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Gillian Lenth “That’s Bananas!”

11” x 14”, Colored Pencil, 2018

Originally, I was prompted by the suggestion of drawing the life cycle of a fruit/vegetable or the stages of it being eaten in colored pencil. After brainstorming types of fruits/ that would pop out and challenge me, I decided to do a banana. Another reason why I chose the banana was for the ironic purpose of drawing a fruit I’m allergic to. However, I didn’t just want to do its life cycle because that wasn’t exciting enough, so I decided to do both the cycle and stages of being eaten to. The main piece of symbolism in my drawing would be of life and change. Starting from the top you’ll notice how the banana starts off too ripe and unopened, then going down the piece the banana begins to wilt more and more until it’s been fully eaten and rotten. If I could change anything I would like to have made the bananas larger in size so that there is less white space in between everything. Overall though, I am very happy with how realistic it turned out since that was the style I was aiming towards. I also love how well the colors pop out and blend together, it really helps show what stage the fruit is in.

Gillian Lenth “Capturing the Moment”

18" X 24", Charcoal, 2017

When creating this drawing, I tried to make it more realistic so my style would be realism for this piece. Which I found out is really hard to pull off, especially when you have little experience at drawing people realistically. My drawing is very straight forward, so even if you look closely at it, it has no deep meaning. Some things that I would love to change about it if I started over, was to sketch some things out in pencil first instead of going straight to charcoal. I realized that charcoal is very hard to erase, and some of my erase lines are very noticeable. Another thing I would change would to maybe do the grid technique so that things are more proportionate, especially in the face. I do really like what I was able to pull off though. I’m really proud of my shading skills especially in the hands and arms. I also really love how my hands are turning out in general too, because they are so hard to draw for me usually.

Gillian Lenth "Truffles"

9” x 12”, Acrylic Paint, 2018

I knew for sure that I wanted to paint an animal because I needed to challenge myself a bit since I don’t normally draw animals. However, I didn’t want to paint some random, meaningless creature, so I decided to paint my sisters cat instead! Also, my parents kept asking me to paint one of our pets, so I hit two birds with one stone. Honestly as I was painting it, I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out because I hardly ever paint and I didn’t really ever practice the medium. So, I pretty much learned as I was making it. However, if I could change anything about it, I would’ve done a better background and made sure it was more proportional. I didn’t really like the actual background of the picture I used as a reference, so I chose a design that I thought would really make the cat stand out and pop. Though I think it just made the painting a little dull and empty. I really love though, how the blending of the colors turned out. I like the look of more looser paint strokes in realistic paintings, so that was the kind of style I was going for. The thing I’m most proud of is how it actually looks like fur, because that was kind of difficult to paint. Overall, I am pretty proud of the finished result.

Gillian Lenth "Through the Ages"

9" X 12", Charcoal, 2019

When planning this project my goal was to draw this in realism, which I think I accomplished. The meaning behind this piece is to show the difference of hands through aging. At the top, I drew a baby hand, then a teenager’s hand and lastly an elderly person’s hand. As you can see, your hands really change throughout time. If I could start over I would find a more dynamic pose of the teenager’s hand. It’s really boring to me and doesn’t stand out as much as the others. What I really love the most about it however is how you can plainly tell the difference between the hands. For some reason, I was nervous about that. I also really love how the wrinkles turned out on the bottom hand. I didn’t think I was going to be able to pull it off.

Gillian Lenth "Put em' Up"

" X ", Acrylic Paint, 2019

For this painting, I was also going for a more realistic approach. I didn’t really have a deep meaning in mind when creating this piece. However, I wanted it to express a person eager to fight, and show that perhaps they get in fights often, hinted by the band aids. If I could change anything about this, I would have matched the colors better and also just make the skin tone look less pink in general. I had trouble mixing the colors so I am a little upset with how the bottom hands looks compared to the other. What I do love the most about this painting would be the top hand. I think I did a good job at showcasing the contrast of lighting from the knuckles to the arm.

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