Friday, December 7, 2012

Game Drawing

Game Drawing

     For the game drawing that we did for visual arts class, I really tried to bring out the perspective in my piece. To make this, we first took a picture of a game board that we would want to draw, then drew what we saw from the photo once it was printed, and tried our best to use vanishing points and horizons. To make our picture look correct, we used rulers to make the lines as neat and straight as possible. After we had created the outline in pencil of what we wanted our picture to look like, we then lightly used watercolor to wash over the paper. This helped create more even color under the colored pencils that we were using over the watercolor. It created gradual gradation to really help blend the colors together to show the values and highlights in each object. I also added shadows to display the object almost as if it was standing up on the page!
     Overall, I thought that this piece was pretty successful, I really like the way that I did my cards and how they looked almost as if they were on top of each other. I could have definitely used a lot more values and colors to help add that 3-D effect. I can say that I'm pretty proud of it, I would have never thought of this different way of drawing and how I could use watercolor to help define colors! Personally, I don't really like how the colors on the board and the black item in the middle right didn't really fit together, you can see how I colored and how they didn't really blend together; I need to work on evening out the way that I color. I think that the cards in this picture worked though! I thought that they looked pretty good.
    If I were to do this project again, I would make the watercolor wash on the rhino much lighter. When I first did the wash, the rhino was basically obliterated and I had to do a lot of work on it to make the wash much lighter. I would also not put the black water color around the Jumanji letters. the most difficult part for me while making this would be the water color part, since I had to make sure that I didn't have too much paint on the brush before I set it on paper, or else it would create a really big blob of color that I couldn't get rid of! It was very tedious and I kept on messing up.
     From making this piece, I learned that in order to create art, you have a ton of options open! Also, you can use water color to help make colors a lot more even on paper, rather than having the white show through. I really need to work on coloring evenly as well.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Anamorphosis

Questions

1) To get the photo into the right perspective, we used photoshop to transform to image so that the top was a lot bigger than the bottom. We did this so that when we were looking at it from an angle, it looked correct. We basically stretched out the top of the image to distort it enough so that it looked irregular looking at it head on. Distorting it made it helped me make it into an anamorphosis drawing.  

2) Distorting and stretching the object allowed us to make the upper part of the image look enlarged, or blown up so that it looked incorrect to the human eye. We also drew the picture using a grid, so that it would be much easier and up to scale. We then added a lot of value and colors to define the light source and even a shadow behind to make it look like it was standing up on the page, using colored pencils.

3)The most important concepts to make this picture successful would be using the correct colors, drawing it in the right scale, and adding a shadow that looked correct. I kind of messed up on my shadow, so the entire 3-d concept was sort of lost for me. Using the right colors helped show where the light was coming from, which helped make it look a lot more real. Drawing it to scale with the picture was important too, since you want it to look right when you are looking at it from the right angle!

Landmark or Transportation Critique

Landmark or Transportation Critique
Versailles Garden
1) In order to change the picture that I chose from the computer lab into a stencil, we first took the original picture and saved it into photoshop that we could trace it out onto poster board paper. After we traced so we could edit the picture by changing the contrast to make it mostly black and white, a button that we used to help us was called threshold. We changed the contrast to make it much easier to trace later on.We then projected the original picture onto the wall and traced the picture onto white poster board, making sure to mark out the positive and negative spaces so we knew what we were going to cut out with the xacto knife.

2) When creating the background collage, I mostly chose paper that had maps, or pictures of old ships that were used. Since Versailles was a place that had elegant art and elaborate furniture, I thought that the old paper and pictures of the big ships would fir in nicely. I tried to constantly change the shapes and sizes of the paper that I was cutting out to give more of a variety to my collage.

3)Positive and negative space was used to create my stencil by giving me a general outline of what I was going to cut out and what I wasn't going to cut out. Positive space is black and negative space is white, and you either cut out the positive or the negative spaces. You also had to make sure that the spaces that you weren't cutting out were connected, so the stencil could stay connected. I cut out the negative spaces.

4) When using the xacto knife, you should always cut away from you and always make sure that your hand that you are using to cut is far up along the knife, so you wont accidentally cut yourself. I gripped a little bit too tightly and a little bit too low, so I always had to make sure that my hand didn't slip. You always have to make sure that you have a hard material under where you're cutting, just to make sure that you don't cut through the table.

5) My experience with spray paint went pretty well. I've never used spray paint much before, so it was quite cool to experiment with it! You always want to make sure to use a great variety of colors when you are spray painting, just to make it pleasing to the eye. You also have to make sure that you don't put too many colors in one spot, for it could turn out to look muddy. It was also helpful to use the netting when you were painting to create some texture to the piece, I thought that it looked pretty good!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Print Making

QUESTIONS
EmmaLi Tsai
1.     Describe the overall composition of your artwork (balance, unity, rhythm and movement).
The overall composition of my artwork turned out pretty well. I thought that I balanced the different contrasts nicely and carved most of the stray areas away. I did have some parts that should have been cut deeper to not catch any ink, but overall the lines turned out smoothly and clean. The only thing that I wish I could have fixed was the margins. They were a bit unclean with a tad bit of smudged ink.
  
2.     How did you add texture and contrast to your print? Is this important? Why?
I added texture and contrast to my print by using different types and widths of lines to define the edges. This created the effect of larger, more fluffy hairs, and smaller, more furry hairs. This is important because it adds depth to the picture to make it seem more real and not so flat. If you never added texture, the picture would just look like a sheet of paper with some ink on it. The texture and contrast adds the third dimension.

3.     Explain how you used positive and negative space to show your image.
By using positive and negative space, I defined my image. The positive and negative space helped show the image clearer and display the different types of lines that were inside of the print to create the depth. I was very careful to not add too much positive or negative space, doing that could result in the image looking like a big blob. When I added my leaves, I was careful to make sure that I added a dark, thick line to show the viewer that the two white spaces were different things.

4.     Describe the craftsmanship of your print. (How good the project is technically crafted)
The craftsmanship of my print was very tedious. I did my best trying to really make the lines clear and really cut them deep enough so that they did not catch the ink. I did have some areas that caught the ink when they were not supposed to, and some smudges on the margins. If I could change something, I would have made the lines deeper and more connected.

5.     Were you able to achieve depth by showing a foreground, middle ground and back- ground? Explain. Yes I was able to achieve depth. I added the leaves in the middle ground to help the viewer get the idea of actually being in the rain forest. I used the foreground to show the bird in front of the leaves, making it the closest to the reader in order to capture the different types of texture. For the background, I set the rest of the image and put in different trees and branches to complete the image.

6.     Explain your experience with Printmaking. What were the obstacles and advantages?
During the printmaking, I really had trouble with trying to plan the different negative and positive spaces. I didn't want to have black spaces touch black spaces, or white spaces touch white spaces. I also found it really confusing when I had white on white with the leaves and the sky, it really made me think about how to make it look good and correct. To not make the lines blend, I added one really dark line in between the two white spaces to define that they were two different things. Overall, I thought it was really fun and a very different way to make art that I've never really thought about before.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Critiques for the Print Sketch and the Chalk Mural




Questions:Chalk Mural

 
1. Explain your experience working on a team and executing your ideas for the mural.
Working on a team was pretty fun, I liked the social interaction with the other artists and having to put our heads together to figure out a final product. While making our ideas, we came up with many things to do, but choosing only one was when it got kind of difficult. In the end, we all compromised and decided on the roller coaster as our idea for our wall drawing.

 
2. Explain the importance of collaboration when working on a team.
When working on a team, you always want to be able to work well together. If  there was a conflict, it would have really separated the group and made us not work as well. Plus, we all need to agree on one thing and make sure that we see eye to eye. Collaboration gives less conflicts and helps us all come together to create something that we all love without many bumps along the way.

3.  How successful was this project? Explain how and why.
I thought that this project was somewhat successful. We did have a little bit of team conflict with some people being off task, but in the end it really came together and tuned out better than I thought that it would! If we were to have more time, we probably would have added more value to the grass and a little bit more depth to the sky, maybe making more rides to add some more background. This was all that we could achieve in the time span and I thought that it turned out pretty good.

4. Explain how you feel about creating artwork that others can interact with. Ex. Involving the whole school? 
I really liked it! I always love artwork like that that you can feel like you can just walk into the painting and interact with it. Its what makes artwork special. I've always wanted to work with chalk and walls too, so this was a great opportunity for me to expand my horizons and branch out from just paper and pencil! Also, it was pretty cool to be in the court yard after you get off the bus and seeing people interact with something that you took part in creating, putting it out there for everyone to see. It was pretty funny to see other people try to interact with the drawings and take pictures as well!




Questions: Print Sketch

1. Why is texture so important to have in your sketches?
Texture is very important to have in your sketches because it adds the sense of reality into your drawings. It also lets the person see the differences inbettween the  bark of a tree and a leaf! Use of textures help the drawing pop out of the page. For me, it helps me imagine what it would feel like touching the animal.

 
2. Why is it necessary for you to have several references of each animal and each background? Explain.
It is necessary because it gives you something to look at rather than pulling from the stored images inside your head. It helps you merge what you initially planned in with what the landscape and animal really look like. Plus, not adding references may become copying.

 
3. When you look at your sketches are you able to see which sketch is the strongest and will make the best print? How do you know this? 
Yes I do, in this one I think I did great in adding different types of textures to the tree, the leaf, and the bird. Compared to the other ones, this one has the best and more detailed background, and the bird is much easier to texturize rather than something mostly not hairy, like a giraffe. I really like this one!

 

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Value Art Portrait

1. Explain the process you went through to develop your drawing.
 To make this value portrait, we first took a picture of the person in which we were going to draw. Then, we printed it in black and White and circled the different types of values that we saw on a clear sheet of paper. After that, we shaded the back of the clear sheet of paper with a dark shade to help transfer the image of our value circles to the sketch book. We then traced the lines once again on top of the sketchbook, creating the base shapes in which to shade our values in to make the final product.
2. Explain how you found the different values in the portrait?
To find the different types of values in the portrait, we used a value shading chart. We shaded in the different values on a portable strip to use as a guideline to use as a guideline to how dark we should shade in our final portrait. To find the different values, we looked at the original picture and copied the same value shade onto our portrait. After that, we had to blend the colors to give it a softer, more natural look.
3.  Did you achieve a full range of the different values within your portrait?  How?

Yes, I believed I did achieve a full rage of the different values in my portrait and tried to do my best with the pencil I had. To do so, I used pressure on my pencil to create a darker look, and used less pressure to create a softer look to show the highlights in her face. To me, this was pretty hard, since the paper on my sketchbook paper is pretty thin, so I had to make sure not to rip holes in my paper!

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

My craftsmanship was somewhat neat, when I was shading in the darker values, you could see the separate pencil lines because of the type of pencil that I was using; I couldn't fix it. I thought that I did pretty good when it came to the lighter shades on her face and the blending of the values. I even thought the lines turned out pretty neat as well.
5. List any obstacles you had to overcome and how you dealt with them.
One of the obstacles that I had to overcome when I did this project was the fact that when I transferred my value circles to the tracing paper, they came out way too dark and showed through the light values that I was trying to do. I ended up erasing the circles and doing the lighter parts by using the value chart and my own eyes. Also, I had trouble with trying to use enough pressure on my pencil to create the dark values, but not rip my paper! On many occasions the paper almost or did rip, so I had to shade a little bit lighter than what I was able to do. Plus, the pencil I was using did not do the best trying to fill in the darker shades, so I used the best amount of pressure that I could.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Value Study Drawings






1. Describe your overall thoughts on the final piece.
I thought it looked very real with all of the different colors and the shading really looked good! Also adding the shadow made the final touch.

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

3. How successful do you feel this piece is and why?
I thought it was pretty successful because I felt like it looked a lot better than anything else that I have ever created  before and using different tools like oil pastels gave me a new perspective of ways that I can create artwork.

4. What worked about this project? What didn’t work?
I thought the shading and colors really worked together and complimented eachother, but the shading part was hard because I always thought my looked choppy.

5. If you were to do this project over again, what changes would you consider making?
If I did this project again I would probaby use different colors like purple and silver to add more value and make it more eye catching.

6. What was the most difficult part about completing this piece and why?
The most diffficult part to me was trying to correctly blend the colors together without having lines down the object in which I was trying to draw. I could always sometimes see the colors seperating and I always tried my best to blend them a little better.

7. What did you learn from this piece?
I learned  much more about value and how to shade items correctly to make it look more realistic. I know even know how to add shadows and know my source of light.