This year has been a good experience for me. Up until this point, I haven't had an art teacher who could really challenge me to help me build my strength as an artist. When I first joined this class, I wasn't really confident in my artwork at all. I had just moved here and at my old school, I was already half way through the AP Art class before I transferred to Apex. I didn't really feel like I should have been in that class even though my art teacher said I could be. I had already taken Honors Art my sophomore year, so I was ready for AP as far as credits went. I was expecting to be put in the same class but I couldn't because I'm not a senior; it wasn't a problem at my old school because you just had to be good enough by the teacher's standards to get in. So I was put in the Honors Art class for the second time.
I started off at the same skill level I've been at since about 9th grade. I was considered very talented back then. It became apparent to me that I wasn't getting any better as I saw my other artistic friends surpass me. It was as though I plateaued. I began to lose confidence in myself. After being in this class, my strength as an artist has increased exponentially; as well as my confidence in myself. Mrs. Rossi challenged me, without having to reteach me the elements of art or the techniques I picked up over the years, and for that I am grateful.
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This is my final assignment of this school year in art. It started out as a doodle, I was bored and decided to draw a picture of my friend Sean. I don't usually use pens or markers in my artwork for anything more than outlining. As I got going, it became more intricate and accurate, and I enjoyed making it.
I really have nothing about this picture I would change. Its very rare that I am this happy about my art. I think that I will start doing things in pen more often, apparently I have an aptitude for it. This piece inspired me to do a series of different pictures of family and friends, in several different colors. This isn't officially part of the mini concentrations. It ties into the "sea life" theme even though I finished that assignment. I had this idea stuck in my head so I decided to go with it.
I really couldn't figure out what to do with the background. I don't like how it looks now, and continue to be unable to think of how I can make it look good. I do like the vignette style I used around the edges but that's the only thing I like about it. I like the jellyfish and all the colors I chose. I probably should have added more of them. I love the squid looks, and it was a lot easier to draw than I expected. The diver was easy too, but I feel like I should have added more details to him. I used gold for the helmet and silver for the air tube and I like how it looks, but a photograph doesn't do it justice. This is the 4th and final piece in my set of mini concentrations. I did it to contrast the first piece, which is a beta fish made of mostly cold colors with a black background. I did this one to be have the opposite colors (also in watercolor). I really enjoyed the challenge of drawing the jellyfish this piece presented to me.
I like almost everything about this piece. I especially like how the yellow tentacles draw your eye. I intended to make a more salmon color where the tentacles meet the bell of the jellyfish but I still like how it looks now. Making the oral arms look wavy and twisted was very difficult, and I don't think I was very successful at this. I probably should have made the base color a lighter red and shaded darker from there. But overall I like how it looks, and I'm extremely satisfied with my painting. This is the third of my mini concentrations. It depicts an open can of sardines that fell out of a small fishing boat. As it floats to the ocean floor, a sardine (that is somehow still alive) swims away to freedom. I feel a bit indifferent about this piece; I don't hate it but I don't love it either.
The last piece I did was big, 11x17 inches in Prysmacolor pencils, and took me a long time to complete. I learned my lesson and did this one on a paper that is 8.5x11. It only took me about 5 days. I liked how quick, easy, and simple it was to make. I was really excited about the concept of this, I think its funny and cute. At first I doubted my ability to portray my idea, but as I started to make my rough draft, I realized it was a very simple thing to draw. It had easy lines and shading, and didn't require too much detail. I wish I could have found a way to incorporate some warmer colors in my piece, to contrast all the blue. But overall, I like my choice of colors and I like how I was able to get them to blend. It was a fun piece to make. This is my second piece in my mini concentrations. I did this in Prismacolor pencils on construction paper, my first time ever using the pencils. I really like how it turned out. I usually tend to avoid colored pencils because I have a hard time getting my drawings to look smooth and uniform. I was surprised that this piece turned out this good, but its a pleasant surprise.
When I first planned the piece, there was a lot of empty space. There wasn't much going on. It was pretty much just the mermaid, sunset and the water. But I decided that wasn't enough, the piece needed to tell a story. So I added the sinking ship with the Kraken, and it still didn't feel like enough. I added the marooned lifeboat and the sharks, and the bottom right corner still seemed empty, so I added the other rock, the boot, and the other mermaid. After that, I felt if I added any more it would look too busy, so I was done adding things. I wish I hadn't done it on such a big piece of paper, because it took me a long time to get this picture done. I had expected it to take me only like an hour per day for 5 days, but it was more like 10 days. If I had chosen a smaller size, I probably would have been done in half the time. But the benefit of making it so big was that I could get more detailed, which in the end helped bring the piece together. This is the first of five mini-concentrations. It's the first time in a while that I've done anything in watercolor, but I had a lot of fun making this. I am relatively satisfied with this piece, but I could have done better.
I started off drawing the beta fish, thinking I might do it in black and white (because I am better working in monotone than full color) but as I was sketching it out, I figured it would be a shame to limit it to one color. I had a hard time making the fins and tail have a flow-y kind of look, and I still think I could have done better with that. I also should have tried to make it have more of a shiny effect on the scales, because right now it looks like the fish looks kind of dull. I like how well the colors turned out, how well blended they are. I would add some more green to the fins and tail, I like the contrast of the dark blue to it. But all in all, I am very satisfied on how the colors look. This is a digital piece I did, in my interpretation of the style of an artist named Friedensreich Hundertwasser (click the Hundertwasser button to be taken to his website for some examples of his pieces). His art has an almost childlike way of portraying his ideas, which of reminded me of how it looks when I'm doodling. So basically, I created a doodle on steroids.
I wish I hadn't spent so much time coming up with an idea, so I would have more time to work on making the end product better. But it was fun, and a creative style to use. I had a hard time at the very beginning, because its difficult for me to draw hands. So i ended up taking a picture of my own hand and drawing over it so get the basic shapes. Making the lines form into the hand wasn't has hard as you'd think. It was just a matter of making sure the lines were parallel and that when they curved to form the hand, they met up again with the same line. There isn't much meaning behind the content of the picture, besides demonstrating the way my imagination flows. I just kept adding and adding stuff, so that it would have a random and yet stylistic look to it. This piece was not as difficult as I thought it would turn out to be. It was my first time using charcoal; I basically taught myself how to use it successfully. As I got going, I realized how easy this was for me, given that I work in regular pencil a lot.
I wish I hadn't done it on colored paper, because it made the highlights difficult to bring out. If I had done it on white paper, I would have been able to use a white pencil to accentuate the highlights better but since I did it on blue paper, I would have had to use a blue pencil and I would have to be careful to match it to the right kind of blue, and it just got complicated. As for the drawing of the actual picture, the most difficult part was getting the shapes of the bottles accurate. After that, shading was a piece of cake, even though it was my first time using charcoal. I wish I had made shadows darker but I am still happy about how it looks over all. |
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