Drawing Final Exam

1. I feel that my most successful project thus far is the portrait. The goal was to do a self-portrait that wasn't dull and to correctly draw the face. After deciding to do a robot with my face on it, I then decided to do it in prismacolor. Flesh is a difficult thing to do, especially with color pencils. To first draw the face, I drew two lines that intersected in the middle on the paper and on the photo. After getting the facial features down, I began to color. I started with the robot half, which was done with regular drawing pencils. The flesh half was done with a combination of peach, brown, red, and white. The combination of these colors helped make a more realistic skin that a single pencil couldn't do. To help the flesh half seem more 3D, I moved the pencils along where the skin was, helping it seem to pop out more.

2. I feel that my least successful project was my first prismacolor  drawing of an ice statute. I feel that  the goal of doing a drawing that gave the illusion of transparency wasn't met with this. The colors are too bold, and are not transparent enough. The highlights also couldn't be brought out as well since darker colors are too prominent. Also, the way the pencil lines move along th statute isn't good, and doesn't help give an illusion of 3D. I would make the colors lighter, and make the highlights more pronounced in this. I would also base the statute more on a real life example so I can more easily make the composition better. I would also change the way the lines move along the statute.

3. The two pieces that I feel show growth are the skydiving drawing and the wizard scratchboard. The skydiving drawing was daunting, and the size of the paper made it difficult to keep the lines consistent across. I feel that the skydiving drawing shows a better understanding of perspective and how the some things look closer than others. The wizard scratchboard showed a better understanding of highlights and shading. It also showed me a new medium that could be used to make a new kind of art. The scratchboard also shows that I learned how to use lines and lights to emphasize distance and shapes of objects. Both of these pieces also show growth in drawing the figure and its various poses. Both also show growth in light and where highlights should be placed.

4. The two mini lessons I felt I benefit from the most are the figure drawing lesson and the face lesson. The face lesson helped by showing the proportions and what parts need emphasis. I feel that the lesson gave enough time by establishing the proportions and the eyes. The face lesson also helped by applying  itself to figure drawing. The figure drawing lesson was the most helpful of the semester because it taught proportions and gestures. Gesture drawings really helped by showing how to do a figure drawing quickly and accurately. The face lesson had more than enough time given as it went into specific parts such as the eyes and nose. However, I wish the figure drawings were given more time, as I feel that the proportions of the arms, legs, hands, and feet weren't given enough time.

5. My favorite medium to work with now is scratchboards. The look of the results can provide for great dramatic pictures and perfectly portray an action scene. The way the highlights are needed to be filled in rather than the shading allows for a refreshing change in how the artwork is done. The scratch tools are easy to use, and can be adjusted to do a variety of marks. Shading or highlighting a large area is a pain with a pencil, but a scratch tool can change its head to have a larger mark. There is also no need to blend as there is with a pencil. In addition, it takes less effort to make a black and white picture. Although pencils are easier to use, scratchboards can get better-looking results.