Shirey-Experimental Drawings and Eyes

Draw Something in Response to a TV Program

            I had just finished watching the news, stories about the Malaysian plane that disappeared, Putin and Obama fighting like little girls over the Ukraine, the economy suffering in some areas, banning of the word bossy in schools, blah blah blah. It makes me so furious to even be in the same room as the news channel is on. You don’t hear anything good, and the news is mostly of stupid idiotic TV reality of Justin Bieber, new shows that are knock offs of a knock off. So much frustration bounces around in my head, and I created a piece to express that.

            Once again, I put black and white with subtle hints of color. Nothing totally obnoxious to look at, but it is still dynamic. Using my India ink again, I brushed harsh lines in different directions leaving some open white spaces in between to show the “grey area” of the news and how everything is probably censored and not telling the full truth, then I searched for something to add color, and found a red sharpie. The white spaces have traced outlines in red creating weird shapes, to symbolize my utter frustration and anger with the media and government. It didn’t take long to create this, probably because I had adrenaline after the program was finished and drew very fast and angrily. It’s an effective way to show my feelings about the world today, and I wouldn’t change it or expand upon it. It’s purely an abstract image.

Draw the Ugliest Drawing Possible

            First of all, I despise images that don’t have a lot of value shift of color shift. You can have a drawing that has black and grey value, but I like bold contrasts, so I did the opposite with this drawing. I grabbed the first thing that came to mind, which was a package of cotton balls and began to tear and glue where I deemed disgusting. It looks slapped together, and it is. In a matter of about 1-2 minutes, I had a piece of white computer paper with haphazard cotton splotches. What else, I thought. India ink! It was next to me, so I dipped a brush and soaked a light shade of ink on the cotton, and it looks like something drooled on it. Pretty successful ugly drawing, if I do say so myself, but I don’t think it’s the ugliest I could have done.

            It’s difficult to grasp the concept of the ugliest drawing possible in the first place, so I just went for it. If you think too hard about it for a while, it’ll look organized and well, thought out. Look around for whatever is out there, and have at it. It’ll turn out disgusting and look putrid. Ironically, the more I look at it, the more I begin to discover a complexity and interest in it. The cotton has a natural value, very light and obscure, but it’s there, and I am forcing a darker shade onto it throwing it into a swirl of entropy and confusion.

Draw Something with Nothing but Office Supplies

            I didn’t like this drawing at all. It did not turn out the way I wanted, and I did not have any interest to complete it, and it would help to have any office supplies available at all. I found a stapler which has green staples, a role of masking tape, blue artists tape and Elmer’s glue. Much like the drawings I did before, I didn’t think about what I was going to do. I randomly laid some masking tape on the paper to create a layered design, then used the artists tape to enhance the shape and stapled green staples on the overlapping parts. The glue was then used as a decoration of different designs.

            It turned out alright, but I could have expanded upon it much more extensively. Perhaps I could have actually tried drawing out an image of a face, or other object or created a space to which something could relate, but it turned out as an abstract piece that makes no sense at all. I do wish I took more time to complete it. It could have become something quite intriguing to look at and contain details that would pop up with more attention. There was so much potential, and I created something that was very simplistic.

Draw the Sound of a Jet Engine

            This project is a difficult one for me, because I can’t envision actual works of art with each challenge, however, I did like the jet engine drawing. When I think of the sound of an actual jet engine, I think of waves and actually seeing the frequencies in various colors as the aircraft takes off. To put this idea to paper, I began with a simple piece of computer paper and stared at it for a while. How could I do this? Looking around the room, I see my acrylic paints, grabbed a bottle and began to squirt layers of squiggly lines as waves. What colors did I want to see? Answer was, the ones that I could see right then and there, and it turned out particularly interesting to look at.

            As a process for making this piece, I honestly just wanted to get something down on the paper quickly and stylized to capture the movement of the waves, and it took me about 3 minutes to look for the colors around my room. I took two bottles of paint in each hand and squirted away. I do not have any attachment to this piece in the first place, however if I was to expand upon it, I would have probably drawn the tail end of the jet and had the sound coming out of the engines with the waves, or even coming out of a person’s mouth to add a surreal aspect. Though I think the simplicity of the drawing adds to the beauty. Splatter paintings show the most movement and emotion compared to a thought out sketch.

Make Your Own: Draw Something without Thinking to Embody Something Haunting While Looking at the Blog Page

            I sometimes just doodle without even knowing what I am drawing, and most of the time this happens with charcoal because of its extremely loose and graphic nature. When looking at the list of drawings we could do, I did not see any that tickled my fancy, and I was drawing the same time I looked at the blog. I looked down, and saw something haunting and eerie. It was an inhuman face coming out of a smoky background. It actually somewhat startled me, and it was probably a response to this whole project as frustration. Letting my hand loose on the paper, I finished it and decided it looked interesting enough to be an experimental drawing.  The circumstance in which it happened was comical; I furiously drew on the page, thinking, “I must finish this assignment!” It kinda matches my facial expression as I drew it.

            I wouldn’t do anything differently because of its immediate and spontaneous nature. You can’t change anything that was done so on the spot. Feelings or emotions would be so different, that the image would morph completely into a new drawing. Though I should have finished a background, or added some color to make it more interesting to look at, but I was not putting any thought into it, so it turned out how my hand wanted to draw that night.

This drawing was done in ball point pen when I was bored, and let my consciousness free. I didn't really have a specific reason why I drew it, besides coming up with elements as I went. I love the beauty and complexities of faces, and the face underneath the skin. Therefore I drew an image of a woman in Dia de los Muertos makeup with her face morphing into her skull. It represents true beauty, that every woman has true beauty, even if society doesn't think so. We are all born with the same structure underneath our skin. No woman is above or below the other. I could have used color and different mediums to create a more complete image, but the black and white qualities relate to my theme of equality.

For this drawing, I created an intaglio print depicting a light house with a cloudy background. It was created in copper and etched for a certain amount of time for the different shades of black. Two plates were used, one was a line plate the other was an aquatint plate, which is a highly toxic rosin. The entire process was difficult and tedious, and of course experimental. I have never done anything like this until this semester. The inking process was difficult and tedious, and took a while to complete. Plates had to be warmed up on a hot plate then the ink was spread over the etching with matte board cards then wiped off with tarlatans. The printing could begin with soaked paper, and perfect registration between the two plates.