Doodle Away!

This week I Realized how much I draw (aka doodle) in my books for absolutely no reason...  and everyone else is too.  The video we watched in class got me thinking about how many student really pay attention in class (forget about the amount that do not even go) and all the different ways that they do this. I have realized that about half of the people who are in class and awake are on their computers doing various things ranging from Facebook to writing a paper for another class. While the rest of the class is doodling. So this is bad right? No one is really taking in any information? Wrong. According to a TIME Science article research shows that people who doodle actually retain more information than those who are doing other tasks. To explain it simply, daydreaming or doing other tasks takes up too much of your brain for you to still be able to focus; doodling on the other hand does not. Doodling usually consists of simple shapes and shading, something that is not very difficult for the brain to handle. Also if you are drawing you are focused on that and your brain would not trail off and think about anything other than what is going on in class. The lecture kind of becomes your background music.

So this week instead of an oil pastel drawing I decided to give this idea a try and doodle in my classes and it actually worked! Between notes I would draw random things like these

Then after I got back to my dorm I would try to write down what I remembered from the lecture and there was a lot more that I retained compared to when I would just stare blankly at the professor (hmm I never seem to have a problem in Ben’s class J).

So since you are reading this I want all of you guys to try it and see the results.

Here is the article

The Pursuit of Happyness

So this week I decided to do something a bit different. Over these past few week with school stress family stress and world stress (me realizing how much bad is in the world right now) I kind of go to a place where I had no hope. Not just for myself but also that our society can make a change. I do not want to go on another tangent (for that you can check out my RCL blog) but it just made me really sad to think that some people live the way they do. I am not just talking about poverty or mayhem overseas but even here in the US. So that is when I decided to draw this. 

Not to be all “it gets better” on you guys but I wanted to draw something that represents that it really does. It may be hard and it will take a lot of work but things really can get better as long as we are willing to put in the work.

To focus a little more on the picture I chose to make the majority of the picture that dark black/gray color to represent the fact that you may be in this state for a while, it is hard to get out of and without hope you can be sucked in deeper and deeper. So moving into the more happy and bright colors takes up more of the page than the yellow or “happiness” that is supposed to be represented by this. I chose to do that because once again, even though things are getting better, the journey is definitely not over. It takes determination and hard work to get to where your happiness is and that is what I was trying to represent. Then finally you reach your happy place and everything is all well.

I chose to do this today because it is such a good reminder to keep you taking the next step forward because to want to get to that happy place. Also it reminds that yes you might be going the right direction, but all the things you are trying to change is right behind you and it can be so easy to fall back into that place but you cannot reach your happiness if you keep falling back.

Blank Canvas.

A blank canvas is kind of like a bad relationship. It can be extremely frustrating or put you in the happiest of moods. This thing about a blank canvas is that it tricks you into releasing emotions that you did not even know you wanted to let out ... or at least for me anyway. Today I was faced with an overbearing blank canvas. I just sat and stared at it for hours having no idea what could possibly draw. Yes, I look forward to the time I have in my own little room to develop my passion but it was ridiculously annoying today. So I asked my best friend what I should draw, to which he responded "your dreams" Now of course I took this literally and megan to draw me sleeping thinking about some weird swirly things: a pac man, Winnie the Pooh and a couple of other doodles. But then, the canvas begins to pull more out of me. I began to draw all of my real dreams. Being a baker, writing books, becoming a photographer. while the first line is somewhat pointless (a tongue for my pac man), but the second ended up representing the path I would like my life to take ironically. Without getting to much into the more personal aspects of it, this piece was really eye-opening to what a blank canvas can do for you.
I chose to leave this one on pencil today just because oil pastels are not the best for drawing thin, short lines. Unfortunately this made the piece hard to see online. Sorry about that guys.

Oh, Love.

So this week being the week that it was I knew that I was going to write(draw) about love (of course). So I decided to create something for someone that I love more than words can explain. You would think that post valentine's Day I would be on a love high, creating sappy posts, however, this was an especially depressing week. without getting too much further into the emotions of the piece, I would like to discuss creating for someone other than a couple strangers and the walls of my dorm. 

There's something about creating for someone else that changes everything. When I made this decision, I had no idea what to draw. I couldn't draw my own rendition of someone else's work because it needs to be special. But I couldn't make a crappy piece either. This needed to be a piece that he could be proud to show everyone in his family but still feel that special connection that only he could understand. Then what about the delivery. Do I get all excited and talk up my work or do I just play it cool and let it surprise him in the mail?I was going insane. Then I remembered what my high school art teacher would tell us whenever we were distraught with a piece: "There's a masterpiece, just waiting to come out." 

With that, I began to draw:

This may just seem like any heart but when I look at it I see a love that has had to fight through a lot of dark space to shine so bright. I'll cut it with the sappy stuff but this really means a lot to me. It only took me about 20 minutes to draw but it has the most passion, meaning and power of anything I have ever drawn. And yes I understand that there are people out there who wont get it and honestly I wont be surprised if most of you guys do not like it but for me, it means everything.

Well... I guess that was kind of sappy sorry about that and just in case I haven't said the word sappy enough yet: SAPPY SAPPY SAPPY. Until next week guys :)

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

In all creative endeavors there will always be that one that just isn't right, not up to par, or just doesn't fit. Well this time it was just plain ugly. 

Yes. I know. Not the best. While I can make up many excuses for why this drawing just wasn't my best, I would rather embrace it. We all need that one bad song, essay, poem, or drawing out of us. It is a learning experience, one that humbles you very quickly. even though I will probably never show this to someone again, I did learn techniques that I can grow upon in the future. I also learned that things do not alway end up how you wish they would( I was going for something completely different here). I learned that regardless of the outcome, the expression still feels the same. even though while drawing this I knew that it wasn't working out so great, I still loved every minute of it. I still found relaxation in taking this time for myself to release and hidden emotion. I still found joy in mixing colors and seeing the outcome- pretty or puke. On this sucky Thursday, I learned that  its not about making your next great drawing, its about how much fun you have making it.

Who really likes thursdays anyway?

Thursdays suck. I mean the overbearing kind of suck that makes you want to curl up into a ball and never come out of bed. As my last sucky Thursday came to an end I began to remember the words our fellow classmate, Connor. His speech on catharsis really got me thinking about the passion blog I had yet to complete. The basic meaning of passion, at least as I see it, is having a channel to release any built up emotion. Something to keep you sane through the mess of it all.  Basically, taking part in one’s passion is a form of catharsis. So why is it that on the first week of this passion blog I find myself drawing a blank? Why is it that there was nothing that came to mind as something I love to do?

As mentioned before in class, my favorite class ever was a semester of Principles of Design. Not because I am greatly talented, but because it was exactly what I needed to put away the stress of senior year and simply, release. Release any pent up emotions into the piece of art I was required to create that week. No, I did not discover some hidden talent, and am now a published or sold artist. But what I did discover is that I loved it.

So this Thursday I emitted all of my energy into the piece to the left. It is not the greatest thing I have ever drawn and definitely not the worst but it was exactly what I needed at the end of a sucky Thursday. Working on this piece gave me an hour or to so I could take a deep breath before going off the edge. 

How I made this: 

This is a list of the techniques I use and products I bought to create this piece.

• Faber-Castel 26ct oil pastels (12.99 @ Uncle Eli's)
• Cray-pas 16ct oil pastels (6.49 @ the bookstore in the hub)
• Printer paper
• Paper towel (for shading)
• Plastic  scrapers (set of 6 for 3.49 @ the bookstore in the hub)
• I used a lot of layering to get the texture of the water 
• For the sky I mixed two colors (light blue and white) to get this color 
• Adding white to the waves makes it look a bit more frothy 

Helpful Tips

• You may want to cut the edges to get a cleaner piece or put tape on the edges
• Using printer paper wasn't the best idea use a thicker paper if possible 
• Have extra paper to check how colors mix first once its on the paper there's no turning back