WEEK 4: Color and Texture Vessels

Craft (both): To create these shaded drawing, I utilized Adobe Illustrator (mainly using the "paintbrush" tool), a Bamboo pad, and a Bamboo pen.  I made these drawings by drawing a rough outline to guide me.  Then I filled in the object with one single color.  I started with a plain color with no value to it and started adding layers of dark and lights to that color.  I combined all types of strokes, ranging from 1 point to 20 points in thickness.

Composition (Color): To really bring out the shades and make it look 3-D I kept on adding layers of thick and thin lines. After getting a solid 2-D figure, I worked my way up to 3-D by adding many thick and thin lines of different values of the same color. I tried focusing on the on the light, shiny parts, and the dark, shaded parts.  This enable one single color to be stretched across and transition from a light to a dark smoothly or drastically, depending on the material the object was made out of.  If the object was made out of glass, I noticed a lot of the lights and darks did not transition and overlapped.  On objects that were dull, such as plastic, there was more of a smooth transition from lights to darks.

Composition (Texture): This was a little bit more challenging since it does not coincide with my style of drawing.  I had difficulty repeating the same numbers over and over again, especially when you just got good at unconsciously repeating the number 8, and now you have to draw the number 5.  I tried to make small numbers for finer detail and larger ones for broader strokes to take up more room.  I used one color in the background that was complementary to the color of the objects so that it made the object really come forward and pop out.

Concept: Glass vase

Concept: Gatorade bottle

Concept: Bottle of Patron Tequila

Concept: Wine bottle

Concept: Martini glass

Concept: Large round vase

Concept: Screenshot of glass vase

WEEK 3: VALUE- 5 Shaded Vessels

Craft: To create these shaded drawing, I utilized Adobe Illustrator, a Bamboo pad, a Bamboo pen, the CS5 Mac's at the VAC lab, along with items found in the gallery, and the lab's own artificial lighting.  I made these drawings by trying to replicate the actual item and capturing the image in black and white.   Even though some items where in color, black and white would help show the value of the object and show a more three dimensional figure.  I began with a rough sketch of the outline and worked my way to the darker and lighter ends.  I combined all types of strokes, ranging from 1 point to 20 points in thickness. 

Composition: To really bring out the shades and make it look 3-D I kept on adding layers of thick and thin lines.  I also focused on the object's width versus length.  If the width was greater then I focused more on horizontal lines.  If the length was greater, then I focused on vertical lines. I wanted the viewer to see the image as a whole at first and then realize that it is all just made up of mono-directional strokes.  The parts of the object that seem to be colored in are also thick strokes followed by the smaller detailed strokes. The third thing I wanted them to notice is that I go through the entire spectrum of greys, from black to white, in order to show a bigger contrast, which makes the drawing really come to life.

Concept: Screen shot of a plastic milk bottle

Concept: Small teapot

Concept: Large teapot

Concept: Metallic coffee container...?

Concept: Small ceramic coffee mug

Concept: Plastic milk bottle

WEEK 2: 5 100-stroke Drawings

Craft:  I created these sketches with the program Adobe Illustrator, the Bamboo touch pad, and the Bamboo pen.  I also collected a wide variety of vessels that are used in the every-day house-hold.  I started by getting used to the Bamboo pen and experimenting with long, short, thin, slightly thicker, horizontal, diagonal, and vertical lines, and also with the different color schemes available.  

Composition: I arranged the elements the way I did because that's how I could compromise between the reality of the object and the assignment's directions of only drawing the object with 100 strokes each.  I used one color to draw out the main color shown by the vessel.  As far as the directions of the lines went, there was no real purpose to their direction.  I tried using both opposing directional-lines when it came to the syrup bottle and the crystal glass vase to show the border of the vessel (outline) a little bit better. I wanted the person to see the outline of the shape first (to know what it is), the color second, and the thickness of the lines third.  The thickness would symbolize the material's frailness or toughness. 

Concept: Crystal vase

Concept: Maple Syrup bottle

Concept: Six Flags drinking cup with straw

Concept: Glass wine glass

Concept: Glass vase

Week 1: Introduction

Jon Torres
Sophmore at SXU
Major: Psychology
Expected Graduation: May 2014
See "About Me" section for more info