Portfolio: Corn Drawing

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always been fascinated by the arts, specifically visual arts. So, with the completion of my first portfolio piece, I have decided to create a digital art portfolio on my blog! I hope you enjoy, feel free to post comments and constructive criticism

To kick off my digital portfolio, the following photos are of my final corn drawing, as well as my sketchbook pages. My task was  to create an oil pastel drawing of corn from life. I started my corn drawing with a series of preliminary studies, such as observing corn, sketching kernels and husks, and experimenting with the media. My inspiration was an Indian corn (pictured below), which had a variety of red kernels.

The process of drawing my corn was fairly simple. In my sketchbook, I sketched kernels, husks and full-sized corn, based on my observations. On small samples of my desired color of paper, I tested pastel colors for my husks and kernels, in order to get an idea of which colors and techniques looked best. The most important design decision I made was choosing the color scheme. I chose contrasting colors for my color scheme; vibrant hues of purple for the kernels and neutral hues of orange, brown, peach, red and green for the husk. For my final paper, I chose a burgundy colored paper, as I thought it was an ideal neutral background that would compliment my color scheme.

 After I had an idea of my composition in my sketchbook, I lightly sketched it out on my sheet of paper. From there, I proceeded to form the kernels individually and add color to them. While drawing my kernels, I made sure to add shadows by using black and blue, and highlights by adding white. I used these techniques to give a three-dimensional effect. I also did not heavily blend the colors with a stomp, due to the fact that I wanted a raw look. Once I had completed the kernels, I moved on to drawing the husks. While drawing the husks, I made sure to not blend the colors, like I did with the kernels. I used this technique because I wanted viewers to be able to see all the different strands of colors in the husks. Also, to add visual interest and movement to my corn drawing, I drew a husk looping around another one. Furthermore, I created contrast in my corn drawing through form and line. With horizontal lines in the husks and my kernels arranged vertically, I create a piece that reflects form vs. line and made it visually interesting.

 Overall, I enjoyed the corn drawing project. I liked creating sketches from real corn and I liked the freedom in creative decisions. Not having many directions to follow during the project, allowed for me to create a unique and creative artwork of my choice. Throughout the project, the difficulties I experienced were the magnification of the corn kernels and properly executing oil pastel techniques. If I were to do this project again, I would try to improve on using different oil pastel techniques and I would like to improve on making my drawing more realistic. I found out that I could space my design layout from a small scale to a larger one and that I could create emphasis on my kernels due to my color scheme. By completing my corn drawing, I learned the magnification of smaller items to larger ones, form vs. line and oil pastel techniques.