Self-portrait

This is a visual arts assignment my teacher assigned to us. We had just learnt a new drawing technique: cross-hatching. Basically, instead of shading in just one direction with your pencil, you shade one direction and then do it in the opposite direction. For different values, space the lines more apart and leave more space in between them, which means leaving more white. When you look at the whole picture from afar, (see right for example) the light areas look light and the dark areas look dark.

So here are the steps for drawing your self-portrait.

1) Take a nice photo of yourself. It can be smiling, crying, bored, excited... Whatever you like! Be creative! You can even make a funny face.

2) Print your photo out. You can enlarge it so it's the exact size you want. I recommend this method if your spacial skills aren't perfect. You won't need to resize it when you are drawing. Some people like to use mirrors, but personally, I think drawing while looking at yourself in a mirror is a bit hard.

3) Start by drawing the outline of your face in 3H pencil. Then draw the outline of your hair (if you have hair).

4) Add facial features, also in 3H pencil. Remember the eyes have to be far apart enough, and the mouth has two lips! You don't have to shade anything yet, just draw the general outline.

5) Add shading by cross-hatching. Start with light colours first, then dark colours. So that means first shading with H pencils, then B pencils.

6) Add hair in the direction it flows in.

7) Refine the outline using a 2B pencil. Add shadows around the edges of your face.

Ta-da! You're done! Have fun drawing.

5)

Wall Art

I got my inspiration from painting in a Starbucks cafe.

So, since my apartment is going to be renovated, I've decided to have a little fun before those hammers knock down those wonderful, white walls.

So here I've used my wall as a canvas, and a friend of mine gave me a huge tub of black acrylic to draw on the wall with. Mind you, acrylic dries really quickly, so don't make mistakes because it can be rather frustratin

g to have a huge splotch on your wall. You can draw on your wall even if your home is not being renovated, but make sure you do your outlines in pencil first, or you will spend the rest of your life staring your mistake in the face.

Okay, so here's my design. It says "Pure Joy" because that was what I was feeling at the moment. On the top, hearts dangle from the sky; and at the bottom, which you can see here,

features a huge stalk with a wiggly stem and huge leaves. Exotic flowers grow from the ground, and a bird hovers above it all. As you, my brilliant readers can see, the bird is my profile picture as well. I liked it so much that I've begun to use it all over my blogs.

Words of warning: make sure you put newspaper on the floor because the paint may drip. I also had a hard time doing the bird details (i.e. the tail, wings, legs) as I was using a rather thick brush. So bear that in mind.

Other suggestions for wall art:
1. Use spray paint instead of acrylic and a brush. (REALLY make sure you cover the floor first.)

2. Stick pieces of coloured/ patterned paper onto the wall to create a collage effect. (note: don't use newspaper, it doesn't stick well and the ink runs.)

3. Get your interior designer to paint the wall a different background colour first, to create a different mood, instead of plain white. But white is fine if you like it that way. Simple. I like simple.

Other than that, make sure the paint you use is not toxic. You'll be breathing it all day. And you would be seriously destroying the environment.

Have fun wall-arting!