Homework 14: The Secret of Drawing – Storylines and Caitlin McGurk’s Talk
Something that was said in the documentary was really interesting and stuck with me. It went something along the lines of drawing tells a story just like words, but when you draw out a story it comes across with parts of the artist’s personality. I’ve never thought about art this way, but you can see what is important to an artist based on what they create and how they do so. Daniel Clowes work is amazing. He is excellent at drawing characters to portray different types of emotions and different types of people. He typically draws a lot of people while Katsushika Hokusai draws a lot differently. He draws a bunch of nature scenes. His comics are also a lot different because he doesn’t draw in boxes like Clowes does. His are more mashed together and show different types of scenes. He also doesn’t typically use a lot of words in his drawings but you can still clearly tell what is going on in the scene. This just shows how different art can be even when doing the same type of drawing. Another artist that I find interesting is Toba Sojo. He uses animals as his characters instead of people, which I think is an interesting way to go about it. This isn’t typically seen in a lot of art. He also draws articles of clothing on to the animals to make them look like people. He also doesn’t use words, but there is a clear story that can be seen while looking at his work.
1. I didn’t know that OSU had a cartoon library and I think that is really cool and interesting. I also didn’t realize that the cartoon library here at OSU was so large and had so many original copies.
2. I also find it interesting that someone so known in the comic work, Milton Caniff, went to OSU. I think its really great that he donated his life’s work to OSU.
3. Something that I didn’t know was how much work Caniff put into his comics. He did a lot of research and did all of the work himself. He is a very talented artist and his work was being looked at my many many people.
4. I admire Caniff’s work because he did use different cinematic elements that no one really used until he did. He changed the angle of the comic between different pictures so that you really get a view of what is going on in the scene. This really changed the world of comics.
5. I also love how much the library has grown. They were originally in a classroom and then they outgrew it. They got a bigger space and outgrew that. they are now in Sullivant Hall. This shows how the amount of comic art they have has grown and how the appreciation for comic art has grown. I think this is important because I think that comics are looked over.
6. I think that comics are really important. They can be influential in so many ways. Will Eisner taught with comic books and used them in influential ways. He got a lot of much needed recognition for his work. He got a lot of attention and made graphic novels more widely known. Because of him they started using them in classrooms and were more widely known in the U.S..
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Homework 12: The Secret of Drawing 3 – All in the Mind
I loved this documentary and they way that the narrator describes drawing because I’ve never thought of it that way even though I do draw a good amount. Something that he said that stuck with me is that you can see and feel the artists emotions. Drawings are intimate and are a direct line to the artists thoughts. In some artists, you can even tell when they start to become out of touch with reality like Louis Wain. Drawing is one of the first things we learn. Drawing is how kids show their understanding of the world. What is amazing about art is that it is limitless. It’s up to the artist and what is in their mind. Look at John Virtue’s work. His art is very dark and isn’t clear cut. You can make out the whole piece, but can’t necessarily make out individual objects. His work is white and shade of gray and black. His work is landscapes. If you look at Sandro Botticelli’s work, it is portraits of people. This artist uses bright colors and draws people, which is very different from Virtue. This just shows how different art is to each person. Another thing I found super interesting in this video was when they tracked the eye movements of someone who doesn’t consider themselves an artist and someone who does. There woman’s eye movements were exact. She knew what she needed to work on and looked there, where as his as he described is was a drunk going home from the bar. His eye movements were more erratic.
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Homework 11: Reflection Response
With module 4, one of the things that I struggled with is the gesture drawings that we had to do in a limited amount of time. I used the charcoal for a few of those and I really like using it, it was just kinda messy and I had to be careful that I didn’t get it all over. For the rest of those, I used a pencil and it was really hard to see the drawing, so I wish I would’ve used charcoal for all of them. They are also distorted because drawing bodies is incredibly difficult. For module 5, I liked the collage project, I just wish that I would’ve been more creative like some of the other projects that I saw. They were amazing and had super creative. I need to work on turning work in on time, but when I do I think that my work is usually done well.
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Homework 8: Reflection Response
I think that my work does fulfill the criteria. I think that there is a sense of depth. I think that I would’ve needed more time because this concept was very difficult for me. I think that something that could’ve been improved upon is the way that I drew them. The shading could’ve been a little bit better because things are supposed to be darker the closer they are to the front. I’m also not great at proportion. I think that some of my drawings look disproportionate so they don’t look accurate.
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Homework 6: Perspective Reading and Videos with 7 Bullet Points
1. There are 2 types of perspective (linear and atmospheric) and there isn’t a really right or wrong one. You have to pick a perspective that would better suit what you are drawing.
2. There are a few basic rules. Objects farther away are smaller, are less detailed, and appear lighter. Objects that are in the same line of view may be covered by other objects.
3. There are various types of linear perspective: one point, two point, and three point. There are also other types of perspective drawings that show different perspectives.
4. Perceptive perspective is when the artist bends lines that are supposed to be straight because it minimizes the distortions in 3D shapes on a flat surface.
5. Another type of perspective is angular perspective. This type of perspective is used when there is a single edge to the picture plane. There are 2 vanishing points with this perspective.
6. Drawing in perspective can be very difficult and mistakes can be easily made. This can be because of errors in the lack of understanding the rules because they can be complicated and can sometimes lead to distortion. In order to avoid mistakes you have to pay close attention to what you are drawing and to make sure you know and follow the rules.
7. There are multiple things you have to understand before doing perspective drawings. Some of the things you have to understand is the point of view of the observer, horizontal line, vanishing lines, vanishing points, and plane of the picture are a few things you have to understand.
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Homework 5: GE Assignment Research
1. Van Gogh
2. John James Audubon- His work is very interesting to me because I usually draw realistic animals. His work is very similar. He bases his art on animals, mostly birds, in their natural habitats. It shows animals doing their natural habits in nature. The detail is amazing and he didn’t ;eave anything out. The paintings are made of neutral colors. Nature isn’t documented near enough, so I really love his work because we take advantage of all of the beautiful plants and animals.
3. Charles Burchfield- I love his work. His paintings are almost whimsical and remind me of a fairy tale world. His paintings give off different feelings. Some are dark and give off the feeling that it is night or mysterious. Others are bright and give off the feeling that it is day time, sunset, and sunrise. They give off feelings of happiness or even hope. His work is amazing and beautiful.
4. Unica Zurn
5. Charles Gaines
6. Yayoi Kusama- His art is all very bright. He uses patterns inside of his work to fill it in. I have always wanted to paint something similar to this. I love all of the bright colors. Some of them are a little trippy. I also found that he changes the colors of his dots based on if he wants that part of his painting to be light or dark. He also changes the size of the dots to make the painting lighter or darker.
7. Quentin Blake
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Homework 3: Value, Reading, Bullet points, and Drawing
1. It is important to establish a value scheme before starting the artwork because it makes the piece more cohesive.
2. The range of the value scale can make the piece of art convey different emotions. For example if a piece leans more towards the dark part of the scale, it can convey gloominess, while a more light piece can convey dreamy or airy. It can tell what time of day it is.
3. There are different value scales. Some have 9 steps, while others can have less. For example they have have 5 steps. Artists create a more simple value scale so that their art is more simple.
4. The way that the art uses different contrasts can make the viewer direct their attention to different parts of the piece. The artist has to know how to do this and what types of contracts will attract the viewers eye.
5. Creating a value scale can help the artist shade because it shows the values that may be missing. This can add more value to the drawing and create more contrast.
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Homework 2: The Secret of Drawing
This documentary emphasized how important drawing is in our world because everything starts as a drawing. The work of Francis Wells is amazing because he uses his drawing skills to draw hearts of patients, and figures out new ways to repair hearts. He studied the work of Leonardo Da Vinci. Leonardo Da Vinci was an amazing artist. He was well ahead of his time and was incredibly smart. His work is still admired by so many and people often use his work as inspiration. He did a lot of paintings of people but he also made a lot of drawings to try to figure things out. he drew very detailed images of different parts of the human body and different machines. Another artist that used drawing to understand the anatomy of an organism is George Stubbs. He drew very detailed images of horses and would take away layers of the horse so that he could see and understand the anatomy. The drawings are very detailed and show an accurate representation of the anatomy of horses. Something that I find interesting about all of these artists is that they all have drawings that they made in order to better understand something. This shows that art is more than just admiring what you put on a paper. It can give someone a deeper understanding of something.