could have improved on that a lot, so that's something I'll be looking out for next time.  Overall, I find that letters in perspective are some of the most difficult things for me to draw.  But I do like this drawing, and I think it came out well as a piece, if not as a representation of real life.

Let's Get Colorful: Look At This. What Is This?

I did not like this.  I just didn't.  I made the Smarties too small to blend the colors evenly, and then I tried to go back over with the pencils but the pencils wouldn't blend enough and I couldn't get the colors I wanted and the wrapper doesn't even look that good and I wish I just did the Jolly Rancher because there are less colors in that to worry about!! Ugh.  This was very frustrating, and I wish that I'd done a better job, but I'm not sure how I could have done that.  Maybe used the other pastels?  But I really want to learn how to use mine.  I don't know.  I'm just disappointed.

Let's Get Colorful: EGGS

I don't know if I like the one with the orange background better, or just the plain background.  I probably should have made the horizon line straighter, and done more with the surface that they were resting on, and also I should have fixed up the shadows, but I really think that It turned out well!  I love chalk pastels so much. 

    I set down a medium background layer, like what I did with the prismas, and added all other values on top of that.  But I had my big, heavy-duty AC Moore chalk pastels, which meant that layering was really easy, and so was blending. Maybe I would also add some darker values to the green, but I didn't really have any more darker greens, so . . . I don't know.  It came out well, and I really enjoyed drawing it! 

Let's Get Colorful: Prismacolor Practice

Look at my little blue marble! It's so cute and I'm so proud of myself.  I think that this is the first time I've used prismacolors in any serious way.  Also, it's the first time I've shaded in a sphere in a while, so . . .  I really liked how they came out, all things consider.  I think that my layering went well enough, and the use of contrasting colors really improved over the three spheres.  I'm not that good at colors, but I do think that I could get better.  

Still Life: This Time, It's for Real

Midway through

The End!

1.  Describe the craftsmanship of your drawing.  (Is it clear, clean edges, blended well, smudges, defined space, etc.)

         I think my sense of space was very off, but I think that the picture looks generally how I would like it to look. It looks like how I like my charcoal drawings to look.  Sort of faded, almost, and a little blended, but with enough definition so that people can tell what they're looking at.

2.  Are your values and shadows realistic?  How many values did you include?  How and why are values important?

        I hope my shadows and values are realistic.  I put a lot of effort into them, and tried to include all nine.  I know I have a problem with drawing too darkly in some areas, but I think that everything eventually turned out well, especially after I had help.  I'm especially proud of the two flowers.  I think that if I could have colored the whole piece the way I shaded the roses, it would have looked a lot better.  

        Values are important because without them, it would be very difficult for the viewer to understand what they were looking at.  

3.  Is there a clear source of lighting?  

      Hmmm, I think so?  I think there might be two, actually.  Because we were using the stage lights. So there would be one light in the upper right hand corner, and another in the upper left.  I think the strongest would be in the upper right, at least, that was where it was supposed to be?  With the main highlight hitting on that large swoop of fabric.  I think I accomplished that.  

4.  How important were the compositional sketches?  Explain.  

         I don't know how important they were.  Yes, they were useful in order to be able to get different perspectives of the still life, but at the same time, I don't know how much they did for me.  I could have just gone around and looked at the still life on my own.  The rough, small sketches didn't provide a suitable basis for me to plan my drawing around.  It was a good start, but I needed to do a compositional sketch larger to be able to comprehend what I was drawing. 

5.  How is your final drawing successful?  

        I think that it is mostly successful on the two sides. The values are pretty good, I think, as are some of the objects and the shadows.  Especially the shadow of the rose.  I was really proud of that one.  I don't really like the rest of the drawing though, because I felt like I could have done better, but at the same time I was just hating the project so much while I was doing it. 

6.  Are the proportions, structure, and perspective of the subject correct?

      No. They are not.  I had to draw the picture, then take it back to my table to color it in charcoal, because I just can't do that at a drawing board, and that was probably also a lot of the problem. Also, I was really afraid to make the angel big, which really disrupted the picture.  And, I started to draw one section and then I realized how out of proportion I was being so I had to fill up the rest of the page with more out of proportion stuff.  So, just looking at the drawing everything might look alright, but if you were to compare it to the still life you would greatly disagree. 

7.  Does the placement and grouping of objects create a pleasing arrangement (composition)?  

      I think it does, but that's also very subjective.  It would be a lot more pleasing if I'd actually drawn it proportionally, and if I'd drawn the angel larger, and if I hadn't messed up the fabric.  But, I do think that I chose a good section of the fabric to draw. 

8.  Is there a center of interest and where is it locate? 

        I think the center of interest would be in the lower third, in the middle.  Where the fabric makes a little cave and that coincides with the wing of the angel.  I'm very upset that I messed up the shading there. 

9.  How well did you manage your time and resources throughout the process of creating this drawing? Do you see where you could improve in this area? 

         I did this drawing fairly quickly, but maybe that's a problem.  I should have more patience for the work I do, and not be so frustrated with it.

10.  What challenges did you encounter during this project and how did you overcome them?  

         I encountered many challenges, just with using charcoal.  And my own propensity to shade much more than necessary led to some, um, decreased visibility amongst the subject matter.  I overcame the latter, sort of, but line charcoal will always be really, really annoying.  It's really pretty, though, and I like the results.  

11.  What have you learned during a still life? 

         To pay attention to the relation of things as they correlate to other things, and that space where things aren't is just as important as the spaces were things are.  And, that everything really can be seen as lines.  That's always been difficult for me to understand, but if you, as you sort of have to in a still life, break everything down to its barest components, it's much easier to see. 

Shading: Transition Drawing

1.  Explain how value is important in this drawing.
   Value is important in this drawing because the darks and the lights function as lines, sectioning off portions of the bird from other portions.  If this drawing didn't have value then you probably won't be able to differentiate between the different sections of the drawing, and it would just look like an oddly shaped blob.

2. Describe several challenges that you faced while creating this drawing.  What did you do to overcome these obstacles?
      Um, I guess a challenge that I came to was the wing in the last panel?  The perspective was a little off and the wing looks a little weird, but I think I recovered form that one well.  Because, I was looking over top of the crane while I was drawing it, and I sort of had to rearrange it in my mind in order to draw it correctly.  Also, I don't know what's going on in the second panel.  It sort of looks like a slug curled over and died.  I don't think I pushed the values enough there.

3.  How important was it to have crisp, clean edges to your wrapper?
      It was really important to have straight lines. Again, see the second panel.  My lines there got more curved, and it stopped seeming so realistic.  That drawing felt more cartoonish than the rest of the drawings.  I think that the straight lines gave it an edge of realism and made the drawings look more professional.

4. Explain how your interpretation of texture is essential in capturing the look of the object.
      Well, the texture I was drawing was paper, so I had it easy.  I think that I shaded evenly, and had an even mid-tone, which led to a consistency in texture, which is necessary if ones to believe that the origami crane is all made of the same thing.  And I think that greatly added to the look of the object, because the viewer is not focused so much on the texture, but on the shape, which was my purpose.

5. Name three things you would do differently if you were to do this project again.  What did you learn from this drawing?
     If I did this drawing again I would redo panel too, made the shadows better on panel two and three, and I would add more mid-tones to panel one.  But, from this drawing I learned that it is actually very easy to depict an area in lights and darks, without the aid of lines, f you just pay attention to where they are.

Still Life: Compositions

These were five planning compositions we did for planning which part of our table-long still life we would draw.  I did several from one side of the table, just with different angles, and then I moved around the table.  I don't know how great I think these are, but they're just planning sketches, so I think they accomplished their purpose, which was to get me to look at the still life in a way that would be visually interesting.

Shading: Fabric Studies in Prismacolor, Charcoal, and Pencil

Charcoal

Graphite

White Charcoal/Prismacolor

These are three studies we did in preparation for our final shading project.  We were supposed to draw a portion of the fabric in a 5 by 7 area, or at least, that is the size I chose to draw, and experiment with the different mediums we were given to find one we liked the best.

Shading: Final(s)

Graphite detail

Charcoal Full 

1.  I'm pretty sure that I used all nine values. I mean, it looks that way to me, and I certainly made an attempt to distinguish between values while I was drawing.  I believe that this is evident in the both drawings because of the details in the creases. 

2.  My knowledge of values really helped in these pieces, because without it, I wouldn't have been able to draw them.  And the studies also helped, as well.  I almost think that the studies look better than the finished pieces, but creating the studies helped me recognize how the fabric was going to fall, and what I could do to mimic that. 

3.  For the charcoal, it was really difficult to achieve all of the values.  I was using vine charcoal, and then it was suggested I switch to pencil, which was insanely easier, but I didn't like how it looked.  It looked pretty much like a rougher 6B, and I'd just done that. But, I had to be really careful with the vine charcoal because if I felt like I only had control over 2 of the nine values, and I would up touching it a bunch and smudging it anyways.  With pencil, it was a lot easier.  Looking at the photo now, I probably didn't go as dark as I should have with the pencil, but varying the pressure was a lot easier and had more noticeable results.  

    I think that the transitions all went pretty well for both pieces, except for maybe a couple times on the graphite when it was a little abrupt. 

4.  I think that I managed to make the fabric look really drape-y in both pictures, so I'm really proud of that. I also think that the creases on both pieces are well-developed, as are the highlights.  Those are really the things that are essential to capturing the texture of cloth, because of it's free-flowing nature. 

5.  If I could recreate my piece, I would probably put a lot more time onto both.  Maybe I would have chosen a more interesting portion of the curtain to draw for the graphite picture, and I definitely would have done the charcoal on a larger scale (I'd forgotten that we were supposed to do that).  I also would have touched the charcoal one less, so there wouldn't be any fingerprints on it. 

Shading: White Charcoal and Prismacolored Ribbons

These were ribbons of paper that we drew.  The top curl is drawn with prismacolors, the bottom with white charcoal, and the shadow for both is done with dray prismacolor pencil.  Instead of emphasizing the dark shadows with a dark color against a light paper, we were emphasizing the lights by drawing with a light against colored paper.  This was really frustrating for me, and also my ribbon ripped in half, so it's a bit short. Also,  I couldn't get all nine values into the ribbon, and I couldn't accurately draw the reflection of the light from the table on the bottom spirals of the ribbons.

Shading: Fabric in Charcoal

We did this project to get acquainted with the shading of the folds of fabric.  I think it's called vine charcoal?  Anyways, that is what I used for the majority of the chasing, and then I used compressed charcoal for the darker lines that you see.  I wasn't too happy with how this turned out, though maybe it was better before I closed the sketchbook and smudged it a little bit.

Shading: Highlighting Shapes with Erasing

We used charcoal to make mid-gradient backgrounds, and then we erased highlights from these backgrounds. We also darkened where we wanted a shadow to be, so that a shape was created with the mid-values already in place, and every other element of the shape was built around it.
   I don't have just shapes on paper, if that was an exercise we did, because I was at the English presentation that day.

Contour Line Drawings: Final

1. I don't think I did very well doing fluid line.  I did pretty well the bottom right corner, and continuing along the right side, I think, but after that the room overwhelmed me, and I started drawing faster to get people before they moved.  I think the fluidity of my lines, in the sections that they are fluid, are evident by their lack of sketchiness and how each of them are carefully planned and followed through.

2.  My knowledge and my prior practice studies with contour lines helped me be more confident in the proportions of the room. Though some of the people do still have terrible proportions, I believe that they would have been worse if I didn't do prior studies.  The prior studies also gave me a greater knowledge of the room, so I knew where things would be already, so though I was observing while drawing, I was simultaneously remember how and where I'd drawn thing previously.

3.  An outline drawing wouldn't have the detail of fabrics, or of the details on the objects around the room.  It would have been more static, and the individual details of the room would have been lost.  An observer might not have been able to tell what I had been trying to draw, just looking at the outline drawing, but a contour drawing gives the viewer enough context and detail to understand the drawing.

4. I feel that the art room is a bit messy and chaotic in a good way, so I tried to draw it in a way that represented the spontaneity I see when looking around.  I feel that maybe absolute lines aren't the best in capturing that feel, and that lighter, looser lines help greater to capture the spirit of the room than denser, darker lines.  Though I do wish I had used more orderly lines in some places, and more lines in other, to represent depth and texture.

5. I learned from this drawing that I need to be more careful in my drawings, and look simultaneously at the greater part of what I need to draw, but also in the details.  I also learned that I should focus on a smaller space, maybe the corner of the room instead of everything I could see at the moment.  If I could recreate this piece, though, I would go slower and make sure everyone sat still so that when I was finishing up the drawing everything was in the same place as it was when I started!

Contour Line Drawings: The Room

First of all, I really apologize to everyone I drew.  You look much better than that in real life.  Secondly, both of these are practices because everyone left as I was going to start on my final.  I would use the second as my final, but I don't think that I'll ever be able to get everything and everyone back as they were, and also the table got really tilty in that drawing.
  But these are contour line drawings intended to fill up the whole space, with lines and textures, drawn smoothly, in one continuous line.

Contour Line Drawings (Blind and Modified)

Blind

Modified 

These were warm-ups we did that were contour-line drawings, but of our hands.  Blind contour drawings are done without looking at the paper, while modified are done while looking at the paper. But drawing with contour lines stipulate that you cannot raise your hand from the paper at all, and flowing lines are preferable.  The point of the drawing is to get not only the outline of the object being drawn, but also the interior details.  So, hopefully these drawings represent that.