Sigh

Okay, so.  I've been M.I.A.  I know.  What can I say?  I've been super busy watching TV.  Also, I went home for Thanksgiving, which was awesome.  So, those are my excuses.

In Painting class, I've finished the still life.  It turned out pretty well, I think.  Take a look at the finished product.

I changed a few things around, some colors, and fixed the flowers and leaves.  Overall, I'm happy with it.  Some things could be different, but I'm content.

Our next and final painting to do is actually two paintings.  Two small little canvases, using the same composition, but having to paint them completely opposite.  Meaning different colors, different thickness, different texture, different EVERYTHING.  It's actually a lot harder than it sounds.
I chose a picture of an orchid I found.  I made the first painting basically just the same as the picture.

I think it's pretty, right?  I like to think so.  I really like it, anyway.  So, how do I make it the opposite?  At first I was going to just use complimentary colors, but then I realized that the next painting would still just be red and green.  So I decided to use different colors.  I decided to make the flower blue, but go reverse as to how it's laid out in the first one.  Meaning, where it's white in the above painting, it would be the darkest blue in the second painting.  And where it's a dark red, that part will be white.  I also decided not to blend the shades as much, and instead leave them stripe-y.  And the edges will be blurred with the background.  So, here's what I've got so far:

In the background, I am going to make some kind of multi-colored pattern, or something.  I don't really know yet.  I am TOTALLY up for suggestions...but this is due tomorrow.  Yikes!  Maybe I can get him to extend it til the final next week.

On to drawing.  

After the whole skeletal disaster, we moved onto ink.  At first, the ink gave me a lot of trouble.  It's hard to control, it's hard to get the shade right, and you can't erase or fix anything at all.  When it's on there, it's permanent.  For the assignment we had to do a landscape.  A quick Google search and I found a simple enough picture to copy.  So here is my ink copy:

At first, I didn't really like it.  Well, scratch that.  I didn't dislike it, but I wasn't crazy about it either.  We all hung our pictures on the wall, took a good look, and after a few minutes the professor asked "Which ones stand out to you?"  And the first one pointed out was mine!  By like, 5 people!  I was floored.  Even the professor after class was like, "Hey, how about that, people actually liked your drawing for once!"  Yeah, thanks jackass.

These were a couple other ones I really liked.  Specifically the forest one.

Today we started our last new thing, and I was sooo nervous about it.  We started doing figure drawing today.  As in the human figure.  As in the naked human figure.  We did a man today, and we're doing a woman on Thursday (that's what she said).  More on this later.  For now all I'll say is, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

In 3D Design, I just finished my work on the roses.  When we last left off, I had finished the roses and the vase with the foam board.  I had to decide if I wanted to paint the roses, the vase, both, or neither.  My issue with painting the roses is that, because they were so tightly wound and had the hot glue already, it would be tricky if not impossible to make it not look messy.  But then I had this idea about Alice in Wonderland, and the whole "Painting the Roses Red" scene...

So after that I just had this whole vision of the roses being white but painted red, and they're sitting on a vase in the Queen of Hearts's castle but she doesn't even notice...okay, well, now I'm off in my own little world.  But you get the idea, I hope.
Basically what all this means is that I painted the roses red, but you can tell that they've been painted.  Here's the finished result:

Everyone was really impressed by the vase because it's hard to cut foam board so cleanly and neatly.  Overall, I'm really happy with how this project turned out for me.


The last thing is ceramics.  I don't ever have any pictures from this class, which you can all thank me for later because it's never anything good that comes out of there.  Once I get a few pics, I'll be able to explain the project.


Ok.  Wow.  What an update, right?  All I have to say is, thank GOD the semester's almost over.  And then what?  I'll have all this leftover art supplies, like paint...and charcoal...and a wooden smoothing tool.  What am I going to do with all of this crap?

I'm all caught up in my classes!  Even ahead in some.  I think I'm starting to do well in painting, while I seem to be getting worse in drawing.  Ceramics I'm starting to like more, too, even though it is soo super messy.

Painting:  The still life is nearly done, I just have to do some cleaning up and touching up this weekend.  This is the scene we had to work with:

I cut it down a bit, and the professor said we can mess with the colors and even make up the shadows.  My view is slightly different because I stood farther back.  But this is what I've worked on so far:

So, obviously I changed the colors.  But I'm really happy with how the pots turned out.  The shading is pretty good, I think.  I have worked on it since I took the picture, but nothing big has changed.  I'm still working on the flowers and the bottle.  Hopefully I can get another A on this and finish strong.

Drawing: We spent so much time drawing skeletons and bones, and I absolutely hated it.  There was just something about it that I couldn't get, and no matter how much I tried I couldn't get it down.  These are the best ones I ended up with.

And everyone else did sooo well.  Again, I felt like crap in this class.  I've started to really hate it and dread going in the morning.  

We just started on working with ink, so we'll see how that goes.

Ceramics:  I've finished my big piece that I was working on.  All set to be fired, and then I'll glaze it.  Here's how it turned out.

I still don't really like the supports, but I tried to take them out and it nearly collapsed on me.  It was a bitch trying to put them back in, but it turned out alright.  I think it was pretty successful.  I put some slip paint on it before it gets fired, so then the glaze I put on will turn out in different colors.

Speaking of glaze, I finally glazed a piece and got it fired.  Remember one of the original pieces, the manipulated slab?  Well, I dipped it in a really cool blueish green glaze.

 

It's kind of metallic-looking, and pretty cool if I do say so myself.  You can see in the second picture that it must've gotten stuck to or burned by something in the kiln.  Geez.  Thanks, professor!

3D Design: Today in class I made a vase for the flowers.  It took a lot longer than I planned because the first one I made was terrible.  So I made it a simpler design, and it looks much better.

The reason it took so long is because of the side.  I had to cut out a strip, then score, break, bend, and fold every half inch so it could twist on the sides.

     


But basically the whole point of this is, I'm all caught up in everything!  Hmm, I feel like I should find some wood to knock on or something.

A Hockey Hiatus

On Thursday my hockey team left campus to travel to Baltimore and Philadelphia for our final games of the regular season.  This week, we travel to Norfolk, Virginia to play in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Conference Tournament, for a chance to qualify for the NCAA tournament.  We're leaving on Tuesday evening, so I am missing a whoooole bunch of classes.  Not that I have any problem with that.  I just hope my professors are understanding...

So that's why I won't have any new updates for awhile.  Right now in...
Ceramics: I've just cut out the spiral in my 14-inch piece.  Hopefully it doesn't completely dry out over the weekend.
Drawing: we're learning "perspective" and "vanishing points."  I am putting those in "quotations" because it's all a bunch of made-up stuff that forces me to use a ruler and measurements in a drawing of a cube.
Painting: we turned in our reproductions on Wednesday.  I was done with mine last week, and I already know I got an A on the project.  Apparently the next painting is a still-life (shocker).
3D Design: I'm so behind in this class because it's only once a week and I missed last week and will miss this week.  We're still supposed to be working on the same project, the one with foam board and no right angles.  Still trying to figure this one out.

Once hockey is over, I'll be able to really catch up on everything and hopefully do well on the projects.

But hopefully we'll be missing next week too for NCAA's!  It's a long shot, but cross your fingers!

The Afghan Girl

I'm actually sitting in my Painting class right now writing this.  I've already finished my painting that isn't due until the end of class on Wednesday, so I brought my Macbook into class to "write a paper."

Riiiight.

So, last time we left drawing class, we were working off a photograph to make a realistic (or "illusionistic" as my professor says, since it's the "illusion of realism") drawing with graphite pencils.

If you remember, this is the girl that I drew.

And this is my drawing.

I did make a few little last minute changes, like shading and stuff, but overall this is how it turned out.  I was so absolutely thrilled with this drawing because it's the best drawing I've ever done in my whole life.  It may not look exactly like the picture, but I thought it looked pretty damn good.  Especially for me.

I had the most trouble with the face, which I think is obvious.  Faces are hard to do because everything is so subtle.  How do I get that skin texture with a freaking pencil?  I don't know.  And the eyes were tough because they are the focus of the whole picture.  

At first she was looking cross-eyed, and everyone in class was freaking out as I was working.  "Oh my god, she's got a lazy eye!  I can't tell where she's looking!"  Chill, people.  It's a work in progress.

So I go into class really confident, pin it up on the wall, and take a look around at the others.

And once again, all my confidence was completely shattered.

Even the people I didn't notice before did so extremely well on this project, I was blown away.  Mine was like, at the bottom 20% of the class.  I was so disappointed, which totally sucks since I worked so hard on this.  

I really just don't know what to do about this.  I won't get an A on this, but seriously, I don't know what else to do.  It's not like a test I didn't study hard enough for.  I worked for hours and hours and HOURS on this drawing, probably upwards of 12 to 15.  That's a long time!  More than I've ever studied for a test.  Actually, probably more than I've studied for every test I've ever had (What?  I'm not big on studying).

What do I have to do to get an A in this class?

Pointilism

The next drawing assignment is a focus on pointilism and realism.  Basically what we do is draw a grid on a picture, then create a larger scale grid on our paper, a draw one box at a time.  You only draw in each box what you see per box, you're not really supposed to look at the bigger picture as a whole until the end.

Here was our "warm up" pointilism piece.  An eyeball.

Yay!  It actually looks like an eyeball!

I'm actually really digging this project.  This is the kind of thing I can get behind.  I mean, that looks pretty real, right?  It took me a couple rows of the grid to really get into it, but once I could see how it was progressing I really enjoyed it.  And my professor called it a "really great drawing." 

!!!!

So, the next step is to pick a photo and do the same thing, but on a larger scale.  The photo is 6 x 8, so the drawing would be twice as big, 12 x 16.  I decided on this, one of my favorite photographs ever.

"The Afghan Girl" from National Geographic 1985

Okay, you should really check out the original (in color) and read the story, too.  When I was younger, my parents had like every single National Geographic, and those magazines are what originally got me interested in photography and why I took a photo class in high school.  And then, on the first day of class, we watched a short movie about the life and career of National Geographic photographers.  Coughfatecough.

Anyway, the whole point of this little anecdote is that this is one of the pictures that got me involved in photography, which led to me minoring in Fine Arts, which led to me taking this drawing class.  I normally wouldn't even attempt to draw this, but I think I did pretty well with the eye so hopefully I'll do it justice.  I'm really excited to just see the end result.

Oh, and we're using graphite pencils for this.  6 different ones, in fact, all with different softness of lead so they shade darker, sharper, etc.  I'm a fan.

An All Around Update

I've gotten my first grades back in both drawing and painting.  And both grades were a B.  UGH.  It's just annoying because, especially in the drawing, I tried really really hard.  I mean really hard.  I'm just worried that these classes are going to really hurt my GPA.  A personal goal I set for myself is to be on the NFHCA Academic Squad and receive the CAA Commissioner's Award all four years of college.  You need a 3.3 GPA to get those awards, and I've gotten them for the past three years.  I can't screw up my last year because of these stupid art classes!

Okay, I take it back.  They aren't stupid.  But it's still frustrating.

Anyway, here's a quick little update.

Painting: First project got a B.  But we did a class critique where we drew a number that corresponded to someone's painting and we had to critique that painting on use of color, composition, craftsmanship, etc.  My professor told me after class that I had the best critique in the class.  So, apparently, I can't paint well, but I can certainly tell others what to do and how they need to fix it.  

Hmm.  Maybe I should change my major to psychiatry.

Drawing:  Our abstract assignment is done.  And I am really surprised about the outcome.  Here is how my composition turned out.

And my professor actually liked it!  His biggest critique is that I could use the white of the paper more to let some more light come through the drawing.  But, I don't know, I still just don't get it!  It's just a bunch of shapes and textures.  I don't really like it at all.  But for some odd reason he really responded well to it.  I even said in class that this sort of thing isn't the kind of aesthetic I respond to.  I think it's harder to draw a glass bottle than to make up a bunch of shading on a paper.  I just hope this is the last thing we do with this sort of topic...but I doubt it.

This is the one that I responded the most to:

Not many "textures," just the shading really.  But it was alright.  For this kind of thing, at least.

Ceramics: I'm in the process of firing my manipulated slab piece.  After it's out of the kiln, I'll glaze it.  My profile piece I just painted with slip glaze today, which will then be fired and will come out already colored.  I tried to do a blue with green on top kind of dripping and swirly, but I don't think it worked.  But this was just a test, since I'm not really fond of the profile anyway.  We also started work on the wheel on Tuesday!  It's definitely challenging and will take some getting used to, but I really like it.  I actually went back into the studio today to work some more, and I made a cute little pot.  Unfortunately with all the clay all over my hands/arms/shirt/pants/hair/face, I couldn't get my camera out to take a picture.  Maybe next week.  Seriously, the only bad part about the wheel is the clean up.  It's sooo messy.

3D Design:  Nothing.  Don't have class til Friday.

And....that's about it.  Remind me to tell you about my "trip" to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  That's a great story, for when you're having a bad day and want to feel better about your life.

Why My Drawings Suck

You guys want to see why I feel so inadequate in my drawing class?  This is why.

Seriously?  SERIOUSLY?  

Still Life

I know you've been dying to see how my still life turned out.  Here it is:

Well, it's done, I'll tell you that.  And it's hanging in the hallway in the art building.  But before you get excited, I'll tell you that everyone's is hanging up.  And this is what's getting me down.

I was actually pretty proud of my work on this still life.  I thought I made some good progress and it definitely ended up better than when I started it.  I was really happy especially with the pitcher on the right side, the one with the handle.  I wasn't in class for the critique, so I didn't get to hear what others had to say about it.  But as I was walking into my painting class on Monday, I saw them hanging in the hall and my heart just sank.

Why does everyone in my class have to be so good??  I'm naturally pretty competitive, so I immediately compare what I do to what everyone else does.  Ugh.  I know I shouldn't look at theirs and compare it to mine since everyone is different and has a different point of view, etc. etc. all that crap to cheer you up.  But I can't help it.  That's just how I'm feeling.

Our next assignment is soooooooo dumb I literally cannot get over it.  We have to make a design using only ten horizontal and vertical lines and one diagonal line, and then use a black Conte crayon to create shading and textures in the different areas.  Conte crayon is kind of like charcoal, only it doesn't smudge, you can't erase it, and it's harder to wash off your hands.  This is our "abstract" assignment.

I HATE abstract art.  Honestly, I just don't get it.  You throw a bunch of slop around on a canvas and I'm supposed to marvel at your artistic genius?  I'm looking at you, Jackson Pollock.  If a seven-year-old could recreate your painting, I'm not impressed.

Drawing...Again

Well, this is how my second drawing turned out:

I ended up not really spending much time on it, and I couldn't see the shadows and shading from the picture I took.  So, whatever, it was only a one day thing.

Our next project, that we're going to get an actual grade on (ahh!) is another still life.  The thing with still lifes is...they're boring.  I mean, literally, how much more boring can you get than those geometric shapes lined up on a table?  Come on.  But, on the other hand, it's not like I could do anything more exciting at this point.  I wanted to get to drawing people or faces or something this semester, since the "people" I draw have been the same since 6th grade when I copied doodles out of "Amelia's Notebook."

But, anyway, we had a choice between two different little scenes that my professor set up.  I wasn't really up to the task of trying to draw a huge vase full of fake flowers and leaves and stems and petals, so I chose this one.

This is the basic view, but I am doing a vertical drawing so I just narrowed it down to this:

(yup, that's a mobile upload)

The drawing's due on Thursday, but I will be on my way to Virginia with my field hockey team by then (to take on the #1 team in the nation, by the way...).  So I have to turn my drawing in early.  My only problem so far has been that I haven't been able to get into the studio during the same time of day as my class.  The lighting is natural and coming in through the window, so if I go in at a different time all the shadows will be off.

Since we don't have practice tomorrow, and my painting class ends at 11 AM, I'll be able to work on it tomorrow.  But again, the lighting will be off a little bit.  I'll just have to work around it, maybe focus on just getting the shapes of everything down and then work on the shadows in class on Tuesday.

Here's what I've got so far (my view is a little different from the picture.  And yes, I am defending myself here):

My professor said I jumped a little too soon into going really dark with the background and to try to pull it back a little.

But hey, I'm fearless, right?

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.