For this project, Cynthia and I took our five items from Mr. Hollands tub (a child’s cowboy boot, a candlestick, a horseshoe, and a small winebottle) and tried to arrange them in an interesting way on the table. I feel that we did a pretty good job on this.

I used colored pencils to complete this project, and layered them (again, and again, and again…) to show value.

I was pretty excited to learn how to layer colors, though I underestimated the level of frustration that would accompany this task.

The candlestick and the boot turned out the best. I simplified the boot a lot, however, by taking out the embroidering. The most difficult object was the bottle, I suppose because it was supposed to be transparent and I could not, for some reason, wrap my mind around that.

The background is alright. I tried to make it in perspective, though it could have been better. I don’t think I alotted enough time for this part of the drawing.

For this project, I chose (from my magical purse of wonders) to draw my large, patent leather wallet. I thought that it would be a challenge to shade its values. I used a graphite pencil to sketch the outline – since I only had the one object, I drew it large enough that it hung off of the page. As for shading in the values, I used both graphite and ebony pencils. The ebony pencil came in handy for the darkest parts of the wallet. Overall, I felt that I did pretty good on this, considering that it was my first drawing in a very long time. The shadow could definitely have used some work.

I don’t know that I could tell you that I had a particular “favorite” type of art, other than just whatever happens to catch my eye (and though I’m not entirely sure it applies, I love photography/film as well). Usually this will be something bold, especially if it’s colorful. Above most things in my life I want color, and beauty.

I prefer to draw more design-y type things than true-to-life, realistic pictures, though I’m sure this is mostly due to a lack of ability.

Freely admitted, I’m a mediocre artist. So, that being said, what I’d like to achieve from this class is just a little more overall skill. Specifically, though, I’d like to learn to mix colors in shading.