Bussell Traven

Mrs. Fotu, Instructor

Art 1020

December 15, 2017

To Skill or to not Skill?

Art, a talent as old as civilization itself. In the days of old, prehistoric humans would

paint on the walls of caves. In today’s world, people would make bizarre structures or images

and call it ‘art’. With the change of time, everything must either follow along or be crushed

under the wave of the past or the future. Thus art is one to change, as cultures change so does art.

As history changes, so does art. Even if that ‘art’ is obscure. Nevertheless, it takes skill in order

to create any work of art. Wether that skill is immense or basic. Anyway, within this essay I shall

be analyzing my own art in order to judge myself. Why not, onward I say.

Below the the pieces of art I plan to analyze within this essay. Now I myself have chosen

two pieces of art; one early, one late. This is in order to understand the improvement in drawing

within the course of several months. The two chosen art pieces are of the same image. Both were

the first two attempts at a self portrait. Yet improvement is shown between the first and second

attempt at drawing such an image. With that being said, here are the works of art:
 To be quick and to the point both drawings display lines and shapes, although which one

is better is up for debate. Neither could be considered better, nothing is better than something

else as such beliefs are mere opinion. Yet, I do see improvement between the two. In my opinion

the latter one, or the drawing on the right has a much better overall shape to the drawing. While

the drawing on the left has a much better detail on the sweater that is being wore. While line,

lines are everywhere. On every drawing that is a true drawing. Every stroke of a pencil can lead

directly to a line to become a form. A form then becoming a shape. While finally the shape can

become an idea. This idea can become something truly great. That is why art has been an

influential part of human history. Perhaps the art itself is interesting, but what is the thought that

goes through your mind when you look at art. Is the art itself the thing you are thinking of, or

perhaps are you attempting to unearth the idea behind such a work of art?

The next skill of art that is displayed within these two drawings of myself that may or

may not be the best ever done by me, but at the same time most likely are the best that I have

done, ever, I am not the greatest artist as I have pointed out several times already. At the same

time, I can do art moderately in a way that I personally still do not enjoy. Yet the next skill of art,

as I was saying is; relationships. How does one know if there is a relationship you may ask? Well

quite simple, everything makes a relationship with each other. The jaw has a relationship with

the eyes of the self-portrait. Along with relationships to make an image, there are shapes. The

eyes and mouth are nothing more than shapes that create an illusion of a shape. The shapes have

edges that create the shape in order to assist at giving the illusions of shapes and images. Once

the shapes, edges, and contours form a image the illusion fades into reality.
 There are places within these two drawings of myself that show where light was. While

the original image was taken there was light shining through a window. I had attempted to show

that light on the cheek and hair. The white chake that I used on these images I feel did the job

quite well. Finally, the image all comes together in both to make the image seem right. Yet I feel

that the right drawing, the latter one, in my opinion has a better gestalt than the prior drawing.

With that all said and done, there is my five skills essay. Hope you enjoyed.