Independent Study

Final Reflection:

Jillian Wight

Medsker

Independent Study

12 January 2023

When I entered into this independent study, my goal was to fill out my body of work with an emphasis on observational drawing. I wanted to have solid options for my college portfolios, and spend time curating my work to present myself as best I could. Looking back, I definitely think I accomplished these goals, and I’m really happy with my portfolios. During the process, I learned a lot about my personal style, the foundations of art, and areas in which I could improve.

Before this semester, I thought of observational drawing as a chore. I also considered it to mean hyper-realistic drawings from life. I found it tedious and felt that I lost myself as an artist when I couldn't incorporate my personal style into my work. However, after a portfolio review at Pratt, I realized that I needed to put more emphasis on my observational drawings going forward. The person I spoke to also told me to focus on figure drawing, and practice capturing the energy and movement of a live subject through quick strokes. My independent study gave me the opportunity to practice observational figure drawing, and it really changed my perspective. I found it interesting and a fun way to suggest something rather than fixating on detail. Observational drawing also helped me translate objects from the physical plane onto my paper in a manner that captured them more authentically. In this way, I’ve been able to improve my ability to place my subjects in a setting/background, pay attention to perspective, and add engaging depth and shadow to my works. Drawing from direct observation helped me practice other elements of my work, such as texture, light, form, etc. Finally, to overcome my concern about having an absence of personal style in my observational pieces, I applied what I’ve learned in Create Writing to my work by bringing my own character into my art by adding defining details. Setting a scene for a character without actually introducing the character has been excellent practice for creating more narrative illustrations.

If I had the chance to repeat this independent study, I think I would want to practice capturing live subjects a little more by going out in public and sketching people going about their lives. I also think I would like to play around with materials a bit more, and attempt to take my observational works from a sketch form to a more final form. Finally, in terms of my college portfolios, I would give myself more time to check them over and pay attention to small details (there were a few small mistakes that I made which I caught after the fact). Going forward, I will absolutely make observational drawings on a more regular basis.

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Artwork Descriptions: