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!
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