Pastel/Color Pencil Project

This picture was taken at a French restaurant around 3 years ago with my mom's Nikon. She had her camera with her at the time and I realized how beautiful my entree was with the rose red dried tomatoes and shamrock green vegetables which were scattered across the dish. And to top it off with a simple white background. For this art project, I decided on using pastel as my coloring medium. The oil pastel isn't as detailed as colored pencils; however, pastels are used best to highlight the vibrant colors. Because I've never used an open composition before, I decided to do exactly that on this project.

I have used gridding before and have always considered it a useful technique for bigger paintings or paintings that may take up a large area of the paper. It helps to break down the painting into small portions. The most challenging thing to draw in the project was darker areas where the outline of objects weren't visible.

My color scheme was mainly a complementary color scheme with the red tomatoes and green vegetables. You could also say I used an analogous color scheme with the multiple shades of brown, but brown is not part of the color wheel. The light grey background shows it's either taken in the day time or taken with very bright lighting. Also, the highlights around the food show the glare of light from behind and around the dish.

I filled my composition with as much color as possible without using unrealistic colors or colors that wouldn't fit in. The most noticeable areas of colors being layered are in the meat, tomatoes, vegetables, and shading. The principle of texture is seen throughout the painting from all the objects of the dish. By leaving the shavings of the pastels, it creates a surface with feeling. Movement can be seen by how the oil pastels flow around each object.
I'm happy with the turnout of the project because this was the first time I've ever used this medium at its best. I'd probably just add more shading and highlights in the fig and add more detail.

Blog Post #5 - Shading Project at Home

 1. For my shading project at home, I drew four chess pieces. I know there were chess pieces in art class, but because I haven't done them, I just said might as well. I think I could of challenged myself a more but I did incorporate the elements that weren't on the scissors and vegetables projects. 

Note: I didn't save any sketches of the chess pieces, so instead I uploaded a picture of what the art work looked like before the major detail.

2. I had two torchiere lamps to the left of me. One slightly behind me and one in front of me. On the other side of the room to the right of me there was another torchiere lamp which didn't effect the lighting too much besides brightening the room a bit. I used these lamps so I could see the detail in each chess piece. It was much easier to draw at home because there were less distractions and I personally liked the lighting more at home.

3. Going back to question two I do enjoy drawing at home more. It helped me focus on my drawings only without many distractions. I could use my phone for references when creating shadow, shading and highlight. And again, the lighting was much better in terms of brightness. 

4. I definitely think this last project was huge improvement from the other three at school. I was more confident on "putting lead on paper," and showing the darker points and lighter points in the art piece. The king in the art piece could of been slightly lower on the paper and at a slightly flatter angle. Unfortunately, I didn't challenge myself yet again. But I'm proud to have polished my shading, shadowing, and highlighting.  

Blog Post #4 - Post Shading Projects

1. I have definitely improved upon my two major weak points in art. One being the time in which it takes me to complete a project and the other to shade. Unfortunately, I only have one picture of a project, but this one luckily shows where I have improved. 

2. Even with only one picture, I do believe this had to be my most successful project out of the three I've created. Why I say this was my most successful is because of the fact of how fast I drew this with confidence. It may not show a huge amount of shading or highlight, but it shows a little more detail on the shadowing and the shape of these vegetables. It's obvious that it is a closed composition; however, I used the rule of odds so the viewer's eyes keep moving across the composition without focusing on one object. As I've mentioned I didn't focus my attention on the value on this project much, but how fast I could draw it while staying in proportion.

3. In my opinion, the most difficult part in drawing is the first few steps of proportioning, gesturing, and contouring.To make an art piece realistic, the outline of the objects must be at the correct size, position, and overall appearance should be correct when drawing. I had no problem in overcoming these factors, but they can be the most tedious part in the whole project. I'm slowly learning to be more confident in what I draw and how I execute it.

4. I think for this shading project, composition is the biggest part in making an art piece successful. Composition is the subtle art of manipulating, controlling, influencing, enticing, and attracting people. It is the arrangement of visual elements in an art work that best communicates with your concept or vision. By using the rule of thirds, it helps let the viewer explore the art work, instead drawing the object right smack in the middle of the paper. Both the closed and open composition are perfect guides on what the final piece will look like. The last major part in composition is the rule of odds. One object won't be enough to let the viewer explore the art piece. Two objects will only let them see to focal points. Having three or more focal points or objects allow it to be more abstract and complex.

Blog Post #3 Shading Project Midway

1. It helps to start at one end and continue to lighten the presser until I reach the wanted end. The process of shading takes multiple layers, so remember to start out dark and end light. Seven is usually the ideal amount layers. For example, when creating a background shading, its best to keep the motion of which you are drawing vertical instead of horizontal. It helps to gradually move from a darker shade to a lighter one. When creating a shadow, start darker near the object and slowly lighten the presser as you get farther from the object. I still struggle on the transitioning from dark to light and keeping it smooth and consistent. This will be my main priority in art expo.

2. For my first project, I drew scissors in a closed composition. It seemed much easier to see the whole than to enlarge the drawing and create an open composition. I understand I didn't challenge myself enough but I wanted to use this project to work on detail. It turned out pretty well; however, I struggled a lot on the shadow. There is no sense in depth in my drawing when it came to the shadowing. Probably the one factor that brought the whole project down. On the good note, the shading and highlight on the scissors looks pretty good. If I were to darken the whole object a little more, it could add more realism to it. Even though it took me awhile to get the outline of the scissors complete, I was able to correctly proportion and contour it without looking "odd."

3. I still struggle on creating the shadow on objects and because of this it's hard for me to create highlight. If I can overcome my nervousness and become more confident in what I'm drawing, it'll help me finish projects faster and not be stuck on the smallest of details.

This final shoe project to has turned out very well. Yes, it may not have any pen in it; however, it consists of a variety of pencils with different softness. There are numerous techniques used in this sketch. Shadows were created with either crosshatching or hatching methods, as seen under the shoe, in the laces, and in the inside of the shoe. Actually crosshatching was a huge part of this drawing. Along the shoe, you can easily see stippling marks where the crosshatching is. The different kinds of pencils helped create bolder areas and dimension. I used gesturing and contouring in the beginning of the drawing. The one big thing I struggled on, but managed to complete in the end was shading and shadowing. I had to be patient, like the crosshatching, yet crosshatching only involves lines in a certain pattern. This drawing is filled with challenges for me, which is the reason why it took so long. I'm definitely happy with this. It really shows its dimension. As stated before all the new things I've learned in this project were what were mentioned in this post. I only wished I was faster.

Our first huge project has included the process of gesturing and contouring. It was a new technique for me, for I've been using the sketching method of drawing; a slightly faster way of drawing something, but not as accurate. On the other hand, gesturing and contouring is a much slower process allowing for more detail. Gesturing isn't a slow technique, it's the opposite. It helps create an accurate outline of said object. Contouring is the slower part, adding in detail bit by bit until its finished. The one huge problem I found in drawing up my show sketch was figuring out what was the outline of the show. After finding out the outline, the rest was quite easy besides the fact of getting the proportions correct. Drawing faster has always been my biggest problem in art. I focus on the smaller details first and look at the bigger picture later, it should be the other way around. However, I've seen a huge improvement in the time it takes me to draw objects due to gesturing and contouring. In the end, I'll hopefully overcome this weakness of mine in the final project.


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