Hannah's Eyes

Summer break’s coming to a rapid end and I still have so many books and tasks to finish before heading back to school. Luckily, as promised in my summer to-do-list, I finally sketched out a portrait! Here are some of the details.

Of course, I first had to set up a small work space and gather my supplies. Being an aspiring amateur artist, I know nothing of the variety of sketching utensils. Instead, I opted for a No.2 mechanical pencil, a ruler, a small lamp, a few sheets of computer paper, and a 9 by 12-inch canvas.

I also cheated and decided to use a photo of my friend. It was better than paying someone to pose for several hours a day…and learning how to reproduce a three-dimensional image on a textured plane. Did I mention I’m an aspiring amateur artist?

Using the ruler and scrap paper, I started with a rough sketch of the photo to make sure I was accurate in my estimations of how far the eyes were from the base of the mouth, and where the earlobe should be drawn.

Yes, her eyes definitely weren’t sparkly enough.

I then went on to draw a more thorough draft within a larger frame. This allowed me to get a better idea of what the picture would look like on canvas. After a few crumpled balls of paper, I managed to improve on the facial features and figure out where to add darker texture or mellow down the shading.

The nerve-racking part was transferring the image onto the cotton canvas and making it better. I had no idea how well the material would show the difference of shadows, or whether I could even erase on it!

After thousands to minute revisions and hundreds of accidental grayed pencil smudges, I saw an image that began to resemble my friend, and I set my pencil down. The entire project, from setting up a pseudo-office to the last pencil mark, took about 16 hours over the course of 5 days.

I named the art piece “Hannah’s Eyes” because the eyes were both the hardest to draw and, to me, the most alluring feature. They might not be perfect (yet…) but it’s where I look at first when examining the picture.

I would like to thank my friends for their helpful critiques throughout the process. Without Ali, Aaron, Hang Tian, and Hannah, the lips might still be crooked or the eyes too sharp. Drawing this was also made more fun by their humorous comments, such as these:

“The eyes need to be rounder. Also, is this part of your grand scheme to get Hannah to like you??? LOL!” – Aaron

“Yeah, I think it looks like me. I look like a man hahaha.” – Hannah

“She looks beautiful, but you must put in more love for the picture, or for her.” – Hang Tian

Thanks for your unconditional support, everyone.

But most importantly, I have to thank Hannah for being the model in this drawing! I couldn’t make the illustration as pretty as she is in real life (Bam! Two points for sucking up) but hey, it could happen someday. Maybe when I’m more than an aspiring amateur artist.

Cool To Do Drugs

Being the avid history major that I am, I recently finished reading Duh! The Stupid History of the Human Race by Bob Fenster. The hilarious book includes an array of anecdotes, and I decided to draw a cartoon for one of them. Hope you enjoy!

Here’s the actual passage:

“An antidrug group in New York distributed free pencils to school kids with the antidrug message, ‘Too Cool to Do Drugs.’

It started out okay, but got worse and worse when the kids actually used the pencils, As the pencils were worn down and sharpened, the message changed to: ‘Cool to Do Drugs.’ Then: ‘Do Drugs.’”