Summer 2016
Uw-Madison / People program
WEEK 1
During the summer, I participated in a pre-college program at UW-Madison. While I was there, I attended a drawing class taught by a college professor where we focused on: form. shadow, and highlight. It was for 5 weeks, 5 days a week, and 3 hours a day. Our first big assignment was to create a large portrait of ourselves using a pen, and using the pen nonstop until the ink ran out. We did one in the beginning and would do one at the end to see the progress in our drawing.
Looking at my final drawing, I realize that there is much work to be done as well as much to improve on. I look forward to the second one to see the progression that I've made over the summer. Medium - Pencil and pen on Bristol
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Week 2
For the second week, we worked on something that the instructor called 'the burn project' which was all about perspective, lines, and shadows (a bit similar to the previous piece). In this piece, we were to choose a area whether it be a hallway, a view from outside a window that architecture was available, etc.. However. I wanted to challenge myself, I used a small corner of the room along with the art horses (special chairs used to draw), and I placed them strategically. Initially when I started, I got frustrated because the lines were not coming out the way that I wanted them to.
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Also during week two, the instructor took us to the geology museum nearby which was full of large rocks with many angular aspects as well as many shadows and highlights which fit in perfectly with what we were learning in class, value. I chose the large periwinkle colored rock with hard edges, shadows, and highlights due to the fact that I knew it would be a challenge. Unfortunately, due to time constraints I was not able finish this drawing but with the bit of progress that I made, I could not complain.
Also I forgot to mention that we did not actually use photos to draw these, but we went off of sketches that we drew while at the museum which is what the fingernail size drawings are with the names to describe them. It was difficult to draw from another drawing but at the same time, it was easy because there was already a set layout. |
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WEEK 3
This assignment was given so that we as a class would learn value not only when doing our second self portrait, but also to learn values period. First, we made 10 2" by 1" rectangles with the one end being the lightest and the other end being the darkest; we then filled in the values between. This assignment was beneficial for reference when drawing other things and I often set it next to me when drawing so that blending and finding correct values would be easier.
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Also during this week, we were given the task to draw a triptych using eggs as well as props. I did not want to use props because my egg was already cracked which gave me an excellent opportunity to focus on dimension, use of line, and value within the crevices of the egg. We were also told to create our own background with whatever we wanted and I chose to keep it simple but also keep the same aspects from the rest of the piece.
WEEK 4
During this week, we were given the task to redo our empty the pen self-portraits (which I was extremely excited about). This was to test our technical skills over the 4-5 weeks that we attended this class. Although I made a lot of progress with this second piece, there are things that I would like to improve upon if given another opportunity. For example, I'd like to fix the shape of the head due to the fact that it is not my exact head shape as well as the lips and facial features in general. A positive thing about this piece however is the value and crosshatching that was put into it. I actually used two pens instead of one to achieve the amount of detail that I wanted. Looking back on these pieces, I am happy with the way my skills progressed over time.
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Week 5
This project was the one that I enjoyed the most due to the simple fact that I got to chose what I draw and create a collage with meaning to me. I started to go through magazines and I started to cut things out with two things in mind: equality for women, empowerment of women. Often in society women are supposed to dress very feminine and be delicate creatures but we should not have to conform to the ideas of what society as well as men believe that we should be.
I chose faces of women who looked strong and that I felt could embody the message that I was trying to get across. The faces were hard at first, but compared to the first portrait that I did of myself they were better. I was proud of my progress up to this point but unfortunately due to time I was not able to finish this one either. |
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