Portrait Inspiration

Contemporary Artists

Christian Hook

Jimmy Law

John Larriva

I like the short-stroke style of Hook's and Law's portraits, where they focus more on the angles of the face than the details. I think for my facial structure and features, their fairly similar styles are something i should take into consideration. Though with Larriva, he has elements of short stroke, but there is a more whole shape in the faces and color.

Historical Artists

Egon Schiele

Valentin Serov

Schiele's style consists of shapes and colors not completely mixed on the basis of the black lines. Serov uses much more color in his portraits, while leaving some aspect of the piece "unfinished". Compared to the contemporary artists' full, more blended color appearance, the historical artists have a comparatively drafted style.

Mini Masterpiece Proposals: Animal Heads 2.0

Last year I ended up doing pieces completely unrelated to my original proposals for the Mini Masterpieces art sale: Animals' heads on 'human' bodies. Fortunately they were a huge hit, selling within less than a half hour. So this year I'm bringing them back, but rather than doing a modern style, I'm sticking to historical portraits for the body, and then adding stranger  animals as the head. Im hoping that through making subtle references (such as a Blue Jay head on the Blue Boy- portrait by Thomas Gainsborough), the art will be more appreciative. 

Toucan-Napoleon

Marie Antelope (except for I remember it wasn't exactly an antelope, but for the sake of the title)

3rd week reading response

As this section of reading was shorter compared to the previous, it also took on a much different idea of art, to the first and second sections where the idea was about how and why in the way art existed. The writer really only uses one artist for example, which is strange given how many examples and quotes from artists we see in 'The Primal Scene of Drawing'. The idea reminded me a lot of Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" with the thought that art can become more about getting the idea down/out into physical form, than super in depth. The writer uses the artist Bruce Nauman as an example who uses so many different mediums to get an idea down. I liked the fact that she stuck to one artist, as multiple examples was a bit much.

The Primal Scene of Drawing Response

     While the first section's idea was that the natural world is your set of art materials and that it is a natural habit for a human to unconsciously start producing 2 dimensional images over a 3 dimensional surface, this section is more about the purpose. The writer explains to us why we may draw not tell us that we draw. I liked this section because it seemed like a description most artists could relate to somewhat. However it was also following the same trend the first reading section's theme had, where I ended up feeling like I was being justified/ having to justify myself as an artist. But to me this section felt a little less awkward than the "introduction".

'To Draw Is To Be Human' (First Section) Reading Response

The first section did a good job introducing the idea of the whole text itself: about drawing and its history as the topic of discussion.  Though I do think this section is a statement that I can overall agree with, some of the ideas were difficult to perceive, such as the world being a human’s “canvas” as they’re just naturally “born to draw”. I understand this because it is true, but maybe just don’t understand in the sense that I wasn’t very fond of the wording or context it was assembled in. I think the writer is describing drawing as a habit much more than an interest or hobby- being the name of this part, “to Draw Is To Be Human”. However I think of art as a developed hobby; sure it is a habit, but only few go on to improve it, and realistically in our particular situation, a modern Western society, it is clear to see why so few have developed this habit when it is looked down upon.

Hair Identities project statement

The idea behind this Hair Identities project was to "feed our obsession with hair". Understanding the way hair moves and how it's look changes was an important idea to keep in mind when doing our quick sketches. It was nice to have a choice between Mylar and Rag Paper, Conte Crayon and Graphite Powder- to which I chose Conte Crayon on Mylar. I knew from the beginning Id want to use Mylar, and exploring with the materials, I didn't  really like the look that was being created on the Rag Paper (not to say some people weren't able to create beautiful art on the Rag).

I was very anxious to start this project, because one of the subjects I struggle to draw is hair; I can't do it. I've always examined hair itself and the changes in light, but am never able to capture that in medium. I was hoping this project would rid me of this. Because of my "struggles", I was scared my piece might not turn out so well as my other peers I had confidence in.

Working along the 18th century French Aristocracy look, my wig was from a collection of the costuming teacher's from this past years musical, a loose bun with curls framing the edges. I was particularly invested in the look of the bun- the way the light hit it in particular. The curls were another part that drew me to this wig.

I'd say this project moved along very quickly and at a good, progressive pace. I don't really know how to explain my process because by the end of the first studio day, I'd made so much progress on my drawing. The technique was a lot of short stroke, because the thing about Mylar that I learned was that, it's hard to erase, so that made imitating where the light hit the wig pretty difficult. Even using a plastic eraser, which have the intended reputation to give you clean cut lines, couldn't do justice for the look of the actual wig compared from the drawing itself. Another issue I came across was layering the crayon on Mylar. I mean in the sense that if I wanted to create darker lines, the crayon ended up almost scratching the surface because so much was already layered. This made the areas I wished to appear darker actually have a metallic-y, stainless steel surface look to them. Not very happy.

In the end of this project I think my hair drawing looked very good and that feeling didn't dwindle (a lot) when it was put next to the other students. This has probably been one of my most productive art work weeks in a while. I'm very excited to put this piece in my portfolio because I think it really shows what my abilities are capable of.

Inspirational Hair Post

Hair Identities

Hong Zhang

Yanni Floros

Brittany Schall

Overall the theme I liked about all these artists is their art holding an intentional lack of "identity"- focusing on the nature and gravity of hair as an element. Zhang put hair in strange but interested situation, and showed it off by displaying long scrolls of hair drawings. In nearly all of Floros's pieces, the subject is wearing a pair of the same headphones. Brittany Schall's pieces looked as if inspired by classic fairytales, and everything including hands and upper body were skillfully "drawn out".