Refelecting on Interest Drawings

In this last semester, I’ve ventured a bit more into using watercolors in more casual paintings, but what struck me most was how many people I’ve been drawing. This quarter I've experimented with online drawing tools, 

experimented with a (slightly) more realistic style,

tried sharpie and watercolor chibi portraits,

attempted some larger sidewalk pieces,

tried my hand at a watercolor portrait,

and, last but not least, looked into steampunk.

...I didn’t realize this pattern I was falling into until this past week. Apparently I really like people. Or, rather, I like drawing people; I’d rather plan out a portrait than go to a party most any day. Nice, happy, dynamic people do make such nice subjects for paintings. No, no landscapes or still lifes, please. Let’s keep to humans.

Of course, there are outliers. In this case, it was a qilin, a chinese unicorn.

As I’ve said before, the “exploring your interests” has been wonderful. Something as simple as getting to pick what I’m drawing gives me a great feeling. Of course, that feeling disappears for the twenty minutes I spend banging my head into the wall while trying to figure out what I should draw, but during the research and drawing processes, I’m quite satisfied with the system.

I have to say, I feel like I learn a lot about clothes doing these drawings. Not just things  like “pinstripes and bowler hats fit with steampunk” either. When you have to visualize a piece of clothing and get it down on paper, you start raising whole new questions. “Why are there two different styles of skirts for ballerinas?”, “How does a cloak’s hood fall and what on earth does a cloak clasp look like?”, “How does a boot look when you twist your foot at this odd angle?”, “What’s the best way to show a leatherwork?”

Seriously, you never really think about the eccentricities of clothes until you have to draw them.

I have to confess though, my chronic condition of spending way too much time on my weekly drawings has only gotten worse this last quarter. Where last quarter I could expect about an hour of work per drawing, this quarter I’ve found myself spending about half an hour just on the research portion of the assignment, and a minimum of an hour and a half on the drawings. I think it’s because I know I probably won’t come back to finish any old pieces, so I don’t want to be done working until I feel I’ve reached a decent stopping point.

My busy schedule and end of term assignments in other classes love it, I promise. :P

Final Project - TenSoon Portraits (part 1)

Title: Wolfhound Bones

Size: 9 by 5 inches

This piece is the first installment of my three piece series of works centering around TenSoon, a character in the Mistborn books. TenSoon is a type of shapeshifter, called a kandra, which can imitate any creature, given that the kandra is first given the creature's bones. A kandra doesn't have a skeleton of its own; however, it is capable of mimicking any type of body structure if it has the right skeleton to work around. In this picture, TenSoon is in the form of a wolfhound.

While working on this piece, I thought it was interesting how much quicker a dog's portrait can be drawn than a human's. I think it must be because, when drawing a person, you want it to be identifiable as a particular individual, where with dogs, so long as you can tell a chihuahua from a dalmatian you're probably on the right track. Generally speaking, you don't have to tell one dog from another that looks nearly identical to it. With humans though, there are all sorts of little details you need to have in place to keep one acquaintance distinct from another.

I think this came out alright. I like how the fur came out, but I'm not certain what happened with the background. What can I say? It's abstract. Perhaps I'll come through again later and touch it up a bit...

Weekly Drawing - Steampunk

Title: A Study in Steampunk
Size: 8 by 4 inches
This piece shows Esmeralda, one of my characters, dressed in the steampunk style and examining her pocket watch.

This week I looked into steampunk, as I'd heard about it, but never really been given a definition. It's interesting, the term "steampunk" was actually first used to describe a story that was reminiscent of the "cyberpunk" literary genre. It often involves today's technology reimagined, placed in the 1800s or 1900s, and powered by steam. Since it was first coined in the late 1980s, the term steampunk has evolved from being just a sub-genre of science fiction (and sometimes fantasy) to a branch of fashion, engineering, and music.

While designing this piece, I looked at many examples of the steampunk style, took what I liked, and compiled it. I think it turned out alright, but this piece took a bit longer than I first thought it would. Oh well!

Updated Projects - Aspen Painting and Shallan Collage

Titles: Aspens (above) and Looking Across the Shattered Plains (below)

Sizes: 24 by 30 inches and 11 by 14 inches

I've finally finished up two of my longer projects, my landscape painting and collage project. :) 

For anyone interested, here's a document showing my progress on the collage.

Weekly Drawing - Brother Jensen

Title: Brother Jensen

Size: 8 by 5 inches

This watercolor piece shows my seminary teacher, brother Jensen. I focused mainly on the face, so the shirt and abstract background aren't fantastic, but all in all I like how it came out.

In seminary this year we've been studying the Doctrine and Covenants, and though I had never read the whole of it before, I have grown to love the truths taught in the D&C. In class last time, we talked about the importance of having a living, modern day prophet to lead the church based on God's direction. I'm very grateful to live in a time and place where I have access to the prophet's words and advice about living in today's world. For the "research" portion of my assignment this week, I listened to several of the talks given during the recent General Conference. It's wonderful to me to hear these great men and women testifying of the same truths I'm being taught in seminary.

Overall, I think I can confidently say that this week's interest drawing/research was a success. :)

Abstract Painting - Last of the Keepers

Title: Last of the Keepers
Size: 14 by 11 inches
This piece was inspired by Sazed from Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn: Hero of Ages. The color scheme I went for was white, purple, and brown. I used several new techniques to try and capture the right texture for this, including using string to move the paint around and using an old bottle cap to scratch at the paint.

Painting this piece was pretty fun to do, simply because there's no expected levels of realism to uphold when you do an abstract painting. It becomes painting for the sake of painting, rather than painting for the sake of creating an accurate, realistic picture of the world. Rather than worry about how many more hours I needed to make it look good, I could debate the purpose of each layer and whether or not I wanted another.

I like how it came out, largely purple with so much white breaking through. I feel that it captured Sazed's feelings of guilt and conflicting emotions in an interesting way.

Weekly Drawing - The Qilin (part 2)

Title: Qilin Among Redwoods

Size: 9 by 11 inches

This week I tried to add more color to the piece. Unfortunately, it seems I went overboard. To be frank, I am not very happy with my progress this week. The piece just feels overwhelmed with color. Just to be clear on what I did this week, I filled in the trees and ground using watercolor and added some gold acrylic to the qilin. 

This week I read a little bit on dendrochronology, the science of analysing tree's growth rings to date events. Obviously one can tell the age of a tree by counting the rings, but scientists can also use the rings to learn about the conditions the tree grew in that year. Temperature, rainfall, and pollution levels can all be found using tree rings. This is interesting, but really kind of unsurprising. What I thought was incredible was that scientists can use tree ring analysis to date landslides, lake level changes, glacial movement, fires, and insect population dynamics. 

Anyway, see you all later for my upcoming abstract portrait painting. :)