I really ran out of time today, and all I have for Inktober is a bad doodle I did during class. Alas, I am unsure if I will be able to continue with Inktober because I have so much going on right now, but I’m gonna try. I will probably not be able to do the word prompts anymore, but I will see how my schedule works out.
Here is my very bad doodle (and a failed attempt to make it look better in Illustrator):
Sadly, I ran out of time today and didn’t have time to do the prompted drawing. However, I still made a drawing, although it is from my visual journal for one of my classes. I was feeling quite unmotivated to come up with an ink drawing for today, so this is all I have. It’s not the best drawing, but at least I did something! I am hoping to make up today’s prompt another day.
And then, because I couldn’t help it, I put this image into Illustrator and did something with it. It’s not anything spectacular, but it was fun to experiment with.
I was planning on doing a more detailed pen drawing, but I had class all day and by the time I got back to my room, I was so tired. (My hand also really hurt due to all the writing I did for my art history exam.) I did manage to do a quick pen drawing inspired by the word “tranquil”, and then I colored it in Illustrator to save my hand from further pain.
I like experimenting with Illustrator, but I also much prefer drawing things by hand. Hopefully tomorrow I will have more time to do a better pen drawing.
Oops, I forgot to add a little explanation about this drawing. I chose to draw a road with the open sky ahead because I find traveling in a car to be a very tranquil experience. There is something peaceful about being a passenger in a car, and I like to watch the world go by outside the window.
Today’s word is “Poisonous”, and I ended up drawing a snake and some poisonous plants surrounding a pair of feet clad in rain boots. I didn’t really like my initial drawing, so I put it into Illustrator and played around with it. I like the Illustrator colored versions a lot better. I definitely want to experiment more with scanning drawings into Illustrator and digitizing/coloring them.
Hello again! Here is an overview of second semester of freshman year (to see first semester see previous post).
The classes I took were Art History (Renaissance to Revolution), Childhood Development (I am an art ed major), Visual Thinking, and 4D Art. The classes second semester were not studio classes, and I learned more about considering what art is and the different forms of art.
4D Art
I had no idea what to expect for this class because I had never heard of 4D art. We ended up learning about making videos and video editing and I learned how to use Adobe Premiere Pro. I really enjoyed this class which I was not expecting because I am much more interested in creating physical pieces of art, like paintings and drawings.
The projects we did:
For the final, I crocheted a giant rectangle and then hung it up in the critique room with a sign reading “pull the string”. Then, members from my class were able to pull the string and unravel the whole piece. At the end, all that was left was a giant pile of yarn.
We also went to the Museum of Art and Design (MAD) in New York City, and the exhibits there were super cool! These are awful pictures, but that is all I have from the museum. The image on the left shows an interactive playground – when you touched the sensors or used the swings, sounds would play. The middle images are some sort of machine where you could press buttons and different things would project onto the wall. The image on the right is a playable wall guitar. It was a cool museum because you could play with most of the exhibits.
Visual Thinking
We had three main projects and a final for Visual Thinking:
1) Reframing an Object
I took a picture of my name written on a wall, and one of my signature on an official form. The signature took on a different meaning depending on where it was placed (wall – seems graffiti-like, official form is important).
2) Image of Power – I was in D.C. and saw this man yelling towards the White House, and the content of the image suggested a variety of different levels of power and hierarchy.
3) I don’t remember what the project was but I made a menu of all the unappealing food in my college dining hall.
Final – Go somewhere alone where you have never been before (get out of your comfort zone) and document your experience. I went to the gym because I had never been to the gym before. I don’t typically work out and I am very clumsy, so it was definitely an interesting experience. I didn’t know how to use the machines, so I just kind of awkwardly walked around pressing buttons. I did use some of the machines, but I don’t think I did it right because nothing happened when I pedaled.
I didn’t do any projects in my other two classes, so this is the end of the post!
I am currently a sophomore in college, and I just wanted to do a recap post of some of the art I made during my freshman year so I can see what I did in one place. So, here is some of the art I made last year:
FIRST SEMESTER
3D Art
For 3D art, the first project was to make a cardboard cube which was very time intensive because the seams had to be smooth.
As difficult as that project was, I actually really enjoyed it. I never thought I could make something so cool from cardboard. Our other projects were working with making a supporting cardboard structure and accompanying performance, wood, then metal and welding, and finally anything.
For our final for 3D art, we had to make a website portfolio and write about each work, so if you’re interested in more in depth descriptions of each project, here is the link to that site – https://annika3dportfolio.wordpress.com/
2D Art
In 2D art, we learned some color theory, the principles/elements of art, and basic functions of Illustrator and Photoshop. We did a lot of collages in that class, and I honestly am very bad at collage so I am not happy with a lot of the work that I did in this class. Here is some of the less bad stuff I did:
Drawing 1
My other studio class first semester of freshman year was Drawing. We did a lot of experimental drawing.
Some of the things we did:
Some of my art ( a lot of this was experimental ). We also worked on huge (~3ft – 5ft) pieces of paper in this class which was definitely new for me.
My favorite project we did in drawing was the panorama drawing (the top drawing). I used ink and drew my dorm room all the way around and I think it turned out pretty cool. I also had to draw a lot quicker and less detailed than I did in the past because we worked on such large pieces of paper, and we didn’t have that much time to work on each assignment.
My other class first semester was a required freshman course; mine was philosophy. I actually did a ton of drawings in this class because I was so bored, but I don’t have any pictures and I threw away all my notes as soon as I was done with that class.
That is all I suppose, since I am tired, I will do a recap of freshman year second semester in another blog post.
This summer, I finally got around to going to figure drawing sessions at my local art center. I had never done any figure drawing before so I was not quite sure how to start. I took my charcoal and oil paints and I tried to do a painting but the poses were a lot shorter than I thought. After attempting to paint for the first couple of sessions, I realized I needed to focus on drawing first. Once I focused solely on drawing, I think I was able to convey the figure much better. Below, the pictures are in order from my first figure drawings I made to ones I did with more practice and experience.
I have always struggled with painting faces, so I decided to try and recreate portrait paintings from master artists and hopefully become better at painting faces. In the past, I would try and paint a face, and then I would quickly give up if it didn’t look right. In doing this painting, I realized how many layers are needed to create a lifelike, three-dimensional figure. I also discovered that it is okay if my painting looks bad at the beginning because it will look better and better as I continue painting. The overall process was actually really fun, and I especially enjoyed glazing my painting at the end.
The pictures below show my painting process of my study of Artemisia Gentileschi’s Self-Portrait as a Lute Player. My painting definitely isn’t perfect, but I am happy with how it turned out, although I may do a few more adjustments after I post this.
Hello! I just wanted to share the art I have been creating recently. Usually I paint with oil paints, but since I don’t have my oil paints with me right now, I’ve been painting with acrylics. I used to hate working with acrylics because they dry so quickly, yet recently, I find that I really enjoy painting with them (although I still miss my oil paints). The quick drying time of acrylics has forced me to work quickly and be more painterly with my brushstrokes.
Here are some quick acrylic studies I did in my sketchbook.
After playing with acrylics in my sketchbook, I decided to make some mini paintings on bristol paper. I’ve been wanting to paint waves for a while, so I decided to try it out – and I love it! I was always intimidated by painting waves because they are so complex, yet now I’ve been painting waves during every single moment of free time that I have. These paintings are very small, only 7″ x 5.5″, but they still take a long time to paint. These are the first two that I made and I am currently working on a third one. I also have a lot of reference pictures ready for future paintings.
Annika Marthinuss 