Forget the Laundry!

This was the final soft pastel assignment for my mixed media class. Well, I guess it wasn’t final as we will be using all of the media we learn about in a big final mixed media project, but this was the last exercise for the pastel section.

We were required to put copy in our drawings but I left it out here. I used a William Morris quote; the idea was to illustrate the opposite of what the quote was saying in order to strengthen the image as well as the message. I just didn’t really care for this particular quote being used in that context. Plus, I really am in love with this drawing! I believe I may expand on this and do a short series in keeping with the theme then have cards printed… I don’t know, we will see what I really have the time to do!

Some Life Drawing Tid-Bits

Well, it was a long first session to winter term! I changed from ½ time to ¾ time and the adjustment to having two classes at once was a rough one. I think it was especially rough because I had Life Drawing and figure drawing is not something that I excel at. I struggled with the class for its entirety and have to say that I am very proud of myself! I managed to pull off an A- in the class and more importantly, I learned more than I thought possible. Here are a few of the anatomy drawings that I did during the class. Because my friends and family sometimes visit this blog I am posting my final drawing but with those fancy black bars over my lady bits… yes, the final was a nude self-portrait.

I still have a lot to learn and will need to practice, practice, practice to fine tune my skills and drawing style but now feel like I can actually draw people!

Learning to Draw

Things have been pretty busy lately and I just haven’t found the time keep up with posting on here! I am in the process of producing my own podcast and that has been eating up a lot of my free time (I will keep you all posted on that as I get closer being ready). I recently finished a drawing class and am pretty excited by the outcome. I really learned a lot about “drawing what I see” and although I am not ready for the world to see my work in portraiture (ack! my self-portrait ended up looking like Carrot Top!), I do have a couple of drawings that I am not too embarrassed about.

This was my first attempt at a still-life and although I didn’t get the perspective quite right in a couple of parts, the outlining is a little heavy, and the skull doesn’t look exactly like the one that I used as a model, it isn’t half bad (and yes, I do have things like nearly life-sized plastic resin skulls just hanging about my house).

This second drawing was from an exercise in draped fabric and using a full value scale. It is done in vine charcoal… oh and the above drawing is graphite pencil.

This was my final drawing and I do have plans to rework the fabric in it because I am not at all happy with the way that it came out (and please ignore the scissors, I couldn’t get them right). I prefer graphite pencil over charcoal so I chose to use it for my final piece. Hope you all enjoy!

My, oh my, where has the time gone?!?!?

I can’t believe that I have been so shamefully inept with keeping up my blog! I wake up every morning and think “Hmmm… I should really go write something today”, but then the dog has to go out to poop; I need at least two cups of coffee to function, there is homework to be done… the next thing you know it is time for a nappy-pooh, then there are those annoying little things like laundry and dishes… by the time I know it, it is after 11 and I am starting to nod off while playing qwerty on POGO! I would promise to be better about all of this but I don’t believe that I have enough readers to constitute making willy-nilly assurance of this nature.

I just finished a drawing perspective class and thought I might share some of the highlights (which would be my favorites).

This first one was from my second week in class; we were to do a drawing of boxes in two-point perspective.

These are the same basic idea of the last picture, but drawn in three-point perspective from a worm’s eye view and a bird’s eye view.

And this was my final project, where in I was supposed to put all of the knowledge that I gained about perspective to good use. I had to take a picture of it as it would not fit into my scanner bed, so you will have to forgive the crappy quality of the image itself. (below the drawing, you will find my “artist’s statement”, which we were required to write for our final projects).

“When I was a very young girl, my family lived at the New Dungeness Lighthouse, in Sequim Washington. Some of my best, early childhood memories are from this time in my life and for my final project, I have  attempt to capture the wonder and excitement of living there by creating a scene of the lighthouse in a storm.

I n order to create the magical, larger than life feeling that I would like this drawing to give the viewer, I have used  three-point perspective, in a worm’s eye view.  I have also taken some artistic liberties with the angle, details and side of the lighthouse the viewer will be seeing in an attempt to further the impressing nature of the structure. My light source is a lightning strike coming from a tumultuously cloud filled, stormy sky; with this extreme light source, I am attempting to create even more drama by casting crisp and dominating shadows. I very much hope to convey the awe a small, spirited child would feel when looking up at the lighthouse.

The biggest challenge with this project has been forcing myself to let go and allow the drawing to take the direction that feels the most natural, as opposed to forcing the picture in my mind onto the paper. By keeping the rules of perspective in the forefront of my mind, I have been able to overcome most of the issues that I have had with this project. “

Now that this drawing class is over, I can put away the drawing board that has been hogging up all of the room on my work table and finish a few mixed media pieces that I have been working, I hope to have those up for viewing before I leave for our vacation at the end of March. And I really will attempt to be more on the ball about posting!

Embrace

I was feeling very womanly and in touch with the big full moon and all things Pagan when I did this piece. It was done in oil pastel. I will get a much better photograph of this one posted as soon as I am able. My Mother has been trying to convince me that I need to give this one to her for years! I may create a something similar for her one day, but I do so love this drawing and it too lives in my home.