Finals Week is Upon Us!!

I haven't really thought out what this post is about. I'm feeling... restless, I suppose. So a blog post seemed like the best option for getting it out. Finals are this week, and this is the first semester where studying is not the only preparation I have to do for the end of the semester. Sure, I have an Art History Essay exam on Thursday (which I only need to make a 78% on), but the list is pretty short after that.

All we're doing for Drawing I is showing up to pick up any drawings the instructor still has. I thought metalworking would be taking up most of my time, but as it turned out, my focus for this unit had been working on the only thing that is due next Thursday. Everything else was due last Thursday, so I spent 48 hours in a mad dash to get everything done. Now all that's left is for me to design and create a clasp for the chain due Thursday that's pretty much done already.

That all ended up working out really well, though, because Up until Friday, I hadn't really started on my final project for 2D Deign. Sure, I had the concept and had sort of designed the general layout using Photoshop, but the actually piece didn't get any attention until about 40-48 hours ago. The project is to create two images. One with characteristics of Decorative art and one Plastic. So, definitions:

Decorative: I'm paraphrasing, but basically it is a piece of artwork that makes no illusions about it's 2-Dimensional nature. It is flat and doesn't try to appear otherwise.

Plastic: These are the pieces of art that seem to expand backward into the frame. They appear to 3-Dimensional. Plastic space is created by using many techniques including shading, perspective, fuzzy detail for things further away and muting colors as they move back in the frame... And a whole bunch of other stuff I can't remember off the top of my head. Anyway...

Of course I made it more complicated than I needed to and chose to do three images instead of just two. The first is still decorative and the last is still plastic, but the middle one will have properties of both. Here's a picture of what I have done so far:

There is absolutely no third dimension in the binary code, as you can see. It's very decorative. I ended up printing the binary and tracing it with pen on green card stock. I then colored in the black with sharpie. The second one is the in between that has aspects of both decorative and plastic. Each techno-gadget has it's own shading and they are on top of each other as they move to the front. At first I was going to do this in papercraft, but aftre stuggling for over and hour to get the keyboard done, I though "eff this ish." So I got the line work lightly traced and did all the color free hand with Prismacolor markers.

Today I am working on the last one. The full plastic image is proving to be a pretty large and complex project. Currently all I have managed was to map out the perspective of the street and the people on it. Now I actually have to start drawing and designing all the details. I'm not sure what medium I'll be doing it in yet, but I think paint or marker are the leading contenders.

That's all for now, I suppose. I'll make sure to post a picture of it once it's complete... Assuming that I get it done by the Tuesday deadline. Until next time!

Almost taken down by, of all things, a MIRROR!

Oh my, is Lucky going to start posting regularly again? Shh! Don't jinx it.

Today was the final day of class as I have known it for the duration of this semester. Finals are next week and, if all goes as expected, I'll be taking in a 3.75 GPA for the semester. Not bad for my first round of art courses. Yeah, there's a B in there, but it can't be helped. Metalworking ended up being much more difficult than anticipated, and I'm not holding out hope that this last assignment will be enough to pull me up to 90%.

All an all it's been a great semester and I already feel like I've learned so much. Even in drawing, a subject I have been practicing independently since I possessed the fine motor skills to hold a pencil in my hand. So many great tools and techniques have been added to my artistic tool kit.

It seemed fitting that the final project in drawing should be a self portrait. I've spent so much time looking at everything around me and taking in so much outside information that initially the assignment proved to be a struggle. I've never drawn myself from a mirror before and I've never done a large scale portrait in charcoal... Actually, I'm not sure I've ever done a large scale portrait in any medium.

So, after having a minor freak out the first day and leaving class early out of frustration, I took some time to examine what was going wrong. There were a couple major things.

First off, I wasn't using my powdered charcoal which has become my new favorite drawing material. You sprinkle it on the paper and spread it around to give your canvas a nice middle grey. This allows you to add not only shadows with charcoal pencils, but also highlights using an eraser. It also didn't help that the mirror was a bit wonky and squished or stretched my appearance depending on where I was.

The second mental block was a fear that it was too soon to 'immortalized' myself. I was afraid that I would mess it up and forever be ashamed to try again. This is silly, I know, but I'm curious if other artists have had the same problem.

Last Thursday I left early and mulled all these things over in my head. After bolstering my confidence (and practicing drawing myself in the dark), I returned to class on Tuesday to give the self portrait another try. I moved to a darker side of the room because practicing in extremely low light had shown me that if my face were not as well lit, I wasn't as afraid of making the picture too dark too quickly. I also moved to a smaller drawing pad so the task didn't seem so monumental. Once I prepped my paper with powdered charcoal, I dropped all insecurities and began to go to work...

After two full class periods, this is the fruit of my labor:

 

It's not an exact likeness, but then again a reflection can't be. Seriously. I don't have a perfectly symmetrical face or hair line, so any drawing of a reflection is going to be backwards! All technicalities aside, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out... And I'll probably never do it again willingly.

My instructor is actually keeping this one for the foundations show next semester along with the fish painting from last week's post (different class, same instructor). He even went do far as to make sure that I signed up for the Drawing II course that was being taught be the best drawing instructor. It's cool to have teachers looking out for you and I'm mildly curious if my reputation will precede me in that class... Mustn't... Get... Big... HEAD!!

Seriously, though, I have done my best to keep my humility intact. As I said before, even in a subject that ie been practicing since I can remember did I learn something new.

I have got a lot of projects that I have been wanting to work on, so when the break is here, I plan to take a mini-vacation from the Internet... Or at least social networking. After all, I do need to find a job. The idea is to remove as many distractions as possible so that I can use the momentum I have gained this semester to work on things that are for my own enjoyment and not a grade. Either way, I won't be gone for too long. Maybe a week or two at most. I'll be sure to post before I go on break as well.

Speaking of projects done for fun... For anyone who hasn't had a chance to see this yet, this is the finished Thor drawing (WIP was in the last post) for my dear friend Shawnee.

Not bad for ten hours of work... Not bad at all. Until next time!