Wednesday, March 26, 2014

can


This was my first experience with oil pastels and my first experience with any of the materials used during Unit two. I struggled using the new materials and even now I don't feel too confident with any of them. I don't quite get how to do fine details and blend with these materials. Getting values with colors is a very tough challenge that some day I want to take on again.

project 2: up-close and personal

Artists Create Original Art:
1. When coming up with my idea for up-close and personal I knew I wanted to do a photograph of my friend Nick Wrenn because I had a few pictures of him focusing on different parts of his body that looked really cool. His skin is really pale and I thought it contrasted well with the browns and greens in the photo so I thought it was a pretty unique idea to draw one of my own photographs.
2. I used one of my own photos as a source for inspiration and then I came up with a few original aspects in order to better draw and emphasize different parts of my work. I changed the color of Nick Wrenn's shoes to red and added a dark purple background. The few changes I made to my artwork really added more contrast and emphasis allowing your eye to focus in on the shoe and leg.

Artists Develop Art Making Skills:
1. When working through this piece of art I struggled a lot with the techniques of colored pencils; however, I think by the end of it I really understood how finding values with color works. If I was to do a second project dealing with the same type of medium and artistic focus I would definitely be able to apply the techniques in a more masterful way. By the end of I really learned how to layer colors on top of each other and only apply white and black when attempting to really bring out the lights and darks. I also learned how to add different colors to an object to make it appear brighter such as adding orange and yellow to the red shoe to make it pop.
2.Through this project I definitely gained skill with colored pencils. I used to not understand how to make values and depth with colored pencils and I wouldn't say I've mastered it by any means but I'm definitely gaining familiarity with the materials.

Artists Collaborate:
1. Yes, as I was working through this project I often asked my tablemates to give me their opinion on it so I could gather constructive criticism. Kalabria helped me see the parts of the project that I needed to darken up more especially with the log that the foot is resting on. I would ask my tablemates to hold my project up so I could look at it far away and then I'd let them look at it to and it helped me see which parts I needed to add more value to really emphasize the colors.
2. As I was nearing the end of my project, I begun to realize how exactly to add in true value to a piece of colored pencil artwork. I realized (unfortunately a little late) that doing strokes of varying pressure on the paper instead of trying to just "shade" the colors in was much more effective and allowed for objects to really take shape. Through the help of Ms. Rossi and Kalabria showing me how to really add in the darks I was able to realize this.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

pastel and color pencil work


Working with pastels is a lot harder than I thought and I know I am really going to have to work hard on my final project. Blending colors and adding shadows and highlights is very time consuming and the layering put into both of these pieces is ridiculous!