Pointillism: Paul McCartney

For this assignment, I wanted to pay homage to a very prominent musical artist, but had trouble finding magazines that have pictures of the old school artists I love.  I went to the Bestseller and asked for the Rolling Stones magazine, and found Paul McCartney's photo.  Perfect!  First, I traced the 8x11 picture plane for my composition.  I then, by eye, chose the make-up for the picture plane without using a viewfinder.  I placed a grid on the magazine's photo of Mr. McCartney and also drew a grid on my picture plane to ensure that I place my contour line outline of the portrait in exact proportions.  I used the contour lines as a guide for the placement of the "points", attempting to refrain from replicating contour/actual lines.  Through the use of the points, actual lines are made, yet are not considered contour lines.  Also, through the use of value changes we see implied lines.  We are guided with Paul McCartney's eyes, also creating psychic lines.  The shadows on McCartney's face, eyes, neck and the portrait background were the value changes I was most focused on.  Dark and closer points transitioning into lighter and further apart points ultimately created the value changes.  This portrait is one of my most favorite works of art this semester!   

Figure Gesture Drawings

The idea of spontaneity and quickness can be captured in a gesture drawing.  Throughout the course, we have been exposed to drawings that require precision.  The beauty of gesture drawings is that precision is thrown out of the picture; and it is the picture's flaws that give it it's character, substance, and meaning, I think.  Moreover, through gesture drawings, and the absence of precision, we are able to exude the emotional aspect of a drawing.  Although precision is not required, we still have to take into consideration proportion.  To do this, we used a skeleton line to map out the figure.  From there, we were to fill in the proportions of the body with lines and bubbles. 
The five gesture drawings above are five of my favorites.  We were to use the pencil as our main medium, however, for one, I experimented with charcoal pastels.  Three of the five are stills of the video of the pilobolus dancers.  Two of which I used my sister and brother-in-law as models.  As I began to create more and more gesture drawings, I saw how elegant and beautiful the human body is.  You're more involved in the silhouette of the human body and capturing movement.  Also, because you are not focused on specific details, again, more emotion screams through the drawing.....

Contour - Texture Drawing

For this assignment, we were to find a picture in a magazine consisting of two people.  With it, we were asked to draw only contour lines of the outline of the figures and fill it with tactile textures.  Because the piece I chose consisted of full-bodied figures, making it seem further away from the viewer, I had to choose textures that made smaller imprints for it to fit well into the picture plane.  Otherwise, I feel that it would have taken away from the figures as they should be the main focus of the piece.  It is an asymmetrical piece as the figures are not centered, thus there isn't an obvious balance.  I also used different values to emphasize or de-emphasize certain areas.  I tried to mimic atmospheric perspective for the background of the piece.  However, I don't think it worked well...the mountains were supposed to one of the lightest elements of the piece.  To bring the figures to life, shadowing came into play to lessen the flatness.  Vertical perspective is seen as well, with the vines appearing to be closer in proximity to the viewer, then the figures being the next closest to the viewer.  It was a very enjoyable assignment and I've become more and more aware of the techniques I'm using and more aware of what to use as well....

Neutral Ground & Crosshatching Still-Life

With this assignment, we incorporated all of the techniques we have learned thus far, and had also added onto the list.  Again, first, we created a neutral ground using pencil shavings.  Because  we were already comfortable enough with the composition of the Seated Boy for a past assignment, this composition felt almost impossible to replicate onto the piece of paper.  We used our erasers after locating the lightest and most lit areas of the composition.  We were to pay very close attention to the lit and darkened areas to create an accurate or the closest representation of the composition. After having done so, we went in with our pencils, created an outline using actual lines, but then would later rid the piece of them through the crosshatching techniques.  With the exception of the folds in the sheet, and the shadows they gave off, we were to refrain from using any actual lines.  We strayed away from doing so with crosshatching, however, even the crosshatching created the illusion of actual lines in the piece. To further highlight the lit areas, especially in the folds of the sheet, we went in toward the end with white chalk and added to the where we replicated the lit areas of the composition.  This completely altered the piece, I think, and made it stand out even more.  This is one of my favorite pieces thus far.  I am very happy with the outcome 

Crosshatching "Seated Boy"

This assignment was geared toward experimenting further with Seurat's crosshatching technique using one of his famous pieces, the Seated Boy with Straw Hat.  It was said that he used this piece to study shadows and where to place both dark and light values to represent these shadows.  This figure was then used in Seurat's bigger piece, an oil painting called Bathing Factory Workers.  

After having used contour lines to create an outline of the seated boy, we were to rid  the piece of the actual lines and make gradual transitions creating implied lines instead using the crosshatching technique.  We were to be very aware of the transitioning of values from dark to light to create a 3D effect, and give it the life that Seurat gave it. The lines of the crosshatching also follow the surface contour thus contributing to the fullness of the figure. I think that we did this assignment not only to experiment with different techniques, but in part to realize that art is not only made up of actual lines and shading.  That was the one of the biggest misconceptions I had before taking this class. I'm glad we have been exposed to different techniques.