{"id":143,"date":"2021-03-29T22:32:27","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T02:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/africana-studies-4051-2021-skin-deep\/?page_id=143"},"modified":"2021-05-12T22:02:22","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T02:02:22","slug":"a-self-taught-pedagogical-studio-practice","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/africana-studies-4051-2021-skin-deep\/a-self-taught-pedagogical-studio-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"A Self-Taught Pedagogical Studio Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Drawing 1, Sophomore Fall, 2018<\/h1>\n

I\u2019ve always loved art, but it was always a personal hobby that I just taught myself.\u00a0 During my freshman fall, I enrolled in an entry-level Drawing 1<\/em> course. This was my first experience getting taught techniques and any professional help. I learned so much, but when it came to the self-portrait unit, I hit a brick wall. I found myself asking:<\/strong><\/b><\/h3>\n

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How do I draw curly hair without shading?<\/b><\/em><\/h3>\n

How do I capture dark skin with charcoal?<\/b><\/em><\/h3>\n

How do I create hair texture with a pencil?<\/b><\/em><\/h3>\n

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<\/b>I found myself hiding my natural hair to make assignments easier for myself, but, even then, I wasn\u2019t proud of the work I was producing, and I still couldn\u2019t capture my skin. For my first portrait in Drawing 1<\/em>, we had to draw ourselves from life. I had a small mirror and a desk lamp as my light source. I recall putting on a wig for this assignment because I had previously struggled with capturing my kinky curls, and I watched our professor demonstrate straighter hair in class. While drawing myself, I was struggling with capturing the likeness of my skin. I had simplified the portrait to lights (highlights) and darks (shadows) as I was taught, but I couldn’t capture the reflectivity of light.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Artwork by Destiny Kearney, 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the time, I wasn\u2019t aware that darker skin absorbed more light. This was something my eyes could see, but I couldn\u2019t translate into my drawing because it wasn\u2019t something I was taught. Although there was some likeness, I saw that my complexion wasn\u2019t a match at all. I remember crying out of frustration one night in my dorm room because it felt like no matter how hard I tried, I couldn\u2019t capture myself, and I didn\u2019t know-how. I put a wig on to avoid drawing my curls because it was a\u00a0technique I was taught. I turned in the assignment not proud of my work, but I made sure that for the next assignment I would present my frustrations.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In the next assignment, we focused on an \u201calter ego\u201d I wanted to embody my biggest fear at the time which was becoming another hashtag in the Black Lives Matter Movement. I wanted to depict a portrait of myself in photograph form. I wanted to capture my natural hair and darker skin. After class, I went to my professor with these questions and he simply directed me to other artists who have tackled these issues, but I wasn\u2019t taught technique.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The image below is one example of a charcoal drawing I was directed to use for reference, by my professor.\u00a0<\/em><\/h4>\n
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Artist Unidentified<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I didn\u2019t process this at first, but as I reflected on this course, I realized that I had asked my instructor to demonstrate for me how to portray darker skin using charcoal, and instead of that how-to instruction, I received work already completed – not showing me the steps of how they got there, but that it was possible to get there.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After receiving a lack of instruction, I scheduled out more time to watch YouTube videos to teach me methods that would make this process easier. I found the YouTube video linked in the highlighted image, which helped me achieve the texture of the curls in the drawing below.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Instruction:<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Click on the highlighted image and watch the quick 2-minute demonstration.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n

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[drawattention ID=435]<\/h3>\n

Artwork by Destiny Kearney, 2018<\/p>\n