30 Drawing Challenge

In my Drawing Investigation class, our first assignment was to complete the 30 drawings challenge, and here are the drawings I completed for it and my notes:

1. Yourself

Medium: Cigarette ash using cigarette butts, the rain, on warped wood

Notes: Process happened for me quite organically when I noticed the shape the rain had made with the cigarette ash, I then slowly started to create the head using the extinguished cigarette butts over time.  Mixing ash with water you could create a wash which happened naturally in this case, but overall not a great medium to work with, as it would be quite toxic.  Interestingly with rain over time the head seems to rotate, wish I took some photos after the last rain (and before the current one) to show this.

2. Animal

*Drawing is currently at CIT so I've only got the low res image taken from my camera phone, will replace when I take my camera in.

Medium: Willow charcoal and blending stump.

Notes: Did this drawing in class when we brought in an item to draw, I enjoy using charcoal with its rich darkness and I find it good with the stump to create different tone.

3. Food

Medium: Tomato Sauce with squeeze bottle

Notes: Did this one while waiting for Chicken nuggets to cook.  Tomato sauce is not really a good medium, with lines they tend to gel into each other and its hard to get any tone with it.  Perhaps if mixed with mayonnaise, you could get some nice warm tones.

4. Place

Medium: Willow Charcoal, Pencil and Oil Pastel on paper

Notes: For place I wanted to explore a connection to the land itself, and so chose the aboriginal memorial as inspiration for this piece, and drew an abstract of my feelings for the land in Canberra.

Again really enjoy the willow charcoal, and used pencil to give it some lighter grays, and the pastels some earthy colours.

5. Friend

Medium: Ink, with dropper and nail

Notes: Didn't really feel that successful with this one, using ink in this process was hard to control, I liked the effect of the drawing but didn't really get what I was after.

6. Book Character

Medium: Digital - Corel Painter Pastels

Notes: For this I chose the comic book character John Constantine for the hell blazer series by DC Comics (Vertigo).  I found the pastel brushes good, although not what I am used to so took some experimentation.

7. Word

Medium - Digital - Corel Painter - Digital Ink

Notes: For this I wanted to use the word to create the image, I chose digital ink for the because I thought that fit in with language usually being written or printed in ink.  I experimented with many of the brushes under the digital ink, but only found a few that were good to work with.

8. Animated Character

Medium: Digital - Corel Painter - Charcoal and Conte brushes

Notes: I chose Peppa Pig for the animated character, a favorite of my daughter.  using a square conte brush was interesting, somewhat difficult at times to get the line you want.

9. TV Show

Medium: Digital - Corel Painter - Markers

Notes: For TV show I chose Vikings by the history channel.  I found the marker brushes somewhat difficult to get a handle on, as they often went darker than expected.

10. A sweet

Medium: Oil Pastel

Notes: For this one I wanted to use pastels without blending them as I would normally do, but to instead try and find expression in the line and mark making. 

11. Turning point in your life

Medium: Compressed Charcoal and Stump
Notes: For this one I chose when my daughter and her mother came home from the hospital, and they were both relaxing on the couch.  Like with Willow charcoal I enjoyed using compressed charcoal, although I found willow to be richer in texture and easier to use, although I seem to get a better line with compressed charcoal, and the different grades made making different tonal ranges easier.

12. Recent Accomplishment

Medium: Graphite Pencil and stump

Notes: For this I chose to depict me letting go of pain surrounding my separation from my partner, still in the process, but this was letting a lot of it go.  Not much experimenting here as I've used pencil a lot, but it is a medium I enjoy to use.

13. Comic

Medium: Graphite Pencil

Notes: I used Pencil for this one as I wanted to pay homage to the first stage in design for comic creation, the pencilling, although I understand a lot of this process is now done digitally.

14. Fairytale

Medium: Ballpoint Pen

Notes: For fairytale I chose to depict an initial scene from the frog prince, where the princess loses her ball.  Like with Pencil, I really seem to like sketching with ballpoint pen, they are cheap, replaceable and usually at hand.  Like with ink there is also that sense of permanence to the drawing, which makes you either think carefully about the line making or about how to use errant marks to enhance the drawing.

15. Family picture

Medium: Oil Pastel, Stump and Pen

Notes: For this one I chose to depict myself and my daughter when she was a baby, and try to get a sense of connection here.  I really liked the combination of pen and pastel, to me the line gives the softness of the pastel a focus and draws the image together.

16. Inspiration

Medium: Ball point Pen, microliner pen, Copic Marker and Watercolour pencils

Notes: With this one I really wanted to depict an exchange in relation to inspiration, and I see it as inspiration both entering into the figures eye and leaving it in a cycle.  Really liked the mix in mediums here, although I need a lot more practice with colour pencil, and possibly a larger range of colours.

17. Plant

Medium: Ball point pen, Copic Marker, and Microliner pen

Notes: I really liked the mix of pens in this one, the copic marker is really good in laying down areas of tone.

18. Just a doodle

Medium: Ball point Pen

Notes: I chose Ball point pen for this one to go along with the theme of doodle.

19. Something new

Medium - Digital - Artrage -  Oils and Palette knife

Notes: For this one I thought I'd go for a ultrasound image, the idea of preparing for a new life, the birth of something new.  I was considering how painting differs from drawing, especially when in the digital medium both are really just changing pixels.

20. Orange

Medium: Digital - Photoshop - Hard and soft round.

Notes: Went for the obvious for this one, mainly because it was a good choice for practicing my digital shading in photoshop.

21. Something I want

Medium: Digital - Corel Painter - Colour Pencil Brushes + smudge

Notes: In this one I wanted to depict the outpouring of the self in creative expression.  I chose the colour pencil brushes because I wanted to see if I could get good vibrancy out of them and I am quite pleased with how it turned out.  Being a pencil medium it was sometimes difficult to get overlaying colours.

22. Something I miss

Medium: Oil Pastels

Notes: I miss closeness and intimacy.  I chose pastels for this because I thought their softness would suit the subject matter well.

23. Something I need

Medium: Ink with Brush and microliner pen

Notes: In this one I wanted to depict reintergration of the self.  Pulling oneself back together into a stable whole.  Really enjoy ink with a brush, I think it allows for great expressive lines.

24. A couple

Medium: Pastels

Notes: For this one I chose to do a rendition of Renoir's "Boating Couple".  

Again with this one I wanted to capture the marks without blending.

25. Scenery

Medium: Digital - Corel Painter - Digital Gel

Notes: for this one I wanted to play with the Gel brushes in painter, which to me seem a little in between watercolour and ink.  

26. Something I don't like

Medium: Marker and Microliner pen.

Notes: for this one I wanted to depict depression, often symbolised as a black dog.  With this one I wanted to play with the contrast of thick line and thin line, against the white of the page.

27. Someone I love

Medium: Compressed Charcoal and Watercolour Pencil

Notes: My Daughter.  For this I wanted to do a charcoal drawing but to try adding a little colour with pencil to draw interest.

28. Anything I like

Medium: Colour Pencil and Microliner pen

Notes: For this one I want to experiment using complimentary colours against thin black lines to try and depict something coming into harmony, a balance restored.

29. A place I want to go

Medium: Compressed Charcoal and Stump

Notes: Norway.  It was interesting trying to get the reflection in the water, but I needed to go softer in my strokes, as I think that has given the water a raised look.  

30. A congratulations Banner

Medium: Microliner Pen

Notes: I thought using the pen for this final one would work best, as it tied quite a few of the pieces together, I thought it deserved its own image.

We'll now be starting our major project of the unit (we move to painting next term) and I still think I will go for portraiture for mine, its an area I really enjoy, and need much improvement in.