Portrait

I chose to do a portrait of myself because I thought it would be easy and I could just get.a picture of me from my parents. While I was brainstorming I found it difficult to decide what to use for my project, I thought I had decided on one material and changed my mind, then I chose a different material but decided against it. I finally chose to do my project in bubble wrap because it's a non conventional material to use and easy to paint. I think my material choice adds a lot of depth and texture to my project because of the bubbles. The paint is not only on top of the bubbles but runs in the cracks which act as a natural shading device. I found the use of bubble wrap really brought my piece together and made it look good. I don't think choosing bubble wrap was risky because it's flat and adds texture, the only concern I had with the material was that the paint would not appear good. The only challenges I faced we're getting the colors to look right on the bubble wrap, I had to add gray or black to areas already painted to get the right look. I think my choices came together in the end to make the piece look really good and unique. My choice of materials was not influenced by my portrait I only chose bubble wrap because I was stumped with my other materials and I looked at the wrap and a lightbulb came on. 

Sticky Situation

I developed my ideas for this project by thinking about what would be considered a sticky situation but also be outside of the box some, something not literally sticky. I tried to think outside of the box some and do something a little different under the definition of a sticky situation. I accomplished some repetition in my painting with the trees in the background but that was all, I could've added more repetition. I chose to use acrylic and it was easy to paint the large areas like the sky and ice but didn't work so well for more detailed painting, I had to modify my idea for the painting because acrylic wouldn't allow me to be detailed enough. I learned that I should add more repetition I the future and try to paint with something other that acrylic for more detail or make a design that doesn't require very detailed work.

Up Close and Personal

I developed my ideas for this project by thinking about what can be drawn up close and personal and what would look good. I chose the ladybug on the blade of grass because it fit the theme and i thought it would look cool. I tried to emphasize colors in the art work by making the ladybug a bright red and saturating the blades of grass. Then i put it all against a light blue background. I chose to use oil pastel because it looks good, it's easier than colored pencil, and I hate chalk pastel. I tried to take a risk by using oil pastel because i had never used it before in an art project. I used technique, concept, and medium in my project.

What's the Point?

 1. What where some of your solutions to What’s the Point? Different drawings with pencils and mountains.

2. Which solution did you chose and why? I chose to draw five pencils in order of height, with the pencil in the middle broken.

3. How did you show contrast in your work? I added shading on each of the pencils

4. What medium did you decide to use? Why did you choose this medium over the others? I chose pen and ink as my medium because it was the easiest to use and made the most sense for my drawing.

5. What techniques did you use to create this work? I used lines for shading

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.

6. Did you take any risks with this project? I dont think I took any risks, I just drew what I was comfortable with

7. What message are you conveying? How are you convey this message through the use of your images or use of art elements or principles? I don't really know what message I'm trying to convey. I just took the topic and drew what came to mind.   

Pastel Still Life

I planned my composition in a way that would show all three bottles but still focus on one in the middle. This would include all of the bottles in the composition but maintain a focus on just one bottle. A thumbnail sketch is a quick sketch that the artist does to plan out how he is going to arrange his props in the composition. A thumbnail sketch is small and brief only for planning. The viewfinder helped me find the best way to show all of the props at once without making the final drawing too small or too big. I made my items appear three dimensional by making some areas on the bottle darker than others, adding light streaks and zones, and adding shadows on the final composition. I created a light source by bringing in the light from one side of the Still Life. This allows all of the bottles to have light on the same side and int he same areas and have similar shadows coming off of them.

Ceramic

The medium of my project is white clay. The size of my project is small to medium. The design element I stressed was simplicity while adding a radial design. The technique i used was a hump mold and the rest was done by hand or with some tools. My project could serve many functions from storage to a bowl to eat out of. To create the design for my project I started out with a design to ambitious and then toned down the design to make it more simple and look better. I learned that working with clay is much harder than it looks and it is a very fickle medium. I would change the project by adding more red clay to my design to make it stand out more.

Painting

I organized my painting in a way that would create a pleasant background and introduce an object in the foreground to focus on. This creates a nice balance to the painting and leaves it simple and not too busy. Atmospheric perspective is the perspective of the painting created by the atmosphere. The lighting, placement of objects in the painting, and three dimensional aspects all contribute to the atmospheric perspective. I created it in my painting by creating light coming through the mountains striking the ground and tree, as well as making the sky different colors and making the mountains seem further away and the tree closer to you. I created a light source by making certain areas of the painting much lighter than others. You can see light coming through the clouds and striking the mountains, ground, and tree. I had an analogous color scheme with reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows being included. I used long brush strokes for the sky and ground to make them seem more natural and less splotchy. I used shorter brush strokes for the mountains and i dabbed the brush straight up and down for the leaves on the tree. I used value in my painting by introducing light and dark areas as well as areas  closer and farther away.

Plaster Hand

In the creation of my plaster cast hand there were several steps taken to insure its success. First we had to come up with a pose that we wanted to have our hand do. Then we cut strips of plaster cast to put on each others hands. Our partners dipped the strips into water and placed them on our posing hand until everything was covered. To make the cast better you need to squeeze the water off of the strip before placing it on the hand. After waiting for the cat to dry we pulled the cast off and painted it.

Logo

For our logo we had to design something that represented us but was still aesthetically attractive and professional looking. I combined the first letter in my name and my love for basketball to make my logo. First we drew a sketch of what we want our logo to look like before doing the final project. Then we drew the logo in pencil on the final sheet of paper than we outlined it in sharpie and pen. After completing that we turned in the logo to Mrs. Brokke so she could shrink it down. After our shrunken logos were returned to us we put them in the hallway outside of class for display.