Advanced Drawing & Painting Fall '23

The project I'm most proud of from our semester of art is my sketch-and-wash pencil log drawing from our observational drawing unit. I think this is my favorite work of the class because I put lots of effort and time into creating a realistic-looking tree log. Overall observational drawings are usually my favorite to do so I wasn’t surprised to find that this unit was my favorite. I really love the background shading of the fabric and It’s taught me the importance of creating an intriguing background because it adds to the drawing as a whole. This unit also taught me the importance of using my eyes to find exactly what something looks like. Usually, I would guess at what I think the bark or shadows would look like, but for this drawing, I really drew exactly what was in front of me. Adding a fantastical element of the butterflies flying away was something else I liked about this project because it let me add something from my imagination into the design. 

One really informative project we did during the semester was our communication relief project. This project really impacted my thoughts about the art process because it let me think deeper about what my art really means. We were allowed to choose an environmental issue to portray in our relief prints and this let me think about how my art can impact the message I want to give. It also made me think about how important even the tiniest details in a piece of art are. Just the small paw prints leading from the stump in my print have a meaning to the art as a whole. Another impact this project had was teaching me about balance in my art. I used lots of different cuts in the relief so that it created dimension and I think that idea could transfer over to paint strokes in paintings and line work in drawings. 

In my initial art goals, I talked a lot about realism and drawing from life. I can safely say that I accomplished this, especially during our observational drawing unit. I’m also surprised at how I ended this semester. My final painting was of a cathedral, but it was more abstract and colorful than what I’m used to. This was actually really fun for me because I don’t usually branch out from what I usually make but being able to dabble in more during this semester really opened up my eyes to other types of art I might be interested in. In my initial statement, I talked about how I wanted to use more charcoal in class and I’m happy that I got to do that in our observational unit! I met most of my goals for this semester and am also happy to say that I branched out more and accomplished more than I expected in the beginning. 

One of the art projects I’m most proud of is a charcoal illustration I did last spring. It’s not completely finished and I think that’s one of the things I like most about it. There’s so much room to change it entirely, but I haven’t quite found the time to finish it. In fact, I almost like it in its incomplete form. 

I take a lot of inspiration in my work from nature. I love to use still life or photography references to create very realistic work. I’m also very inspired by the old paintings you see in museums with the almost hazy texture to them that are hyper-realistic. I’d love to work more like that. 

In my visual art education, I hope to develop more skills in realism. I’m not the best at drawing humans, but I’d love to get better at drawing a realistic landscape. 

I think using charcoal in class would be very fun and it’s one of my favorite mediums. I would also love a still-life unit using paint.