Fine Arts
ART 1020 Intro to Drawing
For this class, we've been assigned various projects that tested our orientation of our own drawings as well as our understanding of various methods used when drawing an object or subject in proportion to its size. The following two pictures are ones I have drawn in the class; they demonstrate my understanding of shading, perspective, and contours when drawing different objects with varied colors and lighting. |  |
Pencil - Contour Flag
With this assignment, we were to use a black marker to color in alternating lines of black and white on a piece of paper (a "flag"). Afterwards, they were to be lightly crumpled and taped onto another piece of paper to hold it in place. Using a direct light source (in this case, directly above and behind the flag), we were to identify the highlights and shadows of the flag before drawing it on a separate sheet of paper. Notice how the shadow underneath the flag provide a better means of dimension for the object as a whole as it gradually fades out as it gets further away from the object. I attempted to erase as little as I could, as I tend to draw lines that are too dark and can still be visible afterwards. So I colored in the darker areas first then gradually lightened my shading in order to put in the highlights.
Of all the pencil drawings assigned during the course, I felt this one truly demonstrated my ability to effectively identify and record the highlights and shadows of an object.
Oil Pastel - Fast Food
This assignment called for purchasing fast food in order to use the empty containers and wrappers as drawing references. We were to choose which ones we wanted to draw and taped them onto paper to hold them in place. Afterwards, we lightly sketched the object onto a piece of cardstock paper, later coloring it in with oil pastel. We were not allowed to have plain white or plain black within the picture; it had to be mixed with other colors. In order to effectively capture the highlights and shadows of the object(s), we were to use color compliments to make the base color stand out (ex. The lid for this coffee cup was originally black, but I chose to make it a brown-orange with dark and light blue highlights in order to emphasize its dimension). The shadow of the cup was a slightly darker blue than the paper it was attached to; I instead made the overlapping shadows the dark blue hue and the separated shadows pink in order to contrast the two shadows from the light source. The red paper was from another reference that was overlapping the paper the coffee cup was one, so I decided to include it in the picture as well, adding in a blue-brown shadow to demonstrate its small dimension within the picture.
I personally enjoyed this assignment, as I find oil pastels the easiest of the hand-held coloring utensils to use (out of crayons, colored chalk, charcoal). This was also the first time I actually used color compliments to emphasize shadows and highlights, which was a great personal achievement from this assignment.
