Dee Gilbert Design: Final Project

I chose the beach as my environment. I love to sit in the sun and read, whether I’m on my front porch, at the Lake, or by the ocean. I love to hear the water; it is very relaxing. I enjoy the ocean the most because I can hear the water and waves crashing on the shore and I can bury my toes in the soft sand.

I used pencil and charcoal for my drawing. At first, I wasn’t going to use color because I didn’t think it needed it. But, then I thought the blue sky and blue water would help convey the calm relaxing feeling.

The drawing is a combination of line and value. I think the value of the drawing indicates the location of light. The value of myself in the chair also describes weight. I used the darker charcoal and more pressure on the legs of the chair so that it was stuck in the sand as opposed to floating on top. I used light pressure and pencil to add texture to the sand.

Compared to my first self-portrait, I think the final drawing shows a lot of improvement and growth. The body proportion is a little off…my arm is not that skinny! But the perspective is better, the proportions of the face are more accurate, the value is better represented and I think there is even texture in the final that was not in the first drawing.

I think I’ve grown over the semester in my drawings. Gesture drawing has really helped. Forcing myself to look mostly at the subject and not the paper has improved my pencil stroke and perspective. Learning how to create value and texture with line, shading, and other methods has allowed me to be more creative and therefore be more confident. I need work harder on perspective and view point and draw more in general.

I still prefer not to draw myself – but am proud of my final piece!