26 Oct 09: Noelle in Color

I have been drawing portraits since 2001 but I have always focused on black and white drawings. I use a basic set of drawing pencils that are just like normal writing pencils except that they have a range of shades, allowing for softer and darker tones without needing to press harder on the paper. After 8 years, I reached a point where I wasn’t challenged anymore. I wanted to do something that would be new and refreshing.

Over the years, many people have told me that I should try color. In 2005 I made an attempt with a drawing of my cousin Noelle (Alicia on SF) when she was very young. The problem with this drawing was that I drew it and shaded it in pencil and then added color. I was surprised to find that, even though it wasn’t near one of my best drawings of that time, more people liked it than my black and white.

The difficulty is that black and white is two dimensional and color is three dimensional. Black and white only deals with shades whereas color deals with shades and hues.

As an experiment, I decided to try again. I chose a picture of Noelle that I took (Thirteen) as a reference but decided that I wanted to do more than just "copy" it. I wanted to allow myself more creative freedom in this drawing than I normally do when I try to perfectly replicate a photo, allowing a better ability to experiment with the color. I used a basic set of colored pencils that could be bought at any random store.

Over the years I have heard "tidbits" of knowledge relating to color that I decided to try and apply. The first was that you should have one central color that flows into all sections of a drawing or painting even if that object is not that color. It is supposed to allow for consistency and flow. Since her hair and the bricks are red-orange, I decided to choose that as my central color. I used that colored pencil to do my basic sketch.

Another tidbit was that you should never use black in a colored piece. The reasoning is that there is no true black in reality, that everything "black" is just a very dark version of an actual color. When I draw, I almost always start (after my rough sketch for proportions) with the right eye. There is no particular reason; it’s just a personal habit. Because of the black rule, I attempted using dark brown for the dark areas of the eye: the upper curve, the circle around the areola, the eyelashes. It didn’t work and was not dark enough so I gave in and used black. I figured it would be my exception. If you look at the lips, you can see that I used blue for my darker shadows.

Remember in elementary school when you learned the primary and secondary colors? The primary colors are red, blue, and yellow whereas the secondary colors are orange, green, and purple (the ones that are made by mixing the primary colors). What you probably did not learn about were complementary colors. These are colors that can be mixed together when painting to form a darker version. For example, if you have something that is red and you wanted to create a shadow over that red object, you would use green (not black) to darken the red paint because that is its complement. Red goes with green, orange with blue, and yellow with purple. This isn’t painting but I decided to use a similar outlook with this drawing and try to mix colors whenever possible (unlike my first colored drawing of Noelle four years ago).

If you look closely on her skin you can see where I mixed colors but you can see it the best in the hair where I went a little more rebellious, adding pinks and yellows to the red-orange as well as some blues for shadowing.

Now that I’m done, I can immediately pick out many flaws. For example, the left eye is lower than it should be and her shoulder is way too big. On a similar token, if you compare the original photo and the drawing side by side, they are very different. I guess it would be like based on a true story as opposed to a true story. Half of me is disappointed because, with color, I do not yet have the accuracy that I do with black and white. The other half of me is thrilled because I’m growing as an artist and don’t need to just copy a photo. I will say that, knowing Noelle, I think the drawing captures her personality way more than the photo does which is the best reward.

My goals for the next are to continue experimenting with color and work on putting more emotion and accuracy into the finished product.

See Also: Preview: Noelle in Color

Category: family, drawing | Comment?

07 Sep 09: Teaching Children About Computers

My neighbor's daughter Gracie is five years old and, having just started kindergarten, doesn't know how to read yet. She came over yesterday after seeing Jasmine run by (she wanted to see Jasmine, but Jasmine didn't want to see her). Gracie noticed my laptop sitting on the table and raced over to it, in wonder. She brushed her finger over the trackpad to make the screensaver of Bear sleeping go away and started to imitate typing while smiling up at me, giggling.

She obviously knew a little about how computers work because she knew how to make the screensaver go away and she knew what typing looked like. But her wonder and the fact that she pretended to type without actually touching the keys led me to believe that she's had little interaction with a computer herself. It got me thinking about how children learn about computers and when you can start teaching them.

Granted, before they learn how to read children are greatly hindered in their computer use. They can't read program names, file names, read directions, commands, etc. Regardless, here are some small things that can be done at an early age, using programs that come default with Windows:

Notepad    Even before children know how to read, they like to write. They scribble and make immitation letters on paper and in journals. The same can be true on computers. I recommend Notepad for this because it doesn't have all the extra features that might confuse an emergent reader/writer. It's simple and straightforward. Up the font size and let them have at it!

Paint    Paint is a simple program that allows you to make artwork with a variety of tools. Explain some of the basic tools and allow your child free reign. This will teach them how to work a mouse, hand-eye-coordination, click and drag, that clicking on different things activate different settings, etc. Afterwards, print out their creations and save them!

MS Word    I added this because it usually comes with Windows as a trial version and it can be very useful. Once a child has the basics of reading and writing down, introduce them to Word. It speeds up the writing process because they don't have to take extra effort writing out each letter (which also motivates them to write more). It also gives them instant feedback on their spelling so that they know immediately when it is wrong, with a few exceptions. (That's how I got it in my head that after C, it is EI and not IE as in received; Word kept telling me!)

Do you have any other ideas? Comment with them! :)

Category: teaching | Comment?