Mixed Media

Did you learn new techniques or processes as part of the work for this project?

I haven't worked very much with mixed media and so I learned a lot about how to apply different mediums in various ways to portray what I want. It made the overall composition a little harder to do, but overall I think the techniques I used worked really well

How is this artwork about who you are or what you like?

This artwork's main focus was another one of my pets, the main idea I wanted to portray in this piece was amusement and simplicity and because I find dogs to be very amusing animals I picked one of the most amusing dogs I've met which is my own and I simplified him into what I think of him which is a ball of fluff and fur, however I did change the color prescription, instead of colors that normal objects would be I portrayed them the way that I perceive colors and how they apply in this piece. To me yellow is a warm and fun color so I painted the main focus of fun, my dog, with yellow and the sand that he's running on I painted green because I think of green as a natural and revigorating color which is how I perceive the beach sand, the clouds are red/pink because to me it represents happiness and clouds are something I view as happy, so all together this piece is very much about having a fun day at a beach with my goofball dog which are two things I really enjoy.

Did you consider how ideas would work before you tried them?

I had a basic idea about what I wanted this piece to look like when I came up with the idea, and I let myself run crazy with it, I had a basic composition laid out, but I felt in order to get the genuine feel of fun I had to go in with very little planning and just let the vision in my head work it's way onto the canvas and I feel that I did that very well.

Fun with Paint and Cats Painting Final

How did you use your own unique ideas in your work?

I used my own ideas through portraying my own pet in a situation that i feel would be completely feasible to happen, i've always loved pianos so when i was working on my thumbnails i had two separate ideas, one that involved a pianist playing the piano and another involving the repetition of a cat, specifically my cat, however i was having a hard time choosing between the two because i felt attached to both, eventually i merged the two ideas into the idea of my cat having played in some paint, had proceeded to decorate the piano in paint, as well as other places, this piece was a split second idea that was merged between two ideas i had, and it made sense to go with this because it felt like something my cat would do, and it was a situation i wanted to paint, and i think it turned out marvelously.

What is this artwork intended to say?

I intend my artwork to say that little moments can be fun, those little moments of splendid laughter, and the times where we all laugh so hard that we have a stitch in our side, little moments like those.  I wanted it to be bright, bold, colorful, and fun.  I also wanted to portray a small piece of my life, my cat has never actually jumped on a piano and decorated it with paint, but in my childhood i was infactuated by my grandfather when he would play the piano, it's always been a memory that's stuck in my head, and my cat is a complete goof, he's always known to do wild and crazy stuff, most people would find it annoying, but i find it endearing and quite funny, i wanted to portray a small piece of the joy i feel whenever i hear someone playing the piano, and the laughter that my cat evokes.  The main thing this piece should say to everyone is fun, in one way or another we all have moments like this, completely unintended, but absolutely wonderful to remember, and i wanted to immortalize that.

When did you step back and analyze you work during this project?

About half way through with the painting i had started painting my cat, and i didn't feel like it was coming out right, the way i paint tends to be very comical, bright, and bold, i've never been afraid of color and certainly not when it comes to painting; however it just didn't seem to be working, and i took a step back and looked at my painting, and i found that it was way too proportional, my cat has these really green eyes that are really beautiful and he's basically a puffball when it comes to fur, so i scrapped the original head, and instead made it larger and increased the size of the eye, then i kept painting and after i had laid down the basics of the new cat i was starting to really like it, so i kept painting and painting, and then it got to where i was comfortable with the cat, and then it was time to add the fun, because with just a cat and a piano it looked really boring, there was no story to tell, and then i just placed paw prints all over the place, i didn't organize them at all, just went for it, and the result has made me very happy because it now tells a story, and i hope that everyone who sees it smiles because it reminds them of something similar. 

Fun with Paint and Cats painting progression

Up Close and Personal

In progress:

Final:

 Artists Develop Art Making Skills

With this piece I have gained a lot of experience with Chalk Pastel, i have never worked with the medium before and when i was planning out this piece i was thinking about what medium to use, and Chalk seemed like the best option to give the piece the image that i had.  It was a great chance to work with Chalk and use it in a lot of different ways that worked really well, and establishing a good foundation for my knowledge about the medium and it was fun to have something turn out extremely well with a completely new medium.

Artists Solve Problems

I had some trouble with this piece with getting the contrast and realistic look that i wanted to have for it.  It took some work and thinking about where to place the colors to get just the right about of contrast and value ranges.  When i was working with the silver stripes around the eyes i had tried to make it look as a part of the skin by blending, but that wasn't working the way i had hoped and instead it looked just like another value in the skin, after adding the white line through the blended part that's when it really popped and i got the look i needed as well as the contrast that makes it look a lot better.  The neck was also difficult to get it to have that rounded neck look and so it took a couple of tries to get the shading and value just right, but after adding the white spots it really stood out and gave it the last thing it needed to look realistic.

Artists Reflect

Looking back on this project i'm really happy with how the Chalk turned out, and that i took that risk with a completely unfamiliar medium.  The ideas i had planned out for this piece was for it to be really colorful and bright and pop like how a lot of seahorses look, but that didn't exactly translate on page and so i had to shift from it being really bright and colorful like i wanted it, to subduing it and adding spots of color to pop, the idea of adding the white dots was more of a whim of the moment, it was never something i had planned and certainly hadn't tested out before i did it, but that is really one of the defining aspects of this piece that ties it all together and makes it look the way it does, without these dots it wouldn't be as convincing of value change or 3D appearance.

Oil Pastel, Chalk Pastel, Colored Pencil exercises

Colored Pencil lollipop

The colored pencil was a familiar medium to work with for this little project.  I think i might use this for one of my final projects because it's a detail oriented medium that can get those little details that i need for this final.

Oil Pastel Coca Cola can

The oil pastel is another medium i'm familiar with, it's still difficult to use, but is really enjoyable to use for shading.  I don't think it's likely i'll use this for my final project due to how messy the medium can be and how inexperienced i still am with it.

Chalk Pastel Gumball

The chalk pastel is a new medium for me, and it was really fun to use, the coloring and shading with it was easy and very cool.  I think i might use this medium with my final project.  It was really fun to try out this new medium with a little exercise such as this.

Scientific and Contrast Drawing

Some of my design solutions for this theme were to think outside of the box and not do the standard lab coat and other objects that a lot of people think of when they hear the word scientific, i wanted the theme to influence my piece, but not be a direct link that is easily pointed out, so after lots of brainstorming and thinking i came up with the idea of drawing the x-ray of a birds wing, which after more consideration and looking at the other option for my project i decided to go with this one because it appealed to me the most and was out of the box for me to accomplish.

The mini lessons we had during class were helpful in learning how to use the different mediums available to us for the project it was helpful to learn what mediums did what, how they worked, and how to overall use them for the future.  Learning how to use pen and ink was interesting as a different medium to use for the future.  Pencil is the basis of drawing so being reminded how to use pencil again was very helpful.  The charcoal was interesting as it's not a medium I've used before and it would have been nice to work a little more with it, overall it was good to be able to test out these different mediums for both this project and future projects.

To try and show contrast in my work with the white charcoal and white pencil I put to use the lessons we learned about both pencil and charcoal, being careful where i applied pressure, being conscious of where i wanted the lights and the darks to be overall.  It was a little difficult for me as the pencil i was using didn't blend well with the charcoal so that was a bit of a struggle to get the full range of values i wanted, but overall leaving key spots black or white i think i achieved some good contrast with this piece.

Moving on the charcoal and pencil i used.  I chose this medium because it provided the best visualization for what i was trying to achieve that would have been extremely difficult and tedious had i used pen and ink.  I wanted to work with the charcoal a lot because I've never really used it before and wanted to try something new.  Overall i like the way that the charcoal and pencil helped bring what i had imagined onto the paper in the way it does.

Overall the techniques i used during this piece were line work, as seen in the feather bones, there were a lot of lines to do, and they had to b noticeable and clearly distinct which was somewhat difficult to create as i was working with the charcoal because of its tendency to smear while i was working on other parts of the drawing.  Most of what i used was shading and value range to create the look of a bird's x-ray'd wing which involved very dramatic changes in values.

The risks that i took in this project were working with a new medium, which I've had next to no experience with and doing something that's very outside of the box from the drawings i normally do. For me doing anatomy of any animal is very difficult because often times the look expected from a relatively analytic drawing and my style of art clash in very weird ways that don't tend to work out well so this was a big step for me.  The anatomy was the hardest part, finding the bones and the joints and the different parts of the bird that i needed to display, first starting the sketch i had planned an entirely different drawing, but what i had envisioned i wouldn't have been able to draw due to spacial issues and finding how to place what and where it would all go.  So this was definitely a big risk for me to take, but it came together wonderfully in the end.

So my overall experience with this project was positive as i took that big risk and it turned out extremely well, working with a new medium was fun and informative, it was also interesting working with black paper which i haven't done before, but hopefully i can do more works like this in the future.  Overall this project bettered me as an artist and exposed me to things that are relatively out there for me.

Landscape Painting

My landscape painting that I had so much fun making.

Clay Tile

MY ADORABLE CLAY TILE I ABSOLUTELY LOVE.

Game Drawing

In the final piece i think that overall my game drawing was successful in its entirty.  the watercolor compliments the colored pencils and the vanishing point may not be executed great but it's still evident that there is one.  watercolor was difficult to work with on the drawing paper, getting the washes light enough so that i could overlap it with highlights, values, and shadows was a challenge but it was overcome.  I wasn't able to use black and white so i had to change the game piece colors to brown and yellow but i feel that they compliment the orange of the game board better than the black and white did.  A change i would consider if ever allowed to do this project over again is actually giving the drawing a horizon so it doesn't look like it's floating in mid air, and to lay off of the watercolor and use the colored pencils more than i did in this drawing.  A difficulty of this project was that getting the perspective and gradation executed well.  The vanishing points gave me some trouble because i only have one side of something that isn't present in the picture not a point but all the same i was able to accomplish it without it looking like a hodge podge of something only i could decipher, and the gradation wasn't as smooth as i would have liked it to be.  I learned from this project that less is better in the beginning and that although i may be able to do perspective i think that it's not one of my favorite things to do just because it's not the way i generally think most of the time, but that's how you learn what you do and don't like so i'd say that i got a good piece of art and lessons learned out of this project for now so i just need to focus on the next one.

Anamorphasis Drawing

1. Describe the process you went through to change your object into the correct perspective to create the drawing. This is when you were in the lab.

 

the process i went through to change my subject into the correct perspective was to go into photoshop with a photo of an object of our choice, using transform and scale to make it intot this perspective.  looking for different shades and values that would be interesting to replicate in the sketch.

2. How did distorting and stretching the object allow for you to create a drawing that would look different to the viewer?

 

Stretching and distorting the object would make the object look weird when you looked at it one way and then when you looked at it from an angle it looked normal.  It all depended on the perspecitve that you were looking at the object.

3. What were the most important concepts in the project to make it successful?

The most improtant concept for this project was the values, perspective, and grid.  the different values  we had to create is what made the drawing come to life but the perspecitve and grid are what made it possible to actually complete the project without making the chess piece look nothing like a chess piece.

Stencil

1. Explain how you changed your photo in the lab to create a stencil.

First we went to photoshop and got a picture that we liked from the Internet we liked and would use as a stencil.  In photoshop we used the threshold  to make the photo black and white.  In the stencil we would use the black and white to determine what we wanted to cut out to form the photo so we the Positive/Negative Space.

2. When creating the collage background explain your choices of colors, materials (magazine paper, books pages, etc), and placement. How does it relate to your topic? If no relation discuss general idea.

in my collage i chose different photos that pertained to Italy, Venice, or old time sea faring, some areas were just colorful or was a good border so i pasted it on there just trying to get a good amount of contrast from the photos to make the stencil stand out.  Anything that i felt was interesting was put on as well.

3. Discuss the way positive and negative space was used to create your stencil.
The positive/negative space that i used in my stencil was to use the negative space to make the stencil stand out the most.  Using the Xacto knife to make the stencil able to print the image onto the collage using spray paint.

4. When using the xacto knife, explain the safety procedures, how to use the knife and any challenges you had to overcome while cutting.

while using the Xacto knife you had to hold it differently from a pencil which was hard to do, and cut away from yourself in case your hand slipped.  Also you had to have the cutting board underneath the stencil.  A challenge i had with the knife was that i had intricate things to cut out so they came out kind of rough so i was worried that the windows wouldn't show up on the collage.

5. How was your experience with the spray paint? Discuss how color choice is important, placement of stencil, and any other concepts you noticed while creating this. when i was using spray painting i found that it was really fun but difficult to hold down the button because it was hard to press down, it was also hard to keep an even coat going.  my color choice was very important because i didn't want to obscure the composition but i wanted to make the stencil stand out.  I had a mishap with my stencil where i had to make some adjustments to it and respray paint, although i was worried it wouldn't turn out okay i was very pleased to see that in the end it looked really good and the little mishap actually gave it a look of uniqueness and wear and tear which accented the stencil.

Print

1.     Describe the overall composition of your artwork (balance, unity, rhythm and movement).

There is a fair amount of balance, there's not too much or too little of positive or negative space.  There is unity with the different textures not clashing but not blending together they all have a common look and work together.  There is somewhat the illusion of movement with the flower in a position that makes a person think it could be moving.

  

2.     How did you add texture and contrast to your print? Is this important? Why?

I added texture in the different lines or absence of lines in the print, the sharp contrast between positive and negative space.  This is very important because otherwise it doesn't seem real and it feels flat, texture and contrast is what makes a person like a piece of art work some of the time.  Without the texture of the butterfly and bark a person looking at the art without knowing what it is wouldn't know it's a butterfly with a tree behind it, it also adds depth in a way.

3.     Explain how you used positive and negative space to show your image.

I used positive and negative to equal out the different areas in the print.  The blue doesn't overpower the white and it doesn't dominate the picture, there is an equal balance of both that is appealing to the eye.  The little bits and pieces of positive and negative space is equaled out by the large amount of white and blue on the right side.  I could have blend it together better but i think that based on my skill level it is quite good.

4.     Describe the craftsmanship of your print. (How good the project is technically crafted)

I think my overall craftsmanship is good. My lines are good,sharp,and well defined, there isn't a random line that doesn't seem to connect to anything.  The lines of my print are well made so you can see the image that i created with ease.  The texture brought the animal and surrounding to life making them apper almost real.

5.     Were you able to achieve depth by showing a foreground, middle ground and back- ground? Explain.

I was able to achieve depth with a foreground, middle ground, and back-ground.  The small leaf in the bottom left corner is in the foreground, subtle as it may be it works out well in the print.  The middle ground is the flower and butterfly which is the main portion of the print which dominates the print.  The back-ground is the bark which sits behind the butterfly giving the sense that the bark is farther away from the butterfly.

6.     Explain your experience with Printmaking. What were the obstacles and advantages?

My experience with printmaking was enjoyable i very much liked making my print.  The obstacle i faced was chosing what animal to print and at what angle i should use for the print, there was almost the obstacle of how to make it all flow together and still look like a butterfly which i overcame all of these obstacles.  An advantage to me was that i didnt' have to worry about shading, and it was fairly simple to cut out the print.

Print Sketch

Print Sketch Critique

1. Why is texture so important to have in your sketches?

 

Texture is so important in our sketches because on the final texture is what will define the image.  You need a strong contrast in texture to make the final look well done and to make it stand out having sharp contrast makes the print look realistic and intriqueing to look at.  It's also easier to make the print if you have sharp contrasting textures so you have crazy textures on one part and subtle textures in another area. 

2. Why is it neccessary for you to have several references of each animal and each background? Explain.

It's neccessary to have several references to see how the texture of the animl changes say a bird sitting in a tree compared to when it's flying.  The textures change with the movement of a creature and it allows you to form an idea of what you want the animal to look like.  References help you answer the questions: how much texture does it have, what kind of background would accompany well with the animal.  They all need to be addressed and references help form the sketch you want to make. 

3. When you look at your sketches are you able to see which sketch is the strongest and will make the best print? How do you know this?

 

When I look at my sketches i'm able to tell that some are going to turn out better than other because some are more apt to my ability level and some just wouldn't turn out well.  I know this because i know the different textures that i have in the sketch and how they will coralate to a print form, some of them look better than others simply because the textures make it look more interesting.  Some of the sketches i feel just look better and are better structurally and texture wise than the others which makes the print look better.

Interactive Chalk Murals

Chalk Mural Critique

                                                                                                                                                        

1. Explain your experience working on a team and executing your ideas for the mural.

 

In my group we first brinstormed what kind of chalk mural we wanted to do, came up with a few ideas, and decided from the ones that we liked the most which we would actually put on the wall.  The final two murals we chose from was  mural with raining candy or the roller coaster which we all agreed to do.  We finally got the final idea and planned out what we wnted to do and what would be in the mural.  Everyone had a job and worked hard to make the mural the best it could be.  In the end we ended up with a good looking chalk mural.

 

2. Explain the importance of collaboration when working on a team.

The importance of collaboration when working in a group is key, we may not all see eye to eye on everything so collaborating and having pieces that everyone can agree upon is crucial to a good working team.  If you don't collaborate you'll have someone who is unhappy and won't be working the best they can and it brings the whole mood of the group down.  Even if everyone is very similar it may be very hard for everyone to agree on one thing so collaboration helps to sort out what people want so that they all end up with something that they can work with and enjoy working on.

3.  How successful was this project? Explain how and why.

 

In my opinon the project was successfull in its own way.  The reason being why it is has to do with the fact that we all liked the idea and worked quite hard to make everything look good, to make the roller coaster seem like it's park of an amusement park and to make everything seem real as if you could walk into it.  How we did this was used people's strengths and ideas in the mural, one person worked on the feris wheel while two on the roller coaster and two on the sky or ground we were constantly busy and working fixing what needed to be and looking at the big picture of how it would look.

4. Explain how you feel about creating artwork that others can interact with. Ex. Invoving the whole school? 

 

I feel that it's quite fun to make artwork that people can interact with and enjoy.  It works well for both the artist and the people who are just interacting with the art.  The artist gets recognition for doing a great job as well as gets to show off their skill on a wall for everyone to see, while the people who are interacting with the art get the little fun and laughter of interacting with the artwork.

Value Portraits

 

 Value Portraits Art Critique

 

1. Explain the process you went through to develop your drawing.

 

The process I went through to develop my drawing was taking a picture of the person in light to create different values.  Then I took a piece of tracing paper, put it over the picture, and outlined the different values that i saw within the picture to create the portrait shape.  After tracing I transfered the tracing from the tracing paper to my sketchbook and then I began to shade in the shapes of values i had created to make it look realistic and have values that make the picture come to life.

 

2. Explain how you found the different values in the portrait?

 

I found the different values in the portrait by looking at the picture and seeing what kind of shapes formed from the lighting and shadows.  Some are more intricate than others and where harder to find although they are what help the picture come to life even if it's hard to see them.  I also had to think about how the lights and shadows were placed and shaded on the photo, a slightly darker area would show the facial features, anything no matter how small it was was part of the artwork and had to be incorporated.

 

3.  Did you achieve a full range of the different values within your portrait?  How?

 

I believe I achieved a full range of different values within my portrait.  I did this by looking at the photo and shading in the different areas I had previously traced out for all the different values.  Judging by the photo where different areas would go and using my value chart on the photo I was able to determine where different values went which made it easier to blend them together to form the portrait. 

 

4. Describe your craftsmanship.  Is the artwork executed and crafted neatly?

 

I would describe my craftsmanship was neat, orderly, and presice.  I didn't emphasize too heavily on the dark or the light, there had to be a balance of both in the portrait for it to look realistic.  I believe my artwork is executed and crafted neatly with precise lines as to where different areas of value went and the amount of realism I tried to put into the portrait to the best of my abilities.

5. List any obstacles you had to overcome and how you dealt with them.

I had a difficult time with making the shading blend together into a smooth portrait.  I dealt with it by not going dark fast and keep to light values until I had all the values in the portrait done, then I went back over with some darker shades to make it look more realistic and to add depth to the portrait.  It wasn't easy since the values sometimes didn't blend but I worked with it and made it look as best as I could and worked through the difficulties.

Value Study Drawings

1. Describe your overall thoughts on the final piece?
I thought my final piece was good, could have been better, the shading could have been more blended and the shadows a little more realistic looking overall though the piece was well done.

2. if this was a group project, what was your contribution?

3. How successful do you feel this piece is and why?
I feel this piece is semi-successful because there are a few things that I want to clean up or I can do better on but it was still a good piece of art for me.

4. What worked about this project? What didn’t work?
The shading and blending worked well what didn't work too well was the placement and size of the shapes that were somewhat difficult to work with.

5. If you were to do this project over again, what changes would you consider making?
I would consider making changes in the placement and possibly the color scheme of the piece the way I positioned everything made it a little hard to work with.

6. What was the most difficult part about completing this piece and why?
The shadows and how to show where the light was coming from to where the shadows would go because the placement made the creation of shadows a little strange and hard to work with.

7. What did you learn from this piece?
To think about different placements before I commit to it and think about how it will affect the piece or how hard it will be to complete.