My drawing depicts an impossible triangle with a snake wrapped around it. I chose this as my idea because I have been fascinated with snakes ever since I started volunteering at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences about 2 years ago. My original idea was actually just a snake in perspective with a mouse. However, I really liked the concept of implied motion and wanted my artwork to be flowing. However I changed my idea to include an impossible triangle because it is an optical illusion which is very interesting to look at. I used texture to enhance my picture by using strokes especially for the head of the snake. I also added highlights to the scales to create texture and prevent the drawing from looking flat. Additionally, I used shorter strokes in the mouth of the snake.
To balance my composition, I kept the impossible triangle black with white edges and highlights. This makes the snake contrast more and keeps the composition from looking messy and cluttered. I also filled the entire scratchboard to make composition interesting. This way, I didn’t have to worry about adding a background. I used implied movement with the position of the snake. I intentionally wrapped the snake all around the triangle so that when you look at the piece, your eyes follow the snake from head to tail. By filling up the entire scratch-board sheet, the movement is fluid without looking too busy. There is also implied movement in the scales because they are overlapping in only one direction. The triangle is also placed so you can see the corners and see that it’s an optical illusion. I used a wide range of shading values by pressing harder with the scratch-board tool. I was able to create highlights by scraping more of the black away. For the lighter values, I would just scrape lightly. This created smaller lines and made the white stand out less against the black background. To improve my artwork, I could have kept some of the black as-is to create shadows. I also could make the highlights stand out more, for example in the middle of the snake where the light hits directly. I really enjoyed the scratch-board but would have liked some practice with it before this project.
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This is my updated skull drawing. I added shadows in the eyes and cheekbones. I also shaped the nose better.
This is my scratchboard drawing so far. I'm satisfied with how it's coming along so far. However, the scales are a bit tricky and I still have to add the highlights.
These are my compositional sketches for the scratchboard project. My idea started out with just looking into a snake's jaw with a mouse in the corner and the back of the snake in the background. However, I came up with a new idea as I was doing these sketches- an impossible triangle with a snake wrapped around it in an interesting way. This would fit the motion theme because there would be implied movement.
This is my white pencil drawing on black paper. This took a really long time because I wasn't satisfied with my original snake design.
This is my unfinished skull drawing. I had a lot of difficulty with this assignment because I had not had much practice with drawing faces. I had the most trouble with my nose. Now, I feel more confident in my abilities for portraiture.
My self-portrait incorporates mechanical and technological aspects. I chose to portray myself as a cyborg (a fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by mechanical elements built into the body) because technology is a big part of my life. My love of technology started at a very young age. I will be majoring in computer science in college. I also program and love to code. Therefore, I included computer circuitry on my face; the background has both a motherboard and a binary design. I planned out my piece by drawing my face first and coloring my skin and hair. Once that was done, I added the circuit details to the forehead, and drew the eyes. I did the neck and background at the end. My piece ended up very different from my original idea and compositional sketch. This is because I created an entire Pinterest board for the project. I had a lot of inspiration and made changes to my drawing as I went. Some of the ideas I wanted to incorporate, such as hologram or screen coming from my eyes, were a bit too complex so I decided to simplify.
A few points of emphasis in my drawing are the open skull and brain, the details in the eyes and forehead, as well as the contrasting background. My background creates movement, especially the right side, because the lines are moving away from my face and the binary numbers. The general expressive language I would use to describe my piece is happy because I chose a happy expression for my portrait. Additionally, technology brings me happiness which contributes the tone of the work. My piece reminds me of one of my favorite book series, The Lunar Chronicles, which is set in a futuristic world. I wanted my piece to emulate a futuristic setting as well. This relates to events in the world because technology is rapidly shaping our lives and one day, technology might actually be physically connected to us. That is the purpose of my piece- to explore the future of technology. I believe, in general, my work was a success. However, it did not turn out how I originally planned. What was different in this project compared to my previous drawing assignments is the background. In my past projects, such as the opacity and look-at-that-view, my subject filled the entire page. In this drawing, however, I had to create a background. In my opinion, the background looks a bit rushed and seems to clutter the rest of the work. I believe my work is original. Although, I took in a lot of inspiration from various images, everything in the drawing is modified to fit my vision of the drawing. I did not directly take any images into my drawing except for my original picture (of my face). The work is also original because it reflects my background and interests. These are my in-progress pictures for my portrait project. It's going well so far, I just have to make sure I don't go too dark.
These were my practices for portraiture. At first I had a very hard time because I get intimated with the idea of drawing faces. However, I think these practices were useful and now I feel more confident in my abilities.
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