Final Project: Portrait of my mom and I

Hello, guys! :)

I think this blog post will be my last one since my basic drawing course is almost ending!

We were assigned to complete a final drawing project for this basic drawing class. 

I had to pick a person or draw myself by using two different drawing tools or drawing techniques. 

I decided to draw face with graphite pencils and clothes and background with a charcoal pencil by smearing it with paper towels.

This picture below is my final!

In addition to this, I had to describe the reason why I decided to draw this person and why I used those two drawing tools or techniques for final project.

I missed my mom who has always been my supporter and helper, and I'm going back to Korea in a bout a week, so I decided to draw a photo image of her and I together!

I hope all of you have enjoyed my blog posts and hope you caught up some drawing skills that I've described in my blog posts! 

+ two more drawings I did!

Have a great summer everyone and thank you for reading my posts so far! :) 

Cross hatching the object

Hello, everyone! 

Since my basic drawing class has begun the last portfolio no.3, we learned a new skill of drawing the objects: hatching and cross hatching. By hatching and cross hatching, you can show the volumes, darkness and lights of the object. In this course, I drew a pine cone by using four different colored-pens. Each different colored-pen has to be drawn in different directions. By overlapping the lines and different colors, I could show the volumes. The picture below will give you an idea of hatching and cross hatching.  

The picture below is an example of drawing by hatching and cross-hatching. 

You can depict the darkness and the volume by using different colored-pens, overlapping the lines, and drawing lines in different directions. 

Portrait for Birthday Present

Hello, guys! It was one of my best friends' birthday and since she is my future roommate for next year, I wanted to make her birthday a little more special! Unfortunately, her birthday was the first day of the dead week before the final week and also on gloomy Monday, so I decided to draw her portrait to make her day somewhat better! And here it is! :)

It is always a pleasure drawing someone really beautiful and I really enjoyed drawing her! 

I used a regular size 2 mechanical pencil for this portrait. Frankly speaking, I like drawing portraits with size 2 pencil the most! For some reason, it is more convenient than using a variety of different graphite pencils! 

Drawing is always entertaining, and drawing portraits is my forte. ;)

Happy Birthday to my beautiful future roommate! 

Self-portrait with a Charcoal Pencil

Hello again! Our class has started a new drawing skill and new chapter: drawing portraits.

This time, we drew our own self-portraits with a charcoal pencil. Using charcoal can be a lot harder than drawing with graphite pencils because it is harder to erase it. Also, charcoal pencil does not have a variety of harness or darkness like graphite pencils do, so more careful handling is needed.

This picture below is my self-portrait that I drew the other day. 

Since our class aims to draw objects from life, so I had to constantly look at myself in the mirror to finish this piece. First I used a compressed charcoal all over the drawing pad and smeared it with a paper towel. I then used a charcoal pencil and began drawing my eyes, nose, mouth, and overall facial shape. Next, I used an art eraser to express the highlights of the face. Once I was done drawing, I sprayed over it in order to prevent it from damage. 

Graphite Still-life Drawing

Hello, everyone!

Sorry, It has been quite awhile I have not updated my blog posts.

My basic drawing course has covered many new and fun drawing skills including expressing volumes and depths of the objects with graphite pencils and drawing portraits with a charcoal pencil, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first image I attached is the actual still-life objects that I was to draw. I used ten different kinds of graphite pencils with different hardness and darkness. The main purpose of drawing with graphite pencils is to express the volumes and the intensity of light and defining the shadow.

I have a fairly good observation skills to determine the lights and shadow generally, so it was easy to sketch and express the shadows and volumes.

It is actually an exciting moment finding myself getting improved day by day! After I was checked by my coolest Art instructor, Mr. Decarlo, and slipped it into my second portfolio!

 

First picture for my second portfolio looks successful to me.

Whoop whoop!

 

 

Starting a New Drawing Skill: Negative & Positive Space Drawing!

Hello, again :) 

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I am posting another one! 

I was really sick for last entire week, so I couldn't even attend my drawing course. When I came back to the class this week, I realized I am far behind than other classmates. They already began a new drawing skill called negative & positive space drawing, so I had to go through all the demonstrations and catch up what I have missed. 

Since it was a total new drawing skill, I had a trouble with getting used to this new skill. I also had to draw with a compressed charcoal, I ended up getting charcoal all over on myself and had to wash my hands multiple times. 

After struggled a bit more, I started getting used to how to depict the negative and positive space of the objects.... And Ta-da!  

I made quite a bit of progress in my drawing within only 2 hours of drawing, and my instructor even complimented me on this. Even though I haven't completed drawing, I am proud of myself catching up quicker than expected. It feels great whenever realizing how much I have improved since the beginning of the semester. 

Negative and positive space drawing skill is a second big topic for this course, so I assume that I will have a couple of weeks to make more touch-ups! 

Once I get an approval of being done on my drawing, I could spray over my picture to keep it permanent! :)

I can't wait until going to the next class period!!

First Art portfolio and class critique time!

Hello again!

I'm posting two blog posts today because I have actually made so much progress in my Basic Drawing course.

After turned in the first contouring portfolio, our class had a class drawing critique time to evaluate each others' art pieces. The picture below is for one of the stained life contouring pictures critique.

Class critique time was really valuable because I could get evaluated on my drawings and compare each others' drawings. I learned which part I need to improve on and which part I did really great on.

I realized that drawings can vary depending on the angle of looking at and depending on the way of people. More specifically, in general, I draw my lines very dramatically and clearly. On the other hands, some people focused more on the volumes and the shadows instead. It was interesting to compare my drawings with those of other classmates.

Overall, enjoyed it a lot and my first portfolio looks great so far! :)

On-going stained-life contouring!

Contouring is still on going!

Since the Basic Drawing course I am currently taking this semester focuses on basic skills step by step, we are more likely to focus on one specific drawing skill for several weeks. For about two months so far, I learned many different gesture drawing skills, continuous contouring, cross contouring, mass-line contouring, blind contouring and so forth. 

I spent the entire two consequent classes for my stained life contouring picture, and the purpose for this drawing skill is to grow and improve good observational skills and point out the most accurate outline drawing of the stained-life objects at the angle that you are looking at the objects.

This following picture is what I have drawn for last week.

The image to the left is the picture I drew focusing on the center bottom part of the entire objects. The image to the right is the actual objects displayed in the studio at the different angles and lights.

I used charcoal pencil as my tool of drawing this piece of contouring drawing. I could easily depict the depths and distance between the objects by changing the darkness of the lines. This stained-life contouring piece was the last contouring drawing for this course, so hooray! Almost done with contouring skills.

The following week on Wednesday, our whole class had a peer drawing critique time and I will talk about this in my next post! 

Continuous Contouring Skills

Contouring classes are still going on!

I have been taking this beginning art course this semester, Basic Drawing I. Although I would like to start learning volumes and masses ASAP, I realized that since this course is a basic drawing course so has to follow certain steps to draw professionally later on.

Last week during the classes, I still focused on contouring but in different form of contouring, specifically continuous contouring. For continuous contouring, any drawing tools can be used but for my case, I used a pen. Since It would be one of the parts of my first portfolio for this course, I had to choose specific theme for my continuous contouring, and started drawing my Art class storage room. I though it will be the perfect place to draw because of many various mediums and goods stored in there. 

However, I regretted it after I was almost half-way done with my continuous contouring because continuous contouring is supposed to be drawn without picking up the pen while drawing it. 

 

This picture above is the example image file I found from pinterest and attached for better understanding of continuous contouring. Since continuous contouring is a contouring skill without picking up the drawing tool, there are many overlaps over the drawings as it can be seen. Continuous contouring requires some patience because of these reasons, but once you are done with continuous contouring, you will end up with artsy picture right in front of you!

Drawing course week #1 and #2

During the first two weeks of Basic Drawing course, I have learned how to do a few different types of contouring. Among them, the first was continuous contouring, drawing without stopping between starting and finish line. This following image shows how you draw the continuous contouring lines. 

The second was weighted contouring. The most important concept of contouring is that you do not shade or express volumes. You can express weight by the thickness of lines or making cross sections like following images:

these two apples simply have same shape but different in the thickness of the lines. The apple in the right, however, seems to have more weight than the left because of the thicker, bold lines at the edge.

Meanwhile, weight can be expressed simply by the cross contouring lines. It means drawing many cross lines through your main object drawing. Weight can be expressed by many cross lines through the main object like the image above.

Meaning of Drawing can vary in many ways

Drawing can mean very differently depending on the people. To be specific, some people may draw to relieve their stresses, some could draw for prizes or college assignments, or others might draw for their own satisfaction and so forth. For me personally, drawing has been a great part of my life so far. In many times, I tend to doodle a lot, and even though they might look unnecessary, it ends up with a nice piece of artwork when they are all done.

I think drawing can do a lot of things. During Basic Drawing course that I have been recently taking this semester, I have learned various different skills of expressing our thoughts and observation. The final picture may look completely different depending on those expressions and skills.

I would continue talking about those concepts in my following posts! :)

Drawing portraits for happiness

Since I was younger, around the age of six, I have traveled around a few countries including Beijing; China, Paris; France, Osaka; Japan, Cebu; Philippines,  Taiwan, and 10 different states of America. I do not really have a specific reason to move around so much but whenever I went to different countries, I had many opportunities to visit their own art museum and to experience their art cultures. It was really interesting that each country and even each state of America has its own distinct art cultures and styles. I will take more about these different art cultures in my following posts.

Now, I am quite confident that I am expert on drawing portraits among my peers, even if I have never learned professional ways to draw portraits. Drawing portraits has been my favorite hobby since my childhood, and I even considered going into the professional art school after graduated from high school. But you all know this already. "No one knows what will happen in the future." I am attending as a First Year Engineering at Purdue University and keep pursuing my interest in drawing portraits by taking several art courses there.

In fact, I started drawing portraits as my hobby about four years ago. There was no huge reason or motivation for me to start drawing portraits. About four years ago, when I began my high school in Louisiana, I took a general Art course. I met a lot of great friends who are very talented and love art. I tried many drawings and paintings, and I found myself really enjoying drawing portraits of my loving friends and peers to make them happy with my drawings.
Since then my motto is "drawing portraits for my loving ones and for their happiness." I still remember when I gave my first portrait to my US nanny for her 55th birthday. I drew her and her niece, also my favorite ones, and she busted out in tears with happiness. I was actually really touched and it is very memorable to me and became a strong motivation for me to draw portraits of my loving ones.

Today, I would like to start my first blogging post with a few of my drawing portraits from the oldest to the latest. I did not notice that I have significantly improved until looking back at the pictures that I have drawn so far. These are some pictures I have drawn and posted on my personal SNS pages:

This is the first painting I did while taking Art course in Louisiana. It helped me a lot to find interest in different types of Art. Throughout the course with my best friends, I had great opportunities to decorate homecoming and prom background courts and painted the walls and much more.

The portrait of my US nanny and niece

I started drawing portraits of my loving ones whenever I miss them or want to give my drawings as a gift. I drew this picture to the right about four years ago, when I started studying in the United States. I missed my family badly and wanted to express it into a drawing.

As I remember, I was really busy after transferring my high school to Cleveland, Ohio from Louisiana. Well, it was not the only reason. To be honest, I did not really enjoy staying there and I did not get along with my friends there so stopped drawing portraits there for a bit. 

As I remember, the picture right above is the only portrait that I drew while studying in Ohio. This is the portrait of my host sister and the priest of my church. I drew this portrait for my host sister's baptism and to celebrate her baptism.

A year after, I moved again to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where I graduated my high school and drew the most portraits so far. Frankly, it was my senior year and wanted to start drawing portraits again. I think I started posting my drawings on my personal SNS since then.

It is obvious that I met many great friends and people whom I liked a lot because I drew the most of my portraits there. It is always exciting when I give my drawings to my friends and make them happy! 

I am currently taking a basic drawing Art course at Purdue, and I hope to pursue my interest and will have many opportunities to learn more professional skills to improve my drawing skills. (:

By far, I hope you enjoyed my first blogging post about my interest in Art and portraits.