visual journal

   For the visual journal I used paint, gesso, cloth, and magazine cutouts. I started with the circle cutouts and the doyle and it reminded me of my grandmas house so that was my theme. I picked things that looked aged, and I used a lot of browns and reds. I tried to lay beads in gesso to create texture, but it ended up just looking like a white paint stripe. I transferred the wood and newsprint with tape, and I was happy with the outcome. Below the fabric I tried to transfer a picture with gesso, but it did not work so I covered it with cloth. 

Up close

    For the up close project I chose to do an up close picture of a necklace in color pencil. I am happy with the blue part of the necklace. The edges are darker, and I added bright highlights to give it dimension. To get the color right, I used a mix of brighter light blues, and darker purple blues. This gave me a chance to practice blending colors and layering with color pencils. I tried to challendge myself by drawing the diamond, but the way I colored it made it look flat. I tried to add bright spaces and shadows, but the placement was wrong and it did not add dimension like I was hoping it would.I also wish I had spent more time on the gold inbetween the sections of the necklace. They are not very defined, and they are one color. To improve it I would make sure they had a defined edge, and I would go back and add shading and highlights to make the prices stand out, instead of being flat and blending into the page.

Clay sushi

  For this project we had to make clay food that you would eat for lunch. I chose to do sushi because of the bright colors and different textures it's has. To create this texture and shape made the separate pieces, then put them together. I cut each grain of rice and each price of mean. The crab meat in top of the roll is all separate prices too. When I was making the salmon I didn't make it perfectly shaped, and I carved ridges into the fish to make it look more realistic. Then, when I was painting it, I added light pinks and dark salmon colors to give it dimension. For the roll pieces I started off will a small cylinder, then added the pieces of fish and rice on top. The wood slab that the sushi is on was the most difficult part to make. To add texture, I carved grain into the wood. The first time I painted it, I painted it one flat color. I went back and added to the wood grain with a darker brown to give it more dimension.

    Overall, I'm happy with the outcome of the project. If I were to improve it, I would I would add more dimension to the crab meat with darker pinks and highlights. I would also add more value to the rest of my clay. Because it is 3d, I did not think that I would need to add shadows and highlights, but it would make it look more realistic. I would also make the wasabi a lighter color green.

Color pencil, chalk pastel, oil pastel candy

 

    For this project we worked on drawing candies in their wrappers with different mediums. The most difficult drawings were the oil and chalk pastels. With the oil pastels, it is harder to layer colors. It was difficult to add highlight we shadow without smudging all of the colors together. Chalk pastels were easier to layer, but the colors smudge very easily. It is easy to over blend, and it is difficult to get straight edges. 

    My favorite medium to work with was color pencil. With color pencil it is easier to make drawing detailed. It was easy to layer colors, and highlights showed up nicely in the dark paper.

Edward Hopper

    For this project I painted a scene in the style Edward hopper would have. Hopper is known for his vibrant colors, use of architecture and geometric shapes, and the loneliness of his paintings. Because of this i painted a room that was completely empty except for one lamp in the corner. I also painted windows, another common hopper feature, looking out at buildings. Even though I was painting something to look like someone else's work, I still used my own references to create an original peice.

   Through this project I was able to learn new techniques and gain skill with acrylic paint. I learned how to evenly apply paint to the canvas and how to blend colors, to make the painting look smoother. If I could change anything I would have started with a wash, instead of a bare canvas. 

Perspective Drawing

                For this project I decided to go to Downtown Apex and take my own pictures of the Halle to use as a reference. I used two point perspective and tried to push the lights and the darks to show depth and to make the drawing more realistic. I used my own pictures and references from the internet to create an original piece, and I used negative space to keep the emphases on the building, and not its surroundings. It was difficult to keep the edges sharp and clean while shading, but after taking the time to neaten it up I am happy with the outcome.

Scratch board

For this project we had to pick something that shows movement or texture on a scratch board. I decided to do my dog because there is a lot of texture in his face, and I thought the direction of the fur would look good in the scratch board.

The most difficult part of this piece was making the shadows on his face, and the darker fur, look dark enough. Since I'm use to using pencil, and going from light to dark, it was difficult to go from dark to light. If you don't start out scratching to much, it will make you're piece too light and you can't fix it. Although the shadows are difficult the highlights are easy. To make the bright areas, like the eyes, I used cross bathing to remove as much black as I could to make it light.

Although it's isn't super detailed my favorite part of the piece is the eye. I like how it is the darkest part, but the bright highlight give it light and depth 

Gesture drawing

Gesture drawings are quick sketches just to map out people's body position and make them proportional. For this project we had people pose on a table and drew them from different angles. This was the first time I had tried to draw people, or figures, from life and I think it helped me better understand body proportions.Some challenges I had were making the body proportional and understanding that gesture drawings are not just an outline of the body. Since I was going so quick I would make the legs too short and the torso too long. The arms were always a different length too. Then I learned that the legs are twice the length If the torso.

My favorite part about these gesture drawings was that they were so quick, but you could make them as detailed or sime as you wanted. I like how they all have the same basic shape, and outline, no matter who you are drawing.

Figure drawing

    For this project we were supposed to do a life sized drawing from life. Some challenges I had were proportion, spacing, and shading with charcoal. The face was difficult because when you're drawing from life things are constantly moving and it is hard to capture just one face that they make. The body was also difficult. With a photo you can section it off and make proportions easier, but you can't from life. Shading was difficult because the charcoal was so dark that I was afraid I could make the entire thing black.

    While working with charcoal I think I gained some skill with a familiar media. I had used it before but never for a project this big. By doing this I think I learned how to better control the charcoal pencil and add value, not just color in the shapes.

    My favorite part of the drawing is the folds In her pants, and my least favorite is her eyes, because they look dead and unproportional.

iPad gesture drawing

For this project we did gesture drawings on the iPads. It was difficult to draw on the iPads because you can't control the pressure of your pencil and the people we were drawing were moving.

Woriking with the iPads was a learning experience, but I was not happy with the finished project.

Tracing paper skull

For this peace I used tracing paper over a skull to draw a self portrait. Using the skull helped me keep the drawing proportional and place features correctly.

It was challenging to shade the drawing while it was over the skull. I had to outline the main features of the face, then shade off of the skull.

Doing this project this way helped me better understand the face and where features are placed on a face. 

Self portrait

Instead of doing an expressive self portrait I drew myself as a zombie. Some difficulties were making the area around the mouth look like ripped flesh and putting things in the right place. It was hard to place the nose and the teet because I was only drawing the bones.Although it was an assignment it is origional, and it wasn't right from a picture. 

My favorite part of this piece is the eyes. One is more realistic and almost happy and the other is dead.

Bottle Drawing

This was the first project that I used prismacolor on black paper. It was difficult putting the highlights in the right place and using the right colors. Because of this the bottle isn't as transparent as I wanted and the bottle wasn't the right shape. I didn't use reference pictures, I drew what I saw so it was difficult to make it proportional. The bottle was blue, but I added orange and purple to give it more depth and make it look better. 

Skeleton Drawing

For this drawing we drew a skeleton that was hanging on the middle of the room. I used graphite pencils. I feel I gained skill with a familiar material. While working on this I had some difficulty with proportion. The head was too big and the feet and lags were small. To fix this I held my pencil up to the skeleton and used it to compare measurements.

I used technology as a tool. I took a picture of the skeleton with my ohine and used the photo as a reference while I was shading and adding highlights.

Contour line drawing

For this project we were supposed to draw a still life of instruments without picking up our pen. This was challenging at first, but with practice it go easier. I was suprised at how much it looked like the actual instruments when I was finished, and it helped me with other contour drawings. When I made a mistake I tried to just make it look like a part of the drawing. One difficulty that I had was that when you stopped  moving the pen it bled and left big inc marks. I covered the ones I could but you can still see others, but I'm still happy with the finished drawing.

Opacity drawing

For the opacity project I drew two glass vases, one with blue pebbles , and one empty one. I started by lightly outlining the first vase, the adding pebbles. Looking back, I probably should have made the pebbles lighter so it was easier to draw in the highlights later.

Next, I drew in the next glass and added some highlights and blue accents. 

Overall I'm happy with the end result. I used a few reference pictures to create an origional piece, and it was a good learning experience using Prisma colors for the first time. 

"Wow look at that view" point of view drawing

For this project I decided to draw the bakery in downtown Apex. I decided to make it as realistic as possible, so it isn't the most origional piece, but I'm happy with the finished drawing. It was difficult to be consistent with the shading and smoothness using pencils, but the most  difficult thing to do was keeping lines straight and neat. I didn't draw the rest of the buildings around the bakery, but I like how the negative space makes it look simple and neat. 

Prisma Color Candy

   To make the candy look like it was in a clear wrapper I used a white colored pencil on a black price of paper to show the highlights. I'm happy with the finished piece, but next time I would add more colors to the candy.