Reflection on Drawing

This semester has been very interesting for me in terms of developing my drawing skills. I did enter the class with some prior experience in art. It was sometimes difficult for me to revert back to a few of the simpler techniques, such as line drawing- I felt that my art didn't look complete without shading. However, I feel that over the course of the semester, my abilities as an artist have greatly increased.

Drawing has always been my favorite form of art. It is so precise and I love sculpting every last detail of whatever is in front of me, with just the tip of a pencil. It is time consuming, but very rewarding. My favorite part of drawing is always being able to look at the end product- it will always be there to reassure you that your time was worth it.

At the beginning of the semester, this class consumed my weekends as I was spending almost 8 hours on drawings. I am a perfectionist- I have a hard time producing work that I know is messy and loose. However, by the second half of the semester, especially when we ventured into drawing from photographs, I learned to let go of my obsession with precision. I was pushed out of my comfort zone and had to rely on my imagination to blend images together, filling in the details of pixelated photos rather than drawing what was directly in front of me. In addition, I started to use charcoal instead of pencil- which gave more contrast in my drawings, but left more room for error. Charcoal was harder to erase, and it was extremely difficult for me to draw precise lines. Despite these difficulties, I feel that I developed my skills in the use of charcoal, which wouldn't have happened if I didn't take this class. In my sketchbook, I did a series of charcoal drawings without using any eraser- this was extremely unusual for me to do willingly, but I felt that it would be useful to have the practice.

This class has forced me to expand into areas outside of my comfort zone, and hopefully with more practice I will continue to hone my drawing skills.