Art 2 Blog

Art 2 Theme "Scientific"

Work in Progress...

Final

1.      What where some of your design solutions to the theme Scientific?

          Some of my design solutions to the theme Scientific were mostly centered around dinosaurs. My ideas included sea creatures, cells, mutants, aliens, and explosions. I also took a look at the planets and astronauts but I thought dinosaurs would be more appealing. I wanted to add something about skeletons, so I decided to combine the two ideas together to create a larger one. I knew the process and the details would be much more meticulous, but I decided to challenge myself. 

2.      How beneficial were the mini lessons in the success of your project. If they were not beneficial please explain as well.

          The mini lessons were very beneficial to my project because it helped me get a better understanding of how the values should look on my page and how the values should really help the focal point pop. It also helped me get a better understanding of where my source of light was coming from so I knew which direction to shade to emphasize the shadows to help my piece come to live. 

3.      How did you show contrast in your work?

          I showed contrast in many different ways. I added the skeleton underneath the living dinosaurs skin to show the contrast between life and death; how death somewhat lingers in all of us. I also showed contrast by the different shading that I used. I varied in between light and dark values to make the dinosaur stand out above everything else; as thats what I wanted everyone to focus on. 

4.      What medium did you decide to use? Why did you choose this medium over the others?

          The medium that I decided to use was pencil. Pen would be very hard because I have many different values; drawing grass and shading it would be quite a task. Charcoal is very messy and since there's so much shading in my piece I do not think that it would've turned out as well. Plus, charcoal tends to be very harsh and I needed some very light values to help some parts of my picture stand out. I liked to use pencil because not only would it be easier to work with, but there's such a broad spectrum of values for me to choose from. 

5.      What techniques did you use to create this work?

         Some of the techniques that I used when making this drawing would be the rule of thirds. I actually did that without knowing what it was, but now that I think about it; most nice artworks do not leave the center as the focal point. I also used plenty of shading and values to allow the viewer to see the textures in my work and added shadows. I also blended some with a tortillion around the scales since they do really well with blending in small areas. 

6.      We encourage risk taking in art. Risk taking can be as simple as trying a new technique or learning about a new medium to as complex as trying something totally new.  Did you take any risks with this project? Explain.

           I did take some risks with this project. I usually never consider even trying to make the top layer of something transparent in my drawings; so this was the first time that I've tried that. I have also never tried drawing or shading grass so that was really a new experience for me and I definitely learned not only how to draw grass, but apply what I learned to other things; like hair. I also never usually add so much value to a drawing. For some aspects of this drawing though, I did stay in my comfort zone. I have always favored drawing things facing left, since I'm right handed, and I've always favored a pencil above everything else. 

7.      Discuss your overall experience with this project.

           My overall experience with this project was quite good. I really enjoyed trying out new things and drawing something that I never have before. I definitely learned a ton upon doing this drawing; like how to shade different things and to outline your focal point with darker values to help make them pop. Before, I never really considered anything like that. I loved thinking in a more abstract way as well, like usually if someone told me the word "scientific" I usually wouldn't think of dinosaurs and skeletons right away. When looking at all the different idea that I came up with for this project, I was actually surprised. This project has really helped my creativity thrive and I am looking forward to many more! 

Medium Drawings

Oil Pastel 

I thought that this medium was fun to use. It was easy to blend and I tried to add white to really emphasize the highlights in the can. It was hard to make fine lines to add the little details in the can though since the pastels were very blunt. Plus, using this medium was very messy and it was hard to allow the value to fade off into the distance, like what I tried to do with my shadow. I thought it was very fun to use because I could practically add any color that I wanted and it just made the can look more and more realistic. One thing that I wish I would've done differently is the bar code. I think that I could've done a much better job and I should've made sure that the side of the pastel that I was using was sharp before I drew the fine black lines. 

Colored Pencil

This medium was very familiar to me as I've always used colored pencils before. It was interesting using brown paper because I actually had to color the paper white to show the small highlights. I also didn't know that there was a black in the box so that made things a little challenging for me. I had to use dark purples and blues to show the darker areas. I didn't find it as easy to blend as the oil pastels or the chalk pastels but it was fun to experiment with different colors to show the ridges and cracks in the foil around the lollipop. 

Chalk Pastel 

I really liked using this medium because this was the first time that I've used it before. It was very messy and it got all over my clothes and hands, but I thought the overall outcome of my drawing to be pretty good. I don't think that I would use it for small details because the colors easily smudge and blend together. I would use it more for a background color or a gradient over a large area. I think the hardest challenge for this picture was the wrapper. I was nervous upon doing the wrapper because I was afraid that I may mess it up or make the whole candy look bad, but I personally like the way that it looks. I could've added more values to the wrapper and added more details to the folds of it. 

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

                For my up close and personal project, I decided to do a secretary bird. I wanted to do something that was colorful yet a little challenging.  Upon making this piece, I discovered new techniques that I can use with colored pencils. I learned how to blend more effectively and how to add texture to the feathers. I had to learn how to  make the feathers look more realistic by adding shading in between them and making some parts lighter than others. I also had to find a way to make the feathers look more wild, so i added some stray marks to my paper near the birds body to give the impression of feathers that were maybe being pulled away by the wind. 

                I think that this artwork says a little something about who I am. When I was little, I used to always play Zoo Tycoon, a game that lets you build your own zoo with many different types of animals. They had all different kinds of animals that were included, like ancient extinct ones, endangered ones, and ones that are pretty common like the beaver. One of which was the secretary bird and it was one of my favorite animals to use whenever I build my own zoo. So, I decided to portray that in this artwork upon doing the same type of bird. It was cool going back and its almost like this bird is somewhat apart of my childhood. 

                 I constantly asked for other students on feedback for this drawing. The background was one of the hardest parts, since while I was drawing it, it didn't look like anything since I was always up close and scrutinizing every detail. Once my friends told me to look at it from afar, I could start to see that it looked better than I thought. I also wanted their opinions on the feathers and the proportions for the bird. Sometimes when I'm drawing alone, I won't notice that the way that I'm looking at something is completely disproportionate until I finish the piece. I always asked them for what they thought about it and what I could improve on and they really helped make this drawing better. 

"STICKY SITUATION"

REFLECTION

           Upon doing this project, I learned quite a bit about the materials that I was using. I learned how to properly layer the colors on top of each other, which was pretty tricky given the fact that I was using both water color and acrylic paint. I had to leave some white space so that I could cover that area with lighter colors, since if I were to cover them with darker colors first, the lighter ones wouldn't show up. That was one of the hardest challenges I faced and I thought that it made my piece look some what sloppy to me since there were many small details and areas that I knew didn't look as good as the should. I also learned how to actually paint a forest, and learned many different techniques that I picked up along the way. I leaned how to do the textures on the trees and added moss to them, as well as adding shadows to the grass to add some depth into my painting.
              Many other students gave me feedback when I was doing this painting. I would always ask them if it looked like an actual forest or if there was anything I wasn't seeing in the painting that needed to be done. My table group helped me a ton in seeing the things that I couldn't at the time to make this project look better and more realistic.
              I was pretty apprehensive when doing this project because I was afraid that it wouldn't turn out well. I've never been really good at drawing trees or forest, nor have I really ever done a painting with watercolors, let alone mix acrylic paint in there too. I definitely took many risks when I was doing this project, but looking back on it, I'm glad I did. I did face a ton of challenges but at least I now know what things I should and should not do next time. I know I should be careful in my lining to make things look as smooth as possible, as well as try to make the trees look a little straighter next time and to make the skin tone look more peachy. I did like how the grass turned out, I think it looks pretty good to me but I should've spent more time on it. I also like the texture on the big tree to the right. I think it was a nice touch and added some balance to the painting.

MIXED MEDIA 

REFLECTION

           Upon doing this project, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. I threw around so many ideas in my head and finally settled on this one. This idea was really out of my comfort zone since I had to go out of my usual pencil and paper. I decided to use cardboard since I didn't want to use Prismacolors on a stark white background. I'm very glad I did that now since I actually really like the way the colored pencil look on the cardboard and I also like the way that the water color looked as well. It looks very light and pastel, which was exactly the look that I was going for. I've also never really done a multi media project before that involved something other than just ripping paper and gluing it on a different sheet of paper. This one took some real thought to pull together and I'm quite satisfied on how it all turned out in the end. I'm also quite happy with how the petals of her dress came along, since I was originally going to use actual flower petals. I really like the way that it turned out. 

          I stepped back and analyzed this project quite a few times. For the flower in the bottom right hand corner, I constantly had to step back and take a look at the whole picture, since I didn't want to have too much of a color on one side and too little on the other. I wanted balance. This took quite a bit of time since I always had to remove some petals and replace some others just to get the colors the way that I wanted to. I also was trying to add the cooler colors towards the top of the flower and the warmer ones down towards the bottom to unify that with the background and how I did it with the water color. 
        I definitely grew a ton as an artist from this project. Now, I'm more aware of the materials that I'm using before I do artwork and I also consider using different things to draw on. Using the darker background of paper to color on helped the colors pop more. I was able to efficiently use the white colored pencil to add all of the highlights that I wanted to. This wouldn't look as good if it was done on plain white paper and I'm very glad I chose to work with the cardboard. I also learned quite a bit more on the gel medium. It was fun to use the gel medium and I also noticed to be careful when using it because if you use too much then it wouldn't exactly dry clear and you'd have some white-ish blotches on your piece. Overall, this artwork helped me explore different mediums and helped me grow as an artist.