Concentrations 8

A Solitary Messenger  

Painting 

7" x 11"

I decided to branch out from scratchboards and pencil and use acrylic paint for my 7th concentration.  For my background, I decided to give a gradual lighting to the foreground which progressed into black.  The lighting is very harsh which gives an unearthly feel to the angel’s face.  For this painting, I only used black and white acrylic paint.  The highlights in the clothing gives importance to the angel against the dark background.  The fingers are pointing upward towards the main focus which is the face.  Also, the shadows in the folds in the hair are pointing towards the face. 

The Cloaked Woman

The Cloaked Woman 

Scratchboard 

8" x 10"

With this concentration, I chose to scratch another scratchboard.  I decided not to add anything to the background of this piece, which gave a sort of importance to the statue.  The isolation around the statue draws the viewers eye to the statue.  The different values in the folds of the statues dress draws the eye upwards and points to the darkened face of the statue.  I used an exacto knife to scratch away the black paint.  I also used a small rough brush to give a smoother and softer look to the folds in the clothing.  Before I scraped away the black surface, I drew a sketch on another piece of paper and transferred the contour lines to the scratchboard as a guide to help keep the statues proportions accurate. 

The Mystery of Mary 

Scratchboard 

8" x 10"

The isolation shown in this piece of work draws the eye toward the focal point which is the statue.  The birds help balance out both sides of this scratchboard.  This is called symmetry; this allows the viewer to look at the entire picture rather than just the center of interest.  How I did this piece was by using an exacto knife to help scrape away the black surface which reveals the white beneath.  As shown in the first photograph, I drew an outline of my picture then transferred the contour drawing to the scratchboard with white chalk.  This contour drawing gives me guidance as to where I should scratch to keep the proportions correct.  

A Shadowy Silhouette 

Drawing, Pencil

8.5" x 11"

This is also another form of isolation.  The bare background emphasizes the dark statue.  This also shows the center of interest.  Because the head is looking down, it draws the viewers eye downward also.  For this reason, I drew small trees to capture the viewers attention.  The trees slim limbs gently urge the viewer to look up towards the dark branch which brings the eye around back toward the statue.  This is called visual movement which captures the viewers eye to circle around the entire drawing.  Though there is not much excitement of the statue because of its dark shading, the branches at the top of the page show negative spaces which points toward the statue and gives it a more inviting quality.  I used in this piece, simple materials such as leaded pencils, 2B, 4B, and 6B; and a kneaded eraser that easily lifts pencil, giving it a lighter color.

First Four Concentrations

Pencil

16" x 12''

Charcoal 

15.5'' x 12''

Pencil

10'' x 13''

Pencil 

10'' x 9''

A concentration is a collage of pieces of art based off of a specific topic.  My concentration is based on cemetery statues.  I chose this specific topic because I like the different positions of the statues and the emotion they show in their faces.  

3rd Piece of Summer Art Work

With this piece of art, I had to make something ordinary and turn it in to something extraordinary.  I used a piece of jewelry and put it in an unfamiliar place.  This causes it to be interesting.  The converting lines point toward the ashtray which show the focal point of the drawing.  The hard part was the ashes. 

2nd Piece of Art Work

For this piece of art, I had to draw a corner of a room.  The medium I used was pencil.  I did this piece of art work by using different values of pencil and a blending stump.  The blending stump helps blend the different values of pencil into a smooth texture.  One part that I really enjoyed drawing was the table details.  

My Summer Art Work

 

For my first assignment as shown below, I chose to draw, in color pencil, glass bottles.  I chose these particular bottles because of the interesting and unique coloring and details.  I placed the cloth in these particular ways to show converting lines that draws your eye towards the bottles. Certain areas that were difficult for me was the small pitcher in the background with the blue overlapping lines.  The lines were hard to match and the shading was very difficult.  

This piece took a long time to complete but overall was a fun piece of work to draw.