Up Close and Personal Project

Tomatoes

I encountered many obstacles in the Up Close and Personal Project that pushed me outside of my comfort zone. First off, I had trouble drawing the basic shape of a tomato in my thumbnails because they are irregular and unconventional. This was discouraging and I thought I was going to have to scrap the entire idea, but I kept trying. Secondly, I found it hard to work so slowly with the colored pencils. I am extremely glad I did though because my piece turned out to be just how I originally imagined it. I responded well to the challenges of this project because I didn't give up easily and I stayed positive.

This project was the first time I ever thought to step back and reflect on my piece. Seeing the piece from a different perspective was eye-opening because I was able to see the areas which needed to either be darkened or lightened. In addition to that, analyzing each tomato helped me to be more successful in the next one. Before this project, I considered how the colors of a tomato would work together. I practiced blending the red, orange, and yellow colored pencils before embarking on my final piece seen above. That exercise proved to be an advantage because there was little banding or obvious separation of the colors.

My table-mates were an amazing source of positive and constructive feedback during all stages of this project. Before starting the final piece, they helped me in the brainstorming phase and to narrow down my ideas to the two best ones. During the project, they offered encouraging sentiments that kept me motivated to work to the best of my ability. I feel that I was also a strong supporter for my peers in their pieces. On several occasions, I praised my classmates and revitalized their excitement.

Exploring New Mediums

Sprite Can: Oil Pastel 

Lollipop: Colored Pencil

Before beginning the Up Close and Personal Project, we explored several mediums: oil pastel, chalk pastel and colored pencil. The first mini project we did was the soda can using oil pastel. I am fond of working with oil pastel because the smooth lines it creates. My main struggle with oil pastels was pushing the lights and darks because I felt like all of the colors just ended up blending together. There is not great contrast because most of the blue values are  too similar. Overall, I was satisfied with my can because I think I did a commendable job at making it look realistic, but I did not love it. Going into the second project, I was hesitant about working with colored pencils. I never knew how much contrast one can create using this medium. The opportunity to use Prismacolors for the first time was very exciting because  I liked being able to blend the colors and make the whites stand out. I think my lollipop was the most successful out of the three projects because I created a shadow, highlighted the lights, and it looks like a real lollipop. The final project was a candy in a wrapper using chalk pastel. I like the way that the candy itself looks because of the smooth transitions between values of blue. Despite that, I struggled with my hand smudging the paper and it ended up looking messy. Also, I did not end up liking my choice of using light pink paper because the white of the wrapper was not able to stand out to create contrast. The candy in the wrapper was my least favorite project because I found chalk pastels difficult to work with. Although some like blending the colors with their fingers, I feel like it made my project look more messy. These projects helped to prepare me for the Up Close and Personal Project because I paid attention to small details. In addition to that, I plan on doing either bacon or sliced tomatoes, so I needed some practice with drawing foods. If I could add anything to these projects, I would draw deeper shadows. 

Candy in Wrapper: Chalk Pastel

Scientific and Contrast Drawing

Volcano Pen and Ink Drawing

When I first heard the word scientific, I thought of beakers, test tubes, and things you might find in a laboratory. As I thought about it more, I realized that I would find it more enjoyable and interesting to draw something in nature--a volcano. Before starting, we had to practice the techniques for pen and ink, charcoal, and pencil. I found the drawing of the bottles helpful because it helped me work on drawing three-dimensional figures and learn how to get different values using a pen. I showed contrast in this picture with the black and white in the trees which make them really pop out towards you. Also, in the volcano itself I darkened some areas to make others stand out. I chose pen over the other mediums because I thought it was more bold and unconventional. The other mediums were helpful to learn, but I enjoyed working with pen the most. I like the way the pen smoothly comes off on to the paper to create nice lines. I used contour lines in the body of the volcano and in the smoke coming out of it. Then, I used cross hatching to create some of the darker values within the volcano. Finally, I used stippling in the clouds to make them look like they were in the distance and not connected to the volcano. I took many risks in this project because I had never used pen and ink in a project before. Also, I tried to think outside of the box and not create something generic like an eye or a test tube. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this project and I think it was an excellent way to start the semester. This project gave me a good refresher on some of the techniques/terms that I had forgotten from Art 1.

1/24/14

Hatching

Printmaking Project

The process to get to the print pictured above was fun, but it was slow and tedious. First, we sketched two references of animals in their natural habitat. I did a turtle and a bunny, but I thought the rabbit was too simple. The next step was to sketch another image of what we would transfer to the linoleum. After carefully carving out the texture of the turtle on the linoleum, I was ready for printing. I picked purple ink and white paper because I thought the two colors complemented each other well. The hardest part of this project was the actual printing because several of my pieces were not evenly covered with ink. I learned from this project that once you do something in ink, there is no going back and changing it. Once you press the linoleum covered with ink into the paper, you cannot change what has been done. Overall I think I did quite well on this project because I am pleased with the final product.

Photoshop Project #2: Frog Tongue

       The frog tongue is my favorite photoshop project for several reasons. First, I think it is interesting that you can use the program and make the frog look like it is attached to the tongue. I was able to take two completely different images and transform them into one realistic looking picture. Also, this image came out better than the angry pancakes. To make this image, I first had to place the cropped image of the frog onto the image of the face.Then, I positioned the frog so it looked like it was part of the tongue. To make the frog the tongue color, I used the Clone Stamp tool. Finally, I added a shadow so the tongue looked like it was popping off of the face.

Photoshop Project #1: Angry Pancakes

    Making these scary pancakes was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I completed this activity while listening to Mr. Sands give step-by-step instructions that were easy to follow. To start the project I edited the original picture of the pancakes to make room for the scary mouth. Then, I pasted the fish face onto the pancakes and cropped out the area that was not necessary. Finally I changed the color of the mouth so it would look more realistic with the pancakes and I centered it appropriately. The hardest part of this project was stretching out the pancakes to make room for the mouth because it was challengiing to make it look completely normal. I enjoyed this project because I thought the concept was funny of the food eating the person instead of the other way around.