Week 10 • Artist's statement • Slideshow• Blog

In the third quarter we were assigned to create eye, optical illusion, bike, mandala and shading drawings. The main focus throughout these drawings was shading. More specifically being able to distinguish different shades of color and then apply your knowledge of shading through the assigned art pieces.

Week 1-2 we were assigned to draw a picture of a bike. We had to find a picture of any type of bike you wanted and draw it to the last detail in full scale. For this drawing I chose an old fashion bike, because I admire the look of those types of bikes. First, I drew a draft of my bike on a piece of printer paper. Then I had to the bigger version, which was extremely hard. I spent about two days putting detail into the bike. Although, this drawing was very time consuming, I recognized that something like this was meant to take the amount of time it did. One thing I took away from drawing my bike, was, to not doubt myself. While drawing my bike I would continuously draw a certain part until I thought it was perfect. By the time it was done, there was an extreme amount of detail, yet I still felt I need more. I was proud of the outcome, but I wanted to make it better. Sometimes you just need to take the time you have, put in the effort, and if you're already proud with the drawing go with it.  Which I can personally say, definitely paid off.

Week 3-4 we had to draw two optical illusions, one being a square and the other being a sphere. First I drew my sphere, I started to think an optical illusion of a sphere was the same as a 3D circle. I watched a video on how to turn a sphere into an optical illusion, then showed Mrs Hull. With advice and redirection from Mrs. Hull I quickly realized I was drawing my sphere incorrectly. My shading was off, and what I thought was an optical illusion, wasn't. Eventually I was able to my sphere correctly, and had no problem with the square. I learned to, not refer to a video of someone draw a optical illusion version of a sphere, but rather look at a picture. This is because the person and myself had very different perspective of the sphere. I wasn't looking at what the person was looking at for them to draw the sphere the way they did. I was only looking at how the sphere was being drawn. Where as, if i'm look at a picture of sphere, I already know what it looks like and can tell that which direction im looking from. That way I could draw from my own perspective.

Week 5-6, shading forms. This assignment wasn’t particularly hard or time consuming. Following direction from the given pdf and taking what I learned the last two weeks, it was pretty easy. One thing I was proud of was the way the shading forms turned out. One thing I took away was, when you put in the effort to get better in a concept, whether that means practicing or asking question, you will always get better in that concept.

Week 7 we were assigned to draw an eye. However not just any eye, our own eye. We had to take a picture of our eye and then in as much as possible, draw your eye. When drawing my eye, I decided to veer away from the examples given and really take a look at my eye and see what was really going on. This really helped when trying to my eye not necessarily perfect but realistic in my own way. One thing I took away from this assignment was, a lot of people consider the term ‘realistic” as being something that is perfect, practical , real, as if there is only one version of what an eye looks like. However, there are many types of realistic, as well as many interpretation of what it means. In terms of my eye drawing, my interpretation of a realistic eye drawing, may not match others, but my version of what an eye looks like only pertains to me, considering its a drawing of my eye. Just like my version of real may never be your version of real, whether we have a similar mindset or not.

Week 8-9 was the last drawing, and we had to create a mandala. This was something new to me, so I decided to draw something low in complication but not simple. After drawing my mandala, I felt as though it looked a bit rough. I continued to had detail, and make certain part stick out more than others. I also decided to color it with a variety of different colors,  to make my mandala more appealing. I purposely made my color selection very eccentric, to give my mandala an exotic look, where different shapes and figures that normally wouldn't go together, are put together. One thing I recognized was that mandala’s in general look very exotic and normally, I wouldn't have given my mandala a colorful but odd look. However, the type of art mandala is, influenced my explore my artistic ability and forms of expressing art.