Lately, I’ve been obsessing with
art which is very evident on my FB wall and instagram posts. I was very keen in
attending UP CFA’s Drawing Workshop which lasted for the whole month of October
during Saturdays. The workshop was held Prof. Jamel Obnamia.
We were only four in the class
and being late bloomer in art, I happen to be the eldest. My classmates were
around grade school and high school age range.
1st day: Portrait Exercise and Continuous Line Drawing
On the first day of workshop we
were asked to draw a partner. My partner was a grade school named Alexa. The
exercise lasted for about 2 hours, every 15 minutes we swap.
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| This is my portrait drawing of Alexa |
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| Alessa's drawing of me |
The last exercise of the day was continuous line drawing. You have to
draw the outline of the subject continuously without breaking any line. This
exercise helps beginners to draw what you actually see not what you think you
see.
2nd day: Mechanical Pencil
The second day of workshop
focused again with continuous line drawing. This time we are using mechanical
pencil. Last meeting we were asked to bring 5 small interesting objects which
we used in the exercise. Every 10 minutes we swap objects and then we draw. The
objective is to enhance the speed of the drawing.
After several exercises I noticed
that my sketches improved.
The challenging part is
performing continuous line drawing for the Greek statues. I was so anxious to
draw because I may end up messing up the sketch. Prof. Jamel encouraged me to
go with the flow, draw what I see and not over think too much the process.
3rd day: Charcoal
This is the messiest part of the
class because we finally have to deal with charcoal powder and pencils.
Charcoal drawing is meant to make your drawing more realistic because you
emphasize on capturing the shades of the subject.
The first exercise of the day was
negative and positive space drawing of our hands. We draw hands focusing on
every line detail and shades of the hands.
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| Charcoal drawing of my hand |
After which we went outside to look for our subject. I draw the bonsai using the charcoal powder and did a little smudging.
4th day: Color Pencil
Alas! The workshop has finally come to its end. The last part is combination of all learning from Day 1 to 3. This time we are making use of our Color Pencil.
We took a tour on the UP CFA campus. For me everything is a work of art. I loved the doodles on the walls, the workplace where students paint and not to mention the beauty of the Greek statues. I saw how liberated they are in expressing themselves in the work of art. I wish the workshop never ended or I should have taken the whole course instead.
I’m planning to take another workshop March next year. This time watercolor painting.
