Time Capsules

The first step in creating this process was positioning a mirror below eye level so that when drawing my reflection, I would be seeing an upwards view of my face. I started with a soft graphite pencil, visually tracing the lines of my face and making marks on the paper. Though not the best technique, I start with one eyebrow when drawing a face, then observe the negative space between each feature to get the most accurate shape and spacing between each. After sketching out the basic shapes of my face, I jumped right into coloring my portrait with markers, layering different shades of colors to create depth and more realistic tones. Now that there was color, I created stronger line quality by going over my facial features with a gel pen— this created stronger shapes and shadow in the portrait. My last step was drawing a simple-line hoodie to anchor my head to the background. My next steps for this project would be to add darker tones to the skin to create more depth, and create a purposeful background.

This work was made on bristol board using a Sharpie gel pen and Prismacolor markers. The gel pen and markers lay down well on the bristol because it has such a smooth texture. I chose those materials because the markers provide strong, vibrant colors, and the gel pen creates smooth lines.

I began by finding a bread tag in our kitchen drawer, then drew it by focusing on the curves of the line and the shapes it made. After the basic outline of the tag was drawn, I gave it color using markers. I used the gel pen to add the detail of the letter/number code imprinted on the tag paying attention to the form and space between each. As my project evolved, I added a plain color for a background. The border was added at the end to focus in on the object amid all the white space of the paper. My next steps for this artwork could be to expand the background to show something like a bag of sandwich bread or a textured table to give it more interest.