Ink-tense.

         

The last piece of my drawing portrait assignment consisted of an ink drawing, using a fountain-like pen. As with my previous four pieces, this model was reading. Due to the unpredictability of these drawing utensils, I was a bit easier on myself, realizing that unintentional splattering could happen (and did). During this piece, I first drew the outline of each facial aspect and then “shaded” it accordingly but using a series of hatching and cross hatching. Due to the richness of black ink, I occasionally used my fingers to smudge to create a faint sense of value. This particular smearing can be seen underneath my model’s ideas. Overall, this experience was very enjoyable, which taught me the importance of patience as a result of the pen’s capriciousness. Just as with the bind contour self-portrait, I think it would be interesting to try this drawing again with additional time.

Artist’s Statement: Still

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Poised in midair by translucent plastic strings, a stunning collection of beauty products skim from neighboring trees above a pair of identically contoured, soft blue and tan travel boxes. These objects are illuminated by a small, brilliant series of lights that linger within and amid the trees. This image serves as the summation of my final sculptural project.

In this particular sculptural project, I chose to not merely create an avante garde rendition of a totem pole but to also convey a relationship between my late grandmother and me. While totem poles illustrate a number of different stories from familiar legends to extraordinary events, I focused on clan lineages. Because my grandmother died before my birth, I have no stories to tell of our experiences together but instead stories to listen to and draw conclusions from.

With this particular sculptural installation, I wanted to convey a sense of beauty, wonder, and ambiguity: all the things that summarize our relationship.

The string of lights represent the strong, inevitable lineal bond that we as family members share, which is evident by the brightness of lights that serve as a reminder of the blood that run through my veins that give me life. In addition to the luminosity, there is a codependency formed through the juxtaposition of the set of lights in which they are linked to one. Is one set sustaining the other or are both of them formed as one?

Similar to the string of lights, the trees serve to express the same familial sentiment in which they not only neighbor one another but are physically connected as well. Just as the juxtaposition of the trees form an organic relationship, the boxes form one as well in which both are emanating equal amounts of light but unequal amounts of substance. This substantial difference creates somewhat of an imbalance between the two objects, representative of the amount of knowledge I have about my grandmother opposed to the amount of knowledge that is still left unbeknownst to me.

The beauty products represent all of the things not only left behind but also the things left unsaid. The floating arrangement of the items create a sense of airiness to convey some sense of intangibility in which some things are just without reach, creating frustration and curosity.

Due to its sheer simplicity and ambiguity, I believe that this piece is not only empathetic but beautiful as well.

The Bottom Line

     

This particular drawing in my portrait series (that consisted of to a blind contour of a skeleton) went by pretty quickly. While drawing, I specifically focused on the spine due to my fascination with repetition. However, my favorite part of the piece would have to be the joints in the lower right hand corner due to the jagged, realistic line quality that I was able to capture.

   

  

Overall, this specific assignment was useful when drawing the other portraits, because it stood as the framework (otherwise known as skeleton) for the remainder of my drawings. With this piece, I was able to better understand the human body and the correct position of each body part both apart and together.

        

The next assignment that I completed was a blind contour of my own face. This assignment was very reminiscent of the self-portraits that I had to complete towards the latter part of last semester in my Visual Thinking class. As a result of my familiarity with self-portraits, I felt a bit more comfortable drawing myself in this particular context. Evidently, this assignment just oozed with line quality goodness. For some reason, this piece is very precious to me. Perhaps, this feeling is due to the fact that I was wearing a bow in my hair that day. I was particularly pleased that I was able to create texture in my lips by overlaying them with creases. Overall, the assignment was fun; and I think it would be really interesting to see me do this assignment again for a longer period of time.

Val Me? No… Value! (First Portrait, Cntd.)

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The following post is a follow-up of the initial portrait in my drawing series, which pertained to value. Although I love smearing charcoal, I truly enjoyed the process of this piece, which entailed tons of texture due to my lack of smudging. 

During this particular session, the model and I sat in the Writing Center to continue the drawing. When I first drew my model, I was directly in front of him. As a result of this juxtaposition, I chose to continue my sketch from this angle. I first began with his eyeglasses and then his actual eyes almost closed but still concentrating on his reading material.

The most difficult part of aspect of this particular piece was capturing my model’s nose just right. Sometimes too small. Sometimes too big. Sometimes too long. Sometimes too short. However, with assistance from students in the Writing Center who were kind enough to give me their expertise and advice on how I drew his nose versus what it actually looked like, I was finally able to get a good sense of it. I did not realize how communal this art process was until friends passed by said how good it was and then made suggestions on what I could do to enhance it.

Because I never draw actual real-life models, this art assignment was new, fresh, exciting, and enjoyable. There was a bit of pressure, because I wanted the picture to be an accurate rendition of my actual model. He took time out of his schedule to be drawn… the least I could do is draw a beautiful, flattering portrayal of him, right?

I was super ecstatic to hear that not only viewers but my model was happy with my portrait (as evident by the photos of him grinning from ear to ear towards the end of this post’s slideshow). (Yay! One down, five to go…)

Notes to Self

The notes that I wrote/jotted down in my sketchbook during my final sculptural project can be found below. Enjoy!

Page One: The notes on the first page displayed include my ideas regarding materials, possible concepts (specifically travel), and a review of my past projects, particularly the ideas that I enjoyed from each assignment and ways to incorporate it into my last one.

Page Two: The notes on the second page displayed include my research of totem poles as well as adjectives to describe the materials I need along with a rough schedule of the remainder of the semester.

Page Three: The third page consists of the materials (with Nell’s lovely assistant) that I would need to create the proposed idea and structure in page four.

Page Four: My initial proposal along with the questions I drew from my drawing.

Page Five: The materials that I would needed (…with the help of Nell, of course).

Page Six: The name of the fishing twine I would need to suspend my objects (…and my attempt to write it.)

Run-Through

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A week before the final critique I had the opportunity to set up my sculptural installation. After dolling my belongings, string of lights, and two pieces of luggage to the trees, I started to position the pieces. I first played with the juxtaposition of the luggage underneath the trees. After doing so, I put the objects in the position I found them in the boxes up in the trees and tied knots to secure the items.I also thought about the weight of the objects, placing the heavier items lower toward the bottom of the tree limbs. Once the objects were placed in the trees, I worked with the string of lightings, joining them together between the trees to create a lineal connection between the two plants.

In the process, I found closer electrical plugs, which made the employment of the string lights a bit easier. In addition, several people stopped me while I was working, asking what I was doing. Some people were just satisfied with the answer “working on an art project for my sculpture class.” Others wanted more details. After explaining the concept of my project, several people empathized with it whether it was their relationship with their own grandmother or the beauty products they used years ago. This sense of compassion made me super excited.

Recap: Week of April 11, 2010 (Continued.)

See, I told you I would write about my portrait series! With this particular drawing, I tried to create a drawing using erasure.

Valuable lesson learned: Always look up the definition of a word before attempting to actual do anything with your piece of artwork.

Okay, so I admit it. I was not exactly sure what erasure was exactly until after I drew the picture (…, which I occasionally used an eraser to do. Does that count?  “A” for effort, right?). I re-drew the picture correctly (…, which I will be sure to post and write about later on today). However, I feel that this particular piece turned out amazingly well; and I could not be prouder of it.

The second piece within my series took about three hours to complete. This experience was incredibly fun and different. In addition to having the opportunity to talk with my model, I also learned to use vine charcoal really well.

I first started by drawing definite lines and then smeared the charcoal to provide the picture with shadows, dimension, depth, and warmth.

Prior to this particular assignment, I thought that vine charcoal was impossible to use due to its tendency to erase. It was truly exciting to see that I could draw an entire sketch solely using this particular kind of charcoal. Due to the drawing utensil’s erasure propensity, the lines were incredibly soft and light, which gave the overall piece a light and airy feel.

Due to the natural human movement, the photos above are not the exact angle from which I was drawing the model, but they are pretty close.