The first photo is the place where I started from. I was half done with my mountain.

This is the place where I ended at the end of the lesson. Luckily, I got some advice from Mr. Mc Crory about using different tones of one color, or different colors in a single object (in a picture, such as the mountain). I have changed my style using the technique Mr. McCrory gave me.

This is the next week. I am completely done with my mountain, and I am starting with my ocean.

Here, I have started with my ocean. Using Mr. McCrory’s advice, I have use more than a color to show I have worked hard and spent some time on the collage.

I am in the stage of giving more detail to the ocean.

Unit Question: How can we communicate visually? 

Significant concept: Line can be used to convey shape, texture and tone. 

In our Unit, “Make your mark”, we have been doing line drawing. We were introduced on the techniques of a famous drawer Vincent Van Gogh. Our assignment in the unit, was to do a line drawing, divided with fore, mid, and background. My drawing has a mountain (mountains) in the background, the ocean and a boat in the middle ground, and sand in the fore ground. I used a black marker (sharpie and prockey) to complete my drawing/project. I used 3 pictures of my Ishigakijima trip that were actually used in the drawing. I also looked at the website Mr. Mc Crory provided us about the

I have shown good progress by definitely improving on my artistic skills. The main reason, was that I gained more understanding towards line drawing, and Vincent Van Gogh’s techniques. My first drawing had no techniques, and was gradated too dark, but currently I am able to create a perspective in the line drawing. I also used techniques as cross hatching to create shades and reality.

I think that I should improve on specific skills. For example, my sand (in the foreground) was far too simple, compared to professional line drawers (real drawers as Van Gogh). I think that I should have researched and should have found the most necessary techniques. Also in the mountain (background), some areas looked non-real, because I have not used the most necessary techniques in my drawing.

I truly think, research, and learning from neighbors, is effective strategies to develop and improve your artistic processes. Your neighbors might have very interesting techniques, so you will be able to learn from their various techniques and from their compositions. Also, for me, I definitely think that learning from famous artist from research is one strategy we can develop and improve our artistic skills. I also think time management. Trying really hard, and managing time on a technique (for ex.) is very important to develop artistic skills. From this, another good idea or strategy might pop up from your head, and you might be able to make your own technique.

In conclusion, I have learned a lot about line drawing, and the various techniques. I have also learned the techniques of an artist Vincent Van Gogh, applied it to my own drawing. I should have planned more specifically to identify all the objects I would put in my drawing.

First of all, my group was Shin, Masaki, and I.

Advice/feedback I gave

For Shin – I think his drawing was perfect. The model picture was exactly the same as what Shin drew. I had only one advice, which was that one part was really shaded and dark, so I said that this one part was shaded too much. Also, that it would have been better to make light shades, and make the drawing more realistic.

For Masaki – Masaki’s technique was scribbles, which is one of the textures we learned. My feedback was that his scribbles were too hard, and it would have been a better drawing if his scribbles were less dark. Though I did like the shapes of the mountains because they were really alike to the original (model) picture.

Advice/feedback I got

From Shin – He said that my drawing was really good, and he just said that one part has some improvement. It was that the mountain in the background was too sharp on the peak, and it was unrealistic.

reflecting Shin’s feedback – I think that I need to put more effort in the backgrounds too. I also learned that the background is really important in a drawing, making the theme of the drawing.

From Masaki – Masaki also mentioned about the spikes on the top of the mountain. He said it would be a way better drawing if the mountains on the back were more detailed and shaded.

What was easy?

When I go back and see the pages, I found nothing really easy. It is a valuable experience, so most of this, journaling was not easy. Although, everything was really enjoyable, and everyday in Field Studies it was exciting to write a journal entry. When I kept writing and writing, experiences from the day popped up, and it made me have fun in my mind. Overall, nothing was easy. (basically)

What was difficult?

Honestly, everything. I haven’t written/drawn/made a proper journal before, and the task for this year’s field studies was to make your own “JOURNAL”. If I say specifically, shortening entries and drawing pictures were really challenging. Well actually, for Day 4, the entry was pretty (actually enormously) long because I made a little tutorial on how to make/how we made the soba. I do think I put a good effort on the drawings I did in the soba-activity pages. I think making backgrounds wasn’t challenging although it was just difficult making backgrounds match the pen/pencil color.

What should’ve been done differently?

In some pages, as pages 32, 33, I have used cartoons. In the ‘Prompts and Expectations” paper, it does say “(optional) create a page using cartoons” but now I am regretting on what I did. I should have drawn something more artistic that can replace my cartoon. If I did this project again, I am pretty confident that I will have a more artistic journal. I also think I can improve on some of my drawings. I would neatly draw it. I think I was rushing too much when I drew, I would make sure when I drew, I would draw neatly as possible, and do not rush. I also needed to be careful on contrasting. Some pages, I couldn’t see my pencil writings, so I should’ve made my background more bright.

What was fun?

Again, when I drew and wrote in my journal, it reminded me of the magnificent experiences from the activities, and that was fun for me in this project. Making drawings as close as the real picture was really fun. It is because when I put good effort into drawings, when the drawing is complete, I feel a lot of achievement. For me, the harder the drawing could be, I feel more accomplishment in my mind. Writing in different expressions was also really fun because it linked to different words and then my sentences grew and grew.

Overall, I was able to learn and experience about journaling, and now understand different techniques in making a journal. Not also journaling, but I learned a lot in writing, also learned a lot artistically.