My Thoughts on Drawing - Elayne Wang

I think I'm a pretty quirky artist if I do say so myself. Maybe not in the impressionist or cubist sense, but rather I've found that other artists seem to have opposite tendencies. For example, I like drawing people more than anything else and I think it is easier to draw people than most other things. Another one of my quirks about drawing is that I like to draw in short bursts. 20 minutes here, an hour there, 10 minutes later, etc. I suppose that is because drawing has usually been a leisure rather than an assignment.

I've always liked to draw. I love the feeling when I look at a finished piece of work and think "that is just how I imagined; good job, self." Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen, and when it doesn't turn out the way I want it's rather disheartening. But over time that feeling grows smaller and smaller as I get better and better at translating objects from real life and my head onto paper.

During this class I have had to realign my art tendencies in many ways. The first major change was switching from 8.5'' x 11" to super large pieces of paper. It took way longer to complete drawings and I noticed that detail mattered a lot more since everything was on a larger scale. It was like going from polaroid to HD. The second major challenge was charcoal. I had previously only really worked in pencil and oil paints, only using charcoal in my outline drawings for my paintings. After a few assignments I decided that using charcoal could really enhance a piece, and so I resolved to make myself learn how to use it as well as I could use pencil. At first it was very difficult because everything smeared and it was more difficult to make a thin precise line. But after awhile I think I got the hang of it. Now I think my drawings have really improved from my use of charcoal!

Finally, this class really forced me to actually devote a lot of time to drawing. Usually during the school year there isn't much time to just sit down and draw. Taking this class forced me to do so, and because of it I think I have improved a whole lot this semester. I definitely think I will take more art classes during the rest of my time at Duke.