Drawing

I have always loved art, and when I flip through my families photo albums it seems like a large part of my childhood was spent scribbling with markers and finger paint, and creating “masterpieces” out of doilies and tissue paper. However, as much as I enjoyed art when I was young, it slowly faded from my life as I approached middle school and then high school. I always used art in school projects, or making cards for people, or welcome home signs for my siblings, but it stopped being an activity that I just did for fun when I had spare time. My junior year of high school, I decided to take an intro 2-D art class, which included everything from drawing and painting with watercolors and oil paints, to print making and Cubist drawings. I enjoyed all the different mediums I learned to use in that class and I can’t say I liked drawing any more than painting, or printmaking, but it was definitely what I was best at.

I work very slowly, and my art projects always take a long time. Because of this, it is a constant struggle for me to finish my projects. When I am drawing with graphite, I like to make my pictures very realistic. The drawing below, which I completed in my high school 2-D class, was the second graphite drawing I did and it took me a year to finish. I drew this from a photograph of my sisters and I (I am the one on the left), in the parking lot at Crystal Mountain.

My senior year of high school, I decided to take AP studio art. In this class I had to choose a concentration and create about one piece per week to submit. I wanted to do drawing, but at the time, I realized that at the speed I drew it would be impossible to create one piece each week. I experimented with different drawing styles and eventually switched to drawing in sharpie, which I found I could work in much faster. My concentration was in “alternate modes of transportation,” and below are some photos of the drawings I did.

After I started working in sharpie, it was hard for me to go back to graphite. I loved experimenting with sharpie, figuring out ways to control the ink and how to create different shades, or the appearance of shading, using the same pen. Unfortunately, the reality is, unless I am in some form of art class, I forget to draw. This year taking Drawing 100 was the first time I have really drawn since high school, and it was great to get back into it. The biggest challenge for me has been finishing my drawings on time because I work so slowly, but throughout the semester I have definitely learned to draw faster.

- Hillary Tupper