Friday, December 14, 2012

Fergur Drerin and Texture Paintings

So now that classes are over, I have finally been reunited with something called "free time" and can therefore post in here again.  Here's what's been happenin' recently:

My second to last project in Figure Drawing involved a new medium - black paper and white charcoal.  I also decided to try a new way of shading called crosshatching, which is a technique where you make tiny tick marks to form shading (or in this case highlights).  I loveddd this medium, and I'm thinking of using it more often in the future.  Crosshatching, not so much.
Day 1-2
Day 3 - figure study using white charcoal on black paper
While the body came out really nice in this piece, her face is dangerously close to the Ermahgerd girl face, for which I apologize to the model.  This was actually the model who posed for our portrait pieces, so I vote to redeem myself with that. 

Our last project (sigh) in Figure Drawing was a figure study using midtone paper.  I never understood why drawing classes wait until the very end to use this type of paper.  It's the most intuitive drawing material - draw in the highlights and shadows, and let the paper fill in the gaps.  Makes sense, and less drawing.  I managed to mess it up though and blended the white and black charcoal together in the fabric... 

WARNING: Mixing white and black charcoal together makes blue apparently.  So don't do it!
Day1
Day2 - Midtone Figure Study - white and black charcoal on grey tone paper

And lastly, these are some texture paintings I made in my Color Theory class.  The assignment was to create five 5x8" paintings using random materials, and to follow three different types of color usage.

  1. Anomaly - using one color that breaks sharply from the dominant tonal quality of the piece (good way to create a focal point in a piece***)
  2. Contrast of Complimentary colors
  3. Contrast of Warm and Cool colors
  4. Other contrasts we could use: Hue, Value, Saturation, Extension
I'm only posting three paintings because we had two days to do this, one of which was the last day of class, causing me to not care at all about the quality of some paintings.  But here are the ones that came out looking interesting.  I used bubble wrap, leaves, water, bottle caps, tissue paper, and basically any trash I found lying around:




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Some artists I've come across lately:
Deconstruction of a Werewolf, Roberto Osti, 2008, watercolor on paper
Hannibal's Dead, Alec Huxley, 2012, acrylic on canvas
Be Right Back, Vasilis Avramadis, 2011, oil on canvas
Get Back in Your Book Alice, Lissy Elle Laricchia, photography
No Brain in Cuba Town, Andres Muniz Gonzaga, 2010, painted wall
The Anatomist, from the Man Kind Series, Lynn Skordal, cut and paste paper collage
Links:

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Figure Drawing I Portfolio

I am very sad that this class has come to an end.  Even though I didn't want to go half the time because the class was from 7:00-9:30pm, I really loved this experience.  We were lucky enough to get to sketch a variety of people, all with completely different personalities and body types.  And it has given me a different perspective when I look at artworks that involve models.  Caravaggio, for example, painted beggars, individuals he met at bars, and even himself in most of his work.  Alice Neel and Lucian Freud painted friends, lovers, and family in their deeply intimate portraits.  And a few of Manet's paintings have been linked to the same model, suggesting a possible fondness he had for her.  Working with models in artwork is a very intimate process which often involves/creates unique relationships between the artist and model.  And because of that, the artist captures a part of that person's personality in the piece, regardless if they are posing as someone else.  Now when I look at pieces like these, I wonder what that person was like, how they got to that point, were they a dog person or a cat person, etc.  It adds another layer to piece, even if it wasn't the intended perception.
The Taking of Christ, Caravaggio, 1598, oil on canvas
Georgie and Annemarie, Alice Neel, 1982, oil on canvas
Painter and Model, Lucian Freud, 1987, oil on canvas
Olympia, Edouard Manet, 1863, oil on canvas
The Luncheon, Edouard Manet, 1863, oil on canvas
The Nude Maja, Francisco Goya
The Tragedy, Pablo Picasso, 1903, oil on canvas
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer, 1665, oil on canvas
Venus of Urbino, Titian, 1538, oil on canvas


***To learn more about any of these artists (like the wonderful Alice Neel) check out this amazing resource Artsy.net!  This site provides detailed bios, artwork samples, and much more info on almost anything you want to learn about artists/art history.***



Anyway, I plan on making more in-depth posts about my last two projects in this class, but for now this is the work that comprised my final portfolio for the course.  It included ten random short gesture drawings from our warm-ups at the beginning of each class, five 20+min drawings from the longer poses we did, and all of our final projects that took one to two class periods.

10 short gesture drawings (3-10min)

20+min drawings

Projects
white charcoal on black paper - 5hrs
study of the muscular system - a long time
sustained portrait - 2hrs
study of the skeletal system - a long time
sustained charcoal (subtractive highlights) - 4hrs
black and white charcoal on mid-tone paper - 4hrs

Can you see the tear?