MASTER COPY
Date: Spring 2015
Medium: 8B Pencil on Paper
This assignment was a dreaded assignment for every freshman entering the architecture program. The class was directed to pick on famous painting from a stack of 8.5 by 11 inch printer paper. There was a huge variety of artwork; from fourteenth century wood-cuts to modern, dystopian photographs. None of the given artworks seemed interesting, except for the spooky painting by Odd Nerdrum. His painting titled “Sleeping Twins” was the perfect choice. It was within my drawing ability, it was extremely unique, and it would look good in my apartment. Overall, this master copy wasn’t as dreadful as I expected. However, working with the oily, 8B pencils that we had to use we extremely difficult to work with. When drawing large pieces like this, it is important to protect the white spaces because 8B pencil doesn’t erase. Unsuccessfully sharpening pencils and accidental smudges were far too common.
STILL LIFE
Date: Spring 2015
Medium: Charcoal Pencil on Paper
Similar to the master copy, the still life was assigned a subject and a type of pencil. Our subject was a large skull sitting on a small platform draped with a dark red fabric. This was surrounded by tall, dark, blue, glass bottles and small ceramic vases with one lonely plant. We had to draw this set-up with charcoal pencils, which I will never use again. My class of twenty bought up every charcoal pencil found in the Fargo-Moorhead area because these pencils would not sharpen at all. Also, if you were to accidentally drop a pencil from your desk, the charcoal lead inside the pencil would completely shatter, making the pencil useless. Even though I went mad making this drawing, I really enjoy the way it turned out.
