I am not an active comic book or manga reader, but I have been trying to begin in it. I was not fully aware of the darkness in many of the comics featured. It appears that the main thread is hiding deep messages in seemingly innocent drawings.

Daniel Clowes’ illustrations are really interesting. I enjoy how simple they are but also how they capture the emotions of the characters so effortlessly. I admire his honesty about his work, about how much time he spent on mastering the lines, and how his emotions and environment played into his work. The messages that no one talks about but always thinks about may be a little strange. It seems as if they are repressed fantasies or thoughts we have, like the id of the subconscious mind. But not everything is acceptable to think about.

Misako Rocks’ artwork is very inspiring. I love her sketches and then her doing everything by hand. She captures movement effortlessly, even though I know she has years of experience under her belt. The fact that she is self-taught is also inspiring. Sometimes surrounding yourself with something you want to mimic or learn and taking the time to really focus on it can also help you learn just as well in class. All that you truly need is motivation.

Martin Rowson’s drawing intrigued me. He drew quite fast with intent and exactness. I really like his drawing/painting utensil and ink. The brush stroke is a line I really like with its varying line thickness and how expressionist it is.

I see that my Project 7 does satisfy the criteria for the assignment. It was a more imaginative work and the lines were less structured compared to the other projects. I wanted there to be movement, thus I added in a little tornado like object in the center and the image appears to be moving towards the front of the page with the diminishing lines in the back. I also used some color to activate the page more. I like the pencil parts of my drawing. The color parts do not seem as developed with shading and differences in value. I can definitely improve on the color shading and inorporating more color to other drawings to practice.

It was fascinating to see the work of John Tchelenko with eye movement and drawing. Being able to see that difference in eye movement of an ametuer compared to a skilled artist is insightful. I had expected the professional to have eye movement all over the place to be able to catch the whole image, but with their eyes having a specific focus on one area that they drew, it demonstrates their thinking and seeing process. That piece of technology also offers ways how science can perhaps break the secret to drawing.

An artist’s work that I enjoy is David Shrigley. The darkness of his lines and the words that accompany his work is witty. His work is kind of nightmarish but also realistic. His line work reminds me of a child’s but more focused. His drawings are simple and cartoonish which intrigues me and he manages to effortlessly capture the movement in the images. There is also humor in his work which I find nice.

The cave art was also interesting. They were a lot better than what I am used to being shown about cave art, especially with the color and shading. I thought it was interesting that they compared that art to Nadia Chomyn as a way of saying the cave artist might have also been autisitic in a sense. Nadia had an exceptional ability to draw which is common for children with autism, where they excel in a specialty, but just because her work and the cave art is similar is not evidence that the cave artist was also on the spectrum. Perhaps the artist was on the spectrum but there is also no lie that some people are born with more talent than others. The cave artist could have been naturally talented or practiced a lot. Perhaps other cave art was their work but then they started improving how they drew.

I believe that the collage fulfills the criteria for the assignment. I like the bright colors I found in the magazine which helps activate the page. I also added some different layers so there is a 3-dimensional aspect to it. I could definitely work on the composition of the pieces in the collage and the placement of the different pieces of paper. There is meaning to each aspect though The collage is both abstract and literal. There are many unique shapes in my collage. Some of them blend into the background while other shapes stand out. I incorporated many different materials.

I believe my work has fulfilled the criteria of the prospective assignment. There is a sense of depth in both works, but the line contour perspective has more depth than my tonal perspective. Both of my drawings are pretty big. I found that drawing an edge for the drawings to end was immensely helpful. 

Both drawings activate the page in their own way. The line contour perspective drawing is a little blank, but the lines draw the eyes immediately to the back wall of the image. I feel as if the line perspective allows an air of familiarity since it is of a dorm room so many people would recognize it. It’s also realistic. The tonal perspective is more realistic and it catches the eye. My shading is strange since it’s not even but creates an intriguing flow.

The strength of my line perspective is the sense of depth. I feel that I successfully understood the eye-level perspective and drew my lines to connect a central dot. This drawing is very accurate too, in terms of what is present in my room and where they lie. For the tonal one, I like how I shaded the couch. It is well put together and realistic.

There are many areas for improvement. The line drawing can have more differences in line quality. I didn’t quite capture what objects were closer since the lines were all around the same color. The tonal drawing could have some shading improvements. I look back and realize that I should bring my shading closer to the edges. I see that I left a lot of white gaps between different areas which makes it look like they are stickers.

Interesting things I read:

• make sure your angles are accurate. If you draw a cube, your drawing should have a 90º angle for a cube.
• if your lines need to be parallel, make sure they are parallel or else it will look off
• Whenever you have to draw a circle, do so by inscribing a square
• an important part of perspective is dividing your plane evenly. For triangular planes, you can do a cross where you draw the line at the same angle and then draw a horizontal line and it will look parallel in perspective
• Measuring lines are good to divide your defined plane. Draw a horizontal line and divide it equally, then draw vanishing lines to them
• larger objects in rooms need the most detail to perspective. Smaller items do not need it
• treat rooms like a box

I cut up my four contour drawings and added in an egg, wall outlet, and plugs.

This documentary was eye opening and interesting. The art they covered was detailed and monumental in ways I had not thought about before.

Francis Wells’ art shocked me the most. I had not expected home to draw with blood. It felt invasive to me, but I can see his thinking. It, in theory, is useful and sanitary in a way where there is no cross contamination if he were to touch a pencil or marker and it does relay information to his coworkers, but it is a little disturbing to see him dip for more blood.

Another artist that intrigued me was George Stubbs. His obsession with horses was eye opening. It showed how dedicated he was and how far he would go to master his craft. I admire the lengths he went in order to capture all the details of horses, especially with the dead horse carcasses. It shows that careful observation and time is the only way for an artist to capture the reality of their subject matter. If Stubbs had not dedicated all that time to his craft, we would not be looking at his artwork in this documentary.

John Adams Audubon’s work also caught my attention. His artwork was different from the others where it was realistic but also had a more animated style to it. In the documentary it was said that he added some drama to his work which was evident when compared to the other artists who solely focused on capturing every detail.