FEBRUARY 23, 2016

In this project, the objective was to use oil pastels to average the colors in each centimeter of a picture. Rather than make this picture realistic, it was to be more abstracted, the main focus being the values and colors in the picture.

To start off with, I set up my reference by gridding the image into centimeter by centimeter squares. Following this, I created a border on (as well as gridded) the drawing paper. Once this was finished, I gathered the colors of pastel which I thought I would need--the ones which i ended up using the most were pink, orange, peach, white, black, purple, and brown. Upon retrieving these, I got to work. Carefully going square by square, I would add some color to a square on the drawing paper, trying to match the value of the corresponding square on the reference photo. If the color turned out to be too dark, I added white; if it was too light, I added some black or brown, depending on how dark I wanted it to be. All of these colors were mixed together using a tortillon, and so this process went on until each of the squares in this piece were finished.

I am rather proud of this piece, overall. I spent a lot of time trying to get the value right, however this was a rather easy photo to do because much of it consisted of the same things. For instance, his skin was generally the same color, and so I could typically use the same blend of colors for most of his skin. I was also pleased that this piece turned out to be more abstracted, because the urge to draw a face was very strong, though I knew that I couldn't. Not only that, but this was very tedious work, and so I struggled to maintain my focus and continue to color and blend and color again, since I wanted this to be a completed work. Also, since this was our first piece in which color was a big part of it / the main focus, I wanted it to be as well done as possible. So, even though I did not receive a 100 on this project, I like the overall finish.