Thoughts on Drawing

            I was nervous about taking this class. I had not taken an art class in several years. In high school, I elected to take film classes instead and in middle school, art class was an opportunity to goof off with my buddies rather than sincerely express my creative spirit. I’ve always felt that I have an artistic eye. From a young age, I admired the works of impressionist painters, great cinematographers and photographers, architects, and even designers in fashion.

            My self-doubt was confirmed early on as I was clearly one of the least skilled and least experienced in my class. I struggled through our first few assignments and felt pretty uncomfortable drawing the stool and other structures during our class. I felt much more comfortable in my sketchbook. My comprehension of fundamental concepts such as shading and value were poor and it is apparent in my initial drawings. However, my skills eventually improved and I now understand how crucial it was for me to experience these difficulties. I am proud of my last three final drawings and am certain that they would not have been close to the same if I had not persevered through my early frustrations.

            As someone mentioned earlier, I am also relieved that I decided to wait until my senior year to take this course. Otherwise, I would not have been able to put the same amount of time and effort into my drawings and undoubtedly would not have grown as much as an artist. I plan on continuing to draw in a sketchbook and start exploring some more imaginative ideas. I hope to improve on drawing the human figure and plan to try my hand in painting. I’ve really appreciated the creative and meditative outlet that drawing provides.

            My drawing style took a more expressive form than others in my class. My lines were not quite as precise and I used more charcoal. I believe that this was a result of both my lesser skill and precision as well as my stylistic preference and personality. In painting, I could utilize my developing sense of content, form and proportion in drawing to structure a painting more effectively. My expressive style also seems to be more conducive to painting. I am eager to experiment in a new media and am confident that I will be able to blend the differing aspects of the pencil and brush to expand on this semester’s progress.

            Some of my favorite painters include Monet, Seurat, Van Gogh, and Dali. I’ve always appreciated the works of the Renaissance painters as well and really enjoyed the first blogging assignment because it lead me to explore the drawings of Michelangelo and confirmed that drawing is truly the basis of art, especially painting.