Blog post #4

 

 

The drawing I chose is from the metropolitan museum of modern art link. This drawing is titled Dancer by Edgar Degas, dated in 1880. The medium used to compose this piece was pastel and charcoal on blue-gray wove paper. The reason I chose this piece is because I am amazed with art work made using these mediums, pastels and charcoal. I find that the final result no matter what it is always seems so beautiful. In observing this work I find many principles/elements of design in this drawing, especially the use of contour lines and shading as we discussed in class and also in our practice of drawing. Focusing more directly on the artist use of lines I notice a visual rhythm happing here within the way the ballerina’s tutu are made. The same repetition of line use some short and some longer lines, which is also used in the background made into the wall. The shading the artist used makes this piece look so easy to compose or replicate. He used some shading techniques of cross hatching found in the ballerina’s legs. Short strokes are used to make up the ballerinas shadow. The techniques I used in class were the cross hatching and smudging of the pencil to create shading or darker appearance.  The artist shows a great sense of proportion and scale taking up the whole space with the focal point emphasizing the ballerina closer to the viewer. After practicing drawing in class it makes me reconsider how difficult it can be to imitate an image. What looks so easy to do such as this drawing can be a little tricky applying the techniques the artist used.