Drawing #1 & 2

Isaac DeHaven "Dune "

9/12”, graphite and paper, 2021 

Over the summer, I got a new snake as my first reptilian pet. So I wanted to do a drawing of him. I had several pictures of him but I had one in mind. It was of him wrapped in his spider-wood. I think I spent too much time on my beginning sketch. I was trying to get every detail down before I even began, so I started on the actual drawing a little late. There were many parts to this drawing. The winding structure of a snake had to be drawn, the natural and unpredictable pattern of spots and scales had to be drawn and warped around the snake’s body, and the background had to be drawn. The winding structure was mostly getting proportions down and just took time to draw. The spots were probably one of the hardest parts, this took the most time aside from the scales. The scales were made by a series of drawing the lines and erasing them to make a glare on the outline of the scale and on the darker scales had a lighter outline, which is what made the pattern take so long. Then shading took a while. The background needed to have an unfocused effect, the blending stick came in handy. I really just began the drawing without a meaning or idea in mind, I just wanted to try it. I just wanted it to look real. It's not symbolic of anything. I think this went really well and I wouldn't change a thing about the drawing but the sketch should have taken less time. 

Isaac DeHaven "Reptilian Surrealism"

9/12”, graphite, colored pencil, and paper, 2021 

In the fifth  grade,  I was given my first Hawaiian T-shirt. This T-shirt was a part of my halloween costume. I was Hawkeye Pierce from my favorite show at the time, M*A*S*H (It's about a surgical military base in Korea during the Korean War). The shirt was blue with white silhouettes of flowers in a classic Hawaiian style. I never really a signature style, but I really enjoyed the relaxed and humble vibe they gave off. My mother always bought them several sizes too big making them loose and baggy, adding to the effect of "stylish lazy".  Over middle school I earned the name "Pineapple Shirt" after I began wearing them frequently. As I went into high school, my history teacher noticed that I ended up accidentally starting a Hawaiian shirt streak. he asked if I was going to wear them every day of my freshman year, I told him I would wear one every day of high school. As of 5/3/2022 I have a streak of 618 days.

 One of my favorite shirts is a orangish-salmon with simple green chameleons. I enjoy doing realistic drawings and wanted to use the Hawaiian pattern style. Specifically I wanted to do another reptile. So I split the two options and chose surrealism, the realistic vision of something but warped to represent a deeper meaning, I wanted to express my enjoyment for Hawaiian t-shirts. I planned to have the chameleon shifting in and out of a realistic reality and a simple Hawaiian style. I used graphite pencils to draw the Chameleon and layout the realistic and simple parts. The colorful Hawaiian feeling cant really be felt without color, so I needed to use colored pencils even though I was very unexperienced with the colored graphite, It does not blend as easily and leaves tiny unchanged specks on the paper. Mid way through this I found a solution to the blending problem, If I went over an area with a slightly damp paper towel the color can be smeared, leaving no empty speckles. I finished the realistic area. I then added the dark stripes to the stylized area and gave it an outline. I shaded the area and drew the stick the chameleon rested on. Then finally decided the white background was bland. Running out of time, I put black behind the realistic parts and white behind the simple parts, thats definitely something I should have thought through earlier.