Putting Process on Display

Hastily reconstructed presentation board

My concept for this week was the idea of process. Our assignments were focused on experimenting with different mediums, types of paper, and methodologies of drawing. I wanted my presentation to highlight different types of paper and different mediums, as well as how they might overlap and intersect, and so I left two of the drawings in sketchbooks/drawing pads and draped them over the top of the foam board. I kept the sticky note drawing on the sticky note pad for the same reason. The idea of process and materials also came through with how I chose to mount the pictures: I used pieces of charcoal eraser (which essentially worked as a less effective, but serviceable, poster putty) to fix everything to the board. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take a picture before taking down the drawings--and in the process of putting it back up, the upside-down man got a little crumpled.

Graphite on sketchbook paper, 3.5"x5.5"

My original plan was the present the upside-down drawing upside-down, but unfortunately, I forgot when I was assembling the board. The process of making the drawing was...extremely frustrating. I started at the top of the drawing (the bottom, if it was right-side-up) and worked to get the general outline, then I filled in the details in the middle. As I started filling in details, though, I started realizing the proportions were wrong, and that my attempts to draw lines in relation to other lines had been pretty inaccurate. This was especially an issue with the hands--I realized there was no way they were going to meet and look proportional at the same time, based on how I had angled the man's sleeves. However, at that point, I was probably 45 minutes into the whole drawing process and ready to get it over with, so I did my very best to squiggle some hands together. I think dividing the drawing into sections would have helped a lot--focusing on individual squares (like with a mural) would have made the everything easier to piece together.

Graphite on sketchbook paper; 5.5"x 8.5"

With the vases and faces drawing, I had similar frustrations. The face on the right side never quite looked like the face on the left, and my brain was very confused about what direction to go in order to mirror the left side. I think drawing lines from the left to the right to map out where exactly the lines shifted would have helped, but even without that, I eventually got to a drawing that was close to symmetrical, if not exactly a mirror. 

Pen on light blue sticky note; 3"x3"

The object drawings were my favorite--I had a lot of fun playing around with different types of paper and mediums. I did the post-it one first. I chose post-it because I wanted some variety in size, and I really liked the idea of miniaturizing my aloe plant. I used pen because I felt it would make it easier for me to see it as a quick sketch, rather than something that needs to be erased and redrawn over and over, as it would have been if I had used pencil. It felt like a good first drawing because the medium felt so personal and casual--like a little drawing I would give to a friend. It also was a really easy way to add color to my overall presentation.

Charcoal and eraser on medium texture drawing paper, 11"x14"

The next drawings I did were the charcoal ones--the blind contours and the sort-of negative space drawing (which I did to highlight both the shape and the medium texture of the paper). I used three different weights of charcoal, one for each blind contour, and I used the softest charcoal pencil for the "negative space" drawing. I decided to use charcoal because I've used it before and I really enjoy it--there's something about the lack of erasability (compared to graphite) paired with its smudge-ablility that really appeals to me. I also liked the idea that as I was doing the contours, that they would smear a little, just because I couldn't look down to make sure my hand wasn't in the way. My original plan was to do four blind contours, with one as a blind negative space drawing, but I realized as I was doing it that it was more or less impossible to do with a kneaded eraser--so I switched to having it be a negative space drawing. Even that, though, wasn't giving me the interesting shapes I wanted, so I went back in and added some detail and sharpness to the erased part with a soft charcoal pencil. 

Colored pencil on textured paper; 8"x6"

The last drawing I did was with colored pencil on the heavily textured paper Elisa gave us. I was a little scared of doing this one--I don't use a lot of color in most of my drawings, and so I really wanted to go all in and make it bold, but I was also afraid I would over-do it. I think the choice of colored pencil was a good one--it really brought out the texture of the paper. I also liked that the texture of the paper forced me to draw bolder lines to get the color to show up. I found myself grouping colored pencils to the different parts of the plant--not necessarily as an exact representation, but more so to match the feeling of the colors. I struggled a little to get the flower pot to look right--because I was doing this drawing from above from my couch (unlike the post-it drawing, which was done from the ground), it was a lot harder to get the angles of the flower pot. I decided after I was done drawing that it needed a background--there was too much negative space that was not being used, and I wanted to distract from that. I really liked the end result--I think I got a very cutesy piece that looks very homemade.

I think that as a result of this exercise, I started to notice parts of my aloe plant that I had somewhat been willfully ignoring. A little backstory--this Ikea-purchased beauty was sitting in the window of my room in my last apartment, when suddenly and without warning, a gust of wind knocked it off its perch on the sill. Most of the larger leaves were snapped when I found it, and so it's been that way ever since. Surprisingly, none of those leaves died, but they're still a little ugly and crooked. Drawing it so often, though, made me realize that it works much better as an art object now than it did before--there's a lot more interesting overlaps and extensions into space, and it takes up space both horizontally and vertically. I also saw colors in the plant I hadn't seen before when I did the colored pencil drawing, and I also realized how interesting (and difficult to render!) the texture of the plant are. Overall, it was a pretty illuminating way to get to know my drawing materials, while also rekindling a beautiful, forgotten relationship with my aloe plant.