Pop Goes the Artist!

I finished this drawing this morning, just in time to include it in the display I have in the local library this month. (More on that in a moment.) As I mentioned in my previous post, I’d been fooling around in my camera, actually hoping to get a good shot of my mouth, to paint on a small, square piece of gessobord I bought a few months back. Well, I didn’t get any shots that would work for that, but I came up with a decent shot of my face that looked neat cropped to just my eyes. I was pretty intimidated by it–slightly larger than life size and mostly devoid of distinct lines and areas as it was. But I needed something else to put on the display, so I went for it.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I do think it bears some resemblance to me and the shading turned out better than I anticipated. I’m learning how to slowly build up much lighter layers of pencil, rather than going dark right in and trying to do a lot of blending. With the exception of the very dark darks, the softest pencil I used was an HB (your average #2 pencil, which falls right in the middle of the light/dark spectrum), and most of the drawing was done with an even harder pencil than that (H, if you’re interested). It tried my patience a bit, but I think it really helped keep the tones smoother and more subtle. It’s definitely an approach I’ll have to experiment with more.

The “official” title of this piece is “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman” (ha, I crack myself up). It’s 3.5×8″, done in pencil on smooth Bristol board.

And now, actually I have to go to work, so I’ll be back later with more info about the library display. (And hopefully a picture, eventually.)

This is my latest drawing, (tentatively) finished less than an hour ago. My inspiration for this was a photo I took at one of the missions (San Jose?) in San Antonio, a detail of a stone archway around a chapel door. With the exception of the cherub’s face (which I’ll probably go back and rework), I’m very pleased with the way this turned out. All that relief work gave me a fit–all artwork goes through an ugly stage, but those bits stayed in the ugly stage for a very long time. Since this drawing is small it went pretty fast–I just started it last night. It felt nice to actually make some artwork after spending so much time just thinking about it. (”Stone Angel” pencil on Bristol, 4×6″)

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While roaming WetCanvas!, I stumbled across an artist’s website featuring a really neat mixed media concept–pop art paintings and collages on old records. Check it out here. I think it’s a great concept and many of the pieces are a whole lot of fun. My particular favorite is “Bad Day 2.” If I had more money, I’d buy 3 or 4 because I think they’d look cool in a group on my wall, but alas! I am a poor college student, even if I am finally employed. But putting the state of my wallet aside, it’s a unique and well-executed idea. I just wish I’d thought of it.

I did this from a photo I took in Ireland. I actually started it near the beginning of the year and got burned out because it was a really hard drawing. I came back to it out of boredom and the realization that I had something good going, so it would be a pity to let it sit unfinished. I chose this picture mostly as an exercise in perspective, and man, did it exercise me.

I do enjoy pencil drawing, though. It’s uncomplicated, requires few materials and little space, is suited to a variety of styles, and isn’t very messy. This is second in an occasional and informal series of pencil drawings from Ireland. I’m really not conviced this photo does it justice, but it was the best I could do. Pencil on smooth Bristol board, 8×10″. I cannot WAIT to get home and pop this sucker in a mat. I’m thinking navy blue.

This is a pencil drawing I did from a photo I took in Ireland. (For all the photos I took there, see the “Ireland Pictures” link in my sidebar.) I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out, although I didn’t do a very good job of keeping the proportions correct–I had to eliminate one of the window/opening thingies on the inside so that everything would fit. Oh well. It was fast, it was fun, and I didn’t do the whole thing in mechanical pencil, hurrah. My art teacher would be proud. (Pencil, 8×10″)

(For a larger image, click here.)

This is a small, lazy pencil drawing of John Paul II I did right after he died as a school assignment. I say “lazy” because I didn’t feel like doing it at all, so I picked a pretty basic picture–no full body shots, flowing garments, etc.–and I made it the smallest we were allowed to do. Nonetheless, I’m happy with how it turned out. This project is only one of two times that Lanciotti ever told us we could use a photograph we didn’t take ourselves, for obvious reasons. Still, it means I can’t ever do anything with this one, even if I wanted to. (pencil, 4×5)

The second agonizing watercolor still life I’ve done, but at least this one didn’t get thrown away as did the one I did at the end of last year. This project wasn’t fun (I am not a fan of watercolor or still lifes), but I did it remarkably fast for being so miserable about it. I’m also proud of the way it turned out, although I think the drapery on the left side is a little weird looking. The window wasn’t even supposed to be part of it, but I centered the picture so badly that I had to include it for balance. The landscape/trees outside it are probably the weakest part. This is also a pretty horrendous photo of it–the colors are all right, but the angle is completely whacked. At some point, I’m going to set aside a weekend for re-taking pictures of all my artwork so that they’re not so embarassing. (watercolor, 14.5″ x 19″)

This is a large pastel I did of a plaster cast/relief type thing from the art room. It was another assigned project, like the above watercolor, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have done it. This isn’t a particularly good photo–since all the values are so similar, it was hard to get it clear and stuff. I used a grand total of I think three different pastels. (Fairly certain we had to limit the color scheme, but even if not, the thing was all one color anyway, since it was plaster.) But yeah. I like it and it’s big (always a struggle for me). (pastel, 18″x18″)