Drawing Final
1) I think my self portrait was my most successful project. It was the piece that i got the most excited for because of the concept. I wanted to play of personal flaws. One of mine includes, the nasty habit of picking at my skin until it draws blood. I exaggerated the habit by making deep scratch marks along my cheek. My process started with making a basic outline, so i could get the proportions as accurate as possible. I then started going in with prismas to add color, value and details. While coloring the skin, i made the mistake of adding the base color first instead of the darks and highlights. This made smoothly blending the colors basically impossible. This is my main regret. However, i ended up kind of liking the streaky look. I am very please with how this turned out. I think i did a good job adding value, getting proportions pretty accurate, and choosing the color scheme.
2) My least successful piece was definitely the perspective project. I think i didn't do a very good job adding the value. I didn't get dark enough in certain areas. Overall, its way to light. I also think i messed up the proportions, specifically in the torso. However, I do really like the perspective of the piece. In my opinion, its quite unique. If i were to do this again, i would definitely do better on the shading and proportions. I think i would also try and add more details to the facial features. As of right now, they just blend in and don't look very realistic. I would also consider adding more branches to the tree to add more interest to the background.
3) In the beginning of the year, I really only had ever worked with graphite. I wasn't a big fan of color and tended to stick to my comfort zone. Chalk pastels have always been out of my comfort zone because they are extremely messy, you can't erase your mistakes, and adding value isn't as easy because its not just black and white. The still life shows a good use of value and composition. In theory, theres really nothing wrong with it. The smarties also show a good use of value. However, the difference is that it was shown through the use of color not black and white. This had been something i previously struggled with. it took me awhile to figure out which colors would create dark value without using black, but eventually i figured it out. I now really enjoy using chalk pastels and color in general.
4) Although scratch board obviously isn't pen and ink, it resembles the same techniques. With pen and ink you can't blend out colors to create an even fade. Therefore, you have to layer strokes in order to get a wide range of values. Scratchboard uses this same technique. Therefore, the pen and ink shading practices we did,in the beginning of the year, really helped me out when doing the scratch board. It got me used to adding value without being able to blend colors. The amount of instruction given was perfect. A good amount of information was given without taking up too much time.
The chalk pastel egg practices also helped me out before doing the actual egg project. It allowed me to figure out with color scheme i liked the best. It also allowed me to get better at smoothly blending chalk pastels. The demonstration of blending the chalk pastels was very helpful. Once again, a good amount of instruction was given without being over powering.
5) Prisma pencils were for sure my favorite medium to work with, which is funny because i used to hate color. I really love how they can blend together so smoothly. This allows me to add colors which aren't really in the picture to add value. For example, i might use purple to create dark value on a red object. If i couldn't blend the pencils so well then the "hidden" colors would be very clear. The pencils allow me to reach a wide range of colors and values. This encouraged me to get more creative with my color use. For example, in the dum dum, i used pinks and purples to create the dark value. They also allow me to add a lot of detail, unlike other colorful mediums, such as oil and chalk pastels.