Viewfinders

Hey Everyone,
One assignment we had thus far in class was to create viewfinders and re-create the image using more vibrancy and colour. We had to create a pastel drawing, large painting and small painting, then show the best two on here. We each were allowed to chose a fragment of a larger pastel drawing as our viewfinder sample. The only criteria was that the composition had to be interesting. Here is my viewfinder below.



I chose this part of the larger pastel drawing to crop because of its interesting lines and movement. I thought it created a great diagonal composition that wasn't too boring or too crowded. I also LOVED the colours. In the pastel they were a bit dull, but I knew that if i chose this cropping the colours could be made so vibrant. The first thing we had to do with our cropping was to create a large pastel drawing of it. My drawing is below.



I believe that my pastel turned out pretty nice. From using chalk pastel before, I know that it is not my strongest medium, but I've learned a lot about how to use pastel effectively from this assignment. I learned how to enhance colours and create value with blending from doing this. I think I achieved this in green and blue swirls the most. I was effectively able to create a large scale copy of my cropping and boost the colours. Although I used chalk pastel, the colours look more vibrant than most pastels do. The two hardest things about using the pastel were making sure the pastels were not rough enough to cut the paper and keeping the paper from getting dirty. I noticed that even when I was doing gentle strokes the pastels made scratch lines on my paper. I did not understand this as I was not pressing hard at all. I examined my pastel piece and from that there were some sharp edged on the pastel creating these lines. From then on I rubbed the piece of pastel I was using on some scrap paper to remove this hazard. As for getting the paper dirty, pastel makes your hands soooo messy. It was difficult not to get darker coloured spots where you did not want them. Overall I liked my pastel and thought I did a good job.

The next part of the assignment was to create a large painting and then a small painting of our cropping. I personally did not enjoy the large painting and thought it turned out a bit messy. Therefore, my small painting is the second work I will be showing you all.

I really liked to paint the small version of my cropping. I really loved how much detail you could pour into it. I used three different sized brushes and acrylic paint to create it. The tricky part of this painting was getting the brush strokes just right. I tried to create a lot of texture and purposeful lines. I found that a bit difficult due to the curved lines and blended colours. I think I achieved what I wanted in the end. The colours came out perfectly and I think I achieved my goal of having layered colour as well. In the bottom half, the layered colours were used to create texture as well. I really enjoyed this painting and hope you all enjoy it as well!

~ K