Week 8: Just kidding. Here’s the real thing.

Homework assignment: “Trick someone into posing for you again. Or self-portrait.”

Obviously, I went with self-portrait this time for better comparison. It supposedly bears more resemblance to me compared to the first one (just stretched out a little).

Griping aside, it was a fun experience and I have a new medium to play with.

Week 8: Ready? Show me what you’ve got.

In-class assignment: “Quarter view again. Go.”

Supposedly a cumulation of our quarter of work. This was the in-class assignment for us to practice before our final assignment. For this one, the instructor submitted himself as the model. Again, incomplete. I’ve got the bad habit of leaving the eyes as the last thing that I do- which leaves me with scary, incomplete drawings.

Though, it was pretty satisfying to realize that this was actually drawn in the same amount of time as my first sketch.

My mental/emotional state while working on a project.

Week 7: Not sure? Here’s your second chance.

Homework assignment: “Go convince/blackmail someone into posing for you.”

So I wrangled an unwitting friend (read: victim) into posing for me. For 6 hours. Bravo. What I’ve found is that it’s a lot easier to draw from person than from a picture. Plus it’s a lot more entertaining (even if it makes it harder to work and longer to finish) if the model’s having fun with it.

He says it doesn’t look like him. Well of course. I did tell him that I would make him look pretty.

Week 7: Is it everything you thought it would be?

In-class assignment: “Congratulations. You get to work with profiles. Replicate this picture.”

Obviously, I didn’t get a chance to finish this (like many of my in-class assignments), but the brief brush with drawing profile with charcoal was daunting to say the least. It moved much easily than I anticipated and I spent a lot of time trying to capture his expression.

Week 6: My new arch-nemesis: Negative Space.

Homework assignment: “I’m a sadist. Go draw plants.”

I like nature. I have absolutely nothing against it. I abhor drawing leaves. This assignment was a true test of my patience as I tried (and tried, and tried) to figure out how on earth was I going to make it through the whole assignment. I came pretty close to starting over with this one a couple of time because I figured that I was mad to even pick this angle and these plants as subjects. The plants are something with bulbous leaves that I haven’t figured out the name of yet.

Week 5: Try not to get too carried away this time with the plushies.

Homework assignment: “Texture again. Pay attention.”

Originally, I was going to do onion skins, but plushies are so much more fun (and less tears-inducing) to work with. I had a hard time trying to differentiate between the different types of “soft” textures since the dog has shorter hair, the cow a messier coat, and the fleece blanket is just plain fluffy. It’s a whole lot of “soft.”

Starting with this picture, too, I started to really have fun with charcoal.

Week 5: Indulge in your inner child. Fluffies!

In-class assignment: “Here’s a teddy bear. Start drawing it as soon as you’re done playing with it.”

Note to self: If you’re going to teach anyone anything, don’t prelude that by allowing them to dig through a bag full of teddy bears. We were supposed to study textures in this exercise but I got a little too carried away with poking the plastic nose of the teddy bear.

On a serious note- Texture wasn’t something that I’d paid too much attention to before. I knew that fur is fuzzy and silk is smooth, but had no idea how to convey it. So as distracted as I was, it helped to be able to experiment with it.

Week 4: Let’s test charcoal out.

Homework assignment: “Still-life. Remember your values.” 

So starting from this point on, I spent 4+ hours on each assignment rather than the 1 hour. This piece in particular was a lot of experimenting and trial-and-errors. It took a lot of patience and I grew to love my kneaded eraser. But hey, I started to understand the differences between charcoal and pencil, though I still didn’t really get how to put on darker values. (And some of it is smudged already.) Objects on paper: I have a ridiculously large shoe collection.