For this project we took a field trip to the New York public library, we were tasked to pick a view in the library and trace it exactly as we saw it using a clear sheet and sharpie. We then transferred that image onto paper and proceeded to correct/ smooth out the lines. Once we had done that we could go over what we had done with the medium of our choice.

I chose an archway above a staircase as the focal area of my drawing. I used sharpie, pencil and pen over the course of this project.

My focus/ goal for the project was to make a drawing that was successfully precise, something that I’m not used to focusing on when I do art.

I learned to be more precise with my line work. The critique brought up some valid points, especially around how to achieve more dimensionality in my drawing. The drawing went through many changes as I worked to make it as symmetrical and straight as possible.

After this project is over I will be taking a better sense of precise/ detail work with me.

For our project we were to select four items from home that we feel “say something about us” and use those as well as an image of a three dimensional piece of our selection from the Brooklyn Museum to draw first as black and white (positive negative) silhouettes and then later as an exploration of different values. This was to become more comfortable with a variety of mediums including Adobe Illustrator and collage and find a way to incorporate our personal possessions and a piece of art from a museum together to tell a story.

We began with our trip to the museum, sketching our sculpture of choice there and then began work on the positive negative drawings. I played around with composition and once I had settled on placement of the objects I started out by sketching it out. Once I was happy with that, I scanned it into Illustrator and started the long process of tracing each object with the pen tool and filled them in with black and white. Once those were completed I drew my value piece in my sketchbook, making sure that the composition was different enough from the previous piece and scanned it into illustrator and played around with filling the shapes with different values and grey tones. Finally I printed out an extra copy of the value drawing and used wire, safety pins and string to collage it.

My goal with this project was to adhere to the structure while still making a piece that I felt expressed myself personally, especially with the personal items, while also making them naturally blend with the sculpture from the museum. I focused a lot on making sure all the shapes were as clean and readable as possible, especially for the positive negative part.

I learned a lot about being aware of how different materials have different effects on each other, like the wire and the paper. I learned from the critique to be more conscious about the distance my work will be viewed from, since people had a lot more to say about mine once they saw it up close.

I will take with me a deeper understanding of Adobe Illustrator, and the knowledge of how to execute these different techniques.