Block head

Here is Block Head. This was a shading exercise showing the contours of the face drawn with three different types of pencils. 

Also notice the sides of the face. This is something artists do all the time that nobody notices. On the right side of the face I wanted to highlight the bones so I put dark next to it. In between the dark I then have to put light. When you do this you then HAVE to do the opposite on the other side. Why?... Because my teacher said so. 

The dark next to light allows you to draw the viewers eyes to where you want them to go.  Dark next to dark keeps the viewer from looking in that area. So most likely your eyes will be drawn to the right side of the drawing because of the larger contrast. 

No pics, but a post

Well none of my art exercises would warrent a picture for you to look at so I just decided to write about them. The next exercise after the pear and stawberry drawing (in which my stawberries look like turnips) was to draw the "positive".

"Positive" exercise - I had a picture of a bunch of bottles of different heights and shapes and I had to draw them all on my sketch pad. Once finished drawing the bottles, I had to draw in all color changes and shawdows on the bottles. This was not a fun exercise

"Negative" drawing exercise - In this drawing we were to draw the space and not the object. In the end you end up having the object drawn, but it's because you've drawn the space around it. Does that make sense? This was also not a fun exercise and was glad my teacher moved me on quickly.

Shading exercise - We were given a face (which looks like one of the statues on Easter Island) and we had to draw the face and then put in all the shading. I really liked this exercise. I'll post this one when I'm done.

These exercises have really helped me understand what's involved in drawing and art. My teacher is contantly saying "there should be a reason behind every stroke of your brush, nothing is arbitrary". Hmmm....sounds like life.

Work in Progress

Here's the lastest drawing exercise. Still a major work in progress. Through this exercise we're learning shading, terminal points, shadows, perspective etc. Boy, I have to tell ya, this is a really hard class. There a lot of rules that you have to remember when drawing. I have a much higher appreciation for those that have mastered the arts.

First Drawing Exercise

Below is my first drawing exercise from my art class. We have three drawing pencils in which to create 15 shades of "color". So in this exercise we learned how to use those 15 different shades to make something 3-dimentional. Again, this picture looks very different in person, but you get the drift.

Art Class starting soon!

I just signed up for an art class that I'm really excited about. I've been waiting to get into this class for at least a year and it so happens to be down the street (no commuting!). The teacher was glad to hear that I've never had an art class ( for the most part) so that I don't have any bad habits that need to be broken. I really have no idea what I'm doing when I'm painting. I'll start off drawing with a pencil until he decides I'm ready to move on. If you want to see what his students do you can go to his website, www.oldworldart.net.

Abstract - 2 more

I'm realizing when I take pictures of my paintings it really looks so different than in person. The flash of the camera shines too bright a light and shows you almost too much. In natural light the colors and layers play off each other differently.

Foray into Abstract

So I thought I try out a type of abstract that I really like. It takes some time because it's layer upon layer of paint. I started out wanting only to make it a yellow/cream/red/brown tone, but somehow blue entered in and I just went with it. I like the contrasting colors of the peaches and the blue-green.

My Paintings

April 2008

Below is my newest painting "Ripe Banana". While I was painting I got frustrated and painted over the brown with yellow and it actually made the banana look more real. Funny how things like that happen. The picture I posted has the banana I was painting above it to show that I have to paint from what I see.

My two newest paitings are "Custom Made Drink" and "Unfinished Pears". When I was painting the pears I had three pears sitting my my painting table, but I need to take them for lunch. So the painting really is unfinished because I had to eat my "subject".

The First painting. (Spring 2007)