Drawing Intermediate

Final Project

  1. My favorite medium to work with during this semester was surprisingly the colored pastels. I had never used pastels before for a drawing, and when we were given the assignment to draw a transparent item using them, I was a little nervous. However, when we started practicing, I soon realized that medium was actually quite easy to blend together, but it was also easy to over-blend to the point where a sheer look could be seen. I quickly picked up on it, and after drawing the practice shapes we moved out of our sketchbooks and onto colored paper to draw pieces of candy. I learned that it's important to start with the white highlights in order to emphasize the shine of the wrapper on the candy, and when I started shading in the actual candy I realized that paper texture also makes a huge difference for pastels. Depending on how big the tooth of the paper is, the pastels would apply more smoothly. I was very grateful for this unit because I learned so much about highlights and shadows. I never knew that shadows could differ in color, but by not using black at all I quickly found out that it really helped the depth of the drawing and helped blend into everything more. On the final project, I used the white highlights to show the transparency of the glass ornament, and green, brown and other colors to help contrast the drawing. In this unit I also learned about the contrast and importance of using warm and cool color schemes in my drawing. I was very proud of my growth with pastels even if it was only a week or so.

2. I grew a lot this semester in a wide variety of skills and I feel very proud of my progress! In the semester, I learned about the weight of shadows and how the pressure you put on the pencil makes a huge difference. Pushing the values in a drawing can be a difficult task, but a necessary one in order to establish realistic shading. I tend to have a lighter drawing hand, and so my use of heaviness and application of materials had to develop through the year. From the two portraits below, I see incredible improvement in my techniques, my vision/process, and my creativity. I took a different perspective when drawing my self portrait, and you can see that I took my own creative liberties instead of just following the picture. This shows that I have improved in my artistic vision and creativity, and my newfound technique is in the shading, the perspective, the space used and the facial features- which are all things that I enjoyed learning this semester.

3. I believe that my portfolio accurately shows my growth throughout the semester and is a perfect example of my work in the year. My organizing it weekly and adding my new works, I slowly saw my progress and diversity as an artist begin to take place. Having a digital portfolio was extremely beneficial for me to reflect on my past works and make notes for future reference. Although the pictures in the portfolio are great for glancing at my artwork, it tells you nothing about the piece itself or my artistic choices and process I took to achieve it. This is why I added a long, detailed description onto the end of every unit piece in order to reflect on my actions and understand where I was coming from when I drew my piece. The portfolio describes in detail every step and thought I had while making my works, and the pictures themselves are worth a thousand words. It well reflects my development as an artist, and shows my newfound diversity in art mediums.

4. The project I feel I was the least successful in this semester would be my still life value drawing. The reason I feel this way is because I could have pushed the values more in the shadows in order to create more contrast and I played it "safe" by shading a lot of the items a similar shade. If I were to do this piece again, I would make sure to really emphasize the highlights, and use different pencils such as 6B for the shadows. I believe a lot of my problem was that I used the wrong pencil for the wrong shading use. I had little experience with still life drawings, and I feel that I truly learned a lot in this unit about the materials and when it's best to use them. My use of negative space may have also been too much, and I feel that is also something I can improve on. Overall, I am glad that I had this project though because it helped me understand where I need to focus on in my art and how I can grow to the best of my ability.

Final Self-Portrait

When I first hear we were beginning the portrait unit, I was a little scared of my work. I have attempted portraits before, and I had never made one I felt proud of. Creating the idea list was actually quite fun for me, and I enjoyed using my creativity in a way I haven't tried before. I wanted to try an interesting pose that would fit the ideas I had, and I wanted both color and pencil. I decided in the end to combine two of my favorite ideas to create a shredded/speckled face disappearing into the sky. I drew my sketches, and then my final draft, and I must say that the final is defiantly my favorite, and the best representation of my original idea. I wanted to do a shredded gradient on my face to show my face almost blending into the starry sky. The sky had always inspired me, and whenever I look at it in depth I feel as though I'm a part of it. I wanted to represent this unreal feeling through my drawing, and I love the way it turned out. As for my value in the drawing, I feel I accomplished the background sky very well, and shows how grand it really is. As for my face, I believe I did a good job with resembling it to myself, but I still feel I could push the values just a little darker to complete it. The artwork was executed neatly however, and everything blended out into each other nicely. I was able to draw my face accurately by carefully measuring where everything was, and especially getting the neck and shoulders in the correct position helped a ton. By going between the reference image and my drawing, I could see what size scale everything was, and it really helped me get a feel for where the facial features were placed. Each facial feature is extremely important in the final drawing, and details must be added in order for it to look realistic. Focusing on them one at a time can really help you see every little part of it, and the more you add to it the better for the final. I found this unit to be beneficial because it helped me understand the shading of each individual feature on the face, and that alone helped my art so much. I had trouble with the hair, mainly because I didn't spend enough time looking through all the videos, and if I could change anything I would change that, but I shaded according to what I saw in the picture, and although it might not be the best, with some more time and effort I know I could accomplish it. After this unit, I feel so much more confident about my portraits, and I'm so grateful we finished the semester on a high note.

Final In Progress

Compositional Sketches

My Ideas:

  1. Shattered glass face
  2. Interesting perspective with angle of looking up (at sky?)
  3. Drawing of my hands drawing my face
  4. Sheet music for background of portrait or overlaid on my face
  5. Snapchat filter
  6. Side profile of looking out window
  7. Looking through glasses frame at my face (from another person’s perspective)
  8. Me looking in a mirror pulling my hair up
  9. My face melting
  10. Almost like an underwater landscape where there are bubbles coming out of my mouth
  11. Half my face dissolving into shreds/speckled dust
  12. My face reflected in a puddle of water
  13. Top of my head is a forest
  14. My hair being pulled by something not seen
  15. Angled look so my ear is seen with interesting earrings in

"Look what I Can See Through"- Pastel Project

Final Drawing

I am proud of my pastel drawing and I believe it to be one of my neater drawings. I am especially proud of the details on each one of the pine needles. For the glass ornament on the tree, I started with the highlights and the rough sketch of how the light reflected. Once I filled in the white highlights, I looked at what colored lights reflected off of it and added what I thought looked similar. My choice of color varied through the drawing as the different colored lights, ornaments and light reflections appeared to me. I love how the green tree brings all the colors together and really shows the spirit of Christmas. The colors really come in contrast with the tree, and the clear ornament especially stood out from the tree to become the centerpiece. The tree's pine needles were probably the hardest part for me because of the textures, highlights and shadows all in one. However, I used the light green and yellow pastels for the highlights, the dark brown and black for the shadows and I drew the needles in different directions to add more texture. I believe I did good work with it in the end, but it did take me a while to do so.

I found out just how important the media (pastels) and the skills that come with it are because working with them was extremely difficult for me. It was really hard to draw and color all the details because of the thickness and density of the pastels that I'm not used to with colored pencils. However, this project was really important for me to learn more about the media and how to use it to your advantage. Practice is essential for this type of media, and I am glad that we did multiple mini assignments beforehand to get more used to the media.

Overall I am very proud of this drawing, mainly because I have never used pastels before this and I had to learn to overcome new challenges that I actually enjoyed!

In Progress 1

In Progress 2

In progress 3

Reference Image

Final Sketch

Candy Pastel Drawing


Pastel Egg Drawing

I took pictures of eggs from my house and had to draw them either with a warm color scheme or with a cool color scheme. I chose warm, and I am proud of the shading in the final product!

Reference photo:

Pastel Forms Practice

Using colored pastels, I created two shaped in each a different color scheme to practice my shading.

Look at that View Perspective Project

Final Drawing

Description

For my perspective project, I believe I did a good job at creating an interesting point of view because it is a two point perspective that isn't common to draw. In order to draw this perspective, I had to figure out a way to make the neck of the guitar and one of my hands look bigger, and I had to use the 2 point perspective in order to draw the lines, but it was really hard to do because the body of my guitar is curved. I had to try really hard in order for everything to be proportionate. It's important to learn how to draw in perspective because it helps you learn about balance, proportions and continuous drawings. Everything needs to flow into each other and look like everything belongs together. This skill can be used in the real world, and is a good skill to have especially if your job requires creativity or a background knowledge of perspective. Especially for architects and designers, this tool is critically important to have for their job. I wish to be a designer, so this was important for me to learn and understand.

Before starting my final drawing, I did several practices with colored pencils and draft drawings of the guitar. This was really important because it gave me time to get used to the pencils and their shades so I could be ready and know what colors to use and how to use them on the final. In the actual final, I used lots of highlights and shadows to help the color pop and I used the white colored pencil to create reflections in the guitar (which was a challenge). I believe that this piece was a success because I made sure to include a back-ground, a foreground and a middle ground and achieved depth because of it. I had many obstacles such as the reflection in the guitar, the shading of the hands and clothing, and the curved body of the guitar in perspective, but some of the advantages were that my picture had good lighting for shadows and it extended out of frame so I wouldn't have to do the entire body. I feel I was prepared for this project and I have improved a lot in my colored pencil skills! I still feel that I can improve, and would like to learn more about reflection, but I am very proud of the final product!

Step 3: In Progress for Final

Step 2: Rough Sketch

Step 1:

Composition and Brainstorming

My Reference photo

3-Point Perspective

Birds' Eye View

A video showed us how to draw from a birds' eye view looking down at a shaded view of NY City.

Worms' Eye View

A perspective of a worms' eye view showing a building with lots of ledges and windows.

2 Point Perspective

Sketch of 2 Point City

Here was a simplified 2 point perspective of city streets. I didn't include all the details, but I understood well enough to not include them.

More Complex Drawing of City

Another drawing- but a different more detailed city. This time, rivers, trees, and canals pushed my 2 point even further.

1 Point Perspective

1 point lettering

Here I practiced 1 point perspective when I drew my name.

1 point room drawing

Here I followed a tutorial on how to draw a furnished room in 1 point perspective. It was kind of challenging

Colored Pencil Fruit

After some practice of colored values on other paper, we moved on to drawing a fruit or veggie of our choice. Since I am red-green colorblind, this unit was a challenge for me, and was frustrating at times, but I am glad I did it. I decided to draw blueberries (with a color I can see) and I am very proud of the final outcome! I haven't used colored pencil like this in art before, and I really liked drawing like this! I hope to do more in the future!

White Colored Mediums on Black Paper

Here we had three different mediums (prisma colored pencil, charcoal, and a charcoal stick) in order to practice value on a black piece of paper. For each medium, we made a value scale and a sphere for practice, and then we picked our favorite. Mine was the charcoal because it filled in smoothly and was easy to apply. Then, I drew a ribbon taped on my paper using charcoal for more practice. It was really cool to draw on colored paper, but it was certainly a challenge with the white charcoal! I had never used it before, but it was an interesting experience and I learned a lot about value in other forms!

Still Life Final

In my final still life drawing, I used many values and methods to achieve the shadows and the light that I saw in the picture. I would say that the overall drawing is blended well, and I liked how I used negative space near the top so the drawing wasn't overwhelmed with shading. Also the use of clear, clean edges was executed well with the ribbon. I will say that I could've added more range of value, meaning some parts could've been darker while others left light for the contrast.

Values are really important because they make things look realistic with shading and help bring the drawing to life. The more variety of value the more realistic the drawing, and although it is hard sometimes, it pulls the drawing together and is necessary (especially for still life). A clear source of lighting is also very important so that it shows where all the shadows are to shade.

In my drawing, I didn't have just one source of lighting, so it was difficult to show multiple, but I do believe for each individual object there is a clear direction of the light.

Below the in progress photos, I included my compositional practice sketches. This should always be the first step for value drawings because it gives you practice with different angles, different light sources, shading, and more. For me, it really helped me get a feel for how to shade certain objects and I felt a lot better going into the final after these drawings. My final drawing is successful because I used a fairly wide range of values, accurately drew and shaded the objects and I am overall very happy with the result! I believe the proportions are accurate, as well as the perspective. There are a few parts of the drawing that are a little off, such as the cord that could've been drawn bigger to fit the scale, but it did turn out well. Nothing sticks out extremely far to the eye, and everything works together to create a pleasing composition. The grouping of objects was done well, and I am pleased with how all the objects fit together. I would say the main center of interest that you first see would be the flag because it is placed higher than the other objects and it has negative space behind it, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing. I managed my time very well for this project, and finished exactly on time. I also used nearly every value pencil (I have a pack of 12) to create the different shades.

The one thing I would want to improve is my way or shading with the lighter valued pencils. I found it to be very sketchy at times, and I feel that with practice, it's something I can work to improve. Other challenges I faced during the project included the reflection in the jar and the phone dial. Both were extremely hard for me to figure out how to shade, and although it's very hard to see in the picture above, I did succeed in the end. For the reflection, I decided to draw the cord's reflection on the edge of the jar and shade over it lightly so it looked more realistic. For the phone dial, I simply went in to every hole and edge that I saw in order to add as much detail as possible. I would say that I could still add more, but the way it turned out was good enough! Overall, I have learned that still life can be a very frustrating art form, but it can also be fun. You have to have lots of patience with yourself and your shading, and be very detailed when it comes to the objects. The more value the better!

Although it was difficult, I enjoyed this unit and learned a lot!

In Progress:

Reference Photo:

Compositional Sketches:

Paper Bag Drawing

Here was a value drawing I did of a crumpled up paper bag sitting on our table. It was difficult for me to shade all the wrinkles in the bag but I am proud of the end product and I'm excited to keep seeing my growth throughout the unit.

Value Forms

Here was a practice drawing of value shapes on our table. I feel that I can improve with showing that the two different shapes are two different colors but I am happy to see improvement from other years in art.

Practicing Value

Here was a practice worksheet that we did as an intro to values and shading. I feel that that was helpful to do and remind me of the right and wrong ways to shade.


Final Contour Room Drawing

For my final drawing, I drew a part of the art room that was in front of me. I used a fluid line throughout the entire drawing, and you can see this by looking closely at all the details on the cabinets and tables. Any of the cards or stickers on the drawers have an extra line connecting them to the main line, as well as the pencil box in the middle of the table. It was really difficult not to lift the pen, but I am proud that I succeeded. The practice drawings that I did in the past really helped prepare me for this. I learned that it's important to go slow to get all the details and you should go from one side to the other without going back. These types of drawings can often be confused for outline drawings, but they are extremely different. Outline drawings do not have any detail inside of them and it's almost just a blank shadow of something without shading. Contour drawings like mine for example, have tons of detail inside the outline. Perspective was a challenge for me, and I can say that there is lot of room for improvement, but my interpretations of the lines helped me to draw everything to scale and really helped the room look more like real life. I learned a lot from completing this drawing, but my main thing that I would want to improve upon was my speed. I did draw slowly for this, but I feel it wasn't slow enough for me to get all the details and perspectives right. At a quick glance there doesn't seem to be anything off, but the more I would look at certain items the more I would notice how I rushed through certain perspectives. That's something I would change, but I am happy with how my final piece turned out.

Backpack Contour

Here I drew my backpack using the contour techniques once again. Using pen and one fluid line, I created all the creases and mesh I saw in front of me. It took a lot longer than expected but I am happy with the final result!

Modified Contour Shoe Drawing

For this assignment, one of my tablemates took off her shoe and put it on the table for us to draw. So, only using one line with my pen, I created the detailed drawing and I am proud of it because I truly do believe it shows my growth with these types of drawings.

Modified Contour

Advancing on from the blind contour drawings, we moved into modified contour, which allowed us to look from our hand to the paper to try and draw every detail. It was hard, but I believe that my drawings do show my improvement.

Blind Contour

For this assignment, we had to draw three different hand positions. The catch was, we couldn't look or lift our pen at all. It was extremely hard to do, and it's safe to say that my first attempt (left) was the best, but practice makes perfect and I'm proud to have tried something new like this!

Drawing Assessment Assignment (week 1)

We were instructed to draw a foot or someone's feet in order to practice shading

Here I drew a portrait of a friend in the wintertime, which I've never tried before!

My 1st attempt at a perspective drawing was the front of my house

For this drawing, we had to be creative and draw an alien