Back when I was a sophomore in high school I was enrolled in a drawing class. In this class we created many different projects of all sorts of techniques. One project in particular was to create a drawing by using the stippling technique with a pen, to which I chose to draw a panda bear. Ever since that drawing class in high school, I have always been interested in exploring the pen as a medium. This week, I perused this interest by using the same technique I did sophomore year, so I started stippling. I chose to stipple small parts of the human body including an ear, lips, and a nose. I chose to draw these figures because another interest of mine is figure drawing and I have always wanted to create more detailed works of the body, so I figured I can combine these two interests by stippling the simpler components.

There are a few things that I have learned while stippling these facial features. For one, it takes a significant amount of patience to create a drawing with just little dots. By drawing only these three features, it took me roughly three hours to complete. Keep in mind the fact that these three pieces are on an eight by eleven piece of drawing paper, so they’re not very big in size. Secondly, during the drawing process I had to take just a few breaks because looking at all of the little dots together made me start to think it was an illusion. I then realized that stippling is very similar if not the exact technique for some optical illusion and color blindness eye tests. I found this to be a very interesting aspect of drawing.

Another characteristic of drawing that I was reminded of while creating these facial features was that creating artworks is a process. Occasionally when I am making art I find myself impatient and wanting to rush through my work. However, throughout my years as an art student I understand that rushing won’t allow my work to be at its fullest potential. This week was another reminder of this fact. I have also learned to appreciate these reminders because good work takes time and I know that I can create amazing things when I am patient. Even though I became impatient at times, I do believe that pen is something I want to explore with more techniques in my future.