Art from Printmaking

During the fall semester of 2008 I was taking a woodblock printmaking class as well as my life drawing class. As I am about to embark on my last life drawing class this fall of 2009 and my senior art show, I would like to begin by looking back on my previous work. One influence on my work by this class, and my drawing 3 class taught by the same professor, is that I came to love wood. This despite the many cuts I received through late nights carving into wood. I also spent much of the class in a state of self exploration. I found myself the subject in many ways of many of my prints.

Final Portfolio Life Drawing 3

This is my final portfolio. The first half of this semester I spent my in class time drawing the skeleton. During this period I reached a break through in my art style. As you can see with the first leg bone shown as compared to those beneath it, my style morphed. I switched from charcoal pencil to straight charcoal sticks to help me move into a more expressive style. I brought this style into my work on the Norse gods. I was able to accomplish a special goal this semester, do art reminiscent of fantasy art without making my art look like generic fantasy art.

Siff Images

Siff written

I have finished my second drawing. Siff is the wife of Thor. She is know for her beautiful, long golden hair. She has always been my favorite of the Norse gods. She has long blond hair just like me. I admit to using myself as a model. She is very little known. My sources say that she is the goddess of the harvest and possibly a minor fertility goddess. She is best known for a story that concerns her long locks. One night well Siff was sleeping, Loki decided to shave her head/ cut off all of her hair. When Thor got wind of this, he rung Loki's neck, until he promised to replace her hair. Loki went to the dwarves and asked them to make her the most beautiful golden hair. He also made the mistake of telling them to make other gifts for the gods such as Thor's hammer and Odin's spear. If they made wonderful gifts, Loki said, they could have his head. They over did themselves and made the marvelous gifts, too wonderful. Loki told them that they could not have his head. It was attatched to his neck you see, and they could not have his neck. They sewed his lips shut and let him go with the gifts. Siff was given long hair of spun gold that would grow like normal hair. In my image I put her in a field of Barley, one of the crops grown in old Norway. I will post the images soon.

Hel Finished

Here is my finished "Hel". Below are more detailed photos. She is charcoal and white conte. She is about four feet by three feet. I did quite a makeover on her since my last post.

Hel

This is my newest piece. It is not finished. I am working on a charcoal drawing of the Norse goddess Hel. She is Loki's daughter and the goddess of the dead. She takes all who die of sickness and old age. She is supposed to be beautiful from the waist up and rotting from the waist down. I am wondering what needs to be changed on her.

Sketches for mre upcomming drawings

This is an image out of the Graphic Novel "Marvel 1602" written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Andy Kubert.The image has given me some great inspiration for Loki as a trickster god. I am considering using a similar pose for Loki.
These are some ideas for Thor and his wife Sif. Loki shaved Sif's head as a prank. Thor had Loki talk the dwarves into forging her new hair out of spun gold. This has always been my favorite norse story, possibly because of the length and blondeness of my own hair.

The two above are drawings for Hel. She is Loki's daughter and the goddess of the dead, specifically those who did not die in battle. Her top half is beautiful while her bottom half is rotting and corpse-like. I am picturing her in a venus-like pose. It is how most people would invision a beautiful goddess, except this time she is part zombie. I plan on have her dead as featureless figures surrounding her. I plan on sticking with black and white for this.