Self-evaluation

This semester was really productive for me, at least I was trying my best to get as much as I can out of it. For real, when I think about it, it is still a miracle for me that I got all the way here to this foreign country, and can go to this cool school and learn all this cool stuff.

So, in the last 4 months of our Drawing class, I have learnt many new principles and ways to draw, as well as reviewed what I have known and forgotten or haven't been reminded of in a long time. I think, I did pretty well :) honestly, this class was hard, but still not that hard, I guess it's just because I was doing what I love and even when assignments took forever to get done, it didn't upset me, after all I have learnt so much in the process. I have never drawn with charcoal or conte before, and I have never drawn people, interiors, exteriors, and skeletons! So I must admit, I do feel kinda proud and excited that I was able to draw all of that, and it even didn't look that bad :)

I think, another thing I have learnt is to see things better, to notice little details, to pay attention to shapes and proportions and how things interact. This class has inspired me to start my own sketchbook and draw things that I notice that I think are interesting and beautiful..

I honestly think this was my favorite class this semester and I can't wait to get to Drawing 2 and Drawing Composition that I'll be taking in fall!!

I wish to everybody to have a great summer and keep drawing!!

and thanks Jason, I have learnt a lot from you.

Cross-hatching

I decided to document the progress of this work :)

stage 1. I started with a ruler

stage 2.

I free handed stage 3, I regret it a little bit, because at that point there were still some bigger areas that needed value. As I discovered ruler works better for bigger areas, unless you are able to draw really straight lines without it.

stage 4. I continued to darken shadows and small areas, at this point the ruler wasn't needed.
stage 5. I tried to avoid outlining objects as much as I could. However I had to do it in several places (with smaller objects) to strengthen my drawing. Now that I look at the picture of my final version, I'm thinking of coming back and refining it a little bit and maybe making dark areas darker.

I liked this assignment a lot, because it made me think and plan and analyze what I'm doing and where I'm going. I did some cross -hatching before as a kid, but never with ink and I didn't really give it as much thought as I did now!

My choice of media

I haven't updated this blog in so long!

About the last homework: it was interesting and challenging. And even though I practiced in my sketchbook before starting on a big piece of paper, I still had to redo it two times, until I liked the result. So I ended up using three sheets of paper, but it's ok :) it's all good, because it helps me learn. I'm sure if I did at least 5 more, my final drawing would have been even better, but I completely ran out of paper and time..

About my choice of media: it's hard to say what I like most, because I find all of them (pencil, and conte and charcoal) interesting and would like to learn to use all of them better. For now, the safest and most comfortable for me is still a graphite pencil, and I fall on it like on a crutch, often doing my underdrawing with it. It's safe, because I can always erase it and go back and change my drawing. With conte and charcoal, I have to really think before making a mark and be responsible for every line I'm putting down. I'm starting to feel confident when drawing still lifes with conte and charcoal, not so confident when doing something more complicated like face in our last homework!! It was really hard!

I'm still in awe before Ingres' drawings! I can't believe he drew with conte!!

Crazy Blind Self-portraits

First of all, I was really happy that we are not using rulers any more! Also, I felt like there is no right or wrong way to do this assignment (as long as I keep my eyes away from paper), and this made me feel less constrained.

Conte was my favorite, it broke several times, but other than that it felt nice and smooth. Charcoal pencil kept breaking and I had to sharpen it over and over. Stick and ink were hard, hard in a sense that it was almost impossible not to look, I would draw several lines and then check and see that most of them were blank, ink just wouldn't run. However it did create a very interesting effect! As for brush, I couldn't feel it well, I would think I'm drawing a thin line, only to find out that the brush was hardly touching the paper not leaving any line at all :)

I practiced a lot with charcoal and conte, with ink I just did couple of sketches before starting the final ones. Luckily, I had some Bristol paper left from class practices, so I simply drew over the objects we did in class. All together, I did 15 drawings and several in my sketchbook:

Here are my final choices:

Inspiring

MILTON GLASER DRAWS & LECTURES from C. Coy on Vimeo.

Likeness

I've been reading a book called "Art is work" by Milton Glaser, an artist whose works and thoughts really inspire me. Here's an extract from this book about drawing portraits...

"The ability to create likeness seems innate among artists, although some struggle with it. Occasionally, when I see a sidewalk artist making a portrait that captures the appearance of its subject in a few strokes, I'm filled with envy. Curiously, "likeness" is not dependent on accuracy, as many of us who have traced photographs of people have discovered. In fact, distortion or caricature is more likely to produce a resemblance. The reasons for this phenomenon remain obscure.

To further complicate the issue, let us consider two portraits of Gertrude Stein - one by Felix Vallotton, the other by the consummate visual genius of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso. On one hand, you have a portrait of Ms Stein in all her corporeal reality. One can easily imagine sitting across a table from this woman. On the other hand, we have a painting to which Ms Stein was moved to say, "But, Pablo, honey, I don't look like this". To which Pablo not known for his modesty replied: "You will, Gertrude. You will." Yet there is no doubt as to which is the greater painting."

Glaser doesn't really say which one he thinks is greater, but according to the context, I believe, he means Picasso's work. I personally like Picasso's painting more, because to me it seems more alive and emotional, while Vallotton's even though precise and more realistic seems like a passport photograph next to Picasso's interpretation.

and here are the portraits Glaser is talking about

Picasso:

Vallotton:

Two versions of my work

This is the final one:

This is the first one: