Presentation

Artists.
Seurat: use of pointillism and optical mixing. I also like his methodical approach to drawing. His use of limited media is also similar to how I work. He used only conte crayon on paper for his drawings, as I like using charcoal or chalk.

Sunday Afternon on the Grande Jatte

Franz Marc: animals in bright colors. Transition from realistic to different colors to more abstract. Backgrounds that suggest what's behind the subject without being too literal. Also uses a lot of curvature.

Blue-Black Fox, Little Yellow Horses

Nobuhiro Watsuki: use of source material. Drawings changed over time even while he was in the middle of publishing his series. Black and white drawings--shading done with stippling or hatching. Movement is shown using curvature in clothing and hair, as well as lines in the background. One character's hair is specifically to show movement and energy. Backgrounds are believable and he's done some research.

Outside the Art World.
Animals: Like many children, I started by drawing animals. In middle school, I especially loved drawing horses and I started riding at the time. Riding and getting lots of books helped me draw horses in proportion and also in positions they could actually be in. In high school, I drew a lot of mythical animals. Also researched the lore behind them. I still love drawing animals.

Music: I find it very hard to draw without music. If there's complete silence, I start thinking about everything else that I have to do. Music focuses me. Favorite band is Circa Survive. It flows together well, so song changes don't interrupt my concentration. Singing sounds like another instrument. Same with Apocalyptica.

Personal Influences.
My Grandma: my grandma was a painter, and also liked to draw. She attended many art classes and also taught one-on-one lessons from her home. I dislike painting a lot, but I took the class for her. I got to use the art supplies I inherited from her and also got to emulate her painting style.

High School Art: one of my high school art teachers influenced my work a lot. She pushed her students hard--no easy A in her class. She gave a lot of good constructive criticism and made me want to be a high school art teacher. When she wasn't busy teaching, she was making art for the school plays.

The Cabin: my Grandparents own a cabin in the woods and the setting has inspired a lot of photography. I've seen the same trees since I was a little kid, but using them for art and photography helps me see them in a new light. I especially like winter photography there because everything is so quiet.

Watsuki

INFJ

Yep. I'm an INFJ. Having taken the test multiple times before, I knew what I was going to get. I found it very interesting that the smallest group, population-wise, was the largest group in the class. But maybe that's quite common since art is something an introverted person can be comfortable doing.

INFJs tend to be the listeners. They're called the counselor, and many end up in public service roles. INFJs often have a small circle of really close friends and like to have structure. While reading the descriptions of INFJs I found myself nodding my head a lot. I definitely fit in with that group. I have very few people I talk to when I'm upset, even though lots of people talk to me. I especially liked one website which was talking about the Intuition part; the author stated that INFJs often just know things. We can't explain why we know, we just do. And that INFJs are usually right, and they know it. Gonna have to remember that one.

When I draw, I almost always decide what I want my drawing to look like before I start. I like doing small studies to get warmed up, and then start. I wish I could say this meant that my drawings always turned out exactly how I wanted them to. All this planning, I think, sometimes gets in the way of the drawing just becoming what it wants. I very rarely just start drawing, and sometimes I wish I could just let go and do that, even if I'm drawing from a photograph I took. I also think that I choose to draw things that don't have tons of detail because I like things that are straightforward and don't need lots of explaining. It is what it is, and that's fine.

This leads into my role in critiques. I don't like analyzing drawings. I don't like picking them apart and finding meaning where the artist might not have even intended. Maybe the artist chose those colors because they liked them, and that's that. (It's often what I do). I like taking art at face value. While I may come to my own conclusions, I like to keep them to myself for the most part. INFJs tend to care a lot about how others feel, and I know I do, and I wouldn't want to hurt someone, or make them feel like they failed, because I see something totally different than what they meant. I suppose this means I need to start blogging about the other drawings, or commenting on posts because I prefer to think what I say through, and seeing it typed out helps. Here I go planning ahead again.

All that was very interesting, but what interested me more was how I got turned out to be an INFJ. So, I asked my parents and my sister to take the test.

Mom was an ESFJ with the numbers E: 33, S: 25, F: 25, J: 67.
Dad was an ESFP with the numbers E: 89, S: 38, F: 50, P: 22.
Sister was ESTJ with the numbers unknown.

My mom loves a strict schedule. Deadlines are deadlines and she likes to have a plan for each day when we go on vacations. My sister and I are also Js, however we don't need to constantly have a plan. Interesting mix between our parents. Other than that.. I guess that doesn't help me figure out why I'm an INFJ. I'm the odd one out, apparently. Maybe it's because they're all pretty out-going so I balance the bunch. Wonder what the cat would be.

Critique 2

I definitely wasn't pleased with this drawing. My words were memory and whimsy, and my assigned medium was tea. I used the tea to create a wash, but I wish I had gotten areas of the paper darker to make it look more aged than it did. I definitely don't think that I hit whimsy at all with my tree house. I wish I had done more different diagonals for the parts of the tree house, and added more detail.

Using a different angle to view the tree house was also discussed during my critique, and I definitely agree. My drawing is done straight on, so it doesn't really add any interest. I definitely should have spent more time planning the drawing. While I was planning, I did a lot of drawing the tree house to get a bunch of different parts, but I didn't even think of other angles.

I have a hard time adding little details to my work; it all tends to blend together after a while. The scales as shingles on the roof were my attempt at detail, and I think those worked out alright. I just wish I had done more. Maybe I should have used a different medium. The tree itself was also discussed and it was mentioned that it doesn't read as a tree, and that it could have been more solid. I actually enjoy the tree, but I could see where it could have been pushed farther.

There were a few parts of the drawing that I did actually like, such as the dragon scale singles, and the posts that are used to support the main house. I like how the cast shadows from the house onto the posts, and from the posts to the tree turned out. I didn't think too hard about them as I was drawing--I just drew and left them how they were.

(Pics to come)

Critique 1

I started my critique by saying how much I dislike the background on my piece. I don't like having lots of detail, and I wish I had left it alone. I don't mind the flower, but the butterfly was a mistake. I got mixed reviews on this--some people said they liked the background, and others also thought I could have left it blank, or with a light value. I think the butterfly wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't gotten so dark, but I can't erase it anymore; it doesn't get any lighter.

People were reminded of lots of different things by the doll in my drawing, such as Darth Vader, which amused me. They thought her hair looked a bit like his helmet. It was also brought to my attention that the composition is divided nearly in half vertically. I agree, and find it a bit annoying when I look at it. It wasn't the cropping that I wanted with the image, but I just wanted to get started. I had missed a session of drawing already because I didn't have a board, and I didn't want to get behind anymore. I ended up starting too quickly instead of taking my time and getting the initial sketch right.

Left: How the image actually cropped. Right: How I would like to have been cropped, possibly with another flower instead of the butterfly wing. Or nothing in the background.

Art Lessons, Part 1

In the preface, Haynes talks about a piece by Georgia O'Keefe called Sky Above CLouds IV, so I decided to look it up. Haynes talks about how fascinated she was and that O'Keefe did an amazing job portraying the clouds. With the knowledge of O'Keefe's other works and Hayne's words, I was excited to see what it looked like. And I must say... I was rather disappointed. The clouds look like white blobs. Maybe the piece was from a different time in O'Keefe's artistic journey than what I'm used to seeing. Maybe I need to see it in person. Whatever the reason, it just didn't have the same affect on me as it apparently did on Haynes.

As I continued reading, I came to the part where Haynes talks about everyone being an artist, and that while some people seem to be born with special gifts, these gifts only make it easier to learn. At first, I completely disagreed, but then I thought about it more and remembered a conversation I had with some friends who are math majors. They consider large math problems to be a form of art. Just because I don't consider something to be art (splatter painting, for example) doesn't mean it's not art to other people. So, after thinking about it, I agree with what Haynes thinks. Everyone can do math. I'm not good at it, so it just takes me longer. It would be the same if my math friends decided to paint a picture. They can do it, it would just be more difficult for them.

Once again.

Ah yes. Blogging again. I'm Michelle Denomme, a Multi-Media design student with a Computer Science minor. I'm hoping to become mainly a web coder who is also able to design if needed. ...So I'm going to end up doing both full time, most likely. I'm taking Drawing III because I have a renewed desire to draw. After taking other drawing classes, I was left burned out. Being told I have to draw a certain way, and I have to draw this still life, or this object, or make my lines in just this way wasn't exactly a great motivation. I doubt it would be for any artist, really. I started doing digital art because it was easier, and I wasn't drawing. But I knew that someday, I'd want to draw again, and here I am, hoping I don't end up burned out again.

My favorite medium to draw with is chalk pastel, and I especially like to use it on black velour paper. Mostly, I like drawing animals, sometimes in neon colors because they really stand out on the black paper. I also like using ink on paper, and white pencil on black paper because it makes me draw the opposite of how I normally would; thinking more of highlights than shadows. I'm right handed, but sometimes if I'm stuck, I'll draw with my left hand instead.

I see this class helping me think outside the box. It seems like we'll be coming up with our own ideas, based on the main idea. It will also push me out of my comfort zone by making me draw at a large scale. Drawing outside my comfort zone will help me deal with designing outside my comfort zone when I'm in the workplace.

This is one of the pieces of digital art that I did while feeling burned out with drawing. I absolutely hate drawing self-portraits, but I do like using them in photoshop art.

This is a painting by Franz Marc and I really enjoy, of course, the subject matter, but also the colors that are used. I would like to possibly use his work as a reference in one of my drawings. I already like doing off-colored animals, so incorporating some of his style might be interesting.