Two of my Best Works from Drawing Fundamentals Class

This is a charcoal drawing done on toned paper I made in Drawing Fundamentals class of two Greek pots? & a cup. It is my first charcoal drawing & I tried really hard not to make an outline, & instead used short, varying strokes which I had some experience from practicing by myself. I squinted really hard- just like what my professor said lol.



This is the result after I fixed it. I erased a lot of outlining- which was more than I expected =(, fixed the shadowing & made the pots look more round:



This is a curtain pinned on the wall with a dramatic lighting on the left side.



I love making charcoal drawings & my sole complain is inhaling all the charcoal dust. I love to get my hands dirty when using this media (I'm the only person in the class who refuse to wear gloves! Even the guys wore gloves! -_-) but my eyes start getting really dry & I become really dizzy & extremely thirsty! & when I blow my nose...... well, you know! So I try to use charcoal whenever I'm outside.

::see- vee

Portrait of a friend

This is a painted picture of a friend of mine done with acrylic paint. This is my third attempt painting and it looks like Snoop Dogg lol. Although I'll say this was a sucess, I really need to take a painting class because I feel I can benefit so much from it. I can't wait for next semester...hopefully I can register in time but first I need money to pay my classes off =( Damn American economy epic failure!!!!

Self Portrait Before and After

BEFORE



AFTER

This is my first time painting (please excuse me!!) and it happens to be a self portrait. The left is what it looked like before & then after I fixed it. I felt the need to fix it because my left eye was floating making my whole face look deformed. Also, my professor said that by keeping the white area around the face gives an unfinished look. I wanted to see if she was right so I filled in the white space and I balanced both sides of the face so that it really looks like I'm looking at the viewer face first even though the photo I based this painting on was turned to the right side a little.

Personally, I think the drawing after is better but the color is less vibrant. I'm starting to regret changing this =(

Visages of the Sun with an Ode to Dali, Kentridge, Van Gogh, and Monet

The picture above is a drawing/painting of the sun I call "Visages of the Sun with an Ode to Dali, Kentridge, Van Gogh, & Monet". The sun is divided into four parts each to represent the four seasons & clockwise starting from the top left is winter, spring, summer, and fall. I thought about the colors that are associated with each season & concluded that summer is all about bright yellows & clear blue skies, spring is basically all deep reds & purples, fall is depressing with its greys & blacks, & winter are shades of blues. Doing so forced me to think which artist use which color a lot and in the end I decided that Winter's blues make me think of Van Gogh's "Starry Night", Spring's reds make me think of a Monet painting, Summer's yellow reminds me of a Salvadore Dali painting most specifically I thought about "The Colossus of Rhodes" because the statue is looking up and shielding his eyes probably because of the blinding sun, & Fall's greys any of William Kentridge's charcoal paintings. I've been asked why fall is Kentridge when greys & blacks make them think of winter but I tell them because I'm thinking more in a deeper sense that Kentridge draws politically, about corruption, about falling.

I handed this 30 x 35" (roughly estimating) "Visages of the Sun with an Ode to Dali, Kentridge, Van Gogh, & Monet" as my 2D design final.

Btw, yes I know an ode is defined as a poem but for me an ode is also a dedication. It was by first instinct to name this piece this way & I always trust my first instinct ;]

Feeling Poetic.... Art, Life, Death ;]

I am a lover of art. For most, what is considered art is the beautiful but for me everything is beautiful & therefore everything must be art. I take my time & use all five senses to fully indulge myself in this Earth in order to attain the complete experience. With every lift of my leg I ponder what goes on within my body & how everything correlates on the outside as well. Its funny to think that the world shifted just because of one measly action of lifting a leg & how that very second of my doing will never come back to change course. The event will soon be history & can either lead to something fortunate, catastrophic, but a definite guarantee to a domino effect of who knows what.


So take your time & bask in all the goodness around you. Nobody knows where they'll be 10 years or five years from now. If this is debatable let me ask you...does a plant know when it will be taken away from the ground? Does it know that parts of its structure, its fibers, would later be laying on a highway a discarded Starbucks coffee cup? Does it know another part would be inside a septic tank, its pulp consumed and now "waste"? Does it know? What is known for sure is that throughout its lifetime there are bits of itself spread to where it has been/ gone through. Whether it be one surviving seedling that escaped a shortened destiny or if it be that a bee carried on a part of the plant to pollinate another, let it be known that we are not supposed to know in our life as well. We are not here to plan out every detail & what age we want to get married. While we are still alive & well, lets focus on accomplishing not just for self- benefiting but also contributing. So that when our time is up, we are comforted knowing we spent our time well :]

see- vee

P.S. The inserted picture is a drawing my house plant called a Money Tree done with graphite pencil.