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This is my Studio Art class portfolio, 2021-2022.
Experimental Drawing Project
September 7, 2021I started this project by doing a gesture sketch of the figure at the bottom and a brief placement of the moon at the top. I worked on sketching in several plants, various vines and leaves, from observation. I then went over the sketched lines with a woodburner. After I finished burning all of the lines, I erased all of the graphite lines and began to colour the wood with watercolour paints.
The requirements of this project was to use an experimental drawing surface, draw objects or figures from observation, and integrate invented textures we made into an earlier assignment. I incorporated these requirements into my project by using a plank of sanded basswood for my experimental drawing surface, and I drew the plants, moon, and figure from observation. I also integrated invented textures into my project by using wood burning different lines and line depths in order to imitate certain textures.
I created a variety in negative and positive space by filling the middle of the piece with a variety of flora. I also attempt to balance the negative and positive space by having the figure and moon take up about the same amount of space. I attempted to show a variety of values by shading different plants to better depict foreground and background. The different plants and the organic figure compared to the moon offer different shapes, and the detailed figure as compared to the detail-lacking plants adds a contrast.
I’ve never completed an entire woodburning, so this was a first, and I’ve never painted wood with watercolours. Challenges that I faced during this project was that the watercolours would sometimes spread in the grain of the wood beyond where I had painted it, resulting in colours mixing where I had not wanted them to. It also took an incredibly long time just to woodburn the piece, let alone paint it. The most successful part, to me, was the figure. The least successful was how lackluster the paint job was.
If I were to do this another time, I would’ve spent more time refining the wood burned lines and working further on the painting.
Figure in Environment Project
October 21, 2021The requirements for this project were to draw a figure in an environment from life. To begin this project and meet the requirements, I dressed up and took several photos of my siblings, as well as several photos of the environment, to use for reference. I then began with a light sketch in graphite on the toned paper, briefly sketching in the background and layout from observation. I then arranged and sketched in the figures. I worked on adding detail with a graphing pencil and graphite stick, blocking in values. In order to make the background easier on myself since I struggle with environments, I used the subtraction method to depict shapes and values. I then blended in some graphite with a blending stump, then I went over the piece with black and white charcoal in order to further the contrast between light and dark areas.
The meaning behind this piece was that it was supposed to be satirical, or in some way poking fun at itself. This was supposed to be achieved through the contrast of a cultish piece with an eerie setting wherein the figures are praising a small, unintimidating creature. I believe I was unsuccessful in trying to make it seem ironic.
I attempted to convey a sense of balance, wherein the figures on the far left and far right are asymmetrical copies of one another. The highlights prominent on the middle figure and the dog create an emphasis, drawing the eye. The placement of the dog, closer to the viewer than the other figures, also has a sense of emphasis to it. There’s contrast between the figures and the background, for I tried to make the background lighter where the figure was darker and vice versa. I also tried to do a slight outline around figures in order to make them stand out more.
My proportions and shading are off, but the shading in particular is lazy and doesn’t come across particularly well. One of my biggest challenges with this piece was the amount of detail that had to go into the environment. I chose an environment difficult for myself, because I struggle with cluttered plants and leaves. With this in mind, the background was the least successful part of this piece, the figures being the most successful. The size of the piece also proved to be difficult. I’ve realized I tend to give myself too much work, both detail and size-wise, and plan on altering future projects to be more manageable. Next time, I would keep the difficult environment but cut down the size of the piece in order to make the project more manageable with the time I have.
Shading Grid Project
December 1, 2021
The requirements for this project was that we were to select a single object of personal significance and render them on nine separate 9x9 sheets. My object of personal significance is a Transformer figurine, which is a series my father enjoys and I was raised watching. We were to demonstrate shading in a variety of ways- for example, I used scumbling, cross-hatching, hatching, simplified values, etc.- and with different media. We also were to incorporate the elements and principles of design into our compositions. For a majority of my pieces, I used colour to emphasize certain aspects of each drawing, as well as rhythm which is most evident in the repeating lines in a few of the pieces.
As previously mentioned, I used several different methods of shading as per the project’s requirements. The pieces where I blocked in values and colours rather than attempting to render them in-depth seem to be the most successful and makes the values more cohesive. The hatching and cross-hatching pieces were the second-most strongest behind the blocked-in pieces. The watercolour, alcohol marker, and scumbling pieces are the weakest in terms of making the directional light evident and values obvious.
Certain mediums made different shading styles easier. The paint marker on cardboard piece was perhaps the easiest, for the size of the markers made it easier to block in the values than the digital pieces, as well as the piece done in acrylic on canvas paper. The watercolour piece was difficult because I’ve always struggled with watercolour, and blocking in the values with watercolours was a pain and overall unsuccessful. The scumbling piece was also simple, due to how smoothly and simply a dip-pen runs over bristol board, as well as scumbling itself being an easier method. The cross-hatching and hatching pieces were the second-most time-consuming, due to how minute the hatching lines must be in order to properly convey a sense of values. Finally, the marker and coloured pencil on bristol piece was the most difficult, because I found it incredibly time-consuming and tough to reach a level of rendering that best depicted the values.
For all of the pieces, excluding the two digital as well as the acrylic on canvas paper and the paint marker on cardboard, I began with a graphite sketch. Typically, I would take a kneaded eraser to lighten the lines when done with the sketch and build on top of that- for example, once I lightened the sketch-marks, I would go over them with watercolour or began to scumble over them in ink. For the digital pieces, I began with a sketch layer and I would decrease opacity and open a new layer to build on top of it. When I was finished, I hid the sketch layer, having only the rendering showing. For the cardboard piece I first primed the cardboard with gesso. Then, for both the cardboard and canvas paper pieces, I sketched the drawing out in acrylic paint on a flat edge brush. I then worked over those two sketches with paint markers.
A few challenges I faced during this project was the requirement of having nine completed pieces. On the final night, I spent a little over 5 hours refining and finishing my pieces. Another challenge I faced was that I struggled to properly convey values in some mediums- most notably the alcohol marker and watercolour pieces. In order to somewhat fix that, I went over the pieces with coloured pencil and gel pens, respectively. The complexity of the figurine also proved to be a challenge.
I believe the paint marker on cardboard piece to be the most successful, with the alcohol marker and coloured pencil drawing being the least successful. If I were to redo this project, I would make sure that I spend the same amount of time on each piece, ensuring that they’re all of decent or good quality rather than having some pieces I worked on for hours more than others.
Inventive Self-Portrait
February 16, 2022
I first cut out the cardboard and applied a layer of gesso so that the highlighter would take and the colors would be stronger. I went in and began to sketch myself in a bright orange highlighter, and about an hour into it I decided I had disliked it and recovered the piece in another layer of gesso to start over. I sketched out myself again in the same highlighter and roughly sketched the background as well. I built up layers of colors with a variety of different highlighters, as well as paint markers and highlighter paint markers. The meaning of my self-portrait is incredibly face-value in that I love space, although I would never be an actual astronaut. I chose to use highlighters and paint markers on cardboard because I’d been messing around with it in my freetime at home but I despise drawing myself so I had to make the project somewhat fun by implementing media that was fun to work with.
Challenges that I faced during the project was my dislike of the subject matter as well as struggling to capture my likeness. I’d say the most successful part of the drawing was the colors, and the least successful being how I rendered my face. If I were to redo this project, I’d do practices before the project to fully capture my likeness and make the art actually look like me.
Planning Sketch
Progress Shot
Progress Shot
Commentary Project
April 5, 2022I began with a light sketch in graphite on the bristol and then took a kneaded eraser to lighten the lines of the sketch. I began on the person first, blocking in the color-zones of the face with gel crayons. I then rendered the person more fully by layering gel crayons and oil pastels, sometimes subtracting some of the pastels by taking sculpting tools and lightly scraping some of the pastels off of the bristol without damaging it. Once I had a majority of the figure complete, I began blocking in the shadows for the insect and the alarm clock. After struggling to render the blanket, insect, and a majority of the alarm clock, I worked on the background and did final touch-ups.
For this project, we were to research a specific social issue and apply what we learned to our project. I researched overworking, the ‘living to work’ mindset, and how it all can affect mental health and relationships. I wanted to do a more illustrative project, so I picked one of my favorite stories and interpreted it in however most closely connected to me and built off of that with my research. Depression or a sense of dehumanization are what I try to convey with the insect, representing how overworking or living day to day just to work can dehumanize an individual. The alarm clock is fairly obvious in its representation of sleeping less, waking early due to fits, etc. The background is red because I couldn’t think of anything else. The poster in the top right is indicative of how paper-thin or manufactured relationships and everyday life can feel when incredibly stressed or overworked.
Artists or art movements that were influential on my project would be the Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Expressionism movements. Artists that have had an influence on not only this piece but other recent pieces of mine would be Toulouse-Lautrec and Schiele.
I chose to work in gel crayons and oil pastels due to never having worked on a project or big piece in oil pastels (or equivalents) before. I’d been experimenting with them at home and had found them fun to use and decided to use that excitement over a new, fun medium in my project. I chose the large bristol because it was the smoothest surface to accept the pastels and I keep misconstruing that bigger projects will be more meaningful than or better than other pieces I’ve done.
Challenges that I faced during this project is that I didn’t have the time to work on it in my own time for a majority of the project due to after-school activities and just a generally busy homelife. In order to fix this, I tried to work on it in what little time I did have. Unfortunately, for its size, even when I put hours into working on it, it still wouldn’t be any closer to being completed.
Criteria that I set for myself for this project was for the piece to be visually coherent, which I failed at. There’s no connection between the shading of the figure as compared to the shading of the blanket or the insect, and altogether it’s visually unappealing and a mess to look at. I also set out to make the message at least somewhat come across, which I also failed at. Finally, I planned to have the final product a mostly-finished rendering, which this piece falls short of.
The most successful part of the project, to me, is the person. The least successful would be the insect and the rest of the background. As well as the blanket and alarm clock.
If I were to do this project again, I’d keep it smaller and change the medium to something that better conveys the tone of the piece (ex. inks).
Realistic and Arbitrary Color Landscape Project
May 11, 2022
For this project, we were to render two coloured studies of a photo we took prior to the project- one in realistic colors and another in arbitrary colors. We were allowed to pick a medium of our choice and I settled on markers and colored pencil. I began the realistic colors piece first, sketching it out with graphite, adjusting it, then going over it with a kneaded eraser. From there I blocked in a few colors and laid a few lines down with markers, using the colored pencils to refine the colors and shading. After the realistic piece, I moved on to the arbitrary piece with a different work process. Rather than starting with graphite, I sketched the major structures with a yellow marker, building up values and the rest of the landscape by using the structures as a reference. The leaves of the trees took on a more splotchy look as compared to the roughly blocked-in realistic-color trees.
I believe that the arbitrary piece is the better of the two, the colours and values are somehow more cohesive than the realistic version. It also just looks better overall. I also liked the few black outlines I did in the arbitrary piece. I believe that the realistic-color piece is lacking in that it's not as 'refined' as the arbitrary piece. I'd change how I approached the trees if I were to redo this piece, as well as the medium for the realistic piece so I could better capture the real colors.
treereal.jpgClass Exercises
Ink Wash Figure Study
January 18, 2022For this exercise, we drew figures from photo references and rendered the shadows in an ink wash. We had to learn how to properly and convincingly convey the human figure by means of value rather than line. We also learned how to achieve an ink wash from what ink to what proportions of water.
Value Study of Skeleton
January 10, 2022For this exercise, we drew a false standing skeleton from reference, sketched it out, then rendered the shadows to give it a sense of three-dimensionality. This exercise made sure that we focused on the human proportions to properly convey them. It also taught us how to achieve convincing values with toned paper and pencils.
Classmate-Trois Crayon on Toned Paper
January 24, 2022The point of this exercise was to draw our classmate on toned paper with Conte pencils. We had to employ our knowledge of human proportions from our prior lessons in order to achieve a convincing figure. We also had to use proper placement of the feature in order to achieve a sort of likeness to our classmate.
Abstracted Still Life
February 25, 2022For this exercise, we set up a still life that we were to abstract as we drew it on our paper. This exercise taught us certain methods of abstracting objects from life. For example, simplifying forms to more geometric shapes and having values that didn't exactly apply to life were ways to achieve an abstracted look.
Abstraction of Photograph
March 2, 2022In this exercise, we took a photo and then abstracted it in varying degrees until we had a non-representational piece (mine is still somewhat representational on accident). We furthered the abstraction methods we'd learned in prior lessons and employed them in this piece. This exercise was instrumental in teaching us how we can create a representational piece and then warp it until it's non-representational or nigh to it.
Square Meter Study of Landscape
April 29, 2022For this exercise we found a photo reference to render digitally. It was to be a close-up of a landscape wherein we were to focus on rendering the finer details rather than a full landscape where doing as such would be much more difficult. For this exercise, we employed organizational lines in order to find the proper placement of objects and it taught us how to approach finer details in more confined areas.
Artist Statement
In studio art this year I learned a variety of things. For starters, I improved upon my technical skill through practice both in and out of class, through exercises and lessons in class and studies at home. I learned how certain experimental media work together and applied them to projects for class and still use them today outside of class. I improved on my knowledge and learned more about the proportions of the human figure, as well as how to properly organize a landscape when drawing it. We also learned about the process of the abstraction of real scenes and creating non-representational pieces based on emotion or feeling via color and line. I also learned about and applied compositional techniques in properly formatting art to be cohesive and better attract the viewer’s eye to certain parts of the piece.
I also learned about certain artists, their processes, and their styles. For example, I’ve studied Schiele and Toulouse-Lautrec’s works, and have applied certain techniques or materials they’ve used to my own art. Schiele’s specific abstraction of the figure and expressionistic use of color has influenced my studies of the human figure and certain aspects of my stylization. Toulouse-Lautrec’s impressionistic style in rendering both people, backgrounds, and full scenes has influenced my art and studies as well.
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