Completion of fall Semester, 2012
Introduction
Since the last time I wrote, I’ve had a couple of
frightening episodes that brings to life the fact that life is short and that
we must seize the moment and do as we are intended to do. That intent is most likely the thing that we
think about…something we think we’d enjoy doing…long-hidden desire…the thing
that would be nice to do. Deep down, there
is a desire, and that “thing” needs to be explored.
The Artists Way, by
Julia Cameron is a book that speaks to this idea, the notion of pursuing a
passion. Cameron advocates that if the
idea crosses your mind even once, it’s worth exploring. We deny ourselves the privilege of exploring
those ideas because they are usually non-conventional. They are beyond the traditional.
I’m no different. This
is the thing that so often holds me back as well yet the desire never
leaves. It grows stronger and stronger
as I experience life’s episodes. I
realize that I must take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and dive head
first, without fear, into my desires and let my new career take shape.
I’ve completed three semesters towards my Masters of Fine
Arts (MFA) in painting. I’ve decided
that my secondary pursuit will be in Illustration so that I can illustrate my
daughter’s beautiful poetry as my thesis towards graduation in a few
years. Each semester at AAU has proven
to be quite beneficial and productive for me.
I’ve meet several inspiring people with whom I’ve developed great
relationships.
As Cameron mentions in her book, I’ve begun to build my Circle
of Influential people. This circle
should include those who inspire us and feed our artistic endeavors not because
they tell us what we want to hear but what we need to hear in order to help us
grow as artists. They do not tear us
down and crush our artistic dreams. Of
course, we do the same for them. Many of those that I’ve met across the globe
are included in that circle.
I’d like to sum up my fall 2012 semester at the Academy of
Art University (AAU) by saying this semester proved no different than any
other. I’ve grown as an artist, in
skill, knowledge and confidence. I’m now
forcing myself to begin truly working towards the goals I’ve avoided for so
long!
FA 602 – Head Drawing
Each semester, I say that a class that I’ve just completed has
been the best thing for my artistic career.
But without a doubt, this one has to be among the top of those
classes! I’ve learned so much about
drawing the human head. I cannot really
put it into words properly, and going through the class, I notice it wasn’t
easy to put it into words. We had to go
through the process, the first seven weeks, in order to appreciate all that we
were learning. By the seventh week, the
improvement was so obvious. For example,
take a look at one of my drawings from September 2012 as compared to the same
drawing from December 2012, the end of the semester. Even though I didn’t finish the redo as much
as I would’ve liked, it is still much more precise than the first attempt. Compare them both to the photo of the
original bust.
Assignment Two:
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| December, 2012 |
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| September, 2012 |
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| Original Bust |
Assignment Six:
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| December, 2012 |
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| Original |
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| October, 2012 |
The first one was done in October, 2012. The redo was in December, 2012. It’s almost unfair to
show this one since it was original done the week that I had major
surgery. But I can honestly say that,
aside from it being unfinished (the October version), nothing else differs from
what I would have been capable of at the time it was done. This one, I do believe, is the best example
of a major improvement in skill. The
gesture/character of the pose has been captured almost flawlessly. This particular lean is something I had never
been able to accomplish prior to taking the class. One major key to capturing the pose is in the
diagonals. Despite the subtle problems
that exist in the second one, it is obvious that there is a great deal of
improvement.
Assignment Seven:
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| December, 2012 |
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| Original |
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| October, 2012 |
When this one was originally done, in October, we had almost completed
all the lessons. The problem with it is
very subtle. The mouth is drawn in an
almost frontal view while the head is ¾ view, and the angle was slightly off. The right side should have been a little
lower. In my December redo, I adjusted these areas in the
mouth and was amazed at how much closer the likeness was.
Assignment 11:
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| First Submission |
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| Resubmission |
Originally completed in November, 2012, this is one of the
three color assignments we did, and my first real attempt at using pastel. At this time, all areas of structure had been
address. We were asked to render a
pastel “painting” applying all that we had learned about structure. As expected, there weren’t too many major
errors in structure; however, the hat grew as I applied pastel! I knew that would be addressed in the
critique, but I didn’t have time to change it prior to submission. So, in December, I adjusted and resubmitted
it at the appropriate time. I happy I
did because it made a world of difference!
Assignment 12:
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| Charcoal Under Drawing |
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| Resubmission |
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| First Submission |
The objective of assignment 12 was to render a pastel
painting in a specific color scheme. I
chose blue analogous split complements.
I chose to make a copy of the original charcoal under-drawing because I
thought I had captured every part of the lessons that we learned. I wanted to keep it to remind myself of that
fact once I messed it up with the application of pastel. I’m glad I did because my first attempt at
pastel turned out very badly. My second
attempt had to be redrawn in a hurry because I no longer had a copy of the
original under drawing. I can see
glaring errors because it was a rush job.
But my application of pastel was a little better. Since doing this one, I’ve learned a few
things about applying pastel. The darks
should’ve been applied first with application of the lights on top. I’ll try again on my own time. I’d like to learn to handle the medium much
more accurately and skillfully even though it aggravates my asthma. I take extra special care when using
them. I used gloves and I wear a mask. I do not blow the artwork to remove dust and
I only wipe up the surrounding areas with a wet cloth so that the dust doesn’t
fly in the air. That seems to work for
me in avoiding attacks.
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| Original Photo |
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| December, 2012 |
This was one of our final assignments. We used oil paints for this assignment,
except we used them to create the look of a pastel piece. We were told that this is a method created by
Degas because he wanted to create a way to simulate the look and glow of pastel
but without the need to cover/protect the piece as you would a pastel painting. In the application of the oil, a small bit of
the structure was thrown off. The far
eye became a bit small.
ARH
