Suzanne Lanoue: Drawings by Suzanne

MY DRAWINGS THUS FAR (STARTING WITH THE BEST FIRST)

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This self-portrait to the right was from my Drawing 1 class (at SAU). The professor was the amazing Ann Zusman. She always pushed me to work very hard and get great results.

We had to draw not only our faces, but showing something about ourselves. I was feeling very stressed out at the time, so I drew a clock (representing time), a wheat stalk (my allergies), a blue O (the symbol for diabetes), the COVID molecule (this one is obvious) and an outline of an old lady (since I was feeling old as well, having just turned 60) all around me.

I drew this with regular pencils and then colored in parts of it, here and there, with colored pencils.

We had to discuss our self-portraits in class. Some of them were quite personal and sad. It was a moving experience, for sure.

Below are the best of the other works I've done so far!

Here is a cityscape drawing (with colored pencils), also from Ms. Zusman's class. This was a building across from our high rise in Honolulu, where we lived 2013-2016.

When I took Drawing I at SAU, my favorite part was when we used charcoal and something called

conté crayons. They were so much fun to use! It was like coloring as a child, or doing finger-painting.

For this drawing, the professor put a Halloween skeleton in some kind of cloak in the middle of the room. I just love the way it came out. We were in a circle around the skeleton, so we all had a different perspective. I was behind it. One of my Facebook friends think it looks like Ob-Wan Kenobi. 😂

Stress and feeling overwhelmed is a recurring theme in my art, particularly in this century. This work was for the Drawing II class with Professor Stout. We were doing art in the style of Shana and Robert ParkeHarrison, who combine photography and drawing/painting to create really unusual works.

First, we had to come up with our idea or vision of the drawing. Then, Professor Stout took black-and-white photos of us in any pose we wanted. Since I was feeling stressed, I huddled in a ball, as if I was protecting myself from a monster I couldn't outrun.

I've never drawn a monster before (that I recall). I wanted it to be really big, fierce and ugly. I looked at many drawings and paintings of monsters until I could draw the one I had in my head. I used a lot of shading. I think it came out great. Thus, the Stress Monster was born! 😂

For Painting I (SUNY), we had to do a self-portrait with pencil and acrylic paint. Professor Fleisher took our photo and printed it out for us. Then we made graphs on the photo and transferred the lines to a canvas. Then we drew ourselves, paying attention to where the pieces of our face were in the grid. This reminds me of the grid drawing or grid copy puzzles that you can find in puzzle magazines, or on sites like this one. Those were always fun. The drawing came out
great, I thought. The painting, not so much. It's not finished yet.

Art teachers/professors love still life drawings and paintings, apparently, because I've done one for almost every class. This one I did in high school. It came out OK. I didn't know anything back then.

This one was for Drawing I (SAU). We had to choose some objects that were important to us or represented us. I drew one of the dog's favorite toys, as well as a pill bottle, a capo (used for changing keys on a guitar), and a Star Trek pin.

This was another fun project for Drawing II. We had to use Post-It Notes for drawings (I don't remember the exact assignment). I had fun with it. All the faces are TV actors from of the shows I watched or liked at that time. Again, this was modeled after a modern artist.

This was a project for Drawing I. I misunderstood the assignment (I may have been absent when it was

explained). But I think it came out pretty well, anyway. I still got an A in the class!

Here's another short assignment for Drawing II (SAU) where we were supposed to do work similar to artist Martin Wilner. It was kind of fun because it's nothing like my usual drawing style. These are celebrities. You might be able to pick out Judd Hirsch and William Shatner. I don't remember the others.

After Drawing I, I drew a Christmas card for the next year. Here's the original drawing. Then I made it

look nicer (hiding some flaws) and more Christmas-y. I had them made

into nice cards. I enjoyed it! I think we can all agree that I need to work on faces a little more, in both drawing and painting. The funny thing is, I used to draw faces all the time, and I thought was pretty good at it. I'm not so sure, now.

Here are two more interesting assignments that we did in Drawing II (SAU). This first one was

supposed to be an abstract of some kind (in charcoal). The professor put some items in the middle of the room, and we had to take those and make them into something else. To be honest, he really didn't explain the assignment very well. Well, it is what it is.

This is a diptych, which is two drawings of the same object, in different ways. I wasn't there when the assignment was given, so I just did my best. We drew a bamboo plant in class. I had one at home, so I used that.

We were on vacation this past May, and I didn't have any painting materials, but I had my phone. I found this fun app, Auto Draw. I was reading on Threads and someone