Scratch Board

This is my final scratch board drawing.  I have done scratch board before but it wasn't as big as this one.  My idea for movement was the movement hair has in the wind.  In this drawing I tried to make the hair look wispy and free flowing as it does when hair is blowing in the wind.  For this one I have a woman with her head halfway out the window.  The texture in this piece is the strands of hair and I used lines to show the inside of the car so that you could see where the window was open.  It was really hard to get the face to look like it was looking up, but I think I accomplished that quite well.  The hair also looks free flowing and not weighed down so the idea behind the movement of the piece looks good.  I also incorporated value by using crosshatching in the shirt and neck.  The only thing I hate is that I rushed this piece a lot because I procrastinated getting my reference pictures so I had little time to actually use the scratch board.  For the composition I had the woman on the right side more so that more of the hair was what was seen first.  I think I could have added more hair and done more design in the window part, maybe have a background/scene so it pulls the piece together more.  I also think I need more work with understanding negative space and how to accomplish that successfully.  It's not my best piece but I still enjoy the way it turned out.

Self Portrait

I chose to do an expressive portrait for this project.  When I was thinking about ideas I thought what would make an expressive face and I starting thinking about my greatest fear which is being strangled.  Every person is different with different likes, dislikes and fears.  My portrait shows who I am underneath and what my greatest fear is.

When I was taking reference pictures I tried having my brother strangle me but my facial expressions didn't match what I felt inside. I ended up using three different pictures and using different facial features from each.  One picture I used my eyes and another I used my mouth and the last I used my brothers hand that was strangling me.  

It took me a while to get my eyes and facial features drawn correctly and proportionally.  My mouth could have been drawn a bit bigger but other than that I think I did a good job and showing the scared and trapped facial expression that I feel if being strangled.  The portrait also looks a lot like myself so I am happy that I was able to draw me and not some random individual.  I used several pencils and a blending stump to draw this.

I chose to do an expressive portrait because I have always liked realistic drawings instead of things that look made up.  I think the best part of this portrait is my eyes.  I took a lot of time putting in value and making them look like my own.  I also think the hand is very well drawn and looks like what I wanted it to.  

This is a very original piece and I am very happy by how it turned out.

Expressive Portrait Practice

This was my very first attempt in class drawing a face.

I did these two drawings after watching videos in class and learning about the proper way to draw facial features.

 

This was my face after I had learned about how to draw one correctly.

Opacity

I spent a lot of my time on this piece.  I used every bit of class time to finish it and make it look good.  I think the way I positioned the marshmallows and chocolate and graham crackers shows a story.  I think that the ingredients being placed on a table was a good choice.  I used a purple to show the shadows in the marshmallows so I didn't have to use black and for the reflection on the Hershey bar I used a blue color.  I tried using colors that I didn't necessarily see in the picture I was drawing.  For the two Hershey pieces at the bottom I used a pink color instead of straight brown and I think the colors really bring this together.  The shadows on the table made by the marshmallows and the pieces of Hershey chocolate really help the drawing look more realistic.  The dark color I used in the background helped make the table and ingredients stand out.
I used prisma color and if I hadn't used them before I don't think this drawing would have turned out how it did.  When you use prisma you can't just go at it.  You have to layer colors and take your time.  I think the fact that I didn't rush and I used all my time instead of procrastinating made this piece a success.  A problem I had while drawing was making the marshmallows inside the bag, LOOK like they were inside the bag.  I ended up using a gray color for the marshmallows inside to show the bag was see through.  It was also difficult trying to draw the proportions right, but I think I did a pretty good job. 

Chocolate Progression

Here is my progression project.  I used a piece of chocolate candy and slowly unwrapped it and then ate a bite at the end.  Value in this project is what gives it its shape and make it look like a wrapper.  I think I did a pretty good job with the wrapper and showing the little bends in it that make it look like one.  That's why it was important to have clean crisp edges in my wrapper. I had trouble in the beginning figuring out where the dark values needed to be because I had to imagine where they would be instead of seeing it since the chocolate is so dark as it is.  While I was doing the project I couldn't really see the progression but now looking back at it, I can see the different phases it went through and I think it looks really cool. The way that I saw the texture is important because it's how I ended up drawing the piece. If I didn't see the different values and edges it wouldn't look the same as the piece of chocolate I was drawing.  If I did this project again I would try and slow down when it comes to shading the chocolate because like I said before it caused me the most trouble so I caught myself kind of rushing through that part of it. I'd also try harder in the last part of it and making the piece of chocolate look the same size as the other progression shots. 

Smarties

This drawing was done with pastel chalk. This piece shows opacity and how you can make something look see-through.  With chalk I always find myself going fast instead of taking my time.  If I did this project again, I'd probably try going a little slower.  The twisty things at the ends were the most troublesome because I didn't know how to incorporate the red color and make it look realistic.  I think I did a pretty good job with it though.  As a whole I enjoy this piece a lot.

Value In Eggs

This drawing was done with pastel chalk.  We were instructed to take a picture of two or more eggs with dramatic lighting and then told to draw the values with color.  This was an introduction to the chalk medium but also a way to figure out how to blend and show value using color instead of just black and white.  It launched us into the next project we were to do.