Borrowing Colors

Artists often copy other artists’ work to learn from them.  I remember copying drawings from my favorite comic books and trying to draw like them, but never thought to copy the colors they used.

I prepared a picture of a frog and an anglerfish for this one.  The assignment was to use the colors of other artists to complete this picture. 

For the first and second ones I borrowed colors from Mary Blair, a concept illustrator from Disney. The third one was from Utagawa Hiroshige, a Japanese woodprint artist.  They were both well known for their unique use of colors.  

Reference:

Magic of Mary Blair     www.magicofmaryblair.com
Utagawa (Ando) Hiroshige     www.artelino.com/articles/ukiyo-e.asp

Budgeting Time

It was my fault...  I chose a complicated subject to paint.  It took literally for-ev-er to finish these paintings.  I should have chosen a project that could have been finished in the amount of time that was given.  That's what I learned through this project, and I learned it the hard way.  

Contrast

Why do people put salt in something so sweet, like cookies?  I used to think that was crazy, but salt actually enhances the sweetness.  Design principle of contrast does the same thing; it enhances the opposite.  From the left we had to portray contrast in value (Dark vs. Light), contrast in saturation (Dull vs. Bright), and contrast in nothing, meaning there is no contrast in the third one.

Choosing What To Draw

Out of all these sketches I've done, personally, I wanted to do the one on the top left.  However, everyone in my class wanted me to do the second one from the left on the bottom.  I didn't want to do that one!  I noticed that it is important that I do what I like to do, because I was worn out quickly finishing this project.  It made me think: if I am trying to please other people maybe it's important to do what others like to see despite of my personal preference...  I wonder what it's like to draw for other people in the real world?  

Another Beginning

I completed this project after learning how to draw what’s in my head using photo references, but without being controlled by one. I wished this was where I was with my art when I started college.  Now that I know how to do that, I feel like I can really start exploring for my style.  

Using References

Oh, I had such a hard time in this class.  Unlike previous classes where something was already there for me to draw, I had to decide on my own what to draw for this class.  The requirement was to bring references to class.  Instead of deciding what to draw and then taking pictures for reference, I took pictures of something around me and then based my paintings off of that.  Because of it, all my projects looked exactly like the photos I took, and I did not like them.  

References are there to help artists draw what they want to draw and not there to tell them what to draw.   This whole time I was being controlled by the references.  That’s why all my projects looked the same as my references!  Oh well.  This mushroom project was the one that helped me to realize that.