Another Rivera Exploring Cubism

Oh hey there, not dead just super busy. But I will make multiple updates this coming week so here's the first!

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For Drawing we had to choose a content that we needed to study and incorporate within the work we're doing for the rest of the semester. It was so difficult to choose something and I wanted to choose an idea that would help me draw better. But my instructor told us to choose something that we're not familiar with, since we do need to study about it. A ton of people chose anatomy or chiaroscuro so I didn't go that route, instead I went on the other side of the spectrum of how I draw and see and chose to explore Cubism.

I was nervous to choose it since I just couldn't (and still can't!) wrap my head about the process of creating work like that. My instructor read my proposal and promptly agreed (contrary to the many talks she had with a lot of students about their proposed content). I had no clue what I was getting into and it still makes me nervous about the oncoming projects and how exactly I'm going to create them. 

So this is my first attempt ever with 4 poses in 40 minutes. 

I began with drawing the figure the same way I normally would but a little more stylized and even more geometric than my own style. Then I erased a bit of the side since we were doing an activity with erasing and drawing in new parts of a pose for this ghostly combined image, and aligned her sitting pose proportional to my first drawing. Then I started to think about the composition and drew the third pose on the lower right since there was too much white space, and emphasized the curve of her back to add some movement throughout the piece. The fourth pose is when the process of cubism and drawing the form in multiple angles then combining it and as well as the careful consideration to line and composition just finally made sense to me. I turned the page, drew fragments of the body, repeated sections and emphasized lines in my previous drawings to guide the viewer everywhere.

I had a classmate give the compliment of calling it a Picasso without even telling him my content beforehand. Mission accomplished.

This was my second attempt during the same class. This time I played with minimal colour and set a rule for myself when I use certain colours. I went more for a straight line drawing style and rotated the piece many times. There are 4 poses, each with a randomized length. I took what I learned from the previous drawing and applied it here like fragmented and repeated parts, rotation etc. This is my favourite I've done so far, I think it's far better than the one I drew for my first project:

We had to create a piece that incorporated 5 subjects. I took a drawing that we did in class with multiple poses and erased lines and used it as a reference, I also combined two extra poses from other drawings that I had. For this one I made it so that each figure shared certain body parts with another pose, either through the torso, arms or legs. A classmate said it reminds them of Picasso's Les Demoiselles D'Avignon and now I can't unsee the similarities of the poses.

It could have used more work in the background, others said rather than having it organic make it look cubist as well. I said I was worried that the figures might be lost in the background if I did that but other suggestions made me realize that a solution to the background wasn't as hard as I thought. So I may go back and fix it.

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So it turns out this Cubism thing isn't as easy as most people think it is. I'm gaining a ton more respect for cubist artists because of how difficult it actually is to create something like this. And I'm actually learning more about the figure and how it actually looks (especially in different angles) and how it moves in contrast to what the pieces actually depict. It's actually fun trying this out and my instructor said it's good that we should try something different and out of our comfort zone now and then because we mostly stick to our own way of doing things, and that can eventually get stale and boring. I guess, "When Picasso became bored of painting people, he started representing them as cubes and other abstract forms" holds some truth to it.

I heard a classmate (who's in my drawing class) say in a different course, "Picasso was a piece of shit." It's good to know she dislikes my work then.