Skull: Charcoal and Gesso Drawing

Here is my last drawings for the semester. We used compressed charcoal and gesso. It was interesting using the two mediums, and I am very pleased with the final drawing.

Drawing Fundalmentals: Spring 2012

I have been taking a drawing class this semester. Even though it is more of a basic course, I am being challenged by learning new tools to draw with - material and ways of seeing things. Here are some drawings from the class.

In class drawing - you figure out the placement of objects by lining
them up with vertical and horizontal points on  other objects in the still life.

In class drawing - "Negative Space" - We drew the still life by
looking at the negative spaces instead of the object itself.

Negative Space homework

In class drawing - this was a quick scribble drawing. We scribbled
and didn't lift our pencils up to create the form/mannequin

In class drawing - Cross Hatching. As awful as this was for my rheumatoid
arthritis, it was relaxing. We used cross hatching to create volume and the shape
of each object.

Cross Hatching homework.

In class drawing - Stippling aka a lot of tiny dots!

Stippling homework

In class drawing - we looked at the highlights/where the light hit the
objects rather than the shadows. This was difficult, but I got through it!
We used white conte on black paper.

in class of the highlights.

(I will be cropping and fixing the images when I have a chance. I just wanted to get these up to share!)

Layna's Renditions of Master Pieces

Hello,

The cold, windy winter days have been keeping us inside, and I have had to come up or search the web for some creative arts&crafts and things to do with the Little Lady. Thank Goodness for Pinterest! Layna has always been interested in arts and crafts - drawing, coloring, cutting, gluing, painting, anything! I came across this project where the child recreates their own rendition of a master piece. Recreate Master Piece Artwork!

Here is Layna's master pieces:

Georgia O'Keeffe - Red Poppy

Kandinsky - Several Circles

Van Gogh - Starry Night

Oranges and Royal Blue

Instead of a quick "blue print" drawing, we did a more detailed wash drawing. The colors were vibrant (bright clementines with a royal blue background), and our professor suggested we take a black and white photo of the still life to double check the values. I am pleased with how it has come out. I probably could've had one more class on it, but if I don't get to it, I would say it's finished. To my surprise the plastic wrap on the clementines was pretty bright and the values shared those of the clear vase. For the ground plane, I used the palette knife while for the background I did more of a wash. I dulled out the royal blue background into more of a gray, which I think helps the oranges pop out more. If I kept the blue bright and saturated, I think the painting would've looked more graphic.

painted December 2012. Intro to Painting: Still Life. Fall 2012. UMD.

Still Life: Final - Plate and Slippers

For our final, we chose our still life. I wanted mine to be sentimental. Everything in the painting is from a family member. The table was my maternal grandfather's; the white cloth is actually a piece of lace from my paternal grandmother (I decided not to paint the lace detail because it would've competed with the rest of the objects); the white milkglass vase from my mother; those little pink ballet slippers are my little lady's first ballet shoes; and finally, the plate is from the first dish set I bought for my apartment.... and the box is just a box filling in the negative space between the plate and vase, and it adds another pop of color besides the red. 

The most challenging thing about this painting was getting the temperature right in the whites and then in the table, specifically the plate and the vase. At first, I was going to exaggerate the temperatures. I wasn't satisfied with the outcome. Taking more paint, I layered on whites of varying yet slightly-shifted temperates. The table was equally as frustrating. We all know real wood isn't a straight brown. The table is a dark cherry stain. After struggling with the table, and deciding what technique I should paint it, I am pleased to say with a lot of layering, and hits of highlights and shadows here and there definitely helped! I am always pleased how temperate makes the painting instead of the actual darkness and lightness. I definitely learned that, which is evident in my shadows and highlights from the start of class to the end. I am very pleased with the final painting even though I want to hit in once more to doctor it a little.

I do want to note that the photos are edited accurately. I really did paint the plate a gold and the vase a green. However, in the end, the colors were totally different! 

painted December 2012. Intro to Painting: Still Life. Fall 2012. UMD.

Still Life Miscellaneous/Statue: Impressionism/Pointillism

This still life was very challenging. We were studying the technique the impressionist used of jumping colors around the canvas, and observing how colors react when placed next to each other. Eventually layering the paint. These two photographs are how the painting began and the final result. The shadows were too dark, and the hot spots were too large. The statue was actually all white, which I initially painted too warm, and as you can see brighten it up in warm white and cool shadows. The statue was difficult for me, especially because I am not one who draws/paints portraits or the human figure. I am pretty pleased with the final painting and solutions to overcome frustrations, but I am not thrilled.

painted November 2012. Intro to Painting: Still Life. Fall 2012. UMD.

Hockey Gloves: progress photos

These hockey gloves were a painting I did on my own. I started with my blue print drawing. Then, I used washes of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue start shaping the gloves. I started with a thin layer of washes, and eventually got thicker, and more saturated as the painting went on. I used a lot of thinned out paint instead for the slight temperature changed in the black of the glove. Even though I like how the painting came out, I want to go back and add really thick globs of paint instead of the washes. I'd like the brushstrokes to be more lively.

 

(colors are more like the photo above)

painted October 2012. Fall 2012.