Art 2

Scientific and Contrast Drawing

This project was a lot of fun to do.  Our theme for this project was "Scientific" and we were encouraged to think outside of the box.  I chose this concept because of the science of technology.  I was thinking of old movies, and decided to do a film role with mickey mouse; starting out as a sketch of his head, going to the basic outline of the picture, all the way to the final product on the last slide.  I thought that design technique would be something different than just different pictures of mickey on each slide, but how the final picture progressed all in one big project.  The mini lessons that we had were beneficial because they taught us how to shade and do stippling, which I used in the last mickey picture in the mountains.  The shading was really important for me to understand because as I drew farther back, I needed to be able to create a smooth transition from light to dark.  I showed contrast in my work by using the light on the table to create some whites and using the bright whites on the slides before they were shaded.  I also made part of mickey's body dark black up against the bright whites of the slides to show good contrast as well.  I chose to do pencil in my work because I prefer it over charcoal and pen.  With pencil, it's easier to control your shading and not get too dark too quick, and if you make a stupid little mistake, you can erase it and start over.  I did a little bit of risk taking with the whole concept of my project, and I also took a little bit of a risk with the way that I shaded.  I drew some parts darker than I liked, and then I took my eraser and lifted some of the lead off of the parts where I wanted it to be lighter to create a smoother effect.  I am very pleased with my final product and I think that the experience has taught me a lot about drawing already.  It can be really frustrating at times and sometimes you want to rip your project apart.  But once you are patient enough to finish it and you see the final result, it's totally worth all of the work.

Oil Pastels, Colored Pencils, and Chalk Pastels

Colored Pencil

Chalk Pastel

Oil Pastel

For these exercises, I used oil pastels, colored pencils and chalk pastels.  My favorite ones that I drew were the lollipop and the small piece of candy, done by colored pencils and chalk pastels.  I liked the way that they turned out because I feel that they were the easiest mediums to blend to create a more realistic effect on the drawing.  My least favorite was the can because it was a lot harder to blend I feel like; that's why you can see a lot more of the lines where it isn't blended well.  It was a little bit harder to control than the colored pencils and the chalk pastels.  During these exercises, you had to know which color that you were using was your light, medium and dark colors so that you could put them in the right places on the object.  You had to be able to control the pencil/stick in order for it to turn out right.  I plan on using chalk pastels and/or colored pencils on my up close and personal project because I feel like I like to use those a lot better than oil pastels.  It's easier to get details into a picture using colored pencils, but it's easier to blend using the chalk pastels.

Up Close and Personal Ballet Shoes

 I used some of my own ideas in my work because I am a dancer and I am familiar with these concepts.  I used my dancing experiences and some other inspiration from the internet in order to combine it to create my piece.  As part of my project, I tried out doing a little bit darker shading and values to create a better effect.  I think that it was definitely a risk for me because I usually like to play it safe in my drawings, but I think that it turned out pretty good! Instead of sticking with lighter values, I chose to go darker to make it more exaggerated.  I messed up a few times while trying to blend the legs, which was my biggest challenge.  To try and fix it, I used white and the orangish color to try and blend the lights and darks.  I did my best and I think that it worked well.  I was a little bit flustered with the mistakes that I made, but I realized that since what was done was done, I fixed it to the best of my ability.  While working on this project, I learned how to blend colored pencils better than I had been able to before.  I gained more confidence in being able to apply darker values and colors to my work.  I enjoyed working with colored pencils and had fun creating this piece!

Sticky Situation: Nail Polish

This project was called "A Sticky Situation".  We had to come up with ideas that were outside of the box and use repetition as our basis.  What I did for this project, was I used watercolors on watercolor paper and I created bottles of nail polish stacked on top of each other and spilling onto a surface.  I showed repetition through the bottles of nail polish and created variety using different colors and different positions of the bottles.  I used online sources for inspiration but I created my own design with the bottles, colors and the background.  It was a bit difficult because I had to learn how to choose my colors wisely and not get too dark too fast with the color.  I feel like through this project I have gained more skill with watercolors because this was my first project using this medium and I got to see how good I was at it.  It showed me how you have to plan out your work more carefully rather than improvising like you would do with acrylics.  Some challenges that I faced while working on this project were keeping the colors light.  That was very hard for me to do if I wanted the color to be darker.  Also, the shadows were difficult to do and make look right because when you layer over the colors, you can see where you did the layers so it makes it look a little funny.  I didn't like the shadows too much. What I did like about this though was how easily the colors seemed to blend with one another and how each bottle creates a different mood when you look at it.  Overall, I think that I like how it turned out and I would definitely use watercolors again.

Mixed Media Project - Fantasy with Peter Pan

This project was our mixed media project and I really enjoyed it.  It basically forces you to be as creative as you want with your ideas and what you do with them.  I got creative because I decided to do a scene that would be like what peter pan would be like in real life, only with two of the main characters from Harry Potter and also Emma Stone as Tinkerbell.  I tried to bring this piece to life using characters that were well known, and different materials that have a touch and feel thing to make the piece work better together as a whole and bring life to it.  I wasn't exactly sure how my idea would turn out once I put it on paper, so telling myself that I could make it look good was a bit of a struggle for me since it's so different from the rest of the group of people who participated in this project.  I did use technology as a tool, to make the characters and to also create the floor, the pictures on the wall and behind the "glass" and to create the London skyline in the background.  The rest of it was from other materials like tissue paper, water colors, wallpaper samples, wood, and different fabric samples that I constructed together into one whole piece.  I feel like I gained some skill with the composition of the piece because originally I was afraid that the way I had it set up was going to look strange or kind of cluttered.  So I rearranged the way that I wanted it to look and I gained a better sense of composition for this type of project or any project.  I really like this piece because I think that it's unique and different from the rest and it portrays happiness and a sense of "happily ever after".