H e l l o
Okay so when someone says "teach me to draw!" my heart sinks a little because of the sheer stupidity of the request. it comes close to "DRAW ME" in terms of comparison in that it makes me suicidal! Then there's those who sarcastically say it thinking it is witty and original when in fact it's more common than the serious ones. ANYWAY!
NUMBER ONE
O u t l i n i n g
When you are drawing ANYTHING you want to start with a feint outline to give some shape and definition to your piece. This is essential in still life drawing or portraits as well as landscape drawing. It is like perfecting your image before you even start shading or colouring! Okay so you COULD use the pencil you draw with and just press lightly but what would be better is to actually use a harder pencil. I use a 6H or a 7H for outlines, any harder and it will just scratch the paper. These are great because they erase so easily. Even a HB which is generally considered the median of pencils can be a bitch to erase!
P a p e r
The type of paper you use can effect the quality of your drawing! You would be surprised how many people would never thing to use watercolour paper for watercolour pencils. I'm not even kidding! So few make the connection! If you take art a bit more seriously and like to paint, try buying a canvas pad. They're cheap have a great texture and because the pages are similar to that of a real canvas, it dries a hell of a lot quicker!
B l a c k
DON'T BE AFRAID OF GOING DARK! I saw the Year 11 portraiture and was stunned to see how light all of the drawings were! Pressing hard with a HB is feeble compared to a 5B! Especially on eyes! Make the pupil as black as you can and leave the eye whites as blank as possible! Darkness ads unfathomable depth to a piece! Look at my Oprah drawing (my first of the series) and then Brad Pitt! I used a 7B for most of Brad and you can see the improvement!
B l e n d i n g
I am usually fickle about blending with my finger but sometimes on large areas of skin I tend to do so. A smudge stick costs about 20c and is a great tool for controlled blending and smudging. The worst part of using your finger is that every time you touch the paper you will leave a fingerprint which is a bitch to get rid of later down the track
M i s t a k e s
If you are a perfectionist like myself, DEAL WITH IT! Everyone makes mistakes. As long as you have a quality eraser shouldn't be that bigger deal. trial and error is the best way to improve!
H a r s h R e a l i t y
Sadly, some people cant draw to save their life and shouldn't be allowed to hold a pencil. But you shouldn't aim to be like that kid in your art class that you hate because of their talent. Everyone has their own strengths so stick to them but don't be too close minded. It's kind of like singing, you either can or you can't but maybe training or practise can make you a little better.
Have a good one guys! xo
Monday, May 31, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
I've been a bit lazy!
Wow I havent blogged in ages! I am just a bit useless! To be honest I havent had a lot to blog about recently! My major piece is giving me a bit of troulbe in terms of actually decideding what its going to look like. I have a general idea I think the whole perfectionist thing is coming into play. I guess its still in the development stages so I cshouldnt be so hard on myself! Anyway, I shall start Tyra Banks tomorrow which will be the last celebrity, then its onto my school chaps! I am rather excited! I actually just had a good idea for a blog! So I might do that in my lack of spare time! Just to remidn myself its about all the different types of PAPER! YAY! I promise Ill have a picture of Ryan Reynolds soon!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
BACK UP WORK
Okay this blog has been a difficult and long process so you better like it!
Okay now in Year 12 Art, both Practical and studies, students have to create two major art works. These are accompanied by a backup folder, which is essentially 50 A3 pages of ideation, development, practicing, media exploration and all sorts. This is generally the most tedious part of the subject. Most of the marks are actually focused around this work so doing it well is very important!
Ive comprised some tips on how to make backup work more aesthetically pleasing as well as worthy of more marks! So if you're an art student this will be helpful, if not then... why are you on here? JOKES <3
T I T L E S
No matter what you're doing you should have a title on your page. It makes it easier to identify and adds clarity to your work. It shows that you actually know what you are developing. Here are some examples of titles that I have done, where I have gone that little bit further which I will explain later on.
These are both examples of how what would ordinarily be dull pages with a lack of colour, but if you spend a little time on the title it can completely change the way the page looks. All I have done here is used the medium to fancy it up a bit. Pencils are easy to draw so its not really that difficult. The PEN title is a little more complex but if you're feeling ambitious then give it a try. Even if the title is in fancy writing it will still give a nice look to the page, and REMEMBER! It doesn't have to be in the top left corner!
This was a page where I used my mannequin to make some poses for future use. I just drew a few more little ones around the word Poses which is simply written, and it completely changes the dimension of the word.
R E F E R E N C E S
Okay so say you have done a bunch of pictures and you want to write down what colours you have used. this is how I do it.
Completely ridiculous and borderline pretentious BUT it give it that look that actually makes people jealous of your work! And why wouldn't you want that?! It is those individual touches that give your pages that BAM!
R E C Y C L I N G
50 pages is A LOT! And it is hard to fill! So use everything! Even scribbles on paper or when you test a colour! You may remember when I first drew Brad Pitt! Well look where it is now!
This is a great idea to fill up some pages! Even sticking different types of paper in and writing a bit about them is good! This leads onto my next section
W R I T I N G
NOW everything you draw or stick in, you should write about. Say what it is, what you like about it and what you don't. This is an ESSENTIAL part of backup work. Now I suggest that if you want to keep it from looking messy, either rule feint lines first then erase later, or if you're bored then do this
This is very time consuming but creates the illusion of a page being fuller than it actually is!
The opposite is if you have stuck something in in the same fashion, then write on the paper. This is where I have talked about another artists work, which also gets big marks!
G E T M O D E L S
Getting people to model for you is another mark booster! I got a friend to pose for my mother nature section of my major. I used flowers from a cheap-shop lei and pinned them in her hair to simulate real flowers. I then stapled the actual flowers to the page. Taking your own pictures is MUCH better than using net images.
E X T R A S
Using paint in your book can be detrimental to appearances if you are using both the left and right paint. I only use the right page! Anywho for some paint experimentation, I bought a canvas panel and stuck it in with tape! Its much tidier!
ALSO if you feel that your book has become too confusing and perhaps lacking obvious direction, do a THOUGHT SO FAR page! This is also great for marks!
THANKS FOR READING!
Okay now in Year 12 Art, both Practical and studies, students have to create two major art works. These are accompanied by a backup folder, which is essentially 50 A3 pages of ideation, development, practicing, media exploration and all sorts. This is generally the most tedious part of the subject. Most of the marks are actually focused around this work so doing it well is very important!
Ive comprised some tips on how to make backup work more aesthetically pleasing as well as worthy of more marks! So if you're an art student this will be helpful, if not then... why are you on here? JOKES <3
T I T L E S
No matter what you're doing you should have a title on your page. It makes it easier to identify and adds clarity to your work. It shows that you actually know what you are developing. Here are some examples of titles that I have done, where I have gone that little bit further which I will explain later on.
These are both examples of how what would ordinarily be dull pages with a lack of colour, but if you spend a little time on the title it can completely change the way the page looks. All I have done here is used the medium to fancy it up a bit. Pencils are easy to draw so its not really that difficult. The PEN title is a little more complex but if you're feeling ambitious then give it a try. Even if the title is in fancy writing it will still give a nice look to the page, and REMEMBER! It doesn't have to be in the top left corner!
This was a page where I used my mannequin to make some poses for future use. I just drew a few more little ones around the word Poses which is simply written, and it completely changes the dimension of the word.
R E F E R E N C E S
Okay so say you have done a bunch of pictures and you want to write down what colours you have used. this is how I do it.
Completely ridiculous and borderline pretentious BUT it give it that look that actually makes people jealous of your work! And why wouldn't you want that?! It is those individual touches that give your pages that BAM!
R E C Y C L I N G
50 pages is A LOT! And it is hard to fill! So use everything! Even scribbles on paper or when you test a colour! You may remember when I first drew Brad Pitt! Well look where it is now!
This is a great idea to fill up some pages! Even sticking different types of paper in and writing a bit about them is good! This leads onto my next section
W R I T I N G
NOW everything you draw or stick in, you should write about. Say what it is, what you like about it and what you don't. This is an ESSENTIAL part of backup work. Now I suggest that if you want to keep it from looking messy, either rule feint lines first then erase later, or if you're bored then do this
This is very time consuming but creates the illusion of a page being fuller than it actually is!
The opposite is if you have stuck something in in the same fashion, then write on the paper. This is where I have talked about another artists work, which also gets big marks!
G E T M O D E L S
Getting people to model for you is another mark booster! I got a friend to pose for my mother nature section of my major. I used flowers from a cheap-shop lei and pinned them in her hair to simulate real flowers. I then stapled the actual flowers to the page. Taking your own pictures is MUCH better than using net images.
E X T R A S
Using paint in your book can be detrimental to appearances if you are using both the left and right paint. I only use the right page! Anywho for some paint experimentation, I bought a canvas panel and stuck it in with tape! Its much tidier!
ALSO if you feel that your book has become too confusing and perhaps lacking obvious direction, do a THOUGHT SO FAR page! This is also great for marks!
THANKS FOR READING!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
8th portrait - Jeffrey Donovan
Guy from Burn Notice. Done in black Prismacolor pencil.
The top of the hair will be cut off for a border if you were wondering! He did have a goatee bit it was disgusting so I got rid of it!
Monday, May 3, 2010
7th Portrait - Brad Pitt
Bad quality photo taken in yellow light. Probably sounds like an excuse but meh!I think it looks like him...
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
This Week
Hey guys! Lately I'm very up to date with all my homework and assignments. SO what I will be doing this week is working on a long blog post about how to make backup work presentable and how to give it that creative flare that so many people want but are perhaps to lazy to do. So this week I plan to give a few hints on making the usually drab and boring process of backup work a little more colourful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
