Wednesday, April 4, 2012

fire-breathing cows

I must confess, I drew another cow.

'holy' cow
charcoal // 2012



The drawing that I just finished up was sort of a pain at first. My professor dictated that the subject matter had to be of a loved one with a fire-breathing reptile. These are two main things that students always want to draw, at least the ones at Simpson. Everyone wants to draw a loved one - it is not recommended because the personal relationship tends to skew the artist's focus on minute details that only they perceive are important. Like how many moles a person has, the common viewer is not going to notice or care if the person is missing one on their right cheek (I am not trying to call out a certain someone, it was just a great example). And then comes the fire-breathing reptile. It is just a fantasy subject matter that "professional" drawings typically do not contain. As some college art professors say it is "high school art;" this is a hard concept to explain with out direct example so I won't waste your time but if you are an artist I think you'll somewhat understand that concept. (Again, not trying to call anyone out, just trying to explain why these two elements are a pain in my art professor's rear. A dear friend of mine did paint a fire-breathing snake fighting ninjas and I must say it is quite BA) Anyways, I think my art professor wanted us to get this out of our systems - not that it was ever in mine - and so I drew my niece and nephew. I incorporated the fire-breathing reptile through my nephew's shirt, it is Reptar from Rugrats with a little ball of fire.


Untitled
graphite // 2012

I must say, I knocked the socks off my professor. My only critque on it is to make the dark areas darker (it has been a while since I worked in graphite and forgot how much of a pain it is to make dark areas with it).