Canvas Painting

This is a painting I did of a sunrise in a savannah. If I were there, it would probably feel warm and a slight cool breeze. I might hear some birds, but otherwise it seems like it would be quiet and peacefull. If I were in the painting, I would feel very relaxed and maybe tired. I would feel all of these things because of the colors and shades I used in the painting. The bright and warm colors invite you to feel relaxed and refreshed. The smooth brush strokes in the sky also add to the effect. The hardest part was trying to make a smooth, seemless, transition in the sky from a darker red to the lighter yellow. I think that it turned out pretty well, though.

Adobe Illustrator Flowers

These are flowers I made using Adobe Illustrator. They were originally star shapes, but I bloated and layered them to look like flowers. There is also a 4 color gradient. For some of the flowers, I used a roughing effect to make the pedals bend or sharpen.

Clay Sculpture

The top picture is a model I made in the media center using an IPad app called "123d Sculpt", which I used as a reference to make the bottom pig. The objective of the sculpture is to make a clay rattle. To do this, I first had to make 2 bowls, put a couple of little clay balls in one bowl, then scratch and slip the other bowl on top of it and smooth out the edges. That made the base. Then I had to mold the clay ball into an oval shape for the pig's body. Then I had to add additional parts of the pig such as the eyes, nose, ears, and tail, by scratching and slipping each one on as well. The hardest part was keeping the shape of an oval without the two clay pots coming apart when trying to mold it. It is also hard to know if the little clay balls inside of the pig are going to stick to the inside of the pig, which I hope doesn't happen. The pig is currently waiting to go into the kiln where I hope, when it is done, to hear the balls rattle inside of it when it comes out. This is one of my more favorite projects and I can't wait to see how it comes out!

Mud Zentangle

This is a zentangle that I worked with on a team using mud on the courtyard wall. A zentangle is just a big mess of patterns, with no pre design or reference, you just draw patterns and put them together. Zentangles are designed to be soothing and relaxing, which it was. It was also very hot a couple of the days we were out there. In the pictures it is not completely finished, we were still filling in the empty spaces. The hardest part was trying to come up with different patterns, but in the end it looks pretty diverse, just a little bit cluttered.

Forced Perspective

This, I thought, turned out to look very real and very cool. I held up a spray can and had my team take a picture so it looked like I was using spray paint, but really it is a cloud. It worked well because the coud actually looks like what the spray paint would. It took longer and was harder than you would probably think. One thing that was hard was that the clouds kept changing shape and size, so when we thought we had a good angle, the cloud could have changed by then. It also took many many shots to get it to go exactly with the tip of the cloud so it looked like it was coming out. After a while, with a lucky shot, I think it turned out very good.

Angry Pancakes

Angry Pancakes. Made in Photoshop.

Midterm Reflection

Most Successful

I feel like my value scale car is my best work so far. This is because most everything worked out just like I hoped it would. I included almost the full range of shading value throughout the car. It was also a very fun unit for me, which made me want to work on it more and do a better job on it. There are a few mistakes here and there, such as the tire looking a little bit flat, but overall, I am very happy with the way it came out. It was the most successful in my opinion because one of my strengths is in shading, and I feel confident doing it, so that made the car look more realistic.

Learned the Most From

Although it may not be my best drawing, I feel that I learned the most from drawing the skeleton (before drawing on right, after drawing on left). This was the very first drawing I did in this class, so I had no previous knowledge on how to draw not only a skeleton, but a lot of things. Drawing the skeleton for the first time was hard because I was sitting on the side of it, not looking at it straight on which made it hard to draw. I learned all about perspective in this unit and that you should only draw what you see, so from where I was sitting, I drew what I saw in the left picture, which turned out much better than the first. I also learned about the bones in a skeleton, and how they should be drawn. With these things I learned, I drew a better drawing than the first time.

Printing Project

These are a couple of printings I did of a bald eagle. First, I had to draw the eagle, then transfer it onto a rubber brick like thing. Then, I cut out all of the parts that you see that do not have paint on them, like linocut. Then I rolled paint onto the rubber and pressed it onto the paper. It was hard at first to figure out the right amount of paint to put on the rubber and how much pressure to put on the rubber when transferring the paint to the paper so no paint would get into the cracks that I cut out. I learned that it is good to try different things and different methods of cutting, transferring, and pressing so I could find the best way to do it. The hardest part was figuring out how I would show the feathers on the head of the eagle, but I think it turned out pretty well overall.

Spray Paint Stencil Portrait

This is a project that took several days to complete. First, I had to saw the wood to make a frame. Then, I had to staple cardboard to the back of the frame and cut off the edges that stuck out. Then I painted the background of the cardboard green. Next, I had to take the picture of me and put it into photoshop. I restricted the number of colors that were in the image to only 4 colors (I chose green, blue, red, and black). Then I projected that photoshopped image onto the wall and traced each layer on a separate sheet of paper for each color. Then, I used an exacto knife to cut out all of the shapes that made up the colors. Then I laid the layers down in the frame and spray painted each color at a time. This project was fun but challenging. It takes patience to cut every shape out individually and trace each of them evenly. I feel like it came out pretty well in the end, though.

Self Portrait

This is a self portrait I drew of myself. I had to use a lot of shading for my hair, and use exact measurements for my facial features. For example, all eyes are located directly in the middle of everyone's head, so I had to measure my head and find the middle. Also, the distance between your eyes is the measure of one eye length. The hair was a lot easier than I thought it would be. A lot of shading and shaping was involved. Overall, I think it is a pretty good self portrait, but it is hard to make it look exactly like you.

My Stencil

My stencil made in Photoshop.

Value Scale Drawing

This is a car a drew using the value scale and shading. I think this drawing came out very well and the part I like most about it is how the windshield has a smooth transition from dark to light to make it look real as possible. I also liked how we used rolled up pieces of paper to smudge some of the darker areas into white areas to make the transitions. If I had to do this project again, I would use a bigger variety of darks and lights to make the car look more real, and have an established light source. The hardest part of this was the wheels, because in the picture I drew this off of, the wheels were very hard to see, so there really was no reference point so I had to guess where the wheels were exactly and what position they were in.

Junkpile Shadow Art

In class, there were two trash bags filled with all sorts of junk, and we were assigned to arrange some of that junk to create a shadow image. My group made a castle with a cardboard box, cups, golf balls, tubes, and a little broken figurine. This turned out somewhat successful in portraying a castle, but it was hard with the limited amount of recources we had to use. The hardest part of building this was coming up with an idea of what to make out of all of the junk, and the next hardest part was figuring out how we would arange the junk items in a way that it would look like a castle in the shadow. I learned from this piece that teamwork was essential with coming up with ideas and finding the right pieces to make this look as good as possible.

Shark Reduced Image Level

This is a shark that I reduced the image levels from using Photoshop.

UFO Drop Shadow Photoshop

This is a UFO with a shadow made using Photoshop.

City Rhino

This is a rhino in a city I made using Photoshop and a Photoshop tutorial by Mr. Sands. I cut all of the grass around the rhino in one picture out, and copy and pasted it into a city street picture.

Chick the Skeleton

This is Chick the skeleton. The drawing on the right is from the first day of Visual Arts class and the one on the left is my final drawing after we learned about each bone and about perspective. I think i improved a lot, showing each bone individually and in more detail. I also drew it from the side because I was looking at her side from where I was drawing her. Because of where I was sitting, the first drawing is worse because I had to guess where all of the bones where and could not be as precise. If I had to do this project again, I would try to draw the bones more to where they are on the skeleton. The hardest part of my drawing was the ribs because it was hard to fit each one in perfectly and have the right amount. With this drawing, I learned that I have drawing potential and that skeletons are hard to draw.

Newimal Bones Drawing

This is the original newimal.

A newimal is a "new animal", like mixing two animals together. In class we drew the bones on the inside of the newimals. The newimal I drew is a cross between a mountain lion and a hawk. I used primary bones for the basic structure of the newimal and other bones needed for each specific animal.