Illustration Friday - Launch

I see launch and I can't help but think rocket ship. But I did try to jazz it up a little with tissue paper instead of "flames". I also drew a little green alien dude because I can't imagine any sort of space adventure without one.

Contour Lines - Kitchen

After spending some quality time in the kitchen deciding what to draw, I realized how very linear it is. Everything I saw seemed to be made of simple, straight lines. This made it easier to draw, but harder for me to avoid trying to perfect it. My drawings are not perfect, but I try to make them as detailed as I can--not precisely the point of contour line drawing. But I tried my best to keep it simple. I tried some more shading and really focussed on the combinations of different lines— curved connected to straight, horizontal+vertical=box, and others.

Contour Line Drawing - Eggs

Eggs! I hope they are at least somewhat realistic. I tried some hatch marks for shading but I didn't sharpie those 

Contour and Blind Contour

For my blind drawings i struggled most with proportions, drawing things too large or too small, and not being able to find the right spots again after picking up my pencil. For instance, with the shoe (top right) I accidently drew the laces, top, and tongue off of the shoe outline. My regular contour drawings show various uses of line, such as curved for the shoe with horizontal lined laces, and my fingers make vertical, straight lines. I tried to do some shading in these to allow for a deeper understanding of value, as well.

Lines

This picture is of my stairs and railing and illustrates both vertical (front, black) and horizontal (back, browns) lines.

This plate has painted on it diagonal lines in different colors.

The bricks on my porch make zig-zag lines!

This picture shows curved lines in the railing and the edge of the porch.

These candles form a diagonal and implied line.

Photomontage - My Family

So I think I understood the idea behind creating this, but my execution turned out differently than I had hoped so it looks more like a general collage—the top half is better though, closer to the right idea... Anyway, when I think family I think of my whole family. We're a very tightly knit group of crazy personalities and I tried to portray that with some of our less flattering pictures. The background shows pictures from our yearly family vacations to Aruba where we always seem to grow a little closer.

Illustration Friday - Stir

For stir I really didn't want to draw just another mixing bowl. And I recalled having heard or read things about a "stirring of emotions". I dictionaried (if that's a word) it, and actually incorporated the definition(s) into my drawing— the one about emotions is written multiple times, in red. I thought I could make it a collage because that'd be a good way to express a mess or variety of feelings.

Sketchbook Cover - Impressionism

For my sketchbook cover I decided to emulate my favorite movement-- impressionism. But because I find that very difficult, I used citra solv to copy one of Claude Monet's paintings. Then I added my own personal touches with some colored pencils to give the copy a little more color (before it was mainly simple greens and blues).

Illustration Friday - Swarm

I looked up swarm in the dictionary and it said "a large group of insects, usually flying" and the first annoying, flying insect that came to mind was a bumblebee. I've never seen a swarm of bees except for in movies and it's always both entertaining and terrifying. I thought it would be cool to combine the black and yellow that seem to blur together in a swarm of bees with watercolor. Then I drew a real bee just to emphasize what the mesh meant.

Illustration Friday - Sweater

Whenever I hear sweater I always think of these songs. The ones that talk about sweaters. You don't hear a lot of songs about sweaters, so they're both kind of funny and memorable. So I wrote out the lyrics and glued a "sweater" on top of them (a cut out of some fuzzy fabric). And voila.

Illustration Friday - Reverse

Considering my recent difficulties in finding a camera (I now have one), the first thing I though of when I saw reverse was "mirrored image". So I just took that one step further and drew a mirror and someone's reflection looking into it. I only colored her eye and the mirror frame so that those things could stand out specifically and yet the picture would stay simple. And I figured I'd add a tear for dramatic effect.

Illustration Friday - Shadow

When I think "shadow" I seem to always come back to that childhood memory of sitting in your bed at night, tryig to fall asleep, and everything around you seems monstrous. Even the innocent shadow of a doll appears to grow in size and shape until it's become the object of your worst nightmares. So I drew a cowering child and his soldier doll's shadow-turned-monster arching up on the wall.

MY SKETCHBOOK & PORTFOLIO

That says PORTFOLIO I promise. It's just backwards.

ME Collage

My collage is a random assortment of pictures from my childhood and those which are more recent. Because it's a collage about "me" I looked up the word "me" or "I" or "myself" in lots of different languages and included those. I tried to include friends and family and things that interest me, like my star sign and different shoe brands. I'm a shoe fanatic (they are my favorite things to shop for) and I especially love the "different" kind of shoes like Converse and Vans. I'm also fascinated by the Zodiac and horoscopes. I don't necessarily believe in them, but they can sometimes be freakily accurate. Plus they're just fun to read! I have a lot of different layers and personalities and I think the fact that this collage is so mismatched and random is a good portrayal of that. I have a serious side and a fun side, and I'm still a child on the inside. I hope I never truly grow up, because a person's inner child is their purest, best side. My parents are both still five deep down, and they are very happy people. I definitely admire that about them. Also, I'm still working on getting a camera that will hook up to my computer. I have a camera on here though that works well, though it does mirror the images. I'm very sorry! I'll work on getting that fixed this weekend. But it still gets the general idea across!

Honor Code

As a member of the FCDS Community, I will maintain my honor and integrity at all times by creating and upholding an atmosphere of trust, respect and consideration for all members of the school community.