Hurray! I have finished my charcoal drawing of my fan. I think it
turned out really well. I have come to actually like using charcoal, which is so
weird because just a couple days ago, I really hated even the idea of using it
to make anything. I think I did a great job with the shading and making it look
close to the actual picture that I took on my phone. I am really surprised by
what I have made! I think that this was fun and challenging at the same time.
But way way way way better than the graphite stick. I found that I could make
the charcoal do more of what I wanted it to do, like shade super dark in one
spot, then super light in another. 
Also really liked how I had different options for the color of charcoal.
  I mostly stayed with my light greys and white charcoal, but every now and then
I used the dark black. One thing I have to say about charcoal that I don’t like
  is the finger prints that never go away, no matter what you do! Also I have
  made a mental note to self about using charcoal… DO NOT WEAR WHITE! I made that
  mistake… two days in a row.

Alright so today I started my final for this assignment. I had no
idea that we were going to be using charcoal. I had just thought we were using
the graphite sticks like we had practiced, but then I was told we were not using
what we had finally started to get the hang of actually using. But I gave it a
try anyway. I have only used charcoal once before in my life, and from what I
remember, I hated it. It was so messy, and your hands never really get clean
afterwards and everything around and on you gets all messy. Basically not a
great experience. But anyway, I gave it a try today and it actually wasn’t that
bad, I was able to make the charcoal actually to what I wanted it to and in the
end of the class period I got something that I was actually proud of. It looked
really good! I think that tomorrow, I will work more on the curved lines that
overlap, but I am just super nervous that I will mess up! I think that what I
like most about this drawing is the shading. I think that I did just the right
amount of shading and I really like it!

Ok, so today I actually brought my phone! I was able to look at
the picture I took and make my sketch actually look something close to it. I
  have found that unlike how I first thought the graphite was easy to make the
  lines look a lot different just from smudging my finger over them, I notice
  that not only does your finger catch fire from the friction, but if you make a
  dark line, it pretty much is going to stay dark. But anyway, I think that this
  sketch is pretty good. I mean it isn’t by any means perfect, but it is getting
  better and better. I think that I am finally starting to understand how to
shade without making my lines too dark. I think that the hardest part about this
  project is going to be making the lines on the fan that overlap look good
  because the sort of bend a little bit and are not straight lines. I can draw a
  straight line, but I don’t know how well I will be able to draw a curved line.
  But anyway, I would say so far so good to this sketch and to this project in
  general!

Alright, so I started doing my practice sketches today. Only
  problem is I don’t have my phone, which is what I used to take my picture of my
  unexpected angle. So basically, I am drawing from whatever I have locked up in
  my memory. Also, I am drawing to get the feel for this stick of graphite. I am
  mostly a pencil person, so I think this is going to be way different than what
  I am used to. But this rough sketch is not really anything like what my picture
  looks like, but like I said before, it is just going off of my not so great
  memory. Even though I am not a big fan of the graphite stick, I really like how
  you can make the lines and stuff look different just by a smudge of the finger.
  I think that this is not my favorite form of art just because it is so messy.
  Not like charcoal messy where you get crumbs and stuff everywhere, but like
  this thick, gross, like I colored my whole hand with a pencil messy. I just
don’t really like it. And based off of my first attempt, I have a lot to improve
on.

Ok, so we have a new project. This project is called unexpected
  angles. So the idea for this assignment is to take a picture of a pretty normal
  thing (a locker, a corner, a fan, whatever) but take the picture in a weird way
  (tilt the camera sideways). So we were set loose in the halls to take pictures
  of anything we came across. So I took a few pictures of a locker, a corner of a
  display case, the bar thing that they use to close the deca store, and a close
  up on a fan from my dad’s classroom. For each picture I made my camera angled
  sideways. I think for this project I am going to have to practice a lot. The
  hard part about this project is we are taking these pictures on our phones,
  then drawing them with sticks of graphite on paper that is maybe 100 times
  bigger than my phone’s screen. This is going to be quite the challenge for me.
  I think that getting the angles right is also going to be a challenge. I chose
  the picture I took of the fan, so I have the added challenge of overlapping
  lines that curve a little. I guess we will see how this turns
out!

Here is the picture I am going to
use!

Ok, so this isn't really an official project, so I didn't really think I needed to do an official blog for this, but I am going to post my project on here any way.
Here is it!!

Ok, so I actually finished! I mean I had to come in after school
to do so, but after a couple class periods spent drawing in two point
perspective, I have a finished project. 
I think that this is pretty good. I mean it is not super detailed, but
when you take into consideration the hallway that I was drawing in, it was the
decorative of a hallway. Also, like I mentioned in my earlier post, I had no
idea how to draw ceiling tiles in the two point perspective way. So I think that
the ceiling is struggling a little. But other than that, I am overall pretty
happy with the final result. I mean it is not anything super fancy or whatever,
but it is good. I think if I had had to do this whole project over, I would
probably change a lot of things, but for the time being, I am ok with it. I
think that some spots that I really liked were my door and my lockers. They both
ended up looking pretty good. Better than my lockers and doors last semester.
What I did differently than I did in any of my practice projects was I put my
perspective points farther out so that my lines were not super slanted one way
or the other.  

So for this next draft that I attempted for the two point
  perspective project, I picked a totally different corner of the art room. This
  one was a little harder because it was farther away from me, so there was a lot
  more space for me to cover. I had a lot of trouble with the perspective. I did
  not make my points of perspective far enough out, so the lines that I was
  making were becoming way too slanted and just completely unproportional. But I
  think if you take out the super slanted lines and the not so proportional
  objects, this is not THAT bad. I did a pretty OK job at detail. At least in my
  opinion. I have realized though that I do not know how to do ceiling tiles! I
  thought that I would totally get it and have no problem, but I just do not even
  know where or how to start them. I remember last semester when we drew the
  ceiling tiles and it was really easy, but I just don’t know how to take what I
  learned last semester and apply it to two point perspectives. I guess I will
  just give it a shot and hope for the best!  

So I started working on my rough drafts of my hallway drawing. I
have been using a corner from in the art room as my inspiration. This is
actually not as hard as I had first thought. I think that I actually did a
pretty good job.  Although I have a
  lot to improve on. Like my horizon line isn’t exactly right. And there are some
  things that I drew in that aren’t exactly proportional to the other things
  around it. But I think that for my first time drawing a corner, I did a pretty
  good job. I think that I need to work a little more on the detail as well. I
  mean, I added a lot of stuff, but it is not really that detailed. I think it is
  alright though. I am happy with my first attempt. I think for my next practice,
  I will try a different corner and get a little bit of a different perspective
  for this project. I like this project a lot more than the movement projects. I
  just had so much trouble with those last projects. So even though this is hard,
  I am not by any means upset that we aren’t still working with movement and
  shapes.

So we started working on our next project. The idea behind this
project is to do something like we did last semester in beginning art with one
point perspective and the hallways in the school, but this time we are doing two
point perspective, where we have two points that are kind of in our peripheral
visions. When we first learned about this project, I pretty much thought that
this was the most impossible thing I had ever heard of in my life. I thought
one point perspective was hard last semester, but I had never heard of two
point perspective before. So I started doing some rough sketches from inside
the classroom, and it turns out that this isn’t AS hard as I had imagined. I
was able to do the very first few sketches of a box, and “O” shapes box and an
“L”pretty well, and I did not struggle too much. Then we had to pick a corner in
the room. This was actually pretty easy. I was thrown off at first about the
fact that you have to switch what lines you make from which reference points,
but I did it in the end. I did two of these classroom corner sketches, and I
have learned from what I have made that my reference points need to be made
further away than I had made them before. But I think this is going to be an
alright project that I will actually be able to be successful with.