Heaven and Hell Assignment

Here is an assignment I had to work on for my Design Drawing class. We had to depict heaven and hell using whatever theme we wanted, in multi-narrative form.

I chose do render a "heavenly" life/upbringing, compared to a hellish one (with a little humour and sarcasm of course). It took an insanely long time and still has issues that could be worked out . . . but I think it's fairly humorous as it stands and thought I would post it!

xo

first cartoon

FINALLY DAY 25

My last thing-a-day in graphite!

This is my family dog, Nala. She is so cute and I miss her.

Day 24

Watercolor pencils of a sunset. I've had this picture I wanted to paint for a while. . but haven't had time. Clearly I still didn't have much time. . . and it's tough making watercolors look good in a hurry surprisingly. Here it is anyway.

Day 23

A drawing in graphite of a picture I took in Mexico a few years ago.

Day 22

A silly drawing of me over the weekend. No wine, no salsa; just homework and rain. . . oh, and fuzzy hair because of the rain.

Day 21

I completed this to practice line drawing in ink for one of my classes. Besides the proportion issues with the eyes, I generally like it and am feeling more confident with my strokes.

Day 20

Conte - Black & Red

This was an elegant ad. . . that now looks like a woman stuck in a bad dream. Maybe it's because she is wearing lipstick and a flower in her hair while trying to sleep :)

Day 19 Experiment

More experimentation with the watercolor pencils. I was trying so hard to let the white come through and show the highlights of the flower, I don't think I ended up with enough contrasting dark. . . or maybe I didn't spread it enough around. Ah well, I still quite like it.

Day 18 - Watercolor

Oh watercolor pencils, why have I not tried you before?

Yes, I bought more supplies. . .but I've been curious about watercolor pencils. And I'm so glad I did buy them!

I took this picture while snorkeling in Mexico quite a long time ago. I attempted it before in acrylics, and hated the way it turned out. With the pencils however, I can draw all the detail in and wash over it to blend. This was kind of a rush job . . .but I think they have a lot of potential. Especially because I feel more comfortable with drawing, so if I can fit that more into the painting equation it would be better.

Day 17 - A Sea of Umbrellas

Ink and markers! Yes, it is definitely raining out. . . :)

Dragon for Day 16

This was my first time ever drawing a dragon . . .which seems odd, because it seems an interesting subject that I feel I should have come across before. Inspired by listening to Dragonette, I decided to take a crack at it. I think if I had more time I would attempt something more elaborate and detailed. But I really like how the pen and inks turned out here.

Day 15 - more pens!

Here is another flower pattern in black pen. I wanted to concentrate on the negative space here and felt the best way to do that was to keep it black and white. I like the resulting pattern.

Day 14 Pens and Ink

Inspired by one of my scarves, I drew a version of the floral pattern with black artist pens of varying weights. Then to add a splash of colour I used my India inks.

Day 13

Colored Conte in complimentary colors.

Day 12 - fall colours!!!

Here is a painting in oils of the beautiful fall trees!

Day 11 India Inks again!

Apparently I can't get enough of these :)

Here is a quick picture of my 2 friends. I was talking to them on skype and decided to paint them while we chatted!

Day 10

Here is a girl dancing in India inks. . . as you can tell, I've only taken half of the picture, as the other half looks ridiculous :) I will leave the rest a mystery!

I like the movement you can get with India inks. . . they are very fluid.

That's all for now!

Day 9

ha..you can tell I do these late at night and just find something in my room to draw :)

Here is my jewelry doll drawn with charcoal. I like her because she is classy . . . and keeps quiet while I'm doing homework.

Cheers!

Day 8 with India Ink

In preparation for an assignment due in my Design Drawing class, I thought I'd experiment with a few supplies I have. I bought these India inks about a year ago and have probably used them once. This piece was meant to re-familiarize myself with how to use them.

I used watercolour paper and created a grid and border with masking tape. I like how clean a piece looks after doing this - like it has pre-made frames. I think you can tell which was my first square . . . inks have a finicky nature, and you need to be very light and fluid with your strokes. The main thing with inks, I think, is to accept the subtle imperfections and realize the beauty in them. They are actually very enjoyable to work with if you can accept the medium for what it is!

My favourite squares are in brown at the bottom right (remind me of antlers) and, of course, the black and white zebra-looking pattern in the bottom left (which I have to say look good under the green).

I think maybe tomorrow I will actually try to create a composition that actually mixes the colours. We will see the best way to go about this, as the watery nature of inks make me think it could very easily turn into a big puddle. . . deep breaths Monica . . .deep breaths.

:) Night!

We can just breeze through Day 6 & 7

Here are my 15 minute sketches for the past 2 days . . .

Day 6 - a hand in ink (to help me make decisive strokes)

Day 7 - my new desk lamp (to help me do my TAD when uninspired)

I know. . . I'm reaching here. Apparently this isn't so easy when uninspired.

Looking forward to tomorrow!!

I did do a quick sketch today, but am having issues with my scanner.

Need sleep . . . will figure out tomorrow :)

Intense Reduction

Day 5 before midnight! Woot!

I did this reduction piece in graphite powder. So I sprinkled the powder over the page and smeared it with a cheese cloth/my fingers. Then I proceeded to erase all the light areas and blended/added graphite for the darkest areas (I learned this technique from a wonderful drawing instructor I once had, Frank Haddock).

This is a very serious statue in my house. . . the light was hitting his intense glare quite nicely this afternoon :) I really like doing reductions - they just make a lot of sense to me in terms of light. It also gets you to look at negative spaces and different shapes in the object.

Well I've done my 5 creative things this week! I will continue my next 5 on Sunday. Have a wonderful weekend everyone and thanks for checking out my blog!

xo Monica

Abstract

Day 4 . . . an abstract acrylic painting, using red, yellow, black and white.

I had something in mind while painting this, but I'd rather not say for a bit to see what people get from it. Plus, abstract is supposed to be . . .well . . . abstract. :) I haven't done much abstract work, but it actually took quite a long time. I think that was because my perfectionist mentality seeped in today, but I managed to eventually walk away...

What I would have done differently: put in a white wash background at the beginning and allowed it to dry. It was a pain how the colors seemed to fuzz outward slightly, catching all the little bumps of the canvas.

Cheers!

PS. sorry about the reflection from the flash . . . again, it's passed midnight and the lighting is terrible. maybe I'll take a better one tomorrow.

Red hot

Here is my day 3 creation (fyi, I'm counting day 1 creation as making the blog). I didn't have the frustration of my day 2 oils, so enjoyed today!

I'm not sure if you are allowed to post naked drawings on blogs, but we will see if it gets removed or the blog-gods come after me :). I used colored conté here - red, black and white. I've used a single color with black and white before and really like the results. I usually squint my eyes at the picture and immediately pick out the darkest areas and the lightest areas, then fill it in with black/white and the single color is all the in between and blending. I think it gives a nice shape to the picture.

I feel like she looks a little bit on fire, hence the name . . . but we're all red hot on some days, right? :)

One issue I always seem to have when I do pieces like this is the background. What do you do? Normally I leave it blank, here i've tried to scribble it in. Any advice when you aren't looking at a specific background? I think I need to think more of the composition as a whole, and not only concentrate on the subject . . .

Thanks friends!

Until tomorrow. . .

First attempt . . .

So hear it is, my first creation. The Jellyfish.

I struggled with oils for this, but am posting it none-the-less. I had actually painted the background last week, so it was dry and I worked on putting the jellyfish in today. However, there was a fatal flaw in my oil experimentation and it has become clear I really need to experiment more so I know how to use oils properly. I went to put the darker shadows in first with a dark blue (thinking I should move dark to light, background to foreground), which was all fine until I started mixing yellow and orange in there and got an icky green mess. I tried to recover it . . . but I'm not sure that I was successful.

Anyway, you can tell it's a jellyfish . . .mission accomplished! :)

I have also included the version I did a few weeks ago, using colored conté . . . just for a comparison and to show a medium I find easier to manipulate.

PS. As it's 12:47am right now, the light is TERRIBLE for taking pictures . . .so it isn't really accurately reflected here. But you can get the gist. Note to self: do my thing-a-day earlier.

The Task at Hand

I am new to the blogging world, but have created this blog with multiple goals in mind . . . 

In the first "Ideation" class of my program at Langara College, I was assigned the task of completing a "Thing-a-day" for 5 days/wk over the next 5 weeks.  This "Thing-a-day" can be anything from having an original idea per day to learning something new or meeting someone new each day.  Though my first thought was to write a blog each day - random musings, for example - I decided that was the easy way out (being comfortable with writing), and that I should use this assignment to challenge myself and build my artistic abilities.

So, I have decided to create something every day.  This could mean doing a quick sketch of a man sitting in Starbucks, painting the jellyfish from the Vancouver Aquarium (which I have been fascinated by since seeing them a few weeks ago), or spending an hour putting together a collage.  I have hopes to use up the many art supplies I have accumulated, improve my drawing and painting skills and, most importantly, become comfortable with displaying my spontaneous work for the world to see.  

Every day that I complete one of these creations, I will post a picture/scan of what I've done on my blog.  I will also include information about what I used, why I was inspired, what I like about it or what I don't like about it.  Blogging my creations is going to be an important part of this assignment, as it will allow me to track each day what I have completed and it will add an interactive component in which I can receive feedback and comments (good or bad) and use constructive criticism to my advantage (so I look forward to advice!).

My "Design Drawing" instructor said on the first day of class that if you have perfection in mind while starting to draw, you are sure to fail.  This was a very significant comment for me, as I have been criticized for, and knowingly guilty of, being too precise and trying to always make things so perfect.  Feeling and movement can be lost in this precision. Besides, imperfections are far more interesting!  Committing to these creations for the next 5 weeks, there simply won't be time to ponder things for hours and then finally put my pencil to paper, or brush to canvas and then be frustrated by it not turning out exactly how I envisioned.  I hope to create things on the fly, accept that it may not be perfect, and try to encompass whatever is happening at that instance.  And above all, display what I have done and be happy with it for what it is.  If anyone's seen "PS. I Love You," I have always found the following quote from the main character very appealing and would like to keep it in mind as I proceed on this artistic endeavor:

"All I know is, if you don't figure out this something, you'll just stay ordinary, and it doesn't matter if its a work of art or a taco, or a pair of socks! Just create something... new, and there it is, and its you, out in the world, out side of you and you can look at it, or hear it, or read it, or feel it... and you know a little more about... you. A little bit more than anyone else does... Does that make any sense at all?"  (from "PS. I Love You")

No matter what I create, it's just something that I've done, that I felt inspired to do at a given moment.  And it's likely that not everyone will understand it completely, and maybe I won't even understand it.  But understanding is not the point - creating is. 

A little deep for a Sunday night, but I think this will help me with my ideas and creativity, and in 5 weeks I will have made a little progress.

Until tomorrow my friends!