Brooklyn Museum

On wednesday we've visited the Brooklyn Museum, and there was this gallery showing a whole environment made by junky materials, which looked beautiful. I was very impressed by the way she used these materials. This environment was huge and included small details as well such as very nice marker drawings. In the middle of the gallery there was a huge tree made of fabric and paper, it looked amazing.

 I was also very impressed by this painting, the colours are beautiful and the light coming from the mountain is amazing, it looks as if an actual light was coming out of the painting.

Axonometric 45° degree angle drawing

We drew shapes on graphic paper and painted it with colours of different tones with an imaginary light coming from the top left corner. 

Close value colours

 We've again painted the human figure but this time by using close value colours. I used this green and red to create this "flashy" contrast. 

MoMA and The Museum of Art & Design

On wednesday the 9th, we've visited the Museum of Modern Art in the morning followed by the Museum of Art & Design in the afternoon. I really enjoyed both of them. At MoMA we visited Sigmar Polke's gallery which was very interesting. I really liked the variety of his paintings and the colours he used.

We also had the chance to visit other galleries including paintings such as Van Gogh's "Starry Night" which I really like and Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe and Campbell's Soup paintings. 

Here are some other paintings that I liked for either their colours, abstraction, contrast and meaning: 

The Museum of Art & Design was quite different but equally interesting. I liked the museum itself and the variety in it. 

Color palette

This week (the second week) we've learned about colours and their value, how some colours, when put next to each other, create greater contrasts than others, etc.
As an exercice, we had to paint a hue circle. It was a good training for mixing colours and find the right value and saturation for each one.

Painting of the negative space

Another model came to our class, but this time, we didn't use charcoal. We used black gouache to paint the empty space surrounding the model, this technique gives some kind of abstraction to the painting, because we don't directly distinguish the model and the different objects. we used the same technique in an assignment where we had to draw objects.

While learning to draw the human figure, we were also taught how to use our pencil as a measurement in order to have the right proportions. As an assignment, we've had to draw a statue, any statue, in a park for example. Again, using charcoal. Here's the one I chose, on Union Square:

Drawing the human figure

The same week, a model came to the class and we had to draw her very quickly (we've had 30 seconds for each pose), which meant that we didn't have time for details and had to represent the human figure in the most accurate way possible with the fewest lines. I think it was a good exercice for the way to interpret what we see and put it on paper. Later during the lesson we had more time for each pose, the goal being to draw with more details and accurate line, at our own rhythm. The last last exercice was to draw her without even looking at the paper which I found very tricky, but it is an excellent training for the way to observe the human figure and to train our hands to follow what we see. We used charcoal for each drawing.

Metropolitan Museum

On wednesday 2nd of August we've visited the Metropolitan museum, where we've had a look at different fashion galleries, which, for me, wasn't the most interesting part, as well as ancient armours from different countries and some greek sculptures, which I found quite interesting to draw, on the other hand. The museum is huge and offers great variety.

Introduction to design

On monday 30th of June, we've had an introduction to design focused on fashion design. I learned about the way to look at our surroundings and see the shapes which compose our environment, and discovered the whole process of a design starting from basic shapes and colours as inspiration to the final design of a dress, in which we could still distinguish these similar shapes and colours. It is a whole different way of looking at our environment and notice the things that we didn't before. Although the first class was talking more about fashion, this process and way of observing can be applied to any different kinds of design. It is surprising how much different materials, shapes, colours and patterns can be found in the most banal places.