2-Dimensional Art Portfolio
I focus heavily on two dimensional art, particularly drawings of people and characters I have created, and naturally I ended up expanding on that knowledge in class. I've been challenged to use different materials and try different subject matters.
Watercolor Tree
For this work, I stared out the window and picked a tree and just went at it with a fine line pen. Making all of the little details in the bark texture is a very long but very satisfying process. Then adding in the watercolor seals the deal. Trees are a fitting subject to treat with the looseness of watercolor, and the toothy watercolor edge works for the texture of the tree as well.
Unfortunately I don't really like how the leaves turned out, but pen is a permanent medium so you get what you get. There's at least not too many of them, and the detail on the wood will draw the viewer's eye away anyway.
Live Model Oil Painting
Before this painting I had never used Oil paints, only ever acrylics. They were tricky, but very fun to use. It was interesting as well trying to use varied colors as undertones as opposed to just directly painting something the exact color it is as well, and as with drawings we did with live models, painting one was enjoyable. My teacher definitely wanted me to use more saturation, though, but I really like the look of the lighter colors, and I won that battle! Aha!
On the topic of working with live models, you learn “art is pain” when you have to stand at an easel for two and a half hours, far enough away from said easel that your arm is strained from being outstretched the whole time. That is physical proof of “art is pain.”
But I would like to coin the phrase “Art is awkward” because trying to draw someone right in front of you really applies some pressure. Like, I don't wanna just stare at them for a few minutes straight, but then if I don't I can't take in all the details I need to. And it feels even worse if they're a nude model. Want my definitely not really professional artistly advice? Draw them from an angle where they can't see you. It feels less weird.
Charcoal Drawing of Old Main
Charcoal was also a new material for me, and a very messy one at that. My pieces with charcoal focused on chiaroscuro, which is the practice of exaggerating lights and darks to achieve a sense of 3-D space. I can't say I agree with or enjoyed the practice, because it feels like lying, and I don't like to do that, even in art, but it was something new to try nonetheless. I'm also not very used to drawing buildings or utilizing perspective in drawings, so this was a tricky one. I want to try and get better with buildings too so this was convenient.