Drawing course ... done!

Yay!  Finally those last three months of my life, during which I was trying to imitate being someone I'm not (someone blessed with a great drawing ability), has come to a close.  I can now rest,  put my feet up ... and begin my new unit - entitled 'Creative and Professional Writing'!  A unit chosen as an elective, and for its pure 'writing' content!  Fabulous!! **sigh of relief ... grin**

So, what has been keeping me away from the sewing machine, or much of any crafts over the last few weeks?  I'll show you... a taste.

I had to submit a total of seven drawings: four of which had to be either line or tone figures of the human image (head to toe) or head studies; and three from either a gridded study or text based image.  And, oh crap - I've just realised I had that wrong!  It was supposed to be five and two!!  And it's already sent - after receiving a (very long) extension!

Oh well, can't change things now.  It's done, it's gone.  I just hope and pray that what has been sent is enough to get me over that 'pass' line!!  I CANNOT deal with having to repeat this unit!  Too much stress - for me, and my family!!

So, I won't show the human figure drawings (thank goodness one of the images showed two drawings of two differing poses, now that I think about it - hopefully that is accepted as two *fingers crossed*) as they are c*%p in my opinion!!  I Hate drawing the human figure - especially when you are supposed to do the figures gesturally, in a confined space of time!!  Even when I have heaps of time I get flustered and frustrated!!

For the 'Head Studies', I included two.  Keep in mind as you are looking at them, that these were drawn from photoes, turned into black and white shots, with a grid over them to help me try to get proportions looking 'right'.  These were done after many, many, many previous attempts, both 'in person' and from a photo, free-hand.  That did not work.  This way,  at least my daughter could recognise 'who' I was trying to draw!

So, first up is my daughter asleep ...

Graphite pencil & charcoal

The next is my cousin.  In the photo I took this study from she was looking down at her phone ...

Graphite pencil & charcoal.

 It looks better from afar.  

Then there were some text based images.  For these we really didn't get much direction, just suggestions such as "drawing incorporating some aspect of a letter, symbol, word, text, language, typography or calligraphy in its construction."  For me ... blah!  I couldn't come up with anything 'original', so I ended up deciding to do a couple of 'letter tiles'.  You know, those pages in kids really basic alphabet books where they have the letter and then an image of something that begins with that particular letter.  Yeah, those.  I decided to just fancy up the lettering and follow the 'how to' directions of a nifty drawing book I found in Dad's bookshelf.

I have put these side-by-side, though they are actually on two separate A2 pieces of paper.

Ink (letters) and graphite pencil (animals)

Last, but not least was my gridded study.  As most of the above pictures took me quite a few hours (we're talking between 3 and 5 hours each with much rubbing out and self-depreciation!!) I decided to stick close to the recommendations to "try to be true to the abstract pattern of each square rather than becoming distracted by your belief as to what you think the image 'should' look like...a minute or two should be sufficient time to render each square, so the exercise can be completed within an hour or two."  I think I spent a little longer than a 'minute or two', but I restricted myself to about 4 minutes each square (photo gridded out into 30 (6 x 5) 'squares').  I found that 'drawing' the lighter shades before adding in the darker shades worked better ... as evidenced in the top two squares on the top left in comparison to the rest of the page.

Conte

I was actually pretty happy with this one when I stood back from it.  It is supposed to be a picture of two baubles on the Christmas tree.

Christmas baubles, Christmas 2009.

So, now I can breathe.

I can get out some sewing - and I have a few urgent projects to get on to asap, so I'll try to post on these later today or tomorrow.  I have received a couple of blocks from my swaps already - thankyou ladies!  I am truly sorry I am late with these, but I am hoping to get a couple in the post this afternoon!