This Marking Period

I feel like our recent assignments have really taught me a few things. Starting out with graphic pencil made me feel comfortable and relaxed again. After recapping my pencil skills, it was time to move on and try something new. I've discovered that I do indeed have the ability to apply my drawing/shading techniques into other medias. It feels really great, I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable with experimenting and adding color and variety into my artwork. Rather than the usual black & gray tones graphic pencil provides. It's a really great shift, and it's truly helping me gain some new perspectives.

Self Portraits

Yay, portraits! At first, I was a little iffy with it... but I'm actually getting the hang of things. I really like the outline of my face. Well, I still think it looks creepy in a way. It's cool though. I just feel like after looking at it for so long, it barely resembles me. Hm. I traced three different angles of my portrait onto smaller paper to practice painting on. The first time I tried, I used a burgundy color. It didn't really go as I planned, so I decided to change the color. I ended up going for a teal-ish color, which I'm absolutely loving at the moment. I'm still working on it now, and its coming along great. I'll be posting up a picture soon, probably after the whole inking process.

All about fruit (cont'd)

Oh boy, when Mrs. Kiick told us we were working with colored pencils next, I got nervous. I was afraid to step out out of my comfort zone, my attachment to pencil drawing. Afraid that I wouldn't be able to apply my same skills of graphic pencil to colored pencil. Mrs Kiick assured me I'd be able to, but I still felt a little insecure. She gave us these practice sheets to get us a little more familiar with using colored pencils. After that, I started to feel a bit more comfortable. So I began my apple, starting from the stem.

I'm so satisfied with the way my apple turned out. Mrs. Kiick was right!

I showed my family when I got home. My father and my brother, Tmmy, were both astonished. However, my mother and my youngest brother, Michael, thought it was an actual print out of an apple! Ha! They convinced themselves that I didn't draw the apple. Sillies. I just took that as a compliment. They were mistaking my drawing for the real thing, haha.

Now onto self-portraits!

All about fruit.

So Mrs. Kiick had us conceive an image of the fruit using the viewfinder. After a while of shifting the viewfinder around to examine different perspectives, this is the position I chose to draw from. ( Excuse the horrible quality. Took that one with my cellular device, and my hands were shaky! D: ).

I was so excited to start drawing again, especially with the tools Mrs. Kiick had supplied us with. Brand new graphic pencils, blending stomps, and that doughy eraser (can't remember the actual name for it). But oh, joy! Graphic pencils and I, we're invincible when we're working together. That, I can proudly admit.

Stages of my pencil drawing over the long week:

I came to a pause while shading the inside of the orange. I wasn't sure about how I was going to portray the pulp in my drawing. Luckily Mrs. Kiick gave me a little tip on how to go about doing so. I used the edge of a regular No.2 pencil to swipe off bits of the orange. It worked out perfectly.
(I love pulp, just sayin')