Writeup unit 2 (Cubism)

Investigation:
In the first and part of the second lesson we sketched still life in various ways, dividing the sketching paper into pieces using a ruler and pencil. We then sketched the still life - A guitar, two flowers, a small vase, a box, and a spray bottle, all set up in front of a cork board. The first times we practiced without dividing the paper, including trying without looking at the paper, before we divided it.
We also watched a slideshow about cubism, as well as part of a movie/video about Pablo Picasso, which explained cubism further.

Creation:
I started out by sketching how many pieces there should be, trying to make it look like broken glass or glass shards. I then started drawing inside one of the shards, moving about each time I started on a new shard, thus making the picture very fractured, as if something or someone had broken it.
After that I started coloring and shading it, making most of the items within the shards start out black on the edges, lightening towards the center. An exception to this was the flower on the guitar, the flower being colored completely white against the much darker guitar, to show its "purity".
On the second pie, which I lost halfway through, meaning I had to start afresh, I tried to show contrast. The piece wasn't a pure cubist painting, and the current result was far narrower than I would have liked. It showed six different weapons of three different types (Daggers, arrows, and axes), all of it being depicted on a piece of armor.
I tried to make them "clash" in a way. The top plate shows the very angular, very controlled, golden Dwemer dagger to the right, as compared to the more "fluid" and avian style silvery Elf dagger to the left. In the middle plate there are the very basic, crude, cruel, and rough Falmer arrow, with its tousled flight feathers and spiky, choppy head on the right side, next to the very fine glass arrow, with its smooth feathers and design, and the head being made of glass and gold, instead of the black chitin from the Chaurus, a creature held by the Falmer. On the bottom plate there is the black, spiky war axe of the Daedra, with the red veins spreading out on the handle and blade, as well as being a single piece instead of two, the way the steel war axe to the left is, made very obviously human, from the simple wooden handle to the fine, engraved side of the blade, to the sharp, fine edge, slightly differently colored from the rest of the blade, all of it, in the end, standing against the very tribal, green armor of the orcs.

Evaluation:
I think the second piece could have ended up much better than it did if I had a) Not lost the first version or b) made the plates broader, as well as having a reference somewhere I could see it.
Overall, the pieces ended up fairly well, especially the first one, which I managed to make look pretty much how I wanted it to.

I think this was a very fun unit, and I found the art form both very limiting and very freeing at the same time. It was limiting because I need to keep within the "shards", but very freeing because I need to worry less about perspective than in other art forms, which allows me to focus on other aspects of the drawing.

Cubism

Firstly, I'm sorry that I haven't posted more. The recent time I've had other stuff on my mind, and have pushed this into the back of my mind, forgetting completely about it until yesterday evening.

So, cubism. In our current unit that is what we're working with, and I have come fairly far in the work. I tried to make the "frames" look like shards of broken glass, or like a window that someone had punched, making it break and shatter into smaller shards.

The picture I chose to compare with is "Guitar and violin" by Pablo Picasso. His piece as far more colours than mine, which is based upon a grayscale and pieces of newspapers (Mainly of grass and trees). Picasso also seems to have chosen to split it up less linearly than me, as I have made straight lines towards the center instead of the "Squares" that he has based his painting on. While he has more colors, however, his painting seems more "All over the place" than the more concentrated look of mine, which is in various shades of gray, mainly starting dark at the edges of objects and becoming lighter towards the center (Shading).
Picasso also has a lot more contours than I. In his painting, there a re contours almost everywhere, as opposed to in my drawing, in which there are only a few, necessary contours.
In addition to all of this, I have colored certain things (Such as one of the flowers) completely in one color (White in the case of the flower, making it stand out against the guitar behind it, which has been colored more with coal instead of chalk.), to symbolize some things. (In the case of the flower (Again), this is to symbolize the "Purity" of it, compared to the guitar, which is darker.) I also put cut-outs of grass in certain spots, mainly to give them a look closer to "Nature".

Writeup

-Investigation:
In this unit I have learned how to make a grid-drawing. I found it to be less easy than free-line, which is what I'm used to. I think it may be because in grid-drawing you have to follow the squares

(Continued later)

W.I.P (Work In Progress)

I'm starting to get further, almost finished now.

Easy and difficult points

Alright so, here goes again. I am too forgetful. This should be done on Thursdays, but I keep forgetting it.
So, without further ado, Easy and difficult points during the last lesson:

Easy: I think that making the shadows, once I knew where to put them, was easy. I chose some pencils in varying softness, and drew some lines, which I later rubbed out to create fairly successful shading.

Difficult: I think it was difficult to draw the actual features of the face, because I saw it as a face even when the picture was upside-down. I did get a relatively good result in the end, but I think I could improve it.

My icon

I have been forgetting this for quite a while, but here it is.

This  is my chosen icon, Christy Grandjean, better known as Goldenwolf. A few links to her works:
Vantage point: http://goldenwolf.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=24#/d29ez0
Bruin: http://goldenwolf.deviantart.com/art/Bruin-170491941?q=gallery%3Agoldenwolf%2F229618&qo=8
Silver bookmark: http://goldenwolf.deviantart.com/art/Silver-Bookmark-125967904?q=gallery%3Agoldenwolf%2F229618&qo=19
Arctic treasures: http://goldenwolf.deviantart.com/art/Arctic-Treasures-74404861?q=gallery%3Agoldenwolf%2F229618&qo=28

Yeah. It's easy for those who know me to see why I like it.

A start

So, first Thursday in school. Start out with double art, every Thursday, the entire year. No Drama. At all.
Perfect.

Our first unit is icons, I'm really looking forward to doing it!