Time Capsules

The first drawing that I did was the angle up self portrait. I had to look down into a mirror to get a unique angle. This was difficult to do because I kept having to go back and forth from looking into the mirror and looking at the paper. I did the self portrait in pencil and then to add a background I used yellow watercolors. Have the color go around the pencil drawing created emphasis. and contrast. I started the drawing with a circle and then added my chin going slightly up to show that I was looking down. Then I looked at how my facial features lined up. I started with where my ears were and then related that to my eyes and nose. Another way that I showed that I was looking down was by moving the lines for my eyelids further up. Since I wasn't used to the proportions from this angle I ended up making my forehead too big at first but I fixed that. I added shadows on my face and then I added freckles with a pattern of small horizontal lines. I also added some shapes where highlights would be. I liked drawing my hair and I added some pieces out of place to make it more realistic. I also used different values in the hair to show highlights and shadows where it was wavier. My next steps could be to use what I learned from this drawing to do more portraits from different angles.

The second drawing prompt was to draw something that you despise so I chose a jar of peanut butter because I've never liked peanut butter. The background is a reddish pink pattern of squiggly lines which I added just because that's what I was picturing in my head but when I was done with them I realized the color was like jelly which went well with the subject. I used colored Pencils for the jar of peanut butter and then I used watercolor in the background with colored pencil over it. I had never tried to do a realistic drawing with colored pencils before so this was a challenge and I had to figure out how to shade and add details with the right colors. My project evolved as I decided which details on the label to include and which ones to leave out. I also didn't know what I was going to do with the background until I got to it. I think the color of the background creates unity with the word skippy because the are similar colors. I used shape when I was sketching out the basic shape of the jar and figuring out the perspective. My next step could be to do more still life observational drawing and practice using colored pencils more.

The third prompt was to draw the exterior of a building. Because it was observational I decided to do the hut in my backyard because I could draw it from my porch. The hut is a little building that my dad built in the backyard. I started by sketching it out with pencil and then I used gouache paint for the color. I decided to use toned paper because I wanted to see what gouache would look like on it. It was a challenge to figure out what color to use for the hut and how to show that there were shingles on it so I mixed a few different values of tan. The lines created by the green border help show the perspective. I also used an angle brush to get the pattern of the grass right. I usually find forest background intimidating because of all the different details with the leaves so I practiced simplifying it. There is emphasis on the hut because the background it mostly a blend of different greens so the tan siding makes it stand out. The green border also creates unity with the green background. My next step could be to do more outdoor environment drawings/ paintings.