I was going to wait to post my final drawing until it was complete but I am running out of time until this blog is to be turned in for a grade to my Rhetoric and Research professor. There is not much to say about this piece, considering I just did an entry about the set-up that I am drawing from and the drawing is not complete. I still need to go into an open studio session and spend three to four hours on this work. I decided to tackle the hardest part, the mannequin, first and work outwards from there. I have not added in the eyes yet and I almost do not want to because I like the haunting effect that it gives. Eyes are usually what I am best at doing but I am almost scared to touch these. I have to check with my professor but I think I will just leave them as they are and maybe just touch them up a little so they appear more smooth. Things I need to work on still: the skeleton behind the mannequin, the rope around the mannequin’s neck, smoothing out the skin on the mannequin’s chest, add back in the keyhole to the arm socket of the mannequin. I am looking forward to the outcome of this drawing and even though I will officially be done with this blog I will make sure to still post the final outcome of the drawing. I enjoyed doing this blog because it was a good way to track the progress of my work and to document everything I have done in this class. I might even use it for each of the future art classes that I take.

Are you frustrated with your art professor’s set-ups? Feel like knocking the whole thing over? Don’t do that! Why not create your own set-up? Today I’m going to teach you how to create a set up of your own!

-Step one-
-Decide what you want to draw.
–This could be anything from food, items from nature, man-made objects, or a combination of the sort.

-Step two-
-Collect your items

-Step three-
-Arrange your items in a way that there are several vertical and horizontal lines.
–You will also want a balanced set-up. This means not to have everything in one corner of your composition and a bunch of blank space surrounding it.

-Step four-
-Set up good lighting
–There should be plenty of well-lit spots as well as shadows that are cast.

And that’s it. You’re ready to draw your own set-up!

Things to remember:
-Balance
-Lighting
-Variety of objects
-Have fun with it!

I am currently working on my final drawing for my Drawing I class. I think this is by far my favorite set-up that we have had in this class. It’s so complicated and a real challenge to capture everything. The set-up with all of the vessels was complicated as well, but our current set-up is actually fun to work on and not just a complete headache. I like the set up because there is just so much that you can challenge yourself with. If you are good at fabric there are many different compostions you can do out of the set-up of fabric. Also within the set-up you will find: glass vessels, a coffee pot, large bouncy balls, two rib cages of a skeleton, several detached limbs of those skeletons, a mannequin standing up without either arms, another mannequin that is sitting with only one arm, sticks and 2 by 4′s of all sorts, and rope and yarn wrapped all through-out the set-up. I chose a composition much like the one in the picture above. My composition is laid out as a portrait rather than a landscape. In the center of the composition is the mannequin above. Above the mannequin’s head is the rib cage of the skeleton so it appears to be some sort of headdress or crazy hairstyle. The rest of the skeleton drapes off the box it’s ribcage is laying on and appears in the left side of my composition. This is a very challenging set-up but I’m happy with the results I have so far. I am going into the studio today to hopefully finish the drawing and I will post a progression of the work I have done just as I did for my midterm drawing.

One of our Drawing I class assignments was to do a self-portrait. I absolutely hated mine though. Therefore, I am not posting mine. I am going to post the self portrait of my friend, Jordan. I asked him if I would be able to post his work, and his only condition that I don’t rip it to shreds while critiquing it. I promise I won’t, sir. I like Jordan’s self portrait because it’s very different from the rest of the class’s portraits. I love that he chose to do a subtractive drawing because I’m always impartial to subtractive drawings. Everyone took a very realistic approach to their portraits and Jordan took a very different approach but still kept it true to himself. Jordan set up a few mirrors so that he could see himself looking over his shoulder without losing sight of his drawing. I like this because instead of cropping his picture to just his upper body and his head, he did the whole figure. A lot of people in our class, myself included, were afraid to tackle this. The most unique aspect you will find to Jordan’s self portrait is what appears to be tribal markings on his clothing and in his hair. These markings are actually words that he thinks describes himself. He worked them into his drawing to form a swirl. I like this concept but I do not like how only the artist can tell what the words say. Another aspect that is less noticeable is the fact that Jordan’s left shoe is off. When we were given this assignment he asked if he could do his self-portrait of his feet and our professor turned the idea down. True to Jordan’s character though, he still fit his feet into the portrait. The swirl of words is also another concept that Jordan wanted to put into a drawing but was unable to do until he did this portrait. There are weak points to his portrait, such as his nose and the markings on his face, but overall it is a strong piece. It also meets our main requirement to make the portrait true to ourselves.

I truely hate drawing vessels and fabric. Give me most anything else and I’m okay but give me glass and fabric and you’ll never hear the end of my complaining. This drawing was done on a gray-blue paper. We were to use black and white contate crayons to add the darkest and lightest of values in the composition. This was a bit of a new concept for me. I wasn’t feeling that productive the day we worked on this drawing, and yet I finished it in the correct amount of time. We were only given a class period (3 hours) to finish it. Normally I have to come in and spend more than the given time on a piece but this one was quick, simple, and done in a short amount of time. Normally this means you risk quality but I don’t necessarily think that’s true with this piece. It’s not my best work but I’ve done much worse. I apologize for the poor quality of the photo of the drawing. I’m working with my cell phone’s camera and it’s only a 1.3 mega pixel camera that isn’t meant to be capturing high-quality work.

I have been really stressed out with school and other common dramatics of a teenage girl’s life. I was in the studio, after hours, working on the drawing of the various vessels that I talked about in the last entry and I was frustrated with the composition and how complicated it was proving to be. I wanted to do something quick, simple, sloppy, and unforgiving. I decided to get back out my favorite media, my compressed charcoal sticks, and do a self portrait of one of my favorite pictures of myself. I stared at the piece of paper for a good five minutes. It was void of any markings and was sitting there staring right back at me. Several famous artists say that your paper, canvas, etc can speak to you. I think that’s a load of junk. I’ve never had a blank piece of paper speak to me. This particular day was no exception. Finally, I just leaned in and drew the picture of myself. It took me only 60 seconds. I didn’t want all of the details of my face. I didn’t want to put any distinguishable features to the drawing because I didn’t feel like any of the work I was turning out that day was worth much of any praise. I don’t really know how I feel about this drawing. I like the simplicity and I like the meaning it holds but it’s nothing more than just a sketch. It is hardly a drawing at all. I won’t be using it for anything more than just proving the fact that I can turn out something more than complete junk in under a minute.

I love this composition. I hated working on it and I didn’t think I’d ever get it completed but I love this drawing. I’m not sure what about it that I love but I just like it. I love that even though it has a lot to it there is a sense of simplicity to it. I left out the background and didn’t add the endless amount of bottles and various vessels to the background because I didn’t want to take away from the six vessels I did include. The far left vessel took by far the longest to render. I had to draw in all of the various vessels that were reflected in the water of the tall vase. There’s a tin can, the bottle that is hidden behind the coffee pot, the vase furthest in the background, the handle of the coffee pot, and a large amount of fabric in the reflection. I was very intimidated to draw this vessel and it took me a long time to start it. Another vessel I had trouble starting and working on was the main focus point, the coffee pot. The coffee pot in the set up was old, dirty tin that was dinged up and covered in what looked like rust. I wanted to be able to capture all of that and to an extent I did, but not quite as well as I wanted. It’s a little hard to tell what the texture of the coffee pot is in my drawing. If I had to work on anything I would probably work on the coffee pot.

We took a break from class to walk down the to statue of Tecumseh. Several people in the class didn’t like the sculpture because of how the artist flattened Tecumseh’s nose. I loved the sculpture because of how on the front of it you had Tecumseh and on the back was his faithful eagle with a broken heart. The eagle had a broken heart on it because as legend has it, when Tecumseh died, so did his eagle. It is said that his eagle instantly dropped out of the sky from a broken heart. I love how the artist made sure to include the broken heart into the statue. I didn’t however like how there is no indication of the story that is behind the artist’s work and why he did it the way he did. The only way I found out about the story was through my drawing professor, Mr. Hagedorn. I also didn’t like how it was a little hard to tell what the back of the statue represented at first. It took me a minute to see the eagle in the statue, even though I could tell there was obviously something there. Overall, I enjoyed our trip to the Tecumseh statue. I just wish there was some way to move the statue to a location where more people can enjoy this artist’s work.