Artist-in-Residence: Alexander DeMaria

I thought Alex's work was fantastic! I was shocked by how much detail he used and the hours of time it took to create the pieces. I was also surprised by the fact that he used pen for his art pieces because I know that if I work in pen I always have this fear of messing up and having to start over. I enjoyed his work greatly and was overwhelmed by how great of an artist he is. I can not wait to see his show! My question for Alex would be: How do you start your pieces, like the planning for the piece? How much time do you put in planning for the piece? Is it at all scary to work in pen? and What draws you to working in pen? His response to the pen questions were that if he messes up he just finds a way to cover it up or go over it. He said he was drawn to pen when Dungeons and Dragons asked him to do a pen drawing and he just stuck with it because he liked the way it looked better than the colored pencils he used to use for his drawings.

Drawing from Observation Skills

The skills that it took to create my drawings are endurance, focus, being open to criticism, value, placement, and texture. It took endurance because for some of the drawings we spent a lot of time on them and on one double block, we spent the whole two hours on one drawing which required endurance as well as focus. When we did drawings that focused on placement of things compared to other things, we had to be open to criticism and willing to change our drawing because sometimes if one thing was off, we had to change the whole drawing.
I had never focused on texture so much, so in the zoom drawing it was something I got to work and improve on. As well as for endurance, I hadn't really worked a straight couple hours on a drawing so it took time to stay focused and keep working. I enjoyed working on placement because it gave me an opportunity to take the time to mainly focus on the placement. I had to focus on certain things like value, texture, placement specifically which let me improve more on certain skills.

Collaborative Drawing

When I approached each drawing, I mainly looked at the position and size of the things in the drawing compared to how they really looked in the room. In the ones I approached I saw the sides of the trash were missing so I added them and the positioning would be off so I moved or tilted them. What I did was I looked at the view I had and the view the drawing showed and tried to see if there were any differences. I moved things closer together in order to shrink the space between some objects. It was difficult to see the mistakes at first but when I started looking into the drawing more I found ways that the drawing could be improved.
When I looked at my drawing at the end, I thought it looked good and I could tell that people had changed a few things because of the erase marks but I couldn't remember what my drawing looked exactly like before. I could tell they had made the carpet smaller and moved the trash. They had added in the wood and water bottle since I hadn't gotten to them when I had left my drawing. To finish my drawing I mainly added in value and made some objects less blurry. I didn't have much to do after I added some value so, I finished the drawing fairly quickly.

Pre-assessment

The drawing from imagination felt more natural compared to the drawing from observation. The drawing from observation was more exact but when using my imagination I could add my own details that I imagined instead of drawing the ones exactly from what I saw during the observation drawing.

Final Reflection

My three goals were to become a better drawer, get better at following specific instructions, and to be more interactive during discussions. I think I achieved my goal because I have improved on my drawings, followed specific instructions especially during drop everything and draw, and i have been more interactive during class discussions and power points. I think the most important thing I have learned is the principles of design and I think they will be very important to know for other art classes i take.
During my value drawing i used repetition, leading lines, and proportion to create distance. My value drawing was of a man walking under a streetlight at night and a street to the right and buildings to the right then another street then more buildings. I think the most successful part of my drawing was my buildings.

Drop Everything and Draw Proportion

I think the point of this Drop Everything and Draw was to make us think about proportion especially when drawing a person. It made me think about the size or length of things compared to the things around them. It was a way to get us into drawing proportion basically without getting into the details of the drawing itself or making it look particularly good.

Nighthawks- Art HIstory #1

"Nighthawks" is a painting by the American Painter Edward Hopper in 1942. It takes place in a New York restaurant named "Phillies". There are three customers and the man behind the counter is dressed in all white. The man and woman that are holding hands don't look very happy but more into their own separate worlds and thoughts. The main characters seem to be the couple and man behind the counter because the other man has his back turned so we cannot see his expression. The man behind the counter is leaning to grab something but you can tell he is talking to the couple because of the way his face is positioned to be looking at them. The restaurant itself looks very simple and the simplicity that surrounds it does not make it seem as simple. The light from the restaurant lights up part of the street and building behind it but the building's corner is darker.

The mood of the painting is lonely. It makes the small restaurant seem like the only place awake in New York at the time. The light that shines from it is very bright. It gives off a sense of emptiness, loneliness and isolation. The characters seem to be thinking more about different things rather than focusing on what is happening at the moment. The emotional separation expressed between the couple makes me feel bad for them. The characters look lost and the man behind the counter is the only character that doesn't look as tired as the others. The painting is very simple but also sparks your curiosity.

There is a Balance between the light from the restaurant to the dark building behind it. Hopper uses light and dark to express the shadows. The whole painting itself is asymmetrical but their are some approximately symmetrical and symmetrical objects. The color and brightness fades as you come furthere out of the store. Hopper does a good job with light and dark contrast.