Drawing 101

As part of my General Education classes at school I had to take an art class. The class is called "Basic Drawing" so in all honesty I thought "How hard could it really be?" I thought drawing would be a fun skill to learn and quite frankly I thought it would be an easy A. I have no drawing experience but I have some, and by some I mean very little, art experience. For example, I took a ceramics class in high school and oil painting classes from my next door neighbor when I was very young.

The first day of my basic drawing class my teacher told the class straight up "If you try really hard and your work is good you will most likely get a B." Just a B!!! This is basic drawing!!! I have had a 4.0 up until now and I was nervous that this art class, of all the classes I will take, was going to threaten that. Our first day of drawing didn't do much to change that feeling of mine. I had no idea what I was doing and I felt so phony having all these professional drawing tools that I got at the fancy art store. I thought that if I at least looked the part I would magically create a masterpiece. I am not going to sugar coat it but I was horrible. These art tools did nothing but clean out my wallet. I would see these amazing drawings by my classmates and I was embarrassed by the way my drawing compared to theirs. I was determined to get an A in this class. I began sitting next to those in class that knew what they were doing. I observed their technique, asked questions, took the constructive criticism and most importantly practiced, practiced, practiced. I can't get carried away and say that my practice made perfect because after all this was only basic drawing. However, I can say that I got an A in the class. As my teacher would say, let the art speak for itself. Below is my semester of basic drawing. As you will see, the first half of the semester was pretty rough. After taking these photos I see that I need to take a photography class too.

WEEK 1


WEEK 2

We had to draw the profile of the person sitting to our right and I felt so bad showing him my drawing of him. Thank goodness he ran out of time before he could begin on my facial features. I thought after he saw my drawing of him he was going to butcher mine.

WEEK 3


WEEK 6


WEEK 7


WEEK 8


The first half of the semester is over and I am sweating it reaching for that A. We then learned how to shade and things started to turn around for me.

WEEK 9


WEEK 10


WEEK 11


WEEK 12


WEEK 13


WEEK 14

This drawing was selected to be featured in the school art show. I felt so honored to be amongst so many incredibly talented artists that attend my school. I knew I was small potatoes being in the show with them but it was still an honor.

WEEK 15

We had to bring a photo from home to draw. My niece, Kira, told me to draw the unicorn picture my mom had hanging in her bathroom. She loves horses so I wanted to draw something she would be proud to hang up in her room. This is my favorite piece of all that I have done so far. I had it professionally matted and framed and she hung it up herself above her bed.

WEEK 16 & FINAL PROJECT

We had to draw 3 objects that represented us in a symbolic way. I was done with drawing random objects together so I went with 3 wooden angels that I have received as a gifts over the years. The angel on the left represents family, the middle angel represents faith and spirituality and the angel on the right represents courage. My teacher thought those three angels summed me up quite nicely.