Semester II: Various Sketchbook Studies in Figure II

My ability to draw feet lasted all of one day. I'm back to drawing nubby toes. 

Shout out to my bro, Meagan, who actually has this tattoo on her wrist.  It means "Harry Potter forever" but it just makes her hand look like a Harry Potter squid. It doesnt help that she'll throw her hand on your face and start making sucking noises. 

Semester II: Various Landscapes for Drawing II

Before coming to Ringling I had done all of one landscape in my entire lifetime.  That one landscape was done in oil paint (I was taking a single semester very brief class at the time) and did not come out well. At all. Come first semester I was introduced to landscapes properly (but not thoroughly) and I still didnt have much luck. So I was a little nervous to start working in landscape in my second semester. Three times the charm, I guess. Not sure what changed but now I love it. I still have a grudge against pastels (I mean come on those things are just DYING to give us cancer) and I have still have a lot to learn but I think I'm finally off on the right foot when it comes to landscape work.

thumbnail sketch in charcoal

thumbnail sketch in charcoal

Ringling Museum in Pastel

Ringling Museum in Pastel (I prefer this one over the two).

Semester II: Box Still Life in NuPastel

Early in the second semester of Drawing we had to take shoe boxes and fill them with colored construction paper and then draw them in pastel.  I actually ended up with that crumpled green paper because of how frustrated I got that the tape kept coming undone and my pieces would move around. I finally just through that sucker in there and put a ton of tape down until it stayed. When it came time to actually light the boxes and draw them I was beating myself up over having to draw all of the crevices and crinkles in the paper. But I actually really enjoyed the way this came out. My professor even wanted to submit it to the freshmen's Best of Ringling, but unfortunately I got the email late and never brought it back in. hah.

rough thumbnail sketch

Semester II: Drawing II

Our first project in Drawing II was these horrifically boring still lifes (that plural looks so wrong in writing) which were the start to a long semester of sight measuring.  As bland as they are, I feel like they were a good start to my semester. 

Semester 1: Figure

A few noteworthy pieces from first semester's figure class.  

Better late than never.

Now that I'm done with my freshmen year at Ringling, I figured it was finally time to stop slacking and actually make an art blog.  It's always good to have some sort of archive to map your progress.  I'll probably post some things from the past two semesters before I get too ahead of myself.

Hopefully I'll have a lot to post throughout the summer. I'm planning on focusing particularly on color, light, pastel, and painting (both traditionally and digitally). I learned a lot in my freshmen year and now is the time to apply it.  I'm also planning on doing a self portrait every day for the month of May. Sounds a bit narcissistic but I think it'll give me a chance to try some new techniques and mediums while building self esteem.  Ok, I'm starting to sound like a camp counselor.

On that note, enjoy and please leave comments and critiques.