Blond Female Portrait Sketch

Beautiful work by Igor Lukyanov:

Blond Female Portrait Sketch

Thanks for sharing your blog with me!

pics of my work this semester

here are pics of my homework, with some reworks:




























for some reason it posted them all in reverse order .. . grrr

more artists I admire

Here's an awesome example of cross-hatching: Hendrick Goltzius' The Massacre of the Innocent


I believe this is cross-hatching also, by MC Escher, but if not then it has great perspective and line variation.


These are also by MC Escher, and show his mastery of line variation and definitely of perspective. I love how dynamic his works look just by correct cross-hatching/ shading, and the thickness of his lines or the use of different pencil strengths:





Beautiful, aren't they? He can turn ordinary things into an entirely new world. They are both mind-boggling and imaginative. I'm not one for geometrical shapes, but the way he pulls it off makes me feel less constrained and more free and chaotic, the way I like it :P Structured chaos . . . .

Last Post!

Hm my thoughts on this class . . . .
It sucked!
No actually I loved it, although I'm still not as good as I could be at drawing, I've greatly improved, and I'm so glad I took this course. Compared to my pitiful art classes in the past, I've learned so much more taking this one class than from anything else. It's always been so disappointing to me when I would try and draw, because I would see something so perfect and when I'd try and draw it, I wouldn't even know where to start, so I just stopped drawing. I also have been trying to get away from the anime-ish way of drawing people, since that's how I taught myself when I was a kid and didn't have anyone to teach me otherwise. I'm still working on getting out of this, and hopefully if I can afford to come back next semester, I'll be able to get out of this habit and learn how to really draw :p
I'm so much better at perspective than I was before, and I love how I can just change the line variation to add shadow rather than shading all of the time. This class has been a lot of work, but well worth it in my eyes. I'm still not going to miss that dark, cold room, but what I've learned from it has been rewarding. I feel so much more confident now than before, and I definitely can see my improvement. I will keep working at it until I get to the point where I feel I've found my style, then master that, whatever my style is ^.-
So thanks Jason, and all of you other kids that helped me out this semester, I needed it. Obviously I don't have much confidence just because I've disappointed myself too many times. But now that I had to force myself to do it, I'm not so afraid anymore. I think that's all I needed, someone to push me off the cliff and into the water.
I hope you guys have a great summer, I'll miss you! ^-^

What's My Medium?

I'd say I love charcoal, although pencil is always great especially for sketching. I think I love charcoal because it's so dark, however it's extremely difficult to erase, which is very bad for me . . . overall though I prefer charcoal because I love the variation and how drastic it can make an image, whereas with pencil the color isn't as intense so it's harder to see and less powerful to me. I like the strength of charcoal and to me it jumps out at me more visually. Conte is definitely too difficult for me. If they only made a Conte sharpener I think I'd be fine . . .

i see dead plants . . .

Ok so I didn't have a potted plant and there are no plants around our apartment besides trees and bushes. So, I had to borrow my friend's dead plant. It made for quite an interesting composition, I think, although the plant was so stringy that most of it came out as a bunch of lines. I sat it next to my video camera bag and my purse with a mirror behind it. I think I could've made a much more interesting composition though. I was disappointed because parts of the plant that were most interesting had fallen apart, like the super-long viney piece that I really wanted to draw. I really tried to work with my line variation and I hope it went better this time. I also hope it isn't too late to rework my midterm, I think I forgot . . .

drawing exteriors

I found out how bad I was at intuitive perspective . . . I was so focused on line variation and making my first drawing light, that I messed up on the angles of things. To make it even harder, I couldn't finish it in one sitting, so I had already drawn in some cars, and stupid me forgot that those moved . . . fortunately the same cars were there, except they had moved over one or two spaces, which really threw my perspective off. I tried to fix it, but I'd already gone over it with the 4B before I realized I'd messed up. So now my drawing has horrible perspective, and I can't draw a straight line for the life of me, so the tops of buildings and the curb look like something from an expressionist painting . . . hopefully I can get some pointers today on how to fix this.

Midterm suckage

My midterm. I'm planning on revising it. I'm still so bad at line variation! I think when I stress I push harder without thinking. Also, my handwriting's so bad that I press hard so that it's legible so I think that's become a very bad habit. I need to loosen up and do my lines the way Ira does, really subtle then go in with very dark lines but leave the centers still with the light pencil.

Big-Ass Stake

For Jason lol

blind drawing . . .

So I forgot to blog about it last night, but my blind contours went okay yesterday. I somehow managed to do it between writing a paper and getting ready for work and making dinner . . . but personally I think it came out okay. I did the first charcoal blind contour 4 times before I decided I liked the last one. the composition always would go towards the right of the paper since I'm lefthanded, so the whole left side would be white. At the last try I managed to get it right though and my others seemed to turn out ok . . . now to class :P

On the Long Ride Home . . .

So tonight's the last of my trip to visit my parents. It seems so short, especially when most of the time I had to do homework . . . I hate that especially when my mom wants to do things with me and we end up sitting around the TV while I'm doing research for IPC on the computer, or in the garage making my wood geometric for 3-D design, or drawing, which I did tonight. But, I'm glad I could at least see them. I got to take my mom to the doctor twice so my dad didn't have to take off work like he usually does. I also got to spend time with him on his birthday, which was the day after st. patty's day. It was a lot of fun, I just wish that I could've relaxed and done more with them. I know my mom was really disappointed. She kept asking what kind of a break this was if I was always doing homework. Well, it's a break from always working and going to school . . .
Anyway though, enough complaining. I hope that I can come here in the summer and actually relax next time around. In the meantime, I've been sketching crappy pictures and today I finally got to work on my drawing homework. I couldn't get the materials until about two days ago, and yesterday we were out all day, so I couldn't start on it until this afternoon. Hopefully, I can finish it tomorrow morning before we leave. I pretty much packed everything already. I just hope that I can bring this on the plane . . .

Midterms are over!

Wow, what a hell of a week . . .
It sucks that I wasn't able to do the E.C. and that I couldn't rework my other homework, I'm sure that would've helped my grade out a lot . . .
Ah well, there's always next time, right? Apparently my best is a B+ which is cool with me, although I still wanna strive for an A, especially to make up for the one or two C's I still have.
Anyway, the portrait drawing was stressful, since I've never done one before, and the person I was drawing felt just as nervous. He wouldn't stop moving, either. I think both of us are a little ADD. Anyway though, it turned out ok, although he looks much like a kid. I think I made his head too short and rounder than it was. The background is lacking also, and my line variations didn't turn out very well. I'm practicing doing line variations like Ira, but she's hard to beat :P
The in-class midterm assignment was the main killer this week. I've been stressed about it since I found out last week that we were doing it. I do not work well under time restraints like that, especially in a class room. To focus, I have to be alone. I know my work sucked, but I did my best. Plus, my night vision is horrible, so trying to draw in a dark room means I can't see the edges of objects very well at all.
Anyway, enough complaining. I've seen worse these last couple of weeks: a 15 year old girl surviving cancer and having a fake leg in place of her amputated one. She was very sweet. My friend/professor who is a quadriplegic and recently went through cancer was in the hospital. He was very weak and thinner than usual .. . My mom also went to the hospital because of an infection. She also had cancer . . .
And my doctor's cancer returned. What the hell is going on?! Yeah, I really can't complain about my life . . . I'm such a spoiled brat :P

Midterms and other stressful stuff . . .

So I'm both excited and anxious about our homework assignment. We're supposed to draw a planar analysis of someone's face. We haven't even drawn people yet! And now I have to planar analyze them . . . plus fixing my old drawing, plus worrying about midterms . . . next week=no sleep for me! However, I can't exactly do my in-class final for this class with no sleep, so I'm not too sure how that's going to pan out ... Ah well, I can't complain all the time, right?
On a better note, I'm glad I'm finally going to learn how to draw people the correct way! I had sucky teachers in high school, so I never had anyone actually teach me how to draw things, let alone people. I think it's going to be fun, really, although using charcoal on giant-ass paper is going to be hell. I'll do my best, that's all I can do.
See you all next week and thanks for tuning in ^.-

Drapery . . .

So for the drapery project, I thought it wouldn't be so difficult, only because I love drawing folds. But this time, I had to do it planar-analysis style, which was a lot harder of course . . . I picked a pretty large thing to drape it over too (my drying rack), so it took up pretty much my whole page. I should've zoomed out more, and I meant to, but I wasn't used to this giant-ass paper. I figured I'd have more room than I did. That was definitely a misjudgment on my part, and I would've erased it and started over if it wasn't in charcoal. I didn't have a lot of paper either, and I thought we were going to use it in class, but apparently I read the wrong day or something. I get confused too easily I think . . .
But I guess it turned out ok, considering I got a better grade on it than my last homework assignments! I was really happy about this. I thought it looked like shit. I know I can do better though, and I'm glad that I have all of spring break to work on it!

I'm so anxious about this Midterm assignment, I hope that I won't completely botch it with my nervousness . . . and I'm probably not going to get much sleep next week, which will most likely add to my inability to draw. I'm excited.

planar analysis

This is difficult for me, I understand it when I see images of it, but when I actually try to figure it out, I have problems. I'm not sure why it's so hard for me to think of, I guess I have a lot of difficulty converting 2-d images to 3-d, but that's what art is . . . really I should just practice it and stop complaining about how bad I am, but complaining is so much easier! Well, I will practice. I bought my paper and bigger drawing board, so now I just need to plan out where and how I will do my next homework assignment. Apparently I will be doing it all tonight, since I will have 0 free-time this weekend . . . work sucks

yaaay for internet! ^-^

Finally! My brother and I got internet yesterday and I'm finally able to use it!
For once I don't have a lot of homework, which is awesome. I'm super tired after getting 3 hours of sleep but somehow still can't manage to get to bed . . .
This intuitive perspective is finally becoming a little easier, but now we have these weird grid things that I'm having a hard time comprehending. I hope that tomorrow I will understand it better, otherwise my homework's really gonna suck . . .

a perspective on perspectives . . .

Snow day!
I was so happy that I had all of Monday to work on homework. I can't believe I was still so behind though, I slept for 1.5 hours on Tuesday night trying to finish my 3-D design homework . . . blah >.<

Anyway though, I got to spend a lot of time on my 2-point perspective homework which was great! I have a problem getting my lines darker, and for some reason I thought it was okay if we used charcoal, but apparently I was wrong . . . so next time I guess I'll use a really really light pencil then go over the parts I want to make darker with the 4B. I had problems with the perspective, and was fighting with myself over what I saw and how to put it into 2-point rather than draw it how I saw it. I also tried to fill my background in on the right side. That was very difficult for me, especially the ceiling above the kitchen and above the front door. I wasn't sure how to place those . . . The counter also didn't seem to have a bottom, because if I made it have one, it appeared really really long, when it was much shorter. I guess I should've just shortened the width of it, that would've made more sense.

This intuitive perspective has got me, too. I'm very bad at that. My eyes are bad, anyways, and I'm not good at judging distance. Oh well, I can do this, right? :P

life in general and random bitchings

I really had fun with the linear perspective of my new kitchen in our apartment. There were a lot of things wrong with it, though. I didn't push the line variation as much and it was pretty cramped. I'm hoping to rework it and add more detail in it. The scaling was off, too, so I'll have to fix that. But overall it was fun, I just wish that I had more time to do it. Moving is not so fun, especially in snow . . . It was okay though, I just hope work doesn't get in the way too much. I hardly have time to work on my projects which is a very bad thing right now . . . I really want to devote more time to it. It's kind of pointless for me to pay for college if I can't even do my best . . .
I had 2 hours of sleep last night because of my 3-D design homework so I'm pretty dead right now. Can't wait to get internet, whenever that's happening. I can't live without it, it makes my life very difficult and I feel disconnected . . . OK enough whinning, I'm heading to class ;p

More perspectives, and some pretty cool images

Ok since I've never had a blog before, I hope this comes out right. I'm not really sure how to post images so here goes . . .

One point perspective:



This is interesting because it shows the perspective from different levels, high low and medium.

Here is another from one-point perspective, only filled in:



I like this one a lot! It's really cool, I want to make something like this eventually.

Here is two-point:



This one shows it from both top and bottom. Pretty simple.

Here's another:

This one's really detailed. I love the shading.

And last, here is the three-point:



I love this 3-D effect and can't wait to start on this!

And last here is a 3 point perspective image:



Pretty awesome, that's all I have to say :P
Man I'd really love to make something that complex.


Well, about the things we did in our sketchbooks, it wasn't hard really, I just need more practice. It was fun doing the lines, though. I hope class today is alright.

Ummmm . . . drawing and such

So for our first assignment in drawing, I practiced with light and dark by pressing harder or softer on my pencil. I also tried different strokes with the 6B compared to the 4B. I noticed that with the 6B, the lines tended to be thicker. the 4B had more defined lines, and it was easy to make it darker. It was easier to make light lines with the 6B pencil than the 4B. I also alternated within the lines between light and dark. I attempted to create patterns with it, making it lighter in the middle and ascending the lighter part until the whole line was completely light, and vice versa. I did some fast strokes, which were harder to do closer together, and then slow smooth lines, both light and dark. It was fun going faster, but obviously more precise when I drew the lines slower.
On a different note, this class seems like it'll be fun, I love the music and I love listening to music when I draw. I have a hard time drawing without music since I tend to focus more on the little noises. Music puts me in another place where I am able to concentrate better. I'm pretty anxious about this class, since I haven't really ever had a formal drawing class before. Unfortunately I went to tiny private schools in high school, and my other college was also small so they didn't even offer drawing as a class. I feel really behind, but I know if I put a lot of effort into it, I'll be able to do this. I'm excited to learn about perspectives, since I understand them but haven't practiced them a lot. I was only taught about them briefly and haven't used them very much in my own work, like I should. I tried working with perspective some on my own, but kind of forgot a lot of the rules. . . so I'm glad we're going to get into it soon.
More on perspectives later . . . ^.-