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Tag: pencil drawing
How drawing classes have been – Part I
10th grade started September 2015 and this year I decided to leave humanities and changed to the arts area. I should mention I’m portuguese and I have no idea how this works in countries like the U.S.
Since I completed philosophy, english and all the others all areas classes last year, I don’t have to do them again, meaning this year, I have 3 subjects on school: Drawing, descriptive geometry, and history and culture of the arts. Now I’m here to talk about the drawing classes.
I was really scared of what the drawing class would be about because on 9th grade we had to draw faces, copy famous paintings and build small bridges (this last one was a shame for me). Well, turns out I’m way better than what I expected.
We started the year by studying natural forms. We were assigned to choose an object from nature, and bring it to class, to draw it! Some people bough seashells, fruits or feathers. I completely forgot about this so I just grabbed a leaf before class (the one you can see above).
We started by copying the object to paper in real size, to get to know it, then, I made a composition on a A3 sized paper (11.7 x 16.5 inches), copying the object with pen dots, colored pencils, and graphite. The graphite one was the one that took me ore time, because of every single detail on that specific part of the leaf.
Since my works are usually abstract I thought realism was going to be brain challenging and I would be one of the worst people in class, if not the worse. Turns out I had one of the best marks at the end of the first period – 17. The best anyone could get is 20.
On part II, I’ll talk about the project we did after, with charcoal.
Call – Soluble graphite on paper
Certainly on of those I don’t know whether I should call abstract, surreal, or both.
Time taken: About 4 to 6 hours. Most used supplies: Graphite aquarelle pencils, canson imagine paper, and the viarco carbon for the darker areas. A4 sized.
Most of my drawings have no meaning at all besides capturing a feeling. The reason I don’t like to explain them anymore is because the best thing about them is to see how other people interpret it. One of my teachers asked me to see it and started talking about Thoth, a egyptian god because of the bird figure. I had no idea what he was talking about.
Drawing on ripped paper – Source
This drawing is called “Source” and was based on the top part of magicians’ class staffs that I see in video games, the “source” of magic. To create it, I used both graphite pencils and powder on bristol paper.
I’ve moved, and school started, so I’m really happy I had the time to draw something I consider good again, and I tried to use new techniques!
But why is the paper ripped? Well, I was on my drawing class when our teacher asked us why we would only draw on standard paper sizes, like A4, and then, why we would not draw in circles, or something similar. So I decided I should do something like this, and instead of cutting the paper with a scissor, I ripped it by hand. I really like this effect, gives it a more natural look.
Graphite pencils from caran d’ ache and faber castell, graphite powder by sennelier on canson bristol paper. Ripped by hand.
Little abstract drawing – Night spirit
This one is called little. It’s a small drawing I did for my youtube art channel because I haven’t had much time to record.
I must say, considering how bad I usually am on creating something on smaller sheets of paper, I surprised myself!
My idea was to draw a “Night spirit”, a tiny creature facing the night sky, with a “watcher” on its back, with a moon figure, and leaf feathers.
I used both normal and soluble graphite, on fabriano bristol paper.
Abstract graphite drawing – Metamorphosis
Insects are one of my biggest art inspirations, so on the past days, I’ve been internet searching about by biggest curiosity about them. The ability to change – complete metamorphosis. But insect talk aside, lets talk about this drawing.
Most used materials: Faber castell graphite pencils, canson bristol paper, viarco watercolor graphite. I can’t scan it now because I’m not at home.
Time: 6 hours 14 minutes.
Main idea: A butterfly like creature coming out of a cocoon with based on moth wings shapes. The butterfly wings blend into another cocoon, with a big larvae inside it.
I’ve got to say, I am not pleased with the end result. The shapes on what is supposed to be a cocoon, are terribly blended with each other, specially the wings with a big black / white contrast. The composition also fails. The left side just doesn’t make any sense, specially with the terribly drawn lines, and I could not get the background as I wanted. It’s an example of how just a little thing like the top left side of the paper can ruin your whole drawing.
This is not to say I hate it. It’s just one of those times when you can see everything you did wrong right after finishing something, instead of after a week.
If you’re interested, I have an extended speed drawing version of the first 2 hours of the progress available on my youtube channel.
Whisperer
Whispering to a flower. This was a quick drawing I did to help me getting out of this art block I’ve been feeling. I haven’t had drawing ideas. Until this. A bird shadow above a mouth shaped leaf, pointing to a small flower. “Whispering”.
Initially, it was a normal A4 paper, but then I cropped it due to composition reasons. I also used a few soluble graphite.
Most used art supplies:
Faber castell graphite pencils and TK fine 0.7
Canson bristol paper
Graphite pencil drawing – Awake
Here is a question. Do you ever have a weird art idea which you can’t explain properly, because there is no explanation? You know, I was sketching last week and I thought of doing a strange eye, separated from the bottom eyelashes, with a feline inspired iris inside a round one, and a really small pupil inside it, and I was so fascinated with this weird sketch that this week I decided to do a proper drawing with it, with the upper eyelashes connected to the lines of the leaves, that are also different, and the eye between two of those, a big and a small. I don’t know why either but I drew something which is supposed to be an insect, looking at everything.
Graphite pencils (Castell 9000 and grafwood) and sennelier graphite powder on canson bristol paper. Fixative from winsow & Newton.
Time: 6 hours 34 minutes
Lua Eva Blue 
