Project Portfolios: My 1st Semester at College

Sorry it took so long for me to post this! I've been avoiding college-related anything as much as possible during break. ;) Anyways, this blog post is basically just a posting of my project portfolios for my Fall semester art classes at college. The pictures are put in order by date, so the first picture would be the first project I had due for the class, and the last picture would be the last project. I had two art classes last semester, Principles of Drawing and Design Fundamentals I. Each of the pictures here will have the size and material used, along with a brief description of what was asked of us, listed beneath it. 

Principles of Drawing

All of the projects in Principles of Drawing were freehand drawings. Although they were based off an original source, there was no tracing from the original source allowed on penalty of failing the project. We would make our design or outline of our project on tracing paper, and once that was complete we would transfer from the tracing paper to Bristol board. This is because tracing paper is relatively cheap and easy to erase on, whereas Bristol board can be expensive and is not very forgiving with erase marks. The first picture below is an example of one of my projects after being transferred from tracing paper to Bristol board. The tracing paper design gives us the outline of our project, and from there after transferring we have to shade in everything on the Bristol board. You can see and compare the finished project further on; it is project 4 in this list, the Cast Drawing.

Example of the Cast Drawing project after being transferred from tracing paper to Bristol board.
(See finished project further below.)

Now that everything is explained, I'll let you see the rest of the projects. 

Still Life 1: 17x14
Graphite pencil on Bristol Board
Was asked to complete line drawing of teapot based on the source provided

Value Scale: 5.75x10.5
Graphite pencil on Bristol Board
Was asked to complete various values from 100% - 0% based on source provided

Mastercopy: 12x9
Graphite pencil on Bristol Board
Was asked to complete a Barque Mastercopy based on source provided

Cast Drawing: 17x14
Graphite pencil on Bristol Board
Was asked to complete a cast object drawing based off statue in classroom

Portrait: 17x14
Graphite pencil on Bristol Board
Was asked to complete a portrait drawing based off source I found

This portrait one turned out a little creepy because of the smile. I was unsure how to draw the teeth, and this led to them not matching the rest of the face very well.

Animal: 14x17
Graphite pencil on Bristol Board
Was asked to complete an animal drawing based off source I found

Design Fundamentals I

The Design Fundamentals I class was not as emphasized on using the graphite pencils and shading as Principles of Drawing was. Instead, the Design Fundamentals I class would teach us how to use a variety of elements for making designs. The first project was strips of paper and glue to create unique linescapes; the second project was a marker-pen to draw a typogram design; and so on with each project.

Line Project: 12x16
Black construction paper on Bristol board
The panels demonstrate symmetrical balance, asymmetrical balance, emphasis, and movement/rhythm.

Shape Project: 8.5x11
Micron pen on Bristol board
The project was to visually describe a word by creating a strong shape. (It says "lasso".)

Form Project: 8.5x11
Graphite on Bristol board
The project was to use the smoothtone shading technique to demonstrate an understanding of form

Space Project: 14x17
Graphite on Bristol board
The project was to create a city containing at least 7 buildings in one point perspective.

Value Project: 8x14
Acrylic paint on Bristol board
The project was to match the values on a value scale provided using black and white paint.

Color Project: 16x16
Acrylic paint on Illustration board

The project was to design and paint a color wheel.

The color wheel was the last project of the year, and for clarity, I had to first make a design I wanted the wheel to be. Then, I had to use the six primary paint colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple) to make the secondary paint colors (red-orange, orange-yellow, yellow-green, etc.) and five consecutive shades of each primary color. The result ends up looking rather simple; however, it did teach me how to blend colors together to get the correct shade and make the whole project come together.

So, that is the entirety of the main projects for my art classes last semester. I hope you enjoyed looking through them, and if you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them below or on Facebook.