Art Portfolio Stage #1
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Beginning Stage:
I began this project by first brainstorming what the topic of my project would be; I wanted this project to be a bit more on the relaxed side, since it's my first project of the year. Therefore, I ended up choosing to do a figure study, because I wanted to strengthened my skills of sketching physical features. I had done figure studies before, with drawing some of my classmates's faces or sketching fashion models, on a lesser note. The materials I ended up selecting were graphite pencils and colored pencils. I initially wanted to use paint or oil pastels, but I realized that I was not going to work on canvas with this first project. Also, I accepted the fact that I am not the neatest artist, and painting the different shades on the faces I drew would not turn out the way I would want it to. With painting, you have to precisely combine certain colors in order to get a certain shade. For example, if I were to add too much white or black, then my shading would have uneven tones, that do not blend together. When thinking about using colored pencils, I can easily adjust the shade of the color by how much weight I places on the respective pencil. After deciding the subject and materials for my project, I go to work executing it. This first sketch I did was of my friend Shakila, since she was the closest and most convenient subject matter. In shading her head, I focused on adding shadow to her hijab. The areas with the creases of the scarf were shaded the darkest, while the smoother and tighter areas of the hijab received the lightest shading. In between these two shades, I tried to apply a technique of blending, in order to make her hijab appear more realistic. Middle Stage: I began to sketch more figure studies, with my other classmates, like Anika and Vanessa. The next phase of my project was to draw from a different angle, such as a profile view. However, if I were to re-do this project, I would have considered sketching from a certain perspective, such a worm's eye view, or bird's eye view, because I felt that this would have brought a more innovate aspect to this project. Nevertheless, I kept on focusing on shading, but not only the shadows on my subject's body, but the shadows they cast over whatever they are sitting over. In order to achieve this, I shaded the area where my subject was sitting over the darkest, so when I was shading that area in, I added the most weight on the pencil. Looking back, I should have incorporated more shading to other areas of my figure study, since there were more subtle places that had shading, such as the wall Vanessa was sitting in front of. That way, this would have provided my art with a more authentic element to it. End Stage: I redrew both of my Shakila and Anika sketch, into my notebook, since I wanted to use these sketches as my final draft. With Anika's portrait, I realized immediately that the proportions of her body to the desk she was working on were completely off, and I wanted to work in order to correct this error. Furthermore, I began to use the medium of colored pencils on my Anika artwork, since I wanted to experiment with colors on my Anika figure study. I did not use the technique of blending so much on Anika, but more out outlining the designs of her hijab and school uniform. I achieved this by adding more weight and pressing on the colored pencil a bit more. But re evaluating both Shakila and Anika's art pieces, I have realized that I should have been more proficient in my coloring and shading techniques. In my opinion, my final art pieces could have turned out better, in the sense that I should have added in a background or focusing on more details of their faces. Instead, I focused more on his articles of clothing, which could have used some more vibrant colors. Therefore, if I were to do this project again, I would have no second guessed myself with using a certain medium; I would have been more of a risk-taker and used paints or oil pastels, in order to emulate my work. |