The apple industry and the artistic community have a very mutual symbiotic relationship. Apples, it seems, are the go-to object for practicing drawing. I bet there are more paintings and drawings and whatnot of apples than any other specific object (not including humans) in the world. I myself have drawn at least ten apples throughout my life, which is more times than I have drawn any other specific object. In this exercise, my art class probably used a total of 20 - 25 apples. Due to a multitude of people touching each apple, I imagine these apples where only drawing apples, and where not used as food. Now, if I was a multinational apple-selling corporate conglomerate, this would be an ideal situation. People are buying abnormally large quantities of apples just to look at. Perhaps I would even place spies within art classrooms to instill within the young impressionable minds of art students that apples, and only apples, are the one true way to practice drawing inanimate objects. Maybe I would try to downplay other, more interesting fruits such as granadillas, star fruits, cherimoyas, yew berries and kiwanos, by saying things like "they are only found deep in jungles in central America" and " they can be deadly to harvest due to their extremely poisonous bark, seeds, and leaves." Of course, this is all just conjecture, but it is good food for thought (pun intended). I digress; in this exercise, I was amused by the cries of helplessness from my classmates as they struggled with the new medium while I, myself, had no issues. To me, it was like using acrylic without the panic of needing to blend colors quickly before the paint dried on the canvas. My peers, however, seemed to think initially that this new unrecognized kind of paint was a shape shifting demon plotting their demise from behind it's paint-like facade. If that was the case, it seems that the forces of the underworld are with me. |
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"Reflection" was the theme of this project. Specifically, a reflection about myself (that was also a literal reflection). I spent roughly 50% of my time in class trying to come up with something that fit these criteria. I was having some difficulty, as I was not exactly a mirror enthusiast or something. I mean, I think glass is a really spiffy substance, but I would not say my interest in glass is a defining character trait of mine. So instead, I did a glass Petri dish, because I am secretly a Petri dish in disguise.
It occurred to me during this project that prisma colors are not meant to be used on white paper. I had previously been using prisma colors exclusively on white paper, so this was a somewhat irritating revelation. However, it was also a relief because it meant that I wasn't unskilled, I was just uninformed. On brown paper, the picture was rather simple to draw; there were not many small details I had to worry about or any strange materials I had to draw. Though the microscope was, seemingly, in a room that bent at a ~20 degree angle just behind the desk, according to the perspective. I realized this issue well after the drawing was finished so nothing was done about it. Anyway, here is what critics are saying about it: "Nice" -Kanye West "Get out of my house" -My cat "2384670234789/10 EPIC!!!! OMGGGGGG" -Abraham Lincoln It is at this point I realize half of my summer projects are about space. I imagine this is a subconscious expression of my desire get far, far away from any place with more than 50% humidity, and what could have less water vapor per square foot than the refreshing coolness of the ionosphere?
Even though this is a space-themed project, it is not part of my space-themed concentration. And, if you think about it, everything is in space, right? So that means any of my summer projects would be equally fitting for the "space" concentration, and I can choose whichever ones I like because fascist art laws can't oppress me. I've always wanted to be like the people who can pull off the smear-things-on-other-things-until-it-looks-good art technique (as opposed to the plan-every-line-five-days-in-advance-and-constantly-worry-if-it-looks-good side of the spectrum) and that is exactly the method I used in this project. Since it is mixed media, I found a multitude of things from the abandoned corners of my room to combine into a picture, including:
You have beaten me again, watercolor, my old enemy. But be warned: the day will come when you submit to my will and allow me to paint even reflective TARDIS-shaped coin banks with you. You shall rue the day you crossed the line of white wax in between you and I.
It's the art time of year again, and you know what that means: it's time to draw some bottles. Artists since the renaissance have delighted in searching everywhere in a ten mile radius for the most mundane object they can possibly find and drawing a picture of it. Baskets of fruit (mainly containing apples and grapes), for instance, have been popular choice since the 12th century. This was a time where, in Florence, there were 31.38 baskets of fruit for every inhabitant. Bread, flowers, cheese, books, pitchers and wine glasses were other popular subjects and gave way to today's theme: glass bottles. Drawings of glass bottles, while still not as interesting as drawings of Jesus hanging out with a posse of cherubs or something, are still cool enough to get on my summer assignment sheet. Thus, here we are, on a blog that has been neglected for four months, looking at a chalk pastel image of glass bottles. In a rebellious impulse against the overwhelmingly uninteresting history of glass bottle-based still lifes, I chose the most relatively outrageous looking bottles I could find, including a sippy cup. These bottles were not as interesting as, say, a painting of the siege of Constantinople, but were just interesting enough to not discourage me from abandoning the drawing half way through.
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April 2016
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