closeup and clay

For the closeup project I drew pomegranate seeds in a prisma color pencil medium. This was my 2nd experience with this medium, and I developed my layering and burnishing skills. I also learnt how to make highlights prominent, and how they can give the seed a 3-D shape. I also realized that the more layers you put, the more realistic it seems and burnishing becomes easier. I liked working with this medium, but each seed required a lot of work, because you could do so much per seed with these pencils.






For the clay project I made a Panini kind of sandwich. I tried to keep it simple so that i could focus on the details of each item, like that of the avocado and tomato. While I was painting the clay, I got a chance to reflect on my work. I realized that I should not have attached the clay vegetables onto the clay bread because it was difficult and almost impossible to paint all of one vegetable without getting that color paint onto the vegetable attached beneath it. It would've been smarter to paint them separately and then glue them.



When I started thinking about the closeup project, I was sure I wanted to do the pomegranate seeds, because its something that I like alot. Instead of finding pictures of the seeds on Google or Pinterest, I took pictures of the seeds, while I was deseeding them. My unique pictures enabled me to get a unique and personal closeup of the seeds. Instead of the seeds I also thought to include the pith, so that its bland color could contrast with the vibrant color of the seeds. All of theses unique ideas made my art original.

candyy!!! >0<

the peppermint- done with chalk

In this project I used three different mediums to recreate different kinds of candies. I used oil pastels for the jolly rancher. In the past I had used oil pastels, but I only used them as vibrant colors on their own; I had never really blended them. I further explored this medium, and learned that to make oil pastels colors seem even brighter. I used this to make the yellow wrapper design brighter on the jolly rancher brighter where there were highlights. I also used prisma color pencils for the first time. I explored its ease with blending, and how white can easily highlight the areas where the light hits the dum dum wrapper.I also used chalk for the peppermint, and I found it hard and challenging to use. It wouldn't easily blend, and if you layered it too much or too hard, you could start to see the black paper appear.

In these projects, I also took risks. The first one was when I drawing the dum dum, I looked closely and noticed that the stick wasn't exactly touching the surface: It was kind of suspended in the air. I wondered if I should make it look like it was touching the surface like everybody else's seemed like. However I decided that I should be as accurate possible and even include its shadow. This risk payed off because my art looked more realistic. Another risk was changing the color of my peppermint to blue instead of white. I thought this would make my art original, but it backfired because I couldn't execute it properly.

the jolly rancher- done with oil pastels

In these projects we mostly had to draw the candy exactly like we saw it, so there wasn't much space to make the art very original. I still tried to make it original though. In the jolly rancher drawing, I changed the candy name to "jolly dancer" and the slogan to " hard and dancy" . If you looked closely at my artwork you'd realize it then, so I suppose it was kind of a benefit, since it made. The audience would have to look closely and notice the details to truly appreciate the puns and the work as a awhole.

painting in kandinsky style

Kandinsky's Landscape

in this project I painted a landscape in the style of wassily kandinsky.since kandinsky painted his first few landscapes in an impressionist-abstract style, I experimented with the way i normally painted to imitate his style to get an abstract shape for the foremost tee I closed my eyes and randomly drew. For the trees in the back I painted in the tree stumps in random shapes and directions and let the surrounding area become the top of the tree. For the path , i put random colors over gray and didn't worry too much about blending them. Experimenting and not being too controlling with how my art was forming enabled my painting to resemble Kandinsky's style.


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My art in Kandinsky's style

In this project I also learnt alot about Kandinsky, his art style and paintings. I learnt how important his art style was and how it gave lead to the (abstract) expresssionism movement. How he started off by painting in an impressionist style and then it evolving into abstract. How the artist used deep brush strokes and a balance of warm and cool colors like yellow and blue. ( I painted the mountains blue and used yellow for highlights and even the grass). Having an awareness about kandindky's art making process helped me imitate it in my painting.

Deep Brushstroke Technique

Painting in kandinsky's style taught me new techniques. I learnt how deep brush strokes gives a different raw kind of look to your painting. By using blue and yellow often, I learnt how you can maintain a balance of warm and cool colors. Also using thick layers of paint gives the object you are painting an interesting texture. All these techniques helped me become more skilled with acrylic paints.

European city in perspective

 My artwork was inspired by Pinterest pictures of  European cities. When i started this project i wanted my city to be representative of the beauty of the the European world. I looked at pictures of German streets, the seine river in France and Scotland and then incorporated the style of their architecture into my art. Even details like windows were based upon medieval buildings.

As part of this project i learned how to utilize the concept of perspective in my drawing. When i had done perspective in an art 1 project i had played it safe by just sticking to 2 point perspective . In this project however i wanted to use perspective to make it seem like the city was going off into perspective. I learned that isn't enough to just have a vanishing point at the right corner of your paper; the buildings have to be smaller as they move back. Shading was also vital because you had to have cast shadows of one building fall onto another building where they overlapped.

details on the window

During this project i would step back and reflect on my work but collaborating with my peers for feedback helped me even. More. My friends were able to show me stuff i hadn't thought or wasn't paying attention to. Emma advised me to put a vanishing point off the paper so the drawing would be correct but not exaggerated. I also got told that i should have the front buildings larger than the rest. There was also this guy in my 4th period who tried to convince me that the design on one of the buildings was awkward, so i changed it to something simpler (thanks Lawson!)Without the critical feedback my artwork would not have been have been correct in perspective.

Art 1 Final Portfolio

second attempt -letter U

first attempt -letter U

QA) This semester I've grown as an artist and these pictures show it. The first one is my first attempt of the Letter U. I thought I'd done a pretty good job on the first attempt and that my shading made the drawing seem realistic.I decided to redo this drawing because I wanted to get more details in my drawing and different values in my shading.In my second drawing, the fingers look  more realistic and for the first time this semester, I actually tried to get the details of the palm.I also included different values like the highlights on the thumb and top two fingers.I also tried to include a bounce light on the knuckle of  the 4th finger.Over the semester I've learnt how important it is to include all the detail you can, and to pay more attention to following the detail not what you think the detail should be like.Also if you want to include a specific perspective  its important to include highlights and darker shades in the right way.I think I payed more attention to all this in the second drawing than in the first.

My JFK portrait

The JFK picture I used

Q4from part B)
If I were to redo any project I did this semester it would be my sculpture project, which was the cardboard relief portrait of JFK. The idea for this project came from a Pinterest picture of a cardboard relief of someone's face. I wanted to do a similar portrait of  a famous person and I liked the challenge associated with having to make my relief portrait recognizable to my audience.When I started by simply projecting a picture I'd chosen of JFK and drawing it, that turned out well and you could kind of recognize him. I think when I actually started carving the cardboard I realized a couple of mistakes I'd made. Firstly, I hadn't planned what parts I was going to carve out, so I mis-carved somethings. For example, in the picture I chose JFK is resting his head on his hands which are both crossed together. I should've carved the outline of his hands and fingers and made one hand darker than the other but I carved in between the fingers and it looked pretty awkward. To cover up this mistake I decided to paint over it, but it didn't work. Another mistake was with the overall proportion and positioning. His head was wide and beneath his ear there should've been a neck. I also should've used a color picture of him if I was going to make a portrait of him in color; the picture I'd chosen of him had was black and white with a lot value which I should've maintained. If I could do this again I'd chose a black and white picture of him that clearly shows his face, I would plan my carving out before I did it, I would carve more than I've done in this picture, the only paint I would use would be to add value, highlights and maybe even dark brown for his hair.



Q6 from part B)

This semester taking risks allowed me to improve as an artist.In one of my first projects we were supposed to draw an object, and I chose to draw an apple. I challenged myself by drawing it from a different perspective and every now and then I had to step back and analyze my work to see if it was still recognizable. Another risk was including a yellowish gleam that blended in with the local color. I wasn't sure if it would blend in that well and look natural but I decided to try out it out.By taking these risk I saw how it payed off to take them in the first place and how they made my art more realistic.In the style project I also challenged myself by making an optical illusion of my own. Dali makes it seem easy, but it took a lot of thinking and planning to get it right. I'm glad to have tried it out because I saw how forced perspective makes a difference in your artwork. In my second sculpture, I also challenged myself. The word I was carving was long in width and height, I didn't see how it could stand up on the thin base. I finally decided to make the base wide and it worked out because the sculpture could stand in the end.Taking risks and challenging myself helped me be more creative with my art, incorporate forced perspective, try out making something new and different like an optical illusion, and it encouraged me to find a solution when problems arose.

Q7 from section B)

This semester the medium I enjoyed working with the most was oil pastels. Although they can make your hands pretty dirty I enjoyed working with it because of the many techniques it allows. For example in the Space-theme project I used oil pastels.For the planet on which the aliens are standing, I used the scumbling technique, and by applying it many layers, it gave the planet a unique texture and let it seem more realistic. For the Saturn planet I used techniques like burnishing and added highlights to make it seem like the light from the spaceship was falling upon it.
For the 2 in 1 project I also used oil pastels which stood out and contrasted well with the black and white text background. I liked how oil pastels burnish when you apply it in layers to create a vibrant color and unique texture. Using this technique I colored the flamingoes with peach red yellow and white oil pastels.it burnished well and the flamingoes had a natural color.Overall I like how vibrant oil pastels can be on paper because it helps produce a contrast in your artwork. I like how if you make a mistake, you can simply add more layers of oil pastel to cover it up.I also enjoyed exploring highlights,core shadows and cast shadows in one of our warmups with oil  pastels.


Q8from part B)
With my artwork I got to chose what direction I wanted to take and what materials I was going to use and overall this helped me enhance my art skills. The biggest example was the identity project because you could do whatever you wanted with your artwork. Without an exact direction I spent a couple of days trying out new ideas but I didn't like any of them. Finally I started doodling on my coffee cup and liking the result I decided I would turn this into my identity project. Thus not having exact directions on what to do and how to do it helped me find a more creative and unique approach and take risks.I worked on a unfamiliar medium like the coffee cup and used dried paint flakes to make the balloons. Similarly in the style project, choices were pretty open; you could chose whatever artist you wanted and imitate his style however you wanted. This was efficient for me because I could explore art history and chose an artist based on artwork that I liked. I would have been less enthusiastic about imitating someone's style if the artist had been assigned to me. It also encouraged me to take a risk  and try to make an optical illusion similar to that of Salvador Dali. I liked having open choices with my artwork because it encouraged me to take risks and explore unique ideas and mediums.

  

art 1 fleet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THanks for the cookies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

Sculpture and change(Blogpost#5)

My clay sculpture (the word Allah/god in Arabic)

Through my sculpture project with clay I explored the artist behavior "Artist Develop Art making Skills". I know most people have used clay before, like in middle school, but since I never really got that opportunity, working with clay was a new experience for me which I learned alot from.The first thing I learned was that you need to air out your clay before using it and that  you need ventilation holes on your sculpture.Luckily I was able to make my holes at the bottom of the sculpture where it was't very visible.The other technique I applied was similar to cross hatching on the edges of the three pieces of clay which I wanted to join together then squeezing over them so they kind merge and become one piece. My clay sculpture is a one piece sculpture but when I was making it I had to make it in 3 different parts then join them together (with the help of that technique) so it looks like one.

An old clay sculpture
made for a goddess

The second art behavior I used through my artwork was "Artist Communicate Through their work".When I was thinking of ideas for my clay sculpture, I was amazed by how oldern civilizations had used clay to make statues for their gods.I thought that was a cool idea and that I wanted to communicate my beliefs through clay in a a similar way, so I decided that my sculpture would be the Arabic word for "Allah", the god I believe in. This idea allowed me to express my personal beliefs and my artwork reflects upon what I value.

My sculpture- broken in half!

The third artistic behavior was "Artists Slove Problems". When I was planning out my sculpture I decided that I wanted my sculpture to be able to stand up straight in the end. My idea was that once I made the word I would attach a base ( kinda like the ones that are on the bottom of trophies) to the bottom of the word. However when I finished making the word I saw that I wouldn't  have enough clay for that and decided  against it. Instead it just made the bottom side of the word flat and reckoned that it would stand. Looking back on this now, I do wish I'd made the base because the sculpture doesn't really stand. Another mistake I made was putting it in my bag to bring it home, thinking that because it wasn't round or anything, it wouldn't break.Wrong again!It did break but I fixed it up with some rubber cement glue. Although my mistakes may seem trivial, I've realized that as an artist you need to be careful with how practical you make your artwork (whether it can stand or not)and you should be careful with handling it too.

Style and Color Projects (Blogpost#4)

Color Project : Happiness Spreads

Through my artwork I used the "Artists Communicate Through Art Emotion" behavior. I expressed the emotion  of happiness in two ways. First I used bright colors for the balloons to represent happiness whereas as I used a dull color like brown for the objects into which happiness was spreading.The other thing was the idea I used. In my idea the colorful balloons symbolized happiness and whatever object they were touching, happiness spread into it.That's why the clouds look half colorful.By carefully choosing my colors and having a good idea, I was able to convey happiness.This artwork is about me because I believe anybody can spread happiness and it can be spread into anyone.

Style Project : Elephant or  Skull

The second behavior I used was "Artist Have a Global Awareness of Art making". For the style project I had to research into art history about Salvador Dali.I found out that he played a very significant part in art history because he was part of the Dada,Cubism and Surrealism movement. His approach on surrealism was very unique and it got him accepted into the Surrealist Group.I also used the internet to find out about his optical illusions which inspired me to create one of my own.I also used the internet to take out pictures of  Dali's work, which I used to show the class during my presentation on Dali.

Dali's Illusion which inspired mine.

The third behavior I used was "Artists Take Risks". Through my color project I used acrylic paint which I was unfamiliar with.In the beginning I couldn't decide between water and acrylic paint, but I decided to  try working with the one which was new to me and thus ended up using acrylic.By taking this risk I assumed that the color wouldn't spread easily (like into the cloud),but it turned out the other way.I am glad I took the risk of using acrylic because it made my painting look vibrant and unique.The other risk I took was in the Style Project. Dali's painting were hard but his optical illusions were even harder.I didn't think of this at the beginning because the way Dali painted them, made them look really easy and I wanted to make one of my own.It was a big risk because if you messed up on the colors you used or the way you drew pictures the painting would not become a successful illusion.However,I wanted to try to reach another arting level close to that of Dali and after a lot of planning, I was able to complete the optical illusion and it was worth taking the risk .  

My Space Joke (Blogpost#3)

This is my artwork called "The Space Joke" (hope you get it!) and its theme is space.

My artwork!

In this project I gained more skill with oil pastels and learned some new techniques which made my artwork more appealing. One of these techniques is scumbling which is really easy to do and gives an interesting texture to objects. I used scumbling for the planet upon which the aliens are standing. The random scumbling pattern looked really nice after I had applied more layers because it seemed natural and the texture stood out even better.I also used the curved lines technique for the saturn-planet on the top right to make the planet seem naturally round. Burnishing and highlights on that planet also make it seem realistic- as if the light form the spaceship is falling on the planet.

Example of scumbling

Through my artwork I tried to convey humor through words and a unique perspective.Since you always hear comments and jokes about humans seeing UFOs, I wanted to take a twist on it. I wanted the viewer to think that with all the space ships humans have put out there, aliens might see us as the rare UFOs, and we should think more openly about such topics. By using a comic-like perspective and the words in speech bubbles I was able to convey the joke and message.

Pencil Details transform green blobs into fingers. 

In this project I made 2 unexpected mistakes and learnt how beneficial it is to problem solve. The first mistake occured when I had written "LOOK HON" in the speech bubble then realized that the who whole joke would not possibly fit in the predrawn speech bubble.I solved this problem by having the other alien face the first and giving her a speech bubble of her own. Besides being able to fit the whole joke now, the joke seemed more funny and realistic because it seemed like a conversation.The other problem was when I drew the alien's hands it looked like green blobs which weren't poiting to anything. By adding a dark outline with pencil for fingers I solved my problem and achieved the finger pointing effect that I wanted.

2 in 1: Flamingos and text (Blogpost #2)

Cut out magazine letters like those I used

I got the idea of drawing over text from a Pintrest picture of a giraffe over text. I combined this idea with my own unique ones by drawing flamingos instead, and incorporating them in a scene so it would seem more interesting. I also added cut out magazine letters which spell the word "flamingos" to give the picture life and character.

 

Example of burnishing

For this project I used oil pastels, and ended up gaining more proficiency then I had before.I learned that you can use the burnishing technique with oil pastels too.Not only does this make the colors look more vibrant but it also blends better if you apply it in layers.Using this technique I colored the flamingos pink with peach,yellow, red and white pastels.They blended well and and gave the flamingos a natural color.

My artwork (2 in 1 Flamaingos over Text)

Through this project I learned that it is important to take feedback so that you can gain a better understanding of your art and how it can be improved. After I had completed the coloring the flamingos, I asked my friend Jesse how it looked. I thought she was going to judge the flamingos only, but she pointed out something I hadn't noticed. She said that the proportion of the trees to that of the flamingos was a bit off, because the tree looked small in comparison to the big flamingos. Thanks to her advice I was able to improve my artwork and in the future I'll look for such things.