Pictures
:: Artwork Gallery ::
The drawings below are from my 10th and 11th grade drawing classes (2004-2006). I can't remember exactly when I drew each picture... but all of them were photographed and put on this page in 2006. Unfortunately, some of the best pieces (particularly the pointillism drawings) simply look like crap on a computer screen. But hey, there's not much I can do about that, except maybe take some better photographs of these drawings later on, and re-post them.
Jump to project:
| 1 | 2 |
3 | 4 |
5 | 6 |
7 | 8 |
9 | 10 |
(Click pictures to view full size.)
Project #1: Pen & Ink
Size: 9 x 6 inches
Yes, the drawing above was done with pen... and most of it is composed entirely
of dots, except for the areas where everything is so dark that I just colored it
black. A lot of work went into this drawing, and I really like it, but it
doesn't look right on a computer screen. The flash washed it out, and I've
been meaning to take a better photograph so that you can all see how this
drawings actually looks in person.
-----
Reference:
The reference that I worked from is a photograph I took of a rather large plant
in my living room; I printed it out in grayscale to do the drawing, but it's
shown in color above.
Project #2: Pastel
Size: 19 x 12½ inches
I really like the way this drawing
turned out, especially considering that it was one of my first attempts at using
pastel. Unfortunately, the drawing was already old when I photographed
it, so it looks pretty messed up. You can probably tell that some things are smudged and faded, and that
the upper-right corner is ripped. (That's what I get for not framing it.)
It's still in pretty good shape, though, considering that it's been stuffed in
my closet. My reference for this drawing was actually a photograph that I
found on the internet, so I won't be posting it here. Hopefully, the
original
photographer doesn't mind that I used it.
Project #3: Oil Pastel
Size: 18 x 12 inches
Hmm... it kind of looks like it's up-side-down... oh well. It's really not.
This is my first drawing with oil pastels, and I think it worked. I still
prefer the normal pastels, though. They might smudge more, but they are
much easier to draw with. Once again, my reference for this picture was taken from the
internet, so I won't be
posting the original photograph. Maybe you can go find it yourself.
Project #4: Colored Pencils
Size: 12 x 18 inches
Finished: November 2005
This is the first drawing from my 11th grade "Drawing II" class. And I must say that colored pencils are
very hard to work with, when you're
trying to blend colors and shade things... but this drawing worked out pretty
well. I do have a few problems with it, but I never really expected it to
be this good. Believe it or not, the hardest part of the drawing was
probably the background, because I could never get it to look quite right.
(It still doesn't.) The grass took a long time, too, but it was worth
it... leaves with a crappy background isn't good enough, and the foreground at
the bottom really perfected it. (Don't even ask how many
different shades of green I used for this...)
-----
References:
The drawing is a combination of three references. (I took all three
pictures myself, in my back yard... you can see the corner of my bedroom
window in the third picture, but obviously, that didn't make it into the
drawing.) The photograph in the middle is actually a pretty good picture, by
itself -- I could have done the entire drawing on that alone... but then it
wouldn't have been "creative" enough.
Project #5: Pastel
Size: 19 x 12 inches
Finished: January 2006
Yep. Pastel. Working with pastel isn't too bad, once you get used to
it. But one of the project requirements was to put at least three human
figures in the drawing. And I hate drawing people, especially when I'm
using a medium like pastel that doesn't allow for a whole lot of detail. The only part of the drawing that I really liked was the sky.
It was the first thing that I started drawing, and it was fantastic. But
since I had to carry this drawing back and forth between my school and my house
so many times, the sky got all smudged as I worked on the ground and everything
else. So in the end, I had to go over it again, which changed the color,
and messed up some of the clouds, and... well, it could have been better.
-----
References:
Again, I combined multiple references to make this picture... which explains why
the perspective in the drawing is a little screwy. The first photograph is
of my older brother. The second one is my older brother (again) on the
left, my younger brother in
the middle, and me on the right. So, one person appears twice in the drawing.
But I changed his shirt in the second one, so it doesn't look goofy. I
changed quite a few things, actually. The landscape had to be changed to
make the two references fit together. And I also put Bryan's hand in his
pocket. He looks cooler that way.
Project #6: Pastel
Size: 11½ x 7 inches
Finished:
January 2006
This second pastel project was done right after the previous one above.
The idea was to pick a part of the human body and draw it close-up. So I
picked an eye. I have to admit, it could have been a lot better... the
main problem is that it looks so flat. No detail whatsoever... all washed
out and boring. But there's a reason for that: It
was rushed. This project and the last one both had the same deadline, and
I spent most of my time on the first. But considering the amount of time I
put into it, I think this one looks pretty good.
-----
Reference:
A close-up photograph of my eye. Yes, I know the color in the drawing is a bit off
when you compare it to this, but hey,
skin tones are hard, and I had limited pastel colors. I think the drawing
looks better than this ugly photo anyway.
Project #7: Pen & Ink
Size: 10½ x 7½ inches
Finished:
February 2006
This one probably won't look right unless you view it
full size... I've been meaning to take a better photograph of it.
Anyway, incase you can't tell, the drawing is done completely in pen, and
involves both line shading and pointillism. (Of course, I sketched it in
pencil first, to get the proportions right, but all of the
pencil marks have been completely erased from it.) Overall, I think this is
one of my best drawings, ever... and it better be, because it took a damn long
time. Of course, it still isn't perfect; I made several mistakes while I
was drawing it, and a few times, I was almost sure I had ruined it. (Keep
in mind that pen cannot be erased... if I make an area too dark, there's no way
to lighten it.) One of the main problems I have with the drawing is the
cat's right eye (that's the one on your left). Because of the angle
it's at, I couldn't get the shape just right, and it looks kind of funky.
But hey, I won't let that ruin it for me. I still like the drawing.
The drawing was also published in the 2005-2006 issue of an annual literary/art magazine run by my high school, called Tangents. But this only happened because they didn't have enough artwork that year -- they actually came to my drawing class looking for drawings to accompany the writing that they already had. Normally, my artwork probably wouldn't have been published in Tangents unless I was already a member of their club, which I didn't actually join.
-----
Reference:
My reference for this piece was actually a photograph that I had posted on this site months
before I started drawing. So I didn't have to search very hard for
something to draw... I just pulled a picture off of
this
page, and printed it out in grayscale.
Project #7.5: Pen & Ink with Colored Pencils
Size: 10½ x 7½ inches
Finished: March 2006
That's right... I colored it. Well, a photocopy of it, actually. I
refused to do anything more with the original black-and-white copy, for fear of
ruining it completely, so I
made a duplicate to experiment with, and now I have two different versions of
the drawing. It was pretty difficult to draw the blurry and out-of-focus
trees in the background using only colored pencils, but it still looks a hell of
a lot better than I thought it would.
Project #8: Charcoal with Pastel
Size: 18 x 12 inches
Finished: April 2006
Man, I hate drawing with charcoal... but it was assigned, so I had to.
There's also some pastel thrown in there, as well. The
drawing turned out pretty good, despite the lack of detail when you actually
look at it close-up. Not one of my favorites -- hell, I didn't even work
very hard on it -- but there's still something cool about it that I like.
It's spooky.
-----
Reference:
The picture I used as a reference was just a random snapshot I took of the sky
near my house. I had already posted it
on the site earlier, and decided that it was a good source of inspiration.
Clearly, the drawing is much different than the photo. For example, like I
already mentioned, there is not as much detail in the drawing due to lack of
time and the fact that I was using a crappy medium like charcoal. I also
moved removed a few things just to make my own life easier.
Project #9: Pastel
Size: 17½ x 13¾
inches
Finished: May 2006
Another pastel drawing, meant to focus on lighting, contrast, and perspective.
As always, it was a real pain in the ass taking this to school and back every
day without smudging everything. The quality would be about ten times
better if I could keep it in one place. Going over things again and again
when they got smudged over just lost a lot of the quality. But even so,
it's not bad. In fact, the drawing class loved it -- I guess they didn't
notice all of the errors that I see in it now, since they weren't the ones who
had to live with making those mistakes.
-----
Reference:
The reference I used for this one was taken at my father's house. The
reason that the photograph looks so grainy is that it was rather dark when I
took it, but I beefed up the brightness and contrast on my computer to make it
easier to draw from, and to make the lighting more visible. (Photoshopping
the reference? I'm surprised that my drawing teacher didn't scold me for
doing this.)
Project #10: Pastel
Size: 13¾ x 11 inches
Finished: June 2006
This drawing was done directly after the one above, and is of the same place at
a different angle. Again, it didn't turn out how I wanted, but I still
kind of like the way it looks. The perspective in this one is looks
slightly off in a few places, as you can probably tell. Even though the
pencil sketch was fine, I screwed things up when I started going over it in
pastel. My favorite part is the bottom right, where the light comes
through and lands on the floor. It was the last part of the drawing that I
did, and I wanted to make sure that it was perfect. Well... nothing's
perfect. But this is good enough for me.
-----
Reference:
Again, same story with the reference. Dark photograph, enhanced contrast.
This one kind of looks spooky to me, which is probably the only reason I decided
to use it instead of taking another.
Artwork and Photography by Michael Billings