Assignments
Sketchbook cover: To kick off this year we started by decorating our sketchbooks for the year! My cover is a collage/mixed media maximalist style design. The base was a layer of pray paint that maintained a sprayed effect, then I collaged the lower diagonal half of the cover with images i've taken and of friends and I. Then I drew butterflies on the top half of the sketchbook (that will eventually have glitter), and then separating the two halves is four various layers of lace.
Time Capsule: We were tasked with completing four ten minute sketches on one sheet of paper. The drawings consisted of a self portrait, a chair, a hand and the corner of a room. We will follow up at the end of the semester and recreate these drawing to track our progression
Continuous Line Room Drawing: For this assignment we were supposed to focus of a corner of a room and draw that section of the room in continuous line style. I selected the back corner of my room that contains my desk and a portion of a door. I chose this because the clutter on my desk allowed me to add a lot of detail to my work.
Blind/semi-blind Contour drawings: As a warm up we drew our hand and then used an image of a person and drew them. The first attempt was done blind, not looking down at the paper. The second attempt was semi-blind meaning every 10 seconds we looked at our paper to help adjust and draw with more accuracy.
Value Scales (white paper) : To practice shading we experimented with value scales. We started on white paper with graphite. We did both a value step scale as well as a gradient value scale.
Value Scales (gray paper): To continue our shading practice we moved to working on gray paper. We used white and black charcoal as highlights and lowlights using the gray of the paper as a neutral. Again we did both a value gradient and step scale.
Continuous line Portraits: This assignment we started by tracing out faces on acetate sheets on a mirror then using ballpoint pens and carbon paper we transferred the acetate drawing to our sketch books and on a gray paper sheet. From there I colored each one differently using watercolor on the sketchbook tracing and white and black charcoal on the gray paper.
Negative space chair: Prior to doing out negative space mini project we began explaining negative space in a much simpler format. Using just pencil and ink we freehand drew the negative space of an interesting chair of choice, this allowed us to focus on the positive and negative space and the lines separating them.
Eye Drawing: To prepare for portrait paintings we practiced drawing eyes. We followed a hour or so long tutorial and took out time focusing on the smallest details. This was great practice for realistic drawing.
Nose Drawing: Continuing off the eye assignment we practiced drawing either a nose or mouth. This was a quick homework exercise. The drawing was done while looking at a reference.
Facial Proportions: Expanding on the last two assignments we practiced drawing facial proportions. This exercise was done by following a tutorial on proportions with a reference photo of ourselves. This was the first step in a larger assignment based off artist Samantha Wall.
Acrylic Media Test: Our last step before staring our final project was testing acrylic which we will use for the portrait project. We created value scales using one cool and one warm toned color. then using the colors we made we tested painting an abstract design to get a idea of what working with the medium is like.
