WRITE - Explain the art criticism process 1. Describe the artwork. List what you see in the artwork. What images do you see? How you would describe it over the phone. Which art elements? Describe the color schemes. 2. Analyze the artwork. List art elements and design principles. Color, value, line, shape/form, texture, space. Balance, Emphasis, Harmony, Variety, Movement/ Rhythm, Proportion. 3. Interpret the artwork. Mood, feeling that is communicated, represented ideas, story that is being told 4. Judge the artwork. What do you think of the artwork? Is it successful? Why or why not? Support your opinion with evidence or criteria. (Art skills, meaning, creative, realistic) CRITIQUE an older piece of your work USING THE PROCESS FROM #1 You are going to evaluate your piece using art vocabulary and in-depth discussion of your piece, what it means, what you learned, etc. 1. The artwork is made using watercolor and there is a bridge with a railing in the center of the painting and a variety trees, bushes and other plants in the background and the painting is in 1 point perspective. The trees are all of different types/species, with different leaf shapes and trunk structures and the trees all have many different shades and tints of green and some plants also have other colors besides just green, some have yellow some have browns and more and all the trees are grouped together to form a forest behind the bridge. The bridge is mostly made out of rectangular poles in the railing and planks and the bridge has some wooden planks that is losing its grayish color and now is fading into a orange color and some of the other wood is a little green due to mold and moss. The poles of the railing has a lot of shadows and lights among them. The painting has a cold colors and earthy and natural color theme, possessing a lots of colors that you would commonly find outside in nature, having many shades and tints of greens, brown, gray and yellow. 2. There is emphasis on the bridge in the center, and the fence connected to it at the end of the other side, since the bridge and fence consist of darker colors, which contrast to the brighter colors of the trees in the background and also since there is only one of them and it's their the only man made things in the painting. The art work is in 1 point perspective, with the one vanishing point at the tip of the highest, left pole belonging to the fence on the other side and the orthogonal lines kind of follow the direction of the railing on both sides of the bridge and the one horizon line goes through the point. There is a lot of value on the bridge, especially on all the poles on the railing; there are a lot of shadows and lights represented. The space in some of the trees and between the trees adds a sense of depth. The different shades and tints and varying colors in the bridge and the plants makes them look more 3D or possess more depth and realistic; on the trees it kind of shows the leaves density and leaves or patches of leaves covering and casting shadows over each other and on the bridge it shows which parts of the railings are covered and have shadows cast over them and the parts that are lighter and having light shined on them. The closer the trees are the darker in color they are and the clearer and more detailed they are and the further away they are, the lighter they are and more blurred and less detailed they are. There are many different varieties of trees and for some trees, the shape of the leaves and the amount of leaves on the tree allow you to see the trunk and branch structure underneath but some trees, with the shape of their leaves and dense amount of leaves, it's harder to see the trunk and branch structure underneath but you can make out a vague guess of the structure with the overall/outline shape of the leaves. The tree structures are varying but they usually have a thicker base or trunk and the bottom half of the trees have thicker and bigger branches and as you head more towards the top of the trees, the branch become thinner and smaller; all this though varies according to the type of plants shown, like for the tree to the far left bottom corner, it has multiple thin trunks that gradually become thinner and has thinner branches but for a different plant like a bush, the trunk might stay more consistent or become thinner faster as to head up the plant and the branches could be smaller and thinner, since a bush is much shorter and for the tree more in the back, it has one big trunk that has big branches that naturally become thinner as you go higher; so there are many structures plants can possess and plants can vary in many heights and no two trees or plants are the same. The trees have varying density in different areas of the trees, so in a tree you can sometimes see the branches where the leaves are thinner, the transparency of water color really helps with this, if you want more transparency to show branches through the leaves when adding leaves, add more water and if the color for the leaves are light, then darker colors for branches can be added over. The water color used gives the art work more of a fluid and kind of a abstract look and the combination of the fluid watercolor appearance and the the use of a fan brush, allowed the creation of very realistic shapes and textures of various types of trees, allowing the trees to actually look that they have leaves on them (textures and shapes vary according to structures and leaf shape of trees). The transparency of the water color allows and shows on a smooth fade of the wood going from grayish to more of an orange color. 3. The mood of the painting is refreshing, tranquil, lighthearted and bright. The theme of the painting was perspective. It gives off or expresses a relaxing feeling of enjoying a peaceful scenery of the nature and the architecture of the bridge, not something extravagant but something simple and elegant and also being filled with a sense of happiness of appreciating the beauty of the details of your surroundings and the outdoors. It gives off ideas that even the simplest things have a lot of details if you look close enough and that the outside world always has a lot of beauty and a variety things for your to look at, appreciate and enjoy, even if you are just by yourself. It conveys a story or experience of taking a walk or having a casual stroll or walking around and sightseeing in a park or garden; enjoying the bright clear weather and just enjoying the day in general and to just have the desire or urge to go outside and to look at the different things in the world outside and to enjoy nature and the different structures and all the colors and culture. To just go somewhere peaceful to get away from the hustle and bustle of society and people and to let yourself go and to just enjoy having time to yourself. 4. I think overall the artwork was successful. It displayed and showcased the theme of perspective well, with the piece possessing a clear 1 point perspective. This was my first time working with watercolor and overall the skills and techniques I used and executed in the painting turned out really well, like the layering, the wash and dry brush. I was able to overcome the kind of unforgiving part of watercolor, since if you make a mistake with the colors you can't really paint over it and cover it, especially if the mistake is made with a dark color. I was also able to overcome the characteristic of watercolor kind of being hard to control and seeping into and bleeding into places it's not supposed to and not staying in guidelines; to complete the scene and painting that I wanted. People looking at the painting can easily recognize what's being portrayed in the painting, a scene outside with a bridge and a forest filled with a variety of trees in the background or on the other side of the bridge. It's a really similar to the picture that I was referencing off of and using it to paint the painting( the picture that I took in a garden where the bridge and trees were). I was also able to really make the bridge, the structure and aspect that I wanted people to focus on, stand out with it's dark colors in contrast to the bright colors of the trees. For bridge I was able to apply a lot of the value and the depth of the actual bridge, especially in the poles where most of the value is, portraying the parts that were cast in shadows and the part that were lighter with light hitting and shining on them. I also portrayed the many values in the many trees, with all of the shadows/dark and lights. I was also able to get the correct/realistic textures and shapes for all of the different types of trees and other plants and the leaves weren't just different shades and tints of green but they all had other natural colors in them two like yellows and reds and browns, and they all varied in shapes, structures and leaf shape which made them more realistic. The painting has a nice abstract and realistic look to it and I was able to complete the difficult little details (like the poles and trying to make them kind similar and uniformed) with watercolor, and also the gradients, the smooth transitions from one color to another. I was also able to portray and capture the vibe and feeling of the aspects in my painting, like the variety of the trees and the elegance and many details of the bridge. The picture has a lot of meaning to me, kind of a vibe and meaning of beauty, tranquility, simplicity and kind of the feeling of just having time to myself and being able to get away from the usual noise and sights of society and I was able to capture and portray that in my painting/art work of the picture so that other can kind of see and feel the meaning I feel towards it and kind of in a way seeing through my eyes. 8. What was the warm up or sketchbook assignment that you learned the most from? The warm up I learned the most from was the pen cubes we did near the beginning of the semester for our drawing unit. The pen cubes warm up refreshed my memory on the steps on how to quickly draw a realistic and proper 3D, which at the time I had forgotten how and was wanting to remember how. The pen cubes also taught me how to correctly add value to a cube ; I learned about the lighting of the cube and the different shades for different sides of the cube. The front side of the cube is the lightest, the right side is the darkest and the top side is medium or a shade that is in between the lightest and the darkest sides. The pen cubes introduced me to a medium I've never really used a lot of, pen. Pen was something I've never used to draw a full piece before, since I thought you couldn't really or just didn't know how to add detail, textures, shading and value with a pen, since you can't really make pen light or dark, it stays a consistent shade and really have only used it for things like outlining. But the warm up introduced me to four new techniques, (cross hatching, stippling, random line and hatching) that could allow me to add all of those things, especially shading and value, it showed that with pen, which I thought I could only do simple things with, could also be used to make pretty detailed and intricate things, and i learned how to do that through the techniques introduced. The main take away I got from the warm up was how to make, using pen and the techniques, different parts lighter or darker, for example, for stippling, you add more dots to make a part darker and for hatching, you add more lines to make a part darker. The warm up deepen my understanding of how to apply value to a piece of artwork, and also concepts of light and dark. I learned more about the relationship and connection between the light source and shadows, like where some parts should be darker or lighter or a bit more medium depending on where the light source is and the difference of darks and light depending on if the light source is angled or direct; for example how the, due to the position of the light source, the right side of the cube is the darkest compared to other sides since the position of the lightsource cause a shadow to be casted over that side and for no light to reach that side. 16. Do over: If given the opportunity, which project would you do over? Describe why and how you would redo this project. Reasons might include choosing a different theme, using a different medium or creating a different idea completely. Include photo. I would like to do over this project because my painting, using acrylic, looks a little bit incomplete for me, it needs more detail and the picture or reference I chose to paint I feel like was too complicated for me to do for my first time using acrylic painting. The cherry blossom trees are a weird shape and the shade and tints of pink that I used don't really look well together or go together to look like cherry blossoms and don't form the form and shape of the multiple/group or rows of cherry blossom trees in front of a mountain I wanted or envisioned. The cherry blossoms I painted on the trees only look like they are tightly clumped together and sticking onto the branches and there are so many revealing branches and the cherry blossom trees don't have that kind of "full" and natural look that they should have, they look stick-like and oddly shaped and some look just like random floating branches or trees with branches that don't belong to them. The trees have flowers in odd places, like some of flowers are too low, and there are a lot of weird holes in the flowers and the flowers don't really have the correct texture, it looks to splotchy, clumpy and some parts look weirdly smeared and not realistic at all. I also didn't achieve the perspective I wanted with the cherry blossoms, the darker colored cherry blossoms were ones that were supposed to be closer and the ones that were lighter were supposed to be more down the river or further away and closer to the mountain, but it just looks like all of them are in just in one row close to the viewer. There is not enough shading in the trees, especially, in the mountain, to give it the proper realistic appearance and a rough and rocky texture and on top of that it's a bit weirdly shaped. Also the reflection of the cherry blossoms in the river does not look realistic, it just looks like a river with rushing blue and pink water. So how I would probably fix my painting would be first to choose another landscape reference picture, probably a more simpler one, to represent my "idea of place" (the theme), to represent Japan, since I am still keeping the theme. Though I would like to keep the cherry blossoms, river and the mountain in the background. This time though, I will be putting some or all of the trunk in the picture, since the branches I painted to kind of look like they are reaching in the photo or are too long for the trunk to be in the picture, look like floating sticks. I will also might use a thinner brush and more technique to give the branches and trunks of the trees a more realistic and natural look and structure and will be looking at references of trees closely. Also, I'll be adding more texture to the wood that is revealed through the flowers and also to make the branches less seen and noticeable through the flowers, only some of the branches can be seen ( less of the branches can be seen compared to the original). I will also use a fan brush this time to create the right texture and achieve the "full" shape and natural look of cherry blossom trees and will also study and look at the reference picture more often so that I don't place flowers in odd places and places where they aren't supposed to be. For the reflection of the water, I will only be adding pink or kind of a rushed and blurred reflection in places where there is actually a tree present above the water, and the reflection will look similar to a shape of a tree; of course the reflection in the water will be blurred and sort of pulled in the direction the river is flowing in. For the colors of the cherry blossoms, I will used more darker colors for the ones that appear closer and won't use the same tint of pink color for both the trees and that are closer and for those that are further. I will use two shades of pink or one shade and a dark tint of pink for the ones that are closer, so that the colors for the trees that are closer don't harshly contrast and look unnatural with each other and for the trees that are further away and further down the river, I will use two different tints of pink, this will create more of a clear and realistic perspective. For the mountain I will make the shape a bit less wide and smooth and rounded and instead more peaked and taller. I will also use probably a different blue for the mountain, possibly a blue with that is lighter and a more variety of different tints and shades of blues to create the lights and darks, the realistic value, in the mountain and use both a tint of blue and light gray to create the shadows in the snow, then I can create the correcte rough and jagged texture and appearance of a mountain. For the grass, I will make the gradient of colors of green more smoother and add more shading in the grass and make the two side look more bumby and rough instead of smooth. 18. Medium: which medium did you most enjoy working with and why? Which medium did you not use but wish you had explored? Include photo.
The medium that I most enjoyed was pencil. A pencil is very versatile and flexible medium and you can create so many different thing with it. Pencils are very adaptable and useful for many different techniques; it's really easy the blend, smudge, shade with ( offering a wide range fo ow dark you can make the be, weather it be do to which type of pencil you use or how hard ou press), do clean line work with, do hatching with and its able to be used for so many more other techniques. Also, it nice that pencils can be used on most surfaces. It's also really easy and effective to use add value to an artwork using pencil, since it can be both light and dark, depending on which type of pencil you use and how hard you press and it has a wide range of of different pencils that vary n lightness and darkness. I like and enjoyed how there are kind of different "versions of pencils"available, since pencil has a variety of lead with different ranges of how dark and light and also a range of how dark and soft they can be, like 8B is really soft and dark and 2H is really light and hard. Also, since I make a lot of mistakes, I enjoy how pencil is a very forgiving medium and if you make any mistakes you can easily get rid of them by erasing them, no matter how big or small your mistake is, using an eraser and then I can just fix my mistake. Also with pencils, by being able to have a small, sharp tip or a flat tip on a pencil, you can easily create a variety of small and fine details and also a variety of different textures. Pastel was a medium I didn't use in any of my artwork but would've liked to explore. The different types of pastels are soft, PanPastel, hard, pencil, and oil, but the three major types are soft hard and oil, which are the ones I want to explore, and all of them are unique in their own way. Pastels are pigmented in color and produce brilliant and intense colors and the surface you use them on can have a dramatic effect on the outcome. You don't need much to used them, just your fingers and they are versatile and you can achieve many different effects and techniques with the. Pastels blend really well and since they don't mix very well, they usually come in a huge range of different colors. Soft and oil pastels are more suited for painterly effects and hard pastels are suited for drawing, sketching and precision. Soft pastels have a high concentration of color and produce very intense colors.Their fragile consistency and powdery texture makes them well suited to blending, layering on lots of color, and for painterly effects. You can also use the edges for fine lines. Hard pastels contain more binder and less pigment. They're more stable, hard pastels are especially suited to drawing techniques and working on location. Oil pastels won't crumble or smudge like soft pastels, but they still contain just as much, if not more, pigment and produce bright, intense colors. Oil pastels are more stable than soft pastels and don't require a fixative. This makes them great for using on location.They can be spread like oil paint on the support to create strong, buttery strokes. Using oil pastels can be as simple as applying pigment to a sheet of paper with your bare hands. But their versatility allows so much more. You can create impasto effects or thin them with turpentine to create glazes or washes.
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There are quite a few pros for my Last Project. The colors on both fish go well together very well, the dark colors and the vibrate colors contribute and bring out the best of each other. Also, the fade of colors or the gradient/transition of a color fading into another color and the layering and bleeding of colors all really fit together with the all of the elements of the piece and really fit the two koi fish I was painting. I incorporated a lot of techniques into the piece, I splattered the watercolor, bled colors together, layered colors, added texture with the watercolor and used both dry and wet paint in my painting. The fluidity and the flow of the appearance of water color, goes well and matches with the grace, elegance, lovely, fluid and the streamline vibe and appearance of a actual koi fish. The watercolor splatters especially contribute by adding the the feeling and appearance that the fish is actually underwater, since they don't really look like the are all going in just one general direction and they kind of just flow and follow the fish in a way and they all don't have to be in a specific place and are just a bit random, which adds to the effect that the fish are a underwater. Also the tail I created with sort of a splatter effect/technique doesn't look like a normal tail for a koi fish and it adds the flow, beauty, elegance and agileness to the koi fishes I painted. The angle and bend and the flowy and feathery look of the fins of both fish make it actually look like they are actually moving and swimming together with each other underwater and make it look like the fish kind of have a deep and friendly bond/relationship with each other. There are cons for my Last Project as well. The splatter near the tail I did for the koi fish to the left, got onto the face of the koi fish the the right and there a some green and blue dots on the face of the fish and while I was trying to wipe off the splatter that got on the fish I smeared a big splattered and now the fish on the right has a green streak on its face and the green streak does not go well or look good with the fish since I didn't really use cool colors for the fish on the right. The proportions and anatomy of the fish on the right doesn't look right either. The front fin under the fish is way to big, the dorsal fin on the back looks way to big as well, and the fin behind the front most fin doesn't look like it belongs there and look like it's too small and doesn't look like it is behind the front most fin either. The fins don't really look like they are attached correctly onto the fish to the right and the fish's face is a bit to round and overall the fish looks a bit too big/plump. The dorsal fin for the fish to the right doesn't look like it's attached on correctly and doesn't have the correct shape of an actual dorsal fin; it kind of doesn't go well and flow with the body. Also for both fish there are in some spot unintentional mixing of colors and there are still quite a bit of blank space in the top right corner and bottom left corner. I first started with the placement and the general outline of both koi fish with pencil. Then I started with the koi fish on the left and painted a section I wanted the tail to be on with water and then used green and blue/cyan watercolor and with a splatter technique and guiding the water and paint a bit, create the tail for the koi fish on the right. Then I worked on the face of the fish and blended/bled red and orange watercolor together and paint most of the face, mostly the front, a blend of red and orange. Then using just red paint create the kind of tornado shaped patch on the fish's back, washed my brush, then using dark blue paint, created the long patch of dark blue on the belly. Then using black paint created a sort of curved patch and bled/blended it into the red and orange patch on the face and added orange and red and black in places where I think they are needed to make the blend/bleed and add more to both sides until I'm satisfied. Then using black paint, I surrounded the the blue patch with a black patch. Then I worked on the two front fins first, starting with right one. I went in with the black paint and created the shape of the fin and using dark blue paint, created the tips or kind of the the "frills" at the end of the fin and kind of allow the blue and black to blend or bleed together a bit. Then for the fin on the left and I painted the shape of the fin with the "frills" with orange paint and let the orange paint dry, washed my brush, then used red to paint/layer a bit of the frills red over ther orange. Then went over some of the fin, layering over the orange paint, with very watered down black paint and guiding the water and paint the way that I want the black layer to look. Then using a more pigmented black paint, added it to the very tip of the fin. Then I did the two back fins next, starting with the left one. I painted the section I wanted the fin to be on with water and with blue/cyan paint and guiding the water and paint a bit, created the smaller fin with longer frills and a bit more of a feathery look, compared to the front fins. Then for the back fin on the right, also painted a section with water and went in with the same blue/cyan paint and created the more feathery fin and for this fin, I let the cyan paint dry, then layered it with some dark blue paint. Then for the dorsal fin or the fin on the back, I used orange paint to create the general shape I wanted. Then using a mustard yellow, red, normal yellow and more orange, kept layering on the colors, waiting for each layer to dry and adding on another color/layer and using those colors and layers, added more to the shape until I like how the fin looked and shaped. Then I used a dry brush and only slightly wet paint to paint and fill in the eyes, careful to leave a little white circle for reflection. Then I moved on to my left koi fish. First I painted a the section I wanted the tail to be on with water and using red paint and using the same splatter technique for the other tail and guiding the water and paint a bit, create the tail. Then once the tail dried, I layered on watered down black paint and guided the water and paint for a bit until I liked how it looked and it went well and flowed with the red. Then, using red paint, added a patch on the face, washed my brush, then painted a yellow patch that was more on top of the fish and blended/bled the two patches together and added paint and water to each side until I was satisfied and the transition between colors was smoth. Then I added a red patch on its back and also added a black patch right next to it and blended the two patches together and again added paint and watercolor until and the blend looked good and had a smooth transition between colors. Then I added a bigger orange patch and also a bigger black patch next the the orange patch and blended/bled the two patches together and also added paint and water until there was a smooth transition between the two colors and I was satisfied on how it looked. The I painted the front fins , starting with the front most one. Using yellow paint, I painted the fin and waited for it dry, washed my brush, and layed on "frills" using red paint. Then moved onto back most front fin and using orange paint painted the fin with the "frills and using red and yellow paint, bled the two colors into the orange paint, doing my best, by adding more of each color and trying to prevent them from mixing. Then, moving onto the back fin, using black paint, painted the back fin with, again, more of a feathery look. Then washed my brush and using very pigmented yellow paint, bled the yellow paint into the tip of the fin. Then I moved onto the dorsal fin and with black paint, painted the the dorsal fin and waited until it tried, and layered red paint on top of back paint. Then using a dry brush with slightly wet black paint, painted and fill in the eye, careful to leave a small white circle for reflection in the eyes. Lastly, using very water down blue and green water paint and using a splatter technique, tap the brush over the paper, over the section near the end of the tail of the fish to the left, with the paint on it and create the splattering and did the tapping a few times and then washed the brush and then switching to watered down red and black, used the same splattering technique for the other tail, tapped the brush with paint over the section of paper that is near the end of the tail belonging to the fish to the right and did this a few times and created the splattering for the fish to the right. There are quite a few pros for my group's art history project of Mona Lisa. We were able to finish a similar replication of the famous painting, the Mona Lisa. Our recreation of the Mona Lisa was easily recognizable as the Mona Lisa by a lot of people and many people enjoyed it at the art festival when they were able to stick their faces in the Mona Lisa cut out. My group and I were able to capture the major vibe, parts, elements, scenery/ background and most of the colors associated with the Mona Lisa, we've capture the the critical parts and traits of the real Mona Lisa in our painting recreation cut out. For the colors of the Mona Lisa, we incorporated the many hues of colors in the real painting into ours, an created a very similar background to the actual painting. We have the varying shades and hues of greens and a little bit of yellow and blue for the trees to the left of the Mona Lisa and the blue for the lake under the trees and the different hues, tints and shades of the blue and greenish-blue of the lake and the greenish/blue mountain landscape to the right of the Mona Lisa. We also had the varying shades and tints of black and brown and redish brown and peach for the mountain, hilly and desert like landscape with bridge and path way, to the right and left side of the Mona Lisa. Our recreation/cut out of the Mona Lisa also had the mysterious and kind of the regal and peaceful vibes that the real Mona Lisa possesses, the cut out of the face, her outfit and the calming and tranquil background/ scenery parts of the out painting really adds and crates that vibe. We also have all of the major traits, parts and elements of the actual Mona Lisa. In out recreation we have the reflection of the trees into the lake, the greenish sky, the women's (since the identity has not been confirmed) correct skin tone, relatively accurate anatomy and shading of the skin and wavy brown hair and black dress with folds on the sleeves and highlights on the dress, also all the lakes, mountain ranges, trees, path, etc. all of differing hues and colors, for a very cohesive and solid background. All of it came together, with both the background and the main attention grabber, the women, we made sure the the women was the main centerpiece and that the background doesn't draw attention away from the women, just like the actual Mona Lisa. There are some cons for my groups art history of Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa background and the women lack some details and texture and elements that make it look more realistic and 3D. For the background, it could've used more color, shading and highlights for more details and clearer indication of what the are, like that a mountain is a mountain and trees are trees and to not look so much like a mass of colors. The mountains, hilly and desert landscape near the bottom half of the painting, especially could've used more details and texture, more rocky and rough texture and more shadows and highlights to look more like a natural and rocky, jagged mountains and also to work more with the path way to look more realistic and 3D, maybe making the path way brighter and darken the mountains and add more shadows and add a gradually transition connection to the pathway, also the painting needs more of a detailed reddish landscape more towards the bottom. The same is for the right side, to add more shadows and highlights to the blueish mountains and add more of moss/ forest filled texture/ appearance and to add more detail to both lakes, to make it more "flowy". The right landscape also needs more elements, like to pathway, the cave and other rock forms, all of these need more shadows and highlights and textures and the bridge needs more detail so everything can look more realistic, and again the painting needs a reddish brown, detailed landscape at the bottom. The head, the face of the Mona Lisa that was cut out, was a bit too big and a slightly abnormal shape, like the chin is a bit to long and pointy and the slight curve of the eyes to to the cheek looks a bit to long and flat and the head has very jagged cuts and edges. The process of painting the Mona Lisa went relatively smoothly. First we researched about the Mona Lisa and typed up a small paragraph about characteristics and history. Then, my group split up the roles between us and it was decided that I would work on the left side of the background, Reagan would work on the right side of the background and Maria would work on the women. Then, we cut of a large sheet of canvas paper and prepped the canvas with a layer of diluted dark green acrylic paint and the let that dry overnight. Then, we started working on the background first, with me on the left side and Reagan on the right side and Maria working and helping a bit on the landscape and painting the women. I first started on the trees while looking at the Mona Lisa for reference, I blended various shades and tints of green and worked on creating the trees, using the green and little with of tints of yellow and blue, painted the trees. Then I blended different greens and blues and also white and black to create the blue for the lake under the trees and painted the lake, then added a reflection with a shade of green used for the trees and painting on and blending a layer of white on top of the green and I also add some other tints to the lake's water. While I'm doing this Reagan has painted the lake and the blueish mountains landscape with different tints, shades and hues of greenish blue and just blue. Also, Maria was painting the hair and making sure to keep a head shape to be cut out in the future, and she worked on the hands, adding shadows and highlights with many different shades and tints of skin tone and also the body, the neck and the outfit. Then I moved on to the brown mountain landscape with pathway. I blended a various shades and tints of browns while adding other colors to the mixture of colors, adding other colors the various tints and shades. I used those tints and shades and mixtures of brown to paint a mountain range and added black to add shadow and dept to the mountains and to make them look more jagged. I also painted the reddish brown landscape at the bottom, using mixtures of various colors to create the reddish brown and also using black and brown ot create the landscape at the bottom and Maria added the pathway. Reagan added the bridge and added the brown landscape at the bottom and Maria added the lines/hills of a lighter brown to create some hills in the landscape. Maria then finished the hair and added more the the outfit and adding various tints and shades of brown and also white to create highlights and folds on the dress belonging to women and adding shading to the women's neck and chest and hands. Then me and Reagan painted the sky green with a tint of green and we all worked together to cut out the face with an exacto knife and a pair of scissors. Then we all worked together to gather and cut up boxes and pieces of cardboard to create a support that would prop up our painting of the Mona Lisa. Through a process of cutting and fitting pieces and hot glueing the various pieces of cardboard onto the back, we created a support that would prop up our painting. Then my group printed out the original Mona Lisa. We all did our parts/roles, we worked hard and collaborated and worked hard together well to create our Mona Lisa project. I used 7 mediums or techniques. The techniques or mediums that I used were glitter, acrylic paint, pencil, rhinestone stickers, white pen, water color, dripping watercolor technique, and glitter and glue technique. The glitter is the medium I used to create the word joy in cursive on the top; it's tiny shiny and reflective, that comes in a variety of shapes and colors , and in this case gold and silver and it can be used in a variety of decorative and crafty ways but it's usually quite messy to use. I used acrylic paint to create the silhouette of cats in the back using black acrylic paint, I taped cutouts of two cats onto the board and painted the parts of the board that weren't covered by the cat cutouts with back acrylic paint and created the silhouette of the cats in the back, and I also used the acrylic black paint to paint over the cutouts of the women with the umbrella and the cat in the box to create their silhouettes. Acrylic paint is fast drying and can blend and mix well, allowing a variety of tints and shades to be produced and is good for painting a gradient, and good for covering mistakes since once it dries you can paint over it. Pencil is my medium that I used to make raindrop hearts, I used shading to create the raindrop and it's shadow; pencil is good for getting rid of mistakes easily since it can be erased easily with an eraser and it has a variety of different dark and lighter versions, it's very versatile in different techniques, like shading, line work and hatching and so much more. On top of pencil, I also used white pen to make the light reflection in the heart raindrops, white pens are good for adding finer and smaller, lighter details on darker surfaces. Rhinestone stickers are another medium that I used, they are used to make the colorful rain form the clouds; the rhinestones are very beautiful and can be used for in many ways for decorations, crafts and art. many different designs. Water color is another medium that I used for the clouds and the two smaller cats , one on the left and the right side, I used a variety of colors that would match each other and created them, and they turned out very beautiful and unique. It's very unique when mixing multiple colors since the colors are a bit more transparent, giving it more clarity and giving the paint a more unique and "flowy" appearance and it provides more fluidity, ti vibrate and you can do so many effects and techniques with it. Also, regarding water color, I used the watercolor dripping technique on the umbrella belonging to my women and umbrella silhouette; I pooled water color, in multiple colors, on the top of the umbrella and let it bleed a bit and allowed it to drip a little bit down my silhouette to represent colorful rain dripping down the umbrella, this technique is really pretty and can be used for and represent many things and can create a very abstract and fluid feel and appearance and add a lot of flow. Lastly, I used the glitter and glue technique, I used it create the word joy at the top of my piece, I wrote the word joy in cursive n glue first then sprinkled gold and silver glitter on to the glue to create word joy out of glitter, it very versatile and creative way to use glitter to use both glitter and glue, it can be used to created almost anything out of glitter,as long as you draw it correctly with glue first, and it provide a a pleasant and shiny appearance/detail. My word was joy. I portrayed joy as a combination of both how I felt like how others would describe it or "see" it as but also added a twist at which what I see it as, as well. Joy is something that everyone wants; its lasts for a long time, it's not fleeting, and it can be both hard and easy to obtain. Joy is born out sadness and lost of hope, that's what I'm symbolizing or showing with the cat in the box and the women. The cat is abandoned, whatever the cat had is now gone, all its hope and it's filled with sadness, its suffering and is even forced to experience the force of the elements, or the rain, it has no shelter. Then, as those feelings consumed the cat, the women show up, with her umbrella, and she shelter the cat from the rain and gives the cat hope and everything it lost, and of course she gave that cat joy, overwhelming joy. with all the cats, I'm kind of portraying that joy is for everyone, for every little thing, no matter how insignificant and who or what they are, it's you receiving again something that you thought was lost or was taken from you, or was given something you have never received before, it's some from those moments when you feel the most down in your life and makes it all better and I think that how most people see it as. I also added bright colors, cute cats and sparkles/glitter, because I also feel like that's what most people thing almost immediately when you say joy, these things kind of are embodiment of what people commonly see joy as and what they think it is and what it represents, something that will make everything better and prettier and just more bright and valuable. But, as mentioned, I also put my own twist; I put rain which isn't something people usually associate with the word joy, but for me rain brings me joy. Rain is something more personal that brings me joy, so I portray it as more colorful and happy and added the heart raindrop to show that, that I'm unique and everyone is unique. Joy is unique and different for everyone, sparkles and bright colors and cute animals is common, but even those things might not be what brings joy to other people and they other things bring them joy. Something that one person might see as something joyful that brings them joy could be something that someone else thinks that could never bring them joy, everyone is different and joy is represented by many different for many different people. The portrait is of my best friend Brielle. We have been friends since 6th grade, so we've been friends for about 4-5 years. We bonded over math homework in the YMCA and we are kind of the opposite of each other, but we are the embodiment of when people say opposites attract. She is the closest and longest friend I have, I trust her more than anyone else I know and she is a wonderful person with so many talents and interests and she is so sociable. We hangout a lot and a lot of my many fun and happy moments and memories were with her. For my portrait I used the medium, pencil. I chose pencil because it's easier to erase of get rid of any mistakes you make when you draw with pencil. It's also easier to add value since it can be both really light and really dark, depending how hard you press and also there is a wide range of different pencils that vary in lightness and darkness, like 2H is really light and 8B is really dark. It's also easier to shade and blend out pencil as fell and to get those fine, small details you want in a portrait. First, I I started with the outline of the head or the face and then drew another outline of the general shape of her hair. Then I drew another outline of the general shape of her neck and her chest and a flower for the design of her outfit and then the outline of the shoulder. Then I went in and drew the outline/shape of the front most eye and drew the pupil, added the little light reflections in the eyes and colored in the whole pupil except the light reflections. Then I added the cat eye or eyeliner on her eye, then drew the eyelid and the eyebags and then I drew the nose. Next, after the nose, I drew the other eye, with its light reflections and colored it in and it's eyelid. Then, I drew the eyebrow for both of them. Then I drew the mouth and the teeth, and added little lines on the lips for texture and detail. Then I added shading to the face and it's features, I added in the contour line or the line of the cheekbone, shaded the forehead and the jaw line and the chin and added in the and shaded the smile lines and the area between the nose and the top lip. I added shading over and under the eye on the eyelids and the eye bags and the left side the face and the area under the left eye and shaded a little bit of the edges of both eyes and shaded the lips. Then I worked on the hair in sections, I first started on the left side with the huge curl of hair, the two little pieces/ sections of curls on the left side of the face and then added a bunch of swirls and curls for hair on the left side of the face. Then I did the top of the head, doing the hair style she head in the reference picture, I added the hair line and then did the the sections of curls on the right side of the face that goes down her right shoulder, making sure to make it look curly and adding highlights or reflection of light on the hair in the correct places. Then I did the the sections of curls the go down the back and then added a bunch of stray hairs to make the hair look more realistic and natural. Then I went in with dark and light pencils and blending tools and did the shading on the neck and the shoulder and the outfit/chest and did a little bit of blending on the hair area. Then I just fixed up the shading on the face and it's feature, like the nose and anything else and other details I felt needed more detail or needed a little fixing and a little less or more shading. What I find successful is the hair and the eyes, I really like the hair and how it looks so realistic and curly and looks like just like my friend's hair, it's very similar. I like the huge curl on the left side the most, I find it the most realistic and appealing and I the the hair on the right side flows so well and also looks very curly and realistic and the highlights on the hair looks very accurate and considering I went in not really knowing how to do hair, I very proud. The eyes I also thought were successful, I really like the light reflections and the slight lighter parts in the pupils and the eyes look really realistic and the shading is really realistic and pretty. I would fix the dark and black mass under the left side of the face that was supposed to be the hair, it doesn't look like it's a part of the hair and doesn't fit well or fade well into the bunch of curls and swirls I also added on the left side of the face. I also would lighten the shading on the shoulder, cause it doesn't really match the skin on the face, it's a little darker and also I would make the outfit a lighter or darker because It looks too similar to darker and more shaded areas on the face and the shoulder. The warm up that is most helpful to me so far is the hair warm up. I've always wanted to learn how to draw hair and all of my past attempts didn't turn out so well and I was nervous going into the portrait worrying over how I was going to the hair, I didn't know how to incorporate the highlights to make the hair realistic and look curly. The warm up/tutorial explained to me how to draw hair really well and it showed where and how to add the highlights, the darker parts and shadows of the curl of the hair, with the darkest part at the ends/sides of the curl and the shadow is on the part of the curl that is in the "back" of the curl and as you go towards the middle of the curl you get lighter to add highlights. It also showed me how to make it actually look like the hair is curly and most importantly to actually look like hair. It also showed me how to end the curl of hair, which I've always been concerned about and also it showed me how to make it look like the lock/piece of curly hair is not just one clump of hair, but made out of lots of strands of individual hairs by showing a certain type of stroke with a pencil to use when drawing hair and showing how to add values, with some strands being light and others being dark, it made the curl of hair look like it was made out of many strands and that it wasn't just one solid curl/piece of hair. It also showed me how to add stray strands of hair and not make the curl and make it not look too messy or weird but natural. The person I'm drawing has dark curly hair and it's a very prominent, beautiful and ideal trait of her appearance so it is very important that I get it correct and that it to look realistic like her hair for her portrait. Also, for a portrait when drawing a person, for me how the hair is drawn is very important and it has to be very similar to the hair o the person you are drawing, I feel like if you don't get the hair right, the portrait doesn't come out looking like the person you are drawing and making a portrait of. What I found the most surprising about the facial proportions was that five eyes could fit across your face, more specifically half way down your face where they are supposed to be. the reason I found it surprising is because I didn't think human eyes were that small, I thought they would be bigger and wider than that; I thought at least 4 eyes could fit across. I also think I found it surprising because I've never really thought about it and when I was finally told the proportions and was hit with reality I found it really surprising. I also think I was surprising because I didn't think there was a common measurement or proportion for eyes, I just thought that everyone has different sized eyes and proportions for their eyes; I didn't think that most people would commonly have five eyes fit across their face, I just thought that there was some people who had 4 that could fit across ther'r face or 6 across their face, I didn't think there was a majority of a certain number of eyes being able to fit across the face. For my finishing process, I had finish sculpting my gift box and had just finished the last step of smoothing out any stray marks I might have accidentally left and got my clay gift box fired in the kiln. After it was fired, I went and chose 3 different colors of glaze to glaze my box with, i eventually settled on making the outside of my box and its lid green, the ribbons on my box pink and the inside of my box would be yellow. I first used the green glaze and painted the glaze onto the outside of the box and lid, excluding the bottom of the box, the bottom of the edges of the lid and the ribbons, since the box and the lid will be fired separately and both need a place without glaze on them, so that they can be placed the kiln and won't stick to the kiln due to the glaze and also I'm glazing my ribbons a different color. Then, after glazing what I wanted green, I moved on to glazing the ribbons with pink glaze, making sure that I got every crevice, using various sized glazeware, especially in the areas around the bow on top, I was particularly careful around there and made sure to paint the the parts of the ribbon under the loops of the bow and inside the loops of the bow and I made sure to completely cover the edges/sides of the ribbons with glaze. The next step was me glazing the inside of the box and the inside of the lid with yellow glaze. Then I got it fired in the kiln again. Once my piece came out with the glaze, now very shiny and smooth from the glaze, I decided to paint some spring themed designs on my box with acrylic paint of various colors, on one side I did a bit of a swirl plant design with green paint and added a pink butterfly, on another side I painted a branch with the silhouette of a bird on it and the last side I painted on, I did a flower with that was yellow, orange and white. Then I painted the lid, on one side of the lid I painted a vine like design with blue flowers and on the top of the lid I did a small swirl design with gold paint and added red flowers to finish it off and then my piece was complete. There were quite a few things I found successful about my piece. The first is that the colors match and go with each other really well, and express the spring theme that I was going for in my piece; at first I was nervous, since the colors of the glazes that was just glazed/painted on my piece didn't really look nice together, but I was really happy with the results after the glaze was fired, the colors really matched and the glaze made my piece really shiny and smooth which I really liked. Something else that I thought was successful was the my piece is really proportionate, straight and realistic. At first with my idea of the lid, I thought it would look to big compared to the box itself, but it actually came out really proportionate, the lid was the right size for the box. The ribbons, especially the bow I did, made the piece very realistic like an actual present and the bow I shaped with dents in the side of loops and the the way i did the center of the bow, especially makes the piece realistic and the way I sculpted the lid and the ribbons I added on the sides also contribute to how realistic and similar it is to an actual gift box. Also, how straight I places the slabs without bents and making like an actual "square" from the top view of the box, without the lid and the lid itself looks very "square" form the tops and the straight sides look like how the straight sides of a gift box and it's lid should look. Also, the spring themed designs I painted on the the sides and the lid, they turned out to go really well with each other and contribute well to the spring theme and they look like what they are actually suppose to be, I particularly think the pink butterfly design was the most successful. If I had the option to do my piece again there are some things I would change. First, I would make the lid bigger and wider because when I first made the lid, I didn't consider the the ribbons I would put onto the sides when creating the lid, so the lid didn't fit over the added ribbons so I had to make indents into the inside of my lid so that the lid would fit. Another thing I would change is that I might've added a second layer of glaze or to be careful to paint the glaze more evenly on because I didn't like how the glaze wasn't consistent and there are uneven spots, some lighter and light to the point that it's practically white and some spots darker and the glaze is just uneven and splotchy all of the outside of the box and lid and the ribbon. Something else I would change is to be careful to not mix the glaze again on some parts where the pink glaze on the ribbons and bow meets the green glaze on the box and lid. When painting the edges on the ribbons I accidentally got some pink glaze on the green box where it suppose to be green and some green on the ribbons where it is suppose to be pink, and once it was fired, when the ribbons were suppose to be all pink, there were some small spots of green and on the box where the whole thing should be green, there were some small spots of pink, so next time I would be a bit more careful in those areas along the edges of the ribbons when applying glaze. My piece really integrates, portrays and shows off the theme of "line very well. Lines are a really essential part in my piece, it makes the piece what it is and holds the whole piece together, all of the lines are slightly different, like in thickness and in direction and that adds character. Smaller and thinner lines lines make up the finer details in my piece, which really adds texture and depth into my painting and it really adds character into my cat and fox, like the fur on my fox and the eyes of the animals, both conveying very clear and different emotions. Lines really separate and define every individual main and bigger parts of my piece, like the my cat's legs and my branch. The lines my background of my piece of the background adds balance and detail, making my background more realistic and not so empty and plain The lines convey a sense and feeling of movement and energy in my piece, especially in my animals. The lines gives every part of my piece emotion, its own unique vibe, like the emotion of happiness in my cat and the solem, slightly angry and a bit curious face in my fox and the strength and elegance of my branch and its twigs. The lines are what draw people, most of the focus is on the lines and it creates the emotion, message and atmosphere of my piece. I think my piece was pretty successful, overall it really conveys that theme and has a lot of the details that I wanted in the piece. It has all the main parts, with the branch, the cat and the fox, the whole scene that I wanted to put into my piece. The thing I found the most successful was how the branch turned out with it's twigs, the twigs are very small, and the outline gives an effective nice rough, bumpy, flawed and dented texture on the branch and it bark and the shape of them also adds to how realistic they are and the shape of my cat turned out really whell to, out can tell its a cat and the tail hanging off the branch and the whiskers and nose turned out much better than I thought and they look really nice and I really like its expression of happiness. The background I also added also adds a bit more scenery and balance, it makes it looks like there are other trees or even rain in the background. Overall, really like how the piece turned out. There are some things I would like to change, my fox looks a bit like a dog and I would like to make it look more like a fox, by possibly making the snout longer or adding the whiskers I was going to put it and I also would like to add more detail to the eye, making it keener and sharper, also the line that was suppose to indicate and give shape to the top of its leg didn't come out very well and looks just like a line of fur so I would like to change it so that it looks more like the top of the fox's leg. The ink is also smudged for a few of my prints so I would like to use less ink or maybe be careful about the ink or carve deeper lines and I would also like my print to not be so crooked. The last thing i would like to change is maybe to add a little more detail to the branch, maybe curved lines for more texture on the bark or lines for value.
My plan with this piece is the make it into a present or gift box, made out of clay. I want the lid to be just like a gift box lid would be like; I want the lid to "lock" and look like how a gift box's lid would a with the extra pieces on the the four sides that are attached to a square piece that is a little bigger than one side of the box, length and width wise, and the extra piece hang over the side of the box and allowing a snug fit and for the lid to "lock". I also want to add a knot/bow on top with four strands of ribbons made out of clay, going up and down vertically in the center, each on one of four sides of the box, the strands of ribbon on the side of the box and lid will be disconnected so you can actually lift the lid off, and all four clay strands of ribbon will meet or connect to a clay knot/bow in the center of the lid on top. To finish I plan to glaze the stands of ribbon and the know white or black and the actual box will be either blue or beige and after the glaze is fired, I plan to paint on some intricate designs of plants and patterns on the box. Something that I found that was difficult about clay is that it dries quite quickly and if it's just even a little dry, barely leather hard, it very hard to work with and it's hard to get it wet and to the right consistency that you are able to mold and use it properly again. If it's barely leather hard and you try mold it and work with it, it cracks and is't very moldable and if you try to wetting it with water, all it does is that the clay just becomes a muddy mess and if you try to roll out a ball of this barely leather hard clay, you end up with a long rolled out piece of clay with a bunch of cracks in it. Also, thin pieces of clay, like my ribbons o small pieces you want to add and didn't have the time to attach and have to leave overnight or over the weekend, are hard to keep moist and usually for me just dry out or are so dry to the point that they crumble and are no longer moldable. Also with clay, it's hard the repeatedly make similar things and stay consistent, like my ribbons, to keep them the same length and thickness and you had to constantly make adjustments. Another difficulty is that if a large chunk fell off or a barely or just leather hard small piece of detail fell off, it hard to reattach. Lastly, for me, it was also difficult because you were unintentionally making stray marks with your fingerprint, finger nail and other clay tools that you didn't want and it was tedious having to smooth out or filled these mark. Something that I found that was successful was that the slip and score method is very easy to do and very effective, it's easy to attach large pieces and small piece with each other by wetting and scoring or scraping, with a scraper or scoring rib, the sides of both the pieces you want to attach and none of the pieces are very moveable and haven't fallen off after using this method that created something that is similar to velcro so the pieces are attached strongly and firmly. Something else that I found that was successful was how versatile new and moist clay, it's very moldable and can be used to form a lot of different shapes for my clay piece, and i was able to create all the shapes that i wanted to make. It's also easy to cover any small mistakes or cracks you may have by just adding a bit of water and smoothing it out and/or adding just a little bit of clay. Something else that I found that was successful was that clay the is very easy to cut, a very smooth cut, and when the clay is about leather hard or a little bit dryer, it's easy to carve in things like designs, to things more smooth or to get rid of unwanted bits or, like me, to create some dents or slots for a piece to fit in, in my case I carved a bit of my lid so that it was abe to fit over the strands of ribbons on the four sides of the box. My piece is also successful because it turning out the way I want it to look, it looks just like a norml present would and the cap fits perfectly with a bit of adjustments to the lid and carving slots in the cap to fit of the ribbons. The ribbons and bow on top turned out the way I want them to, the ribbons look like they all connect to the one bow on top of my lid and I'm very fond of my bow, it's very similar to what a normal bow would look like and very relisti and the structure and shape of the clay piece is realistic and is mostly just like a common gift box. I first rolled out a ball of moist clay into a long piece of flat clay that was about 1/4 of an inch thick and cutted out four square soft slabs that were 4 inches by 4 inches and cutted out two more slabs that were 4 and 1/2 inches by 4 and 1/2 inches, then I separated each slab with paper and stored them. The next day I attached the four square, now hard slabs that were 4 inches by 4 inches in a rotation like form to form the four sides of my box and used attached them using the slip and score method using water and the scraper and wetting and scraping the areas of the two sides of the piece I wanted to attach to each other. Then, I put the four connected slabs, that are the sides for my box, on top of one of my 4 and 1/2 inches by 4 and 1/2 inches slab and cutted any access of clay of off that were along the edges of the four connected sides of my box and connected the remaining slab to form the bottom using the slip and core method and made some adjustments to make the bottom fit and to make it a flat bottom and to get and slivers of access I might've missed and to smooth out the crack from where the four sides meet the bottom piece so the bottom piece looks like it's connected and it's better attached and to make the piece just look more like a box. Then I smoothed out and cracks, including smoothing out the cracks from where the four sides meet the bottom but not from the out sides like last time but from the inside of the box so that it could be better attached, and any unintional marks I might've made. Then while the the other 4 and 1/2 inches by 4 and 1/2 inches slab is still in the greenware stage, I cutted out 4 pieces that were about 4 and 1/2 inches by 1 inch, and attached these pieces to each of the four sides of slab. Then I made some adjustments to 4 pieces, cutting them and attaching small pieces of clay to where they need to be and smooth out the cracks where the piece meet on the sides and the cracks where the pieces are attached to the slab, so that the lid actually looks like the lid of a gift box. Then I cutted out another four pieces that were 4 and 1/2 inches by 1 and these in half dept wise to make them thinner and attached these to the center of the four sides of my box for the strands of ribbons and made any adjustments that were needed. Then I cutted out another three pieces that were 4 and 1/2 inches by 1 and folded thes together and shaped them a bit to make a bow. I attached the bow to the center of the lid then cutted out four pieces that were 3 inches by 1 inch, cut those dept wise, and attached them to the four sides of of the lid, folding them over the top of the lid and the extra pieces attached on the sides and the pieces connect to the bow in the center of the lid. Then I realized that the cap I made wouldn't fit since I added the ribbons to the sides of my box so I carved dents/slots in my lid so that the ribbons fit into the slots and the lid can fit the box. I made the slots as neat and unnoticeable as possible and made sure the lid could nwo fit the box. Then the last step in my process that I've done so far is smooth out any bumps I didn't want and any stray or unintentional marks with water and moist clay. |
CatherineAspiring to do something. Archives
May 2019
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