Art (Drawing, in particular)

(16" x 20") pencil, charcoal

I have always loved art -- in fact my name, Emily, means artistic. It wasn't until college, though, when I began producing significant pieces of art. You know, pieces that I was proud enough to show people. I'm no Van Gogh or Picasso, but I definitely think I am decent at replicating things I see. I really enjoy drawing with pencil and charcoal and making things look 3d on paper. It's so cool how shading and building up value can really make an object pop on paper! I think the trick to doing that is imagining the 3d objects around you as flat objects. That's what I do, at least. I flatten what I see in front of me and then transfer this image in my mind onto paper. Another tip is to find the darkest and lightest parts of the image you are trying to recreate. I always start there and then fill in the medium  parts with shades of grey. Also, if you are working with charcoal, it's always a good idea to start drawing at the top left side of the paper so that your hand doesn't smudge your work. Charcoal can get pretty messy!

The drawing pictured above was actually done two nights ago. It was kind of an impromptu drawing. Well, I had been wanting to draw a picture of my puppy for a long time, but the DOING was quite spontaneous. It was already midnight, but I just sat down and did it. It took me about 3 hours!

I think a lot of great things happen that way - spontaneously. Because let's face it, there are so many things we want and plan to do, but they never happen. There's usually never really a perfect time to do something anyways -- so when the feeling hits you, just go with it! That's why I really like the Nike slogan - "Just do it!" That's how you get things done -- which leads me to another topic I wanted to talk about -- exercise! I'll make a new post about that a little later. Bye for now and thanks for reading! :)

<3 Em(ily)