Thursday, May 28, 2015

Final Project

For this project I chose acrylic and graphite. I like sketching in pencil and am best at shading and creating depth with pencil, and I find it easier to create a dripping effect with acrylic paint. The background was also too big for me to do with marker or sharpie, so I chose black paint for a darker and more opaque color. Having both the graphite and acrylic gave me more contrast and allowed me to show the light and dark of depression more easily. This was a surrealism project, but I still wanted to make a statement so I chose something creepy (a mask) and used the blood to show the pain and the leaking. Had I used acrylic for the shading in the mask, I would not have been able to get the shadows the way I wanted them and if I had used graphite pencil for the background I would not have been able to get the deep, dark black color to represent the emptiness that comes with depression. The mask idea came from the fact that for a lot of people, hiding their depression behind a "mask" of happiness is easier because they don't want anyone to know what's wrong or to upset their family and friends. I think that this piece is really successful. It conveyed the message that I wanted it to with an eerie emptiness. The piece in general also looks pretty good and is neat and put together.



I picked just acrylic for this piece because it is one of my favorite mediums to use. In this art work, I tried to show that even though the world is separate and we (humans) are all different and come from different places, we all have the same roots and need to work together to make the world a better place. Using acrylic helped me to convey the message by allowing me to use a lot of layering and blending to create depth and mix/blend the colors easily. I initially used black for the continents, then went in with a dark green. I then mixed the dark green with a lighter green and was able to sort of highlight the center of the continents. I was also able to give the tree more depth and dimension by adding blacks and dark browns to the lighter browns to create shadows. I think that this piece was very successful. I was able to convey the message I wanted to successfully (though maybe not obviously) and depict it in a way that I liked and showed some of my best art skills.





I really enjoyed the portrait unit, even though I did not at first. It was challenging, but one of the things that I wanted to work on in this class was drawing people and capturing facial expression. My final project for portraits is pictured below). I also enjoyed the surrealism unit, because even though at first I (again) did not like it, I learned that surrealism isn't cut and dry, and that it includes so many different subjects and ideas. I don't really know what I would add to this class to make it better, but I really do not enjoy blogs that much. They aren't that bad, but I know some other people dislike them enough that they wouldn't want to take another art class if they were mandatory. I feel like maybe just writing a short paragraph by hand before we do the gallery walks may help some, just to answer the questions that we would usually answer in blogs. I would also not have so many presentations. We didn't necessarily have a lot, but for people who get really nervous to present it is difficult, especially when you are put in groups of people you do not know. Overall, I really enjoyed this class and the freedom that we had in our projects.






We were here. #swag #squad


Pick-Your-Own-Blog

I developed my idea for this project by brainstorming different ideas for what I wanted to do. I wanted to do an issue that was important to me and was something that I wanted to capture. I knew that I probably wanted to use acrylic (I think it is my favorite medium) but I did not know what subject to choose. After brainstorming, I decided to go to google and find a picture of a tree (I like to paint trees) for inspiration. One thing led to another and I came across a picture of a tree whose leaves reminded me of continents. I then came up with the idea of painting a tree whose leaves were the continents to show that even though we (all the people in the world) are different, we all have the same roots and need to stand together as a united front. I then crudely "sketched" a tree to try and plan out where I would put the continents. For the most part my sketch was the same as how my final turned out, but I had to adjust where some of the continents were in order to make everything fit on the canvas. I really like this project because I like the way it looks but I also like what it says. A lot of people don't see the meaning at first, but when I say what I was showing they really like it and think it's really cool. I also like it because at first I did not think that it was good, but after changing the background from just a mix of blues to more of a gradient/ombre, it created more depth which I like.

I really like selecting what I work on! I do not like to do art because someone told me what I have to do, I like to get an idea myself and go with it. Having guidelines is okay, like saying to try and pick a world issue or a certain general idea, but when it's too specific it takes the creativity out of it. I like having a lot of choice, but sometimes it does get overwhelming and I need some direction. Especially because I usually have projects that I know I want to do, but after they run out I have issues picking things to do. Overall, I really like being able to pick what I do and having the freedom to choose, but I understand that the teacher actually needs to teach and sometimes we have to have certain assignments.