Weird how I spend half an hour looking for a pen to write on my diary, afraid words will fade with time, but just use graphite to draw.
Union – Trying new drawing things
Recently, I thought about using my drawings as some kind of “puzzle”.
Titled Union, this was my first experiment. I wanted half of the drawing made with soluble graphite, but the paper I was using wasn’t the best option, so I cut some mix media paper and added it instead, but not gluing both parts together, just divided and united by lines on paper. A two piece puzzle. But I can do more, for example use these individual puzzle pieces to make new(?) drawings.
This is interesting to me and I need to explore more.
That one 6th grade art class – A random story
Ohhh, the “art classes” on 6th grade. Great times. Those were the old days. 5 years ago but you get what I mean. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m not sure if it was an year before, but it doesn’t matter.
We had 2 teachers who would give us stuff to do. I don’t remember their names so I’ll call them A and B.
So on 6th grade, we were assigned to get some drawings to copy in class. The teachers didn’t specify what drawings or of what kind so I made blue and pink squares on Paint (the computer thing, the old version) and printed it because I really liked doodles back then. Too bad at the end of the year I threw all of my drawings to the garbage. So yeah, pink and blue squares made on paint. Top quality art on a nice smooth white background.
Most people brought pages from child coloring books with cartoon butterflies (like duh dude, 6th grade) and our teacher B reacted badly. He spent about 20 minutes or more lecturing us on how we are not kids anymore and we need to step up our art game. 6th graders. Not kids anymore. Ok.
So instead, he gave us the drawings he wanted us to draw. I recall ending up drawing pink roses(?) which was very hard to me back then. My best friend at that time, drew Sunflowers from Vincent Van Gogh, which is this painting:
(I got a bit jealous because he was already one of my favourite artists)
I my memory doesn’t fail me, someone had to copy a Miro, which style looks like this:
I quite like it.
Then there was my top quality pink squares pixel art made on Paint print. And what did my teacher B said when he saw it? After getting annoyed at 6th graders for bringing childish cartoon coloring books? What did he say after seeing my 2 minutes on Paint masterpiece?
“Whose artist is this?”
B meant “artist” as in an actual artist. I was a child. I still am but still. I had no idea what he was talking about and I never thought about the concept of art before. So what did I answer?
“I made that on Paint”
-boom-
Teacher B: Priceless reaction. Speechless.
Teacher A: *Trying to hard to contain the laughter while looking to B*
I had no idea of what was going on so something in my brain told itself “Ok, I’ll record this moment here so when I’m older I’ll look back to see if I get the reference”. And I have no memory of what happened after their reaction. How cool are brains?
So my guess is, he thought it was from an Miro like artist (even though miro wouldn’t use pink…I think?) who knew exatly what he was doing and those squares had some meaning, and not from a 6th grader playing around on Paint.
The end.
Here’s a work in progress of a drawing I’m doing by the way:
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.
Lua Eva Blue 
