Pastels

EYE - PASTEL

Pastels are my second favorite medium to use. I've only used them a few times, but I really enjoy the range of colors that can come from just a few pastels.

Blending is the trick from what I've learned. Mixing and blending the right ones will give you any color imaginable. The other trick I found out about was to back away from the work often and look at it from a different distance and angle.

When drawing my eye (which I hope to try again), I was looking into a mirror attached to my easel. The drawing is on a 24 x 36 piece of paper, so you can imagine how large the eye had to be. Looking at it up close for too long will distort the image, so backing up is a good idea.

Color Charcoal

ABSTRACT - COLOR CHARCOAL

First attempt with color charcoal as a continuation of the assignment in the previous post. If you hadn't guessed, it's a popcorn drawn in very large scale. Cool right? Ha!

Color charcoal is tougher to work with because it cannot be erased as easily. It would smudge instead. What my instructor said was to go at it from light-to-dark. Draw the entire image first very lightly and the shade in in layers. I'm very proud of my first time achievement! :)

White On Black - Charcoal

WHITE ON BLACK

Can you guess what this is?

Charcoal is my favorite medium to use for fine arts. It is so easy to work with and you can hardly make a mistake that cannot simply be wiped off!

This is from a drawing class at the Boston Architectural College in Boston, MA (Spring 2009).

Teapot - Pencil

TEAPOT

This is my last pencil drawing at PG Community College. Still a study in drapes and shadows but only using the lighter graphite pencils (2H through 4H).

Abstract In Blue Ink

ABSTRACT SQUARES

This one is from another class assignment at the Boston Architectural College. There weren't really any rules other than we had to use two vanishing points and an infinity of parallel lines (vertical & horizontal). Then shade the boxes at different gradients.

Surroundings

USDA & MONUMENT - WASHINGTON, DC.

While I worked for the Department of Agriculture, I often sat on a bench at the back of the building on the Washington Mall, sometimes facing the Monument.

CORPORATE CENTER III FACADE - TAMPA, FL.

This is the side of the Corporate Center III building in Tampa, FL next to International Plaza. I worked on the 9th and 10th floor of that building for about 3 1/2 years.

Pencil Sketches - Hatching & Shading

MT. SAINT MICHEL - GRAPHITE

This was sketched as a class exercise at Hillsborough Community College back in '05. It was drawn from our instructor's sketches. The idea was to replicate his work with our own brand of shading. I used hatching on some of them. This one is a corner of Mt. Saint Michel, in France. Here are other works from that assignment:

ROTUNDA IN ROME (I THINK)

UNKNOWN

It was a fun exercise and I should probably pick up a pencil and do more of these around my town. There's beautiful architecture all around just waiting to be put on paper :)

Ink

HAND DRAWING A HAND - INK PEN

This was the start of my adventures with ink sketches. Just a hand drawing a hand, drawing fruit :) This is much older however, probably from high school!

Still life head and food

STILL LIFE

This is an old still life drawing in graphite pencil. I made it while attending Prince George Community College in Hyattsville, MD. It took a few classes to complete but the process was a lot of fun!

Another exercise in draping from the same time, also done while at PGCC.

So it begins...

STILL LIFE - CHARCOAL

Welcome to my art blog!

I hope to use it as means to channel my artistic energy and share it with whomever is willing to enjoy it. I look forward to it as it has been my passion for a long time, but I had not had the chance to produce much of it until my senior year in high school. I went to a few art schools over the years that followed, but eventually followed the "boring" degree route. I hope to someday obtain a Fine Arts degree mostly for a chance to produce more art and expand my artistic horizon.