PROJECT 1: TRANSFORMATION
Choose 2 pieces from previous NIC classes, one that is my favourite and one that I dislike.
The Favourite: Rapt is a charcoal drawing I did early on at NIC. This is not technically fantastic – eyes too small, hair kinda weirdly same throughout, and as a self-portrait it misses the mark on being an ideal likeness with full realism. But I like it because it realized the plan I had in my mind; it feels thematically worked out and followed through; there are interesting negative shapes and full key shading; it is overall darker in tone than I’d wanted but I am satisfied with the depth of form; the face is the focus but the hand and pencil matter to the scene and are well realized; I like the fit of the title to the work and its idea.
The Disliked: Unremembering is a drawing in charcoal, graphite, coloured pencils and ink. I think this was an interesting idea but so unevenly executed. I’m unhappy with the wonky proportions, which were unintended: giant man with a huge head, small woman with tiny hand, tiny piano, gigantic bottle and tiny champagne glasses that float instead of rest. The room is a screen shot from Casablanca (minus Sam at the piano and with the addition of sheet music “As Time Goes By”) which I rendered in less detail than the people. Then imagined the room being slowly filled in by drifting sand (it is a desert and, you know, the sands of time) and also being gradually erased (and the people being erased too). It’s a bit unclear whether I am talking about forgetting/erasing that is deliberate or just the result of memories becoming hazy over time – perhaps both. I was timid about colour, and about realizing the sand. I’m glad I took the risk with ink on faces and hands but that meant I couldn’t address the proportions once I’d drawn them.