Painting Project #2

I am finally finished with the first painting project.  You know the one.  The one with the shapes and shades and all that other boring crap.  Here is the final outcome:

I was working on this thing last night, late enough that the janitor walked into the studio and had to leave when he saw me still in there.  There are some obvious changes from my first couple coats, but I think in the end it turned out okay.  There are some shades that obviously look similar, but it came to a point where I had to stop trying to make different colors because I kept accidentally making the same ones.  I think it's fairly clear that my dominant color is blue, right?  And in this picture, some of the oranges don't look so orange, but rather brown or red.  But in the painting, I think you can tell.

We got assigned our second project today, and wouldn't you know it, it's another reproduction!  These beginning art classes just looooooove having us make reproductions.  Apparently we're not skilled enough to be creative on our own.  Anyway, we had the choice between paintings by Guaguin, Van Gogh, and my food friend Cézanne!  Yeah, no way in hell am I going back to that Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants.  So, I chose a Van Gogh painting.  Here it is:

"Wheat Field with Crows"

You may think at a glance it's pretty easy and simple.  But take a closer look.  Those individualized wheat crops in that field are gonna be a challenge.  I think the brush strokes in this painting are really beautiful, and I'm really excited to make my own version.  In fact, I was so excited that I stayed late after class and got to painting.  First I blocked it all out with charcoal, but since there's not really much besides the landscape, I jumped into the paint.

Here's the first coat:

I'm coming across a couple problems already.  First of all, the printed out version I have is a lot brighter and more vibrant that other versions I'm coming across.  I'm gonna have to decide whether I want to go for the bright and bold or the light and dull.  I am also having a little trouble mixing the right green, but hey, it's just the first coat.

I'm really excited about this painting!  Since I've already got a head start on it, I'll hopefully be able to spend a lot of time on this one.

Drawing Critique

Today was my first critique in drawing class.  I went into the class with high hopes, feeling good about my first attempt at charcoal sketching.

Then I snuck a look at the girl's next to me.

Holy shit!  Did you trace that thing or something?  Look at the folds in the tablecloth!  Look at the shading on the pears!  Look at the texture on the eggplants!  How the hell did you do that??

We all tacked our drawings onto the critique wall and talked about them as a class.  There were a couple other drawings that were equally amazing.

This one:

and this one

were pretty much agreed were the best.  Obviously with any drawing there's going to be some minor issues, but I mean, seriously, how does someone draw this well?  It's so unfair.

When we got to my drawing on the wall, my professor kind of stopped and was like, "This one, well, it's obviously a beginner.  Probably their first time drawing with coal."

Yup.

"Whose is this?"

I reluctantly raised my hand.

"Do you consider yourself fearless?"

Umm....

"Because I like how you seem fearless in your drawing, you kind of just jumped right in there and went for it."

Uh, yeah, sure!  That's right!  I'm fearless!

"It's a really good start, you just need to focus more on proportion and details."

Alright, it's better than nothing.

So our next assignment, just a one day thing, was another still life.  Only this time we had actual objects in front of us.  After the professor made us watch him draw the still life (seriously, it took like 45 minutes just watching it), he set us loose around the room.  This was the view from my spot:

Reeeeeal exciting stuff, huh?

So basically we had to take this 3-dimensional view and flatten it down onto our drawing pad.  You can't really see it from the picture, but the lighting was creating some shadows and shading on the shapes.  The white on white was giving me some issues, but overall it's not too difficult.  Right?
Here's my progress so far:

So, overall, nothing great.  But not too shabby, either.

Drawing Project #1

The semester started on a Tuesday, so my first classes were Drawing and Beginning Ceramics.  I took a pottery class in high school, so I wasn’t too nervous about that class.  Drawing is another story.  Not even my doodles are cute.  As already evidenced by my very loving brother.

My mom, who happened to major in art in college and is pretty talented herself, tried to be encouraging:  

“Don’t worry honey, you have a great sense of style and color.”

Uh, thanks Mom, but the class only uses charcoal.

Project #1: Cézanne Reproduction

You’d think the first day of class would be somewhat easy, right?

Wrong.  My professor gave us this painting that we have to draw ourselves.  Good introduction, huh?

“Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants”  by Paul Cézanne

The painting’s in color, but my professor gave us a black and white copy that really just looks like a giant grey blob. 

He said to focus on proportion and to use at least five different shades of grey by combining vine charcoal and compressed charcoal. 

Since I’m a very logical person, I figured the best way to start would be to divide the painting into sections.  That way I’d be able to control the proportion better than just freehanding the whole thing.  So I divided it into four corners.

My mom’s advice was to work from left to right so the charcoal doesn’t smudge all over the paper and onto my arm.  But looking at the painting, and the top left corner, I just couldn’t bring myself to start there.  I mean, literally, it’s just different shades and blobs of grey.  So I started with the wine bottle in the middle and worked my way down to the jugs, pears, and various fabrics.

I wish I had taken pictures of my progress, but I only took one of the finished drawing.  I'm not exactly sure how long it took me, probably between 2-3 hours.  My mom was right, though.  I had charcoal all over my hands and arms, and I ended up smudging the bottom of the picture.  Note to self: follow Mom's advice.

Overall, I'm pleased with the end result.  I am unhappy about the pears on the plate, though.  I couldn't really get the shape and size of them down as accurately as I'd hoped.  I also found it challenging to use a lot of different shades of grey.  The vine charcoal and compressed charcoal were so different to use together.  The vine charcoal I could hold as a pencil, but when I smudged it the shade became much lighter than I planned, so I had to go over it multiple times and couldn't get the result that I really wanted.  The compressed charcoal, on the other hand, applied very dark and was hard to lighten.  I used my kneaded eraser and a crafty little tool called a "tortillon" to spread out the charcoal and lighten it a bit.

        Side note: When I was at the art store getting all my supplies for class, I couldn't find the tortillons.  When I asked the sales lady where they were, she said, "They're right next to the charcoal pencils.  They look like little joints."  And she was right.

Tomorrow we take our drawings into class to be critiqued by the professor and other students.  I'm nervous to see how mine stacks up against everyone else's.  I'm just hoping not to be embarrassed.