Drawing 2

???

Charcoal, tortillions, pencil

2021

To start off, I got the idea from someone else. It was my hand and those were my marks, I just got the idea from someone else. My idea was to show that I’m more than I seem and it’s not written on my face, my words or my body language. It’s written in other ways.

To start, I took a picture of my hand, printed it out, traced it, then started to draw with charcoal, and blending tools. Some parts were darker than others, some parts were lighter. I had to be sure to add some of my hand textures in the picture. I had to make sure the shapes were darker since I wanted them to pop out a bit.

The artwork means a lot of things and it’s important to me. From top to bottom, these symbols mean: Depression (and something else but I’m not gonna say due to reasons), Any Disorder, Supporting LGBTQ+, Bullied, (another one I won’t say due to reasons), and anxiety. I’m not sure what I want you to think about it. Okay, think of it like this: Don’t bully someone. A lot more goes to their head than you might think.

The most difficult thing for me was the shading of the palm of my hand. I would have to constantly erase parts because some shading didn’t come out the way I wanted. The nails were hard to do too. The reflection and shine to them was hard to do, since I’ve never done anything that’s shined like that before. The creases in my hand were hard to do too. They kept coming out wrong. If I started over, I’d change the posture of my thumb a bit. It seems off and weird-looking.

This is realistic art. I like it because I usually draw in cartoons and I’m terrible at drawing hands. I’ve also never drawn nails before, so that was fun. I usually like to draw in black and white if given the chance, and this was a lot of fun. The thing I like the most about it are my fingers. There’s just something about how they are shaped and how they’re shaded that I just love.

8 x 10

Charcoal, tortillions, pencil, colored pencils

2021

I got the idea from myself, actually. I had noticed my friend, Zoa, wasn’t having a lot of luck this year, so I decided to try and make her happy by drawing a portrait of her. It was a fun challenge too that I enjoyed.

I first told her that I wanted to draw her, so I asked for a photo of her that she really liked. She texted it to me, I printed it out, traced it and started to draw. I used the same utensils that I used for my Black and White drawing. I used charcoal and tortillions. Yet this time, I also used colored pencils for her eyes. I knew I couldn’t just draw her in black and white since I already did that, so I figured I’d draw her eyes in color.

This doesn’t mean anything. I would like my audience to know how long it took and that I think she’d like it. I haven’t given it to her yet, so I’m waiting to see her reaction.

The most difficult part was her face. Not just the proportions of her face, but the shading of the light. I realized that there were many different shades of her skin that I wanted to pull off, but I knew it was gonna be hard. It was hard actually, but it was worth it. I overcame it by trial and error. If I started over, I think I might change a little bit of her clothes. I feel like the texture doesn’t look realistic enough.

This is realistic. Again, I usually don’t draw realistically, and this was so much fun because I got to do a portrait of one of my best friends. I’ve only met Zoa since the beginning of first semester this year (Freshman year), and we’ve already become so close. She’s one of my best friends and I love her a lot. So, drawing her was really fun and I still can’t wait to see her reaction when I hand it to her. I love her eyes the most. They pop out the way I wanted and I think they fit the picture well.