Graphite Drawing

Hey-o!
I just finished a graphite piece which I am going to share.
The assignment was to choose an issue we're concerned about. To be honest, there isn't much I'm concerned about right now other than my finals. Selfish, I know...
But I didn't want to do a picture about how stressed out I am- I see WAY too many of these strange, psychotic self-portraits because we're all emotional artists who feel like we have way too much placed on our shoulders, and not enough time. You may have heard the thing on the radio about how my school is the most depressed school. I definitely have theories about this. It's just the artist 'type' I think.

So anywho, last week my teacher encouraged us to draw in a park for a few hours. I did, and was talking to a classmate the whole time. I drew one tree in three hours! I talked and talked- mostly complaining about how silly parks feel. Parks in Alliston are generally an area for kids- play equipment and what not. We don't really have little sections of nature zoned off for sitting in. We have reserves like the Beattie Pinery- trails, rivers & streams. We have trees that grow wherever the heck they want to- not arranged all nicely in the park.

Parks ARE nice in the city. It's all the 'nature' you get. But it's still organized nature, and it's just not as fun. So my piece is supposed to be about that. I'm only showing you part of it, I'm not as happy with the rest.

It's got four layers. The first is this:

(These are the remains of my pencils which I think is hilarious).

The second layer (you may have seen on Facebook), is some explorers coming in. These guys are on Vellum which is a kind of translucent paper. This way you can still see the forest underneath.

The third layer is people gardening, cutting down trees, and erecting a building.
The fourth is a city-scape with a small park in the centre, the CN Tower replaces the large central tree of the first image.
I decided to stylize & use colour & markers to do the three Vellum layers- not sure how effective it will turn out to be- but they're cute on their own. I might use them in a painting or something.

So that's where I'm at.

I also did a final painting but I don't think I'll be sharing it- it's personal (as in it's a mostly nude self-portrait- not really any 'private' bits showing). It's strange- I feel comfortable showing it to my teacher/classmates because I know they're looking at it in a respectful and technical way. (There's also only 1 or two males in my class who are very art-minded). However, I don't know if I feel ready to have it on the internet where any of the people on my Facebook list can see it. Even though it isn't a naturalistic (realistic if you don't know what naturalistic means) approach to my body, I just don't trust people. I also don't want to give my father a heart attack.

It's kind of sad- I want to share my art, but to be honest I really like doing life studies which focuses largely on the nude and I don't think a lot of people in my 'sphere' understand or respect this kind of work.

So until I am some kind of professional, or I've aged significantly and can explain my fascination with the human body- a lot of my work will probably remain hidden in closets at my apartment.

Sorry for the tangent.

Xo
H