Works from Drawing I

The following flood of works are from my second semester at New World; I had Drawing I with Aramis O'Reilly and it was one of the most gratifying classes I've taken so far. He pushed us to improve our technical skill, our understanding of light and shape and allowed us to explore concepts we were interested in. This is what resulted from that.

19" x 25"

Conte crayon + charcoal on paper

2014

18" x 24"

Charcoal on paper

2014

18" x 24"

Vine charcoal on newsprint

2014

18" x 24"

Vine charcoal on newsprint

2014

19" x 25"

Conte crayon + charcoal on paper

2014

18" x 24"

Vine + compressed charcoal on paper

2014

19" x 25"
Conte crayon + charcoal on paper
2014

37" x 25"
Charcoal on paper
2014

37" x 25"

Charcoal on paper

2014

Figure drawings & still life

Female figure
18" x 25"
Charcoal on paper
2013

Male figure
25" x 18"
Charcoal on paper
2013

Paper bags
19" x 25"
Conte crayons on canson paper
2012

Fabric
19" x 25"
Charcoal on paper
2012


So these are the first figure drawings I've spend time on finishing. The other couple of times I've done nudes is at figure drawing classes, and quite frankly the last person I went to see was so ugly I couldn't pay attention. Ahem. Anyway, the female figure was pretty easy to work on. It took about three or four sessions to finish up. The male figure was a little harder, and I actually started it before I started the second one. The proportions are wonky compared to the reference, but time wasn't agreeing with me to fix it. It was something new for me.

The still life of fabric was done after I finished the shoes still life. I did the same thing with this as I did with the last still life.

As for the paper bags, I used different materials. Conte crayons are pretty interesting, it's just that you have to keep the white and black from mixing while drawing with them and it can be frustrating. For what it is, it came out better than I expected it to.

I didn't mention that I hate drawing, huh?

Liquid and rocks

After many months of trying to adjust to oils and charcoal, both pieces are finally done. I'm not sure which one was harder. They were both equally frustrating, that's for sure.

Jerry Cantrell
Oil on canvas
30" x 24"
2012

My first project with oils was to paint a portrait of a musician who I have not stopped listening to ever since I was 12. Alice in Chains has been one of my favorite bands since then, and his solo albums have inspired me artistically as well. When I'm trying to think up ideas or warm up for painting, I listen to his music nonstop.

This was my steam valve, as my art teacher calls it. After the chaos that was my Scholastic portfolio, I guess my brain was so broken that a new project within 3 weeks of finishing made sense!

My teacher painted a portrait of Layne Staley a while back, too. I wanted something to match it.

Shoes
Charcoal on paper
21" x 28"
2012

This is when my teacher made me feel like I was in a humanities class. She had me cover the whole sheet of paper with charcoal, then I had to erase in the outlines. Basically drawing in reverse. The process was pretty damn tedious and tiring, but the end result is fun to look at.


I'm now currently working on another charcoal drawing like this. Soon, I'll be starting a new series of oil paintings. I'm not exactly sure what it'll be about. I've just gotta prepare for August 2013!

And something to be proud of!

Mikael Akerfeldt

Pencil on paper

11" x 14"

2009

Another one of these. I was listening to lots of Opeth and Mikael's pretty easy on the eyes, so why not?

This was my first time filling in a drawing with a background, and thankfully the reference photo had a blurry forest scene. Starting the drawing up was ridiculous, it took a few months for me to even get some basic lines down, and in the end I almost erased everything. I nearly gave up on this, but I kept some lines down and decided to just go for it. It was a sorta blurry photo entirely, so my teacher and I had to mess around in Photoshop to catch different lights properly. This is still something I'm very happy to call my own work, even with the problems that came along with it.

This one took quite some time

Richard D. James

Pencil on paper
11" x 14"

2009

Another musician portrait! These are a habit of mine. After Iggy, I still needed practice, so another one of these had to be done. And I guess whatever music I'm into at the time becomes the subject. Richard D. James goes under the name of Aphex Twin in his music career, and he's an interesting fella.

Again, graphite pencils on paper for this one. The fabric and hair are an improvement here, but his eyes were insane to attempt making look normal (again, reference problems). This drawing itself took entirely too long to finish, and mostly out of laziness and going nuts over trying to finish it!

One of my first portraits...

Iggy Pop
Pencil on paper
11" x 14"
2009

So this drawing is simple enough, it's just an Iggy portrait. My art teacher asked me to begin drawing a portrait of anyone who I thought was interesting, so he came up! And at the time, I was listening to a lot of The Stooges, it worked.

I used various graphite pencils on sketching paper, and used a photo from a biography as the reference. It was a small photo too! So that's as far as the process went for this one. It took a few weeks to finish, because drawing this was also the first time I'd start filling in hair and fabric.