Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Drawing class: Part 2
Here is the second installment of my drawing class pictures. This one was a lot of fun to do.
This is the second part of our first assignment. As with yesterday's post, this is an assignment to draw a tree. The first time we drew our tree it was intended to be our "best" tree and the second one was to be our "worst" tree. You probably can't tell, but this was the same tree as in the previous picture.
Again, this is pencil on newsprint with a little bit of jabbing with a forefinger to get the hole in the page. Yes, that little square in the bottom left is a hole in the page. Also note that everything is labelled (albeit incorrectly) like the old 60's batman. The textures are inconsistent, the lines are incomprehensible and the contrast is even lighter than the first one. There are random things on the page that don't make sense and it's really tough to tell what the hell is going on.
It was interesting seeing what everyone's take on what a "bad" picture is. Some people tried different styles, some people drew in a much looser fashion and some people did much the same thing they did the first time (whether it was intentional or not, I have no idea!). My idea of a "bad" picture is one that says nothing to anyone, and that doesn't stand out. I think the best way to put it is that a "bad" picture is one that fails to communicate.
Whether I was right about this or not didn't really matter much for the class, though. I think the intention was to get people to see their drawings in a different way, and realize that maybe their worst drawings weren't so bad after all, and that maybe their best wasn't really their best. I think it's a great exercise overall and it was a lot of fun to see these before-and-after pictures. I think if I had to say something good about my bad picture it would be that (if it stood out at all) there is a lot of weird stuff to look at on it. Somebody might find it fun to follow a line around or get a laugh out of one of the weird labels. Someone might even poke their finger through the hole in the page.
Does this mean there is no such thing as bad art? Maybe, but you can certainly get a lot more out of some pictures than others!
This is the second part of our first assignment. As with yesterday's post, this is an assignment to draw a tree. The first time we drew our tree it was intended to be our "best" tree and the second one was to be our "worst" tree. You probably can't tell, but this was the same tree as in the previous picture.
Again, this is pencil on newsprint with a little bit of jabbing with a forefinger to get the hole in the page. Yes, that little square in the bottom left is a hole in the page. Also note that everything is labelled (albeit incorrectly) like the old 60's batman. The textures are inconsistent, the lines are incomprehensible and the contrast is even lighter than the first one. There are random things on the page that don't make sense and it's really tough to tell what the hell is going on.
It was interesting seeing what everyone's take on what a "bad" picture is. Some people tried different styles, some people drew in a much looser fashion and some people did much the same thing they did the first time (whether it was intentional or not, I have no idea!). My idea of a "bad" picture is one that says nothing to anyone, and that doesn't stand out. I think the best way to put it is that a "bad" picture is one that fails to communicate.
Whether I was right about this or not didn't really matter much for the class, though. I think the intention was to get people to see their drawings in a different way, and realize that maybe their worst drawings weren't so bad after all, and that maybe their best wasn't really their best. I think it's a great exercise overall and it was a lot of fun to see these before-and-after pictures. I think if I had to say something good about my bad picture it would be that (if it stood out at all) there is a lot of weird stuff to look at on it. Somebody might find it fun to follow a line around or get a laugh out of one of the weird labels. Someone might even poke their finger through the hole in the page.
Does this mean there is no such thing as bad art? Maybe, but you can certainly get a lot more out of some pictures than others!
------------------------------
Just another reminder. If you're someone who is just stopping by on this blog and you like what you see, check out my friends' blogs:
http://aaronflorian.blogspot.com/
He's slow at putting things up, but he has much better artwork than mine!
http://faded80.blogspot.com/
A great place to hear some obscure but amazing music!
http://aaronflorian.blogspot.com/
He's slow at putting things up, but he has much better artwork than mine!
http://faded80.blogspot.com/
A great place to hear some obscure but amazing music!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Drawing class: Part 1
Starting today I'm going to start uploading the work I've done for my drawing class. It's not going to be anything really spectacular, but it might be fun to read about how the class is going and the little adventures I had in drawing all this stuff. I'll post these slowly so I don't lose interest in my little blog here and I can set a pace to do this daily (or weekly, or some kind of regular interval). You'll have to forgive the image quality on some of these, as most are far too large for my scanner and I have had to use a digital camera to get the images up.
That being said, here is day 1:
This exercise had us going out into the lovely yard around the school and sitting in the grass and the sun and drawing a tree in any style, from any angle, and pretty much any way we wanted. The only thing that was asked was that we draw the best tree we possibly could. I went out and decided that I didn't want to draw a billion leaves so I found a nice little dead branch and started drawing that. I found a fun little bit of narrative in the little green leaf just right of centre reaching up from the dead and broken part to the bunches of more healthy leaves up above on the right. It seemed kind of sad and lonely. I embellished it a little bit to make the leaves look like they were reaching for each other. They will be united again in the fall...in death. Hmmm...so depressing.
On a more technical side, I used a pencil on newsprint for this. Most of the shading and colour I did by just smearing with my finger. It's not very good, especially compared to some of the drawings the other people in my class did. The contrast is way too low, it's hard to see a damn thing on there. The whole thing feels very dull and doesn't catch the eye much at all. Nonetheless, I enjoyed drawing it on a beautiful day in a lovely park so I guess it all evens out in the end.
I'll have the second part of this assignment up tommorow, wherein we draw the same tree in the worst style we possibly can. I won't say too much, but the teacher actually complimented me that it really was the worst tree in the class! hahahaha high praise!
Just as an aside, if there actually is a person whom I don't know reading this blog (and possibly enjoying it?) please check out these other blogs by friends of mine:
Aaron Draws Here:
http://aaronflorian.blogspot.com
My friend Aaron is a person with actual talent! Go check out his blog to see much better art than mine!
Faded80:
http://faded80.blogspot.com
My friend Derek has a blog up featuring his favourite musical selections. He has excellent musical taste and always finds the most interesting old records. I think most of the selections are from his local library's immense stash, so there should always be something amazing to listen to here.
That being said, here is day 1:
This exercise had us going out into the lovely yard around the school and sitting in the grass and the sun and drawing a tree in any style, from any angle, and pretty much any way we wanted. The only thing that was asked was that we draw the best tree we possibly could. I went out and decided that I didn't want to draw a billion leaves so I found a nice little dead branch and started drawing that. I found a fun little bit of narrative in the little green leaf just right of centre reaching up from the dead and broken part to the bunches of more healthy leaves up above on the right. It seemed kind of sad and lonely. I embellished it a little bit to make the leaves look like they were reaching for each other. They will be united again in the fall...in death. Hmmm...so depressing.
On a more technical side, I used a pencil on newsprint for this. Most of the shading and colour I did by just smearing with my finger. It's not very good, especially compared to some of the drawings the other people in my class did. The contrast is way too low, it's hard to see a damn thing on there. The whole thing feels very dull and doesn't catch the eye much at all. Nonetheless, I enjoyed drawing it on a beautiful day in a lovely park so I guess it all evens out in the end.
I'll have the second part of this assignment up tommorow, wherein we draw the same tree in the worst style we possibly can. I won't say too much, but the teacher actually complimented me that it really was the worst tree in the class! hahahaha high praise!
Just as an aside, if there actually is a person whom I don't know reading this blog (and possibly enjoying it?) please check out these other blogs by friends of mine:
Aaron Draws Here:
http://aaronflorian.blogspot.com
My friend Aaron is a person with actual talent! Go check out his blog to see much better art than mine!
Faded80:
http://faded80.blogspot.com
My friend Derek has a blog up featuring his favourite musical selections. He has excellent musical taste and always finds the most interesting old records. I think most of the selections are from his local library's immense stash, so there should always be something amazing to listen to here.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
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