MY FIRST WEEK OF YEAR 10 ART 🎨🖌️

The first full (well, kind of) week of Year 10 is coming to an end and it's time for my first blog post to recap all of it. More specifically, recapping my art classes so far.

So in art we have been starting off the semester with some tonal notes, shading, and just playing around with some shapes and textures. 

31st January 2019

On the first day I spent my lesson just having a go at drawing some ideas, this included some facial structure, and furthermore, the faces, which were inspired by some comic book styles I combined and altered over time to make what I call my "cartoon style". 

I also spent just a bit of my time on sketching from reference, which to be honest I wasn't too proud of, I feel like I should have taken my time more and played around with how dark or light I wanted the lines, especially on the figurine drawing you see on the left of the page. The truck on the right bottom of the page was from reference too, I experimented with what style I was going to use and just quickly sketched out a simple structure, but I didn't end up finishing this truck and that's why it's so messy. 

Other than that I really was just drawing what was on my mind. I think I'm okay at drawing eyes and so I quickly produced one of those - it's messy and just about every feature of it is looking a bit 'off' but it's probably the best thing on the page in my opinion. Next time I need to take my time and use lighter lines, thinner strokes, etc. 

You'll notice a few examples of shading, this was really just to fill the page, I think I'm okay at it but I feel as though if I took my time that the finished product would have turned out much better.

1st February 2019

Onto the next page and next lesson, this was a lesson where Whaea instructed us not to use our erasers and work through our mistakes. We were to focus on our shading and some tonal notes. Again I'm not too proud of this work but I ended up with a few things to help me out next time. 

I just played around with some simple shading and not really focusing on the finished product which is probably one of my weaknesses in art, I get lost in just playing around and don't actually finish anything.... like, anything at all. Look in my sketchbooks (I don't use them anymore, but in 2016-17 I drew practically everyday) and you'll see plenty of unfinished drawings and comics. 

With the shading I also played around with a few different textures - crosshatching, little circles (I'm sure this technique has a name but I don't know it). I don't think this was the smartest idea as I still hadn't even finished more than one circle. 

The shadows and squares are what I'm least proud of. I've hardly used proper shadows in my work before as I typically draw cartoons or portraits. This was really my first time using them and so they don't look fantastic... or remotely good.. but this was good for my first time and I still have so much to learn, so I'm going to stay positive and say that I'm proud for my first attempt. 

Questions

Have I improved with my shading?

I think I've improved a little bit at least, considering I haven't done it in so long. 

Do you understand that drawing using structure can help you draw better?

I definitely understand this, I can see the difference in my sketches when I use structure under them vs. when I don't use structure. By the way, structure is the use of light, gentle lines underneath your work, this is useful for pretty much all artists especially beginners.

What are you going to work on going forward in pencil drawing in and out of class?

I'm going to focus more on my shading and shadows at home and in class, taking my time, and using structure a lot more in my drawings as I have really noticed the difference in my drawings.