first still life

This was the first fully shaded drawing I had to do.  The instructions were to pick four objects of various shapes and sizes and draw them in pencil.  I took a hardcover book, a shell from the MS Gulf Coast, a plastic Tupperware bowl and a Hawaiian nose flute.  The nose flute came out a little skinny for what it is in reality but other than that I think this came out really well.  It took me a long time to do this drawing, overall I spent about six hours on this.  I did start over on this about four or five times and got frustrated and threw them away.  The initial way to lay out the shapes for a drawing calls for lightly sketching in where you think the objects are supposed to be.  Well it turns out I am horrible at this particular step.  I finally figured out that if I draw one object in proportion then I can add the other objects in relation to it.  Although I ran the problem of drawing the initial object either to small or to large and the other objects didn't all fit properly on the page.  It took a lot of trial and error but I like the end result and I had a lot of fun getting there.

expressive drawing with charcoal

My next assignment for my drawing class was to draw a branch using charcoal.  I have never actually used charcoal before this but I found that using it expressively was an interesting experiment.  Since this was my first time using charcoal and my first time doing an expressive drawing I felt no stress over doing it the "right" way or of how it came out.  I really enjoyed the amount of freedom that comes with a stress less approach to drawing.  I did find charcoal to be extremely messy and difficult to use to draw fine lines accurately (I'm sure that is do to inexperience, I have seen some amazing charcoal work).  The fact that I found it difficult to draw accurately with it is what led to me doing much better in making an expressive drawing.  While I found this to be a fun experiment I was glad that we were using pencil to do the majority of the work in class.





drawing class

The next class I took was a drawing class that didn't use the computer just pencil and paper.  The first two assignments we had were blind and semi blind drawings.  That is where you look at the object you are drawing without looking at the paper and with only looking a minimal amount.  I did the four drawings of my hand totally blind and the one holding my son's teething ring semi blind.  I found that doing the drawings in this way was really freeing because we were told not to care about the final outcome.  Drawing something where the final result doesn't matter is a great feeling and made the entire experience very fun to do.  I have worked off and on for a few years at doing pencil drawings but have never done blind drawing or still life, which we do for the rest of the class, and I was really looking forward to this class.  With the first two drawings being so much fun I looked forward to the assignments every week.



Final project

So for my final project I had to find a way to take the previous design and make it into something more.  When I started on the background I had the idea of a kind of road runner style scene with the "trees" as the main attractions.  I guess I succeeded in making the picture more than it was originally but I can't say that I'm completely happy with the result.  I still believe the problem is in the original concept and had I done a better job with that I would have had a better end result.  I know that I thought about each step as an end unto itself and that's what led to not considering how I would ultimately use the project.  In this situation it was difficult because I wasn't checking the future assignments as I went, hopefully in a professional setting I will know more about the end goal at the beginning. 

color study for final

After coming up with my final design I had to create 4 different color schemes to portray it.  It was at this point that I really started to run into the limitations of my design.  It wasn't just that the design itself was limiting but I also the method that I went about creating the initial design also left me stuck with trying to color it.  In the end I had to recreate the design in order to add the color.  I took my time and recreated it and marked it as a lesson learned.  Hopefully a lesson I won't soon forget.  At every step of this process I was kicking myself for not having thought harder about what the final project was going to be.  Amazingly enough, even as I was doing this and kicking myself I still forgot that I wasn't creating the final design ( we'll get to that next week).  I still managed to complete the assignment and while it isn't at all what I was hoping it would be it is something and, believe it or not, sometimes the knowledge that you accomplished something is still enough to give you the confidence to keep going.



final project ideas

For this week I had to start working on my final project.  The first thing I had to do was write a statement describing what I was going to do.  It took me forever to come up with something,  I learned that I work a lot better when I have some kind of guidelines.  If given a blank slate and told create anything I have trouble.  I finally settled on transformation, the idea was that I would take smaller shapes and have them merge into something greater than themselves.  Once I gave myself some guidelines it enabled me to start working on something but I still don't think this is my best work.  I tried a few variations on this theme and ultimately let the due date dictate what got turned in.  I knew at this point that this would be the first piece that would be colored but I didn't consider color at all while doing the original design, that was definitely a mistake.  I did manage to create something and I don't hate it but I know I'm not ready to just do my own thing yet.

depth and volume

This week I had to create a design with the spatial illusions of both depth and volume.  This design came about in a very easy manner.  I didn't even try any other designs this week.  It took me a little bit of time to get the details correct but after having completed my perspective class it wasn't very difficult to create depth on a flat page.  This is one of those designs that really shows how nice it is to work with adobe illustrator, that program is so versatile that you can save loads of time if you know how to use it.  Other than the pleasure of figuring out the designs to fit the criteria I think that the use of illustrator to do everything was very useful.  As much as I like this design it was rather simple and took almost no time to create.  It's amazing how the simplest things can sometimes have the most appeal.



Asymmetrical Design

For this assignment I had to use black and white forms to create an asymmetrical design.  I played with this for a while getting the details the way I wanted but I came up with the general layout pretty quickly.  I really like the way the more organic and flowing circles counter balance the rigid straight lines on the other side.  My initial layout (as you can see at the bottom) had the circles stopping before they intersected with the straight side.  My instructor told me that it was to balanced and that one side needed to "win."  When he first told me that I didn't agree, I like the idea of the two sides being in balance with neither "winning," but looking at the final design I think it does work better but I can't explain why.  By this point in the class the entire process feels like playing and I look forward to each different assignment to see what I'll come up with.

design class 3

For my next design project I had to use black and white forms to create a design with formal balance.  I was debating on what I wanted to use and I saw a blanket that we bought for my son that has a really cool turtle pattern on it.  So I used a similar turtle design and then decided on a plant like semi flowerish design to go with it.  I had a lot of fun working with this composition, until now most of my designs had been more abstract and I found it nice to work with symbols to create something.  Even though it seems obvious it is a nice moment when you realize that you can really do anything (within the limits of the assignment) with a design.  Even though you may intellectually know that you can do anything I think, at least for me, that their is a kind of mental block that makes you see things a certain way and makes you think about things in a certain way.  Whenever I have an assignment that shows me that you don't have to see things or do things the way you always have or the way you think you have to, that moment is always an amazing moment for me.  In one sense I hope I always remember that their are no limits on design but I hope I never lose those amazing moments while I'm designing.



design class 2

For my second assignment in Fundamentals of Design I had to create a form using 2 - 4 black and/or white of the same size.  Then repeat the pattern 2 - 4 times.  I really enjoyed this assignment, I felt that it was open enough to allow for a lot of creativity but was also restrictive enough to keep me from being overwhelmed.  I used 3 circles and repeated them 4 times for the design that I ultimately turned in for a grade, but I showed my teacher 4 different designs to allow him to choose the one he liked and then did more work on that one to make it as interesting as possible.  I normally don't like abstract designs but found myself enjoying this assignment.  I think because it was a unique challenge for me, I had to work in a way that I never had before and even though the design is simple I think it came out quite well.  With this assignment and several of the assignments I did for this class I found that it was fun to do work, that simply sitting down and exploring shapes and the relationships between the shapes was enjoyable and made the majority of this class a lot of fun.

Here are the original 4 designs I submitted



fundamentals of design

For the first week in my fundamentals of design class I had to create a design with equal parts positive and negative space where the figure/ground relationship would fluctuate.  I came up with two designs for this assignment (the other one is at the bottom of this post), one of the designs I tried to create an image and the other one, the one the teacher preferred I just used squares and circles in overlapping patterns.  With this being the beginning of the class I wasn't confident with the process and just played around with adobe illustrator until I came up with something that had an interesting look to it.  In some ways I think that a lack of the "rules" helped this design and I think that remembering to sometimes forget the rules can be an asset in future design work.  I do think that the feeling that you have to know something about design in order to appreciate certain designs was prevalent in the class, the teacher tended to choose designs that seemed almost inaccessible to the general population.  This attitude tends to bother me since I think one of the best aspects of design is that it can be appealing to a broad spectrum of people.  You shouldn't have to know about design in order to appreciate a well designed composition.  As the class went on I think I started leaning more towards the teacher in my designs but I tried to hold on to my original ideals as well as I could.  As I look back at my designs and write about them I hope I'll see how well I did.

For most of the assignments in this class I submitted several different designs for my teacher to choose from, I will post the one that was ultimately graded at the top but will post the others at the bottom.





magazine cover

This is an assignment for my computer literacy course.  This class was designed to give me a chance to create something using several different "standard" computer programs.  The only one I thought was creative was when I had to use photoshop to create a magazine cover.  Although I like my cover I feel like I didn't take enough time with it and could have done a lot more.  I did this because I really hated my teacher in this class and just couldn't make myself spend much time on anything she assigned.  After the class was over I thought about it and realized that I missed out on a great opportunity to not only be a bigger person but to learn to still give my all for the sake of the design.  As far as the design itself goes I was more interested in having a creative idea then in making something creative out of a crappy idea.  This leads to an interesting line of thought, since this is a classroom exercise where the goal is to learn the program should I spend less time on the concept and more on dressing it up or more on the concept less on the window dressing.  Since it is a classroom exercise the obvious answer would be spend more time on the dressing to learn how to do the dressing, but the purpose of taking the class is to learn to be a designer so shouldn't the entire project be done as if for the real world?  I don't have the answer but I know for me I just don't like the idea of taking a crappy idea and trying to dress it up.  

4th perspective drawing

This is my 4th and final assignment in my perspective class.  For this drawing I did an exterior 2 point perspective house inside of an interior 1 point perspective room.  While this drawing didn't take as long as the last one it was a bit more difficult to do.  In the original design I had the overhead light on which made for 2 different light sources and therefore overlapping shadows in some places.  Also it made the shadow under the stool go the opposite way of the other shadows and since I turned the light off the shadow is now completely wrong.  I also put the table to close to the doors so they wouldn't actually open.  But all in all I think this came out really well.  I took the idea from one of my favorite books, Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk, where the hero builds model houses, although he destroys them when they are finished.  I tried to inject a little comedy into it by putting a bong on the back shelf but once I had to shrink the original down it is hard to see what it is.  All in all I think this is a good culmination of what I learned in class and was disappointed when the class ended, but ultimately I feel I learned a lot that will help me in future career.

3rd perspective drawing

This is the 3rd drawing I did in perspective class.  This is the first time we used shading and in order to see the overall tone we were instructed to put a value scale in the picture.  Technique wise I think I did an ok job on this.  Their are some mistakes, the corners don't stand out , their would be some differences in value in each corner, and some of the areas aren't dark enough.  Overall though I think this is a really solid piece.  The basic shape of the room is my living room and kitchen, I went with simpler furniture and rearranged it but the basic design came from my house.  We had to add people into this picture, which is another first but I like the father and son staring each other down across the house while the mom is in the kitchen trying to stay out of it.  This doesn't represent how my teenage years were and hopefully doesn't represent how it will be when my son becomes a teenager but it reminds me of the feeling of being a teenager in the 90's.  I like that now I am a lot closer to the dad in the picture and it's set in my current home but evokes the feelings of being a rebellious little punk, it has an odd mixture of seeing it from both sides.  This drawing probably took me the longest of any drawing or any project I have done so far, I spent upwards of 20 hrs working on it, but now looking back I loved every minute of doing it and I really like this piece, mistakes and all.

2nd perspective drawing

This is the 2nd perspective drawing I did for my class.  The objective was to draw four building in 3 point perspective with a change of the ground angle.  I didn't use the angle change very effectively only incorporating it into the upper left corner.  I didn't intent to not use it but I got so caught up in my buildings that I let that aspect get away from me.  I spent a lot of time working on the sidewalk and the lamp posts and ended up not having as much time as I would have liked to do the details on the building.  I do think that this drawing came out a lot better than the first one and was pretty happy with the end result.  I attempted to add some details into the background after I submitted the original to see how it would look but I really wasn't happy with the result and think I should have just left it alone. 

Since I am an online student all of my classes are 6 weeks long and this was my weekly project for week 3.  By this point in the class I was getting more comfortable with the process and really starting to enjoy doing the work.  It was interesting because it was difficult and I often struggled with the drawings, I got about the same amount of sleep during this class as I did with my son's first couple of months, but I enjoyed the struggle and really enjoyed the class.

1st perspective drawing

This is the first drawing I did for my perspective drawing class.  I wanted to do the house I grew up in, while this is basically modeled after it I had to make adjustments as I drew because of my lack of pre-planning with the size and time required.  I am not happy with this as the proportions are all wrong, the door is to small, the windows are to large, the street and driveway are to small.  Overall this is all kind of a mess.  It's not a total loss however since my fence is done almost perfectly.  It took me several hours but the horizontal convergence of all of the boards all the way down is exactly right.  So even though my first attempt at drawing a house in perspective has a lot of issues at least it has one thing that came out just right.  I am kinda proud of the bricks as well, doing those was a huge pain in the ass but they came out looking really well and because of that I ended up using them several more times.  All in all I got a lot of satisfaction out of doing the work and that helped push me to keep trying to improve.