Concentration 5

Cultural Competence and Connections:

I took this picture at a temple that I visited in Japan during winter break, and I knew that I wanted to draw it for class using rapidograph. It was a beautiful building that was perfect to draw on its own because of the amount of detail and structures that it had. The best part about my concentration and creating art from pictures of buildings and monuments is that I had to pay more attention to every detail of every structure. It made me notice all the small but beautiful pieces that makes the building as a whole. By drawing the temple piece by piece and detail by detail, it made me understand how the building was built and even how much time and effort it could've taken. 

Manipulation of Materials:

Because we were given the option to do 12 by 18 inches, I decided to do rapidograph on created surface. The picture was very detailed and had no clear background, so the rapido pens were perfect for getting in with all the specific details, while the created surface substituted as a background. Rapidograph is much easier to grip and get a hold on when drawing compared to other mediums, which is why it was easier to handle the complicated parts of the building. Especially since drawing in rapido has no color, the pens were perfect for highlighting and tinting the shadows with darker and lighter areas. The only problem I had was that with every line I drew, I had to really concentrate on trying to make no mistakes, because if there was, it can be really obvious in the overall piece. It was difficult when I tried covering up my mistakes, for example, when I drew lines that was off from the actual contour line drawing, it took me a long time to cover it up by cross-hatching and realigning the entire building. Overall, creating this piece was a really repetitive process that ended up being therapeutic for me.