Drawing: Cars

         I can draw animals and humans but 1 thing I don't usually draw machines. So this time I tried to draw cars. In the book The Usborne Complete Book of Drawing by Alistair Smith and Judy Tatchell there were many different types of cars you could draw. some of the cars were vintage, cars with different patterns, or crazy cars with expressions. Cars with crazy expressions seemed interesting to draw since I could basically add emotion to my drawing. It really amazes me how you could turn an object that doesn't have emotion into one that does so that is what I went with.
      Since I have never drawn a car before, I needed some tips to get started and the book gave exactly that. The book stated, "A car is roughly made up of a box shape, with four circles near the corners, and a smaller, flatter box on top. By varying the proportions of these shapes, you can create different types of car, from an upright vintage car through to a sleek, low-slung sports car" (Smith, Tatchell 88). This advice gave me the basic idea of what a car should look like, even though I see cars all the time, I can't really draw a good car just from thinking about it. Now that I had the basic information about drawing cars, I decided to look for something to enhance my drawing, and that would be adding some expressions.
      In the book it showed a couple of different cars with different expressions, and I chose to draw a happy car and an angry car. the book said, if you want to give a car a happy look then you should have big eyes with a smile and also bright colors that give the car a happy feel. But if you want an angry looking car then you should add shapes that are sharp, small narrow eyes, with a fierce mouth (Smith, Tatchell 89). For my happy car, I made the car yellow and gave it big eyes and made like the front bumper the smile so it looks like the car is smiling. For my angry car, I gave it sharp yellow teeth with narrow eyes so it looks like the car is angry, plus I made the car red and green to add more fierceness. Overall, I would say the expressions on my cars came out great and they really show emotion through the drawing.

How do you think the 2 different cars came out?

do you get the feeling that they are happy or angry?

would you ever giving objects expressions or feelings?

Smith, Alastair, and Judy Tatchel. The Usborne Complete Book of Drawing. Usborne Pub., 2009.

Drawing - Emphasis/ Focal Point

Ever since I was a kid, I remember loving to create art, even if it was just scribbles with some crayons.  Drawing has never come easy for me, and I’ve never been the best at it, but it was always a fun way for me to pass time when I was bored. Everywhere I would go I would run into different forms of art, and I would always wonder how people created such beautiful pieces. I hope that this small hobby may soon turn into a larger passion as I improve my skills and expand my creativity. 

As I’ve been reading the book Design Basics by David A. Lauer, I’ve learned so much more about art already. Lauer teachers you how to improve your art skills using different techniques.When putting time and creating a piece of artwork, you don't want the audience to just walk past it without even a glance.  There are countless ways to draw the audience into a piece, similarly to how a hook draws a reader into an essay.  The first technique I chose to try out was emphasis / focal point. The point of this technique is that it “attracts attention and encourages the viewer to look further” (Lauer 40). I drew a picture using emphasis by isolation. This means that I isolated an item and set it apart from the others, drawing the eye toward it. (Lauer 44). In this drawing, the solid black square is larger and father away from the other squares causing it to be slightly different and become the focal point. I didn't make it in the very center of the paper, so that it didn't appear to obvious. I also didn't make it a different shape so that it didn't appear out of place. 

This picture appears very simple, but it actually took quite some time to make. First, I started by using a ruler and a pencil to sketch the squares. Then I drew on the patterns I wanted, and lastly, I outlined and colored them all in with a sharpie to make it stand out more. When using this technique, you must be careful because too many focal points can cause confusion. (Lauer 40). I’m happy with how this came out, however I’m excited to see how I will improve as I keep practicing.

Do you agree that the square is the focal point, or do you think it’s something else?

Do you enjoy drawing, and if you do, what are your favorite techniques to use?

What do you consider as “art”?

Lauer, David A. Design Basics. third ed., Thomson Learning, 1990.