Mixed Media Project

Artists Collaborate

Did you ask another student for feedback during your work process? While I was working I asked Mckayla for feedback throughout the entire project and she helped me make sure all of the elements were still flowing together.

Did someone help you understand important information or inspire you?

While I was working on mine, Megan was working on her questionable visual journal entry and it really inspired me with the extremely odd pictures she was adding to her project.

Artists Reflect

When did you step back and analyze you work during this project? Honestly, after putting any element of my project down, I would step back and analyze the overall composition. This process made it take a little while longer but it helped me to ensure that my project would flow when it was all finished.

Did you consider how ideas would work before you tried them? Before gluing anything down permanently I would consider how the idea would work and i would place different elements in different places temporarily to see what it would look like.

Artists Create Original Art

How did you use your own unique ideas in your work?
When creating this project I tried to combine pictures from magazines and paint in a way that displayed my own unique ideas so it wasn't just a collage. I tried to mix different magazine pictures together in order to create a new image that was more unique.
Did you use a source for inspiration, then combine it with your own ideas to make it original?

Unlike my other projects, I didn't use as many references at all. I just let my creativity run wild as I sifted through magazines until I found something I really really liked.

project #3: painting and repetition

 Artists Develop Art Making Skills
1. Going into this project I was very shaky with painting. My last time painting was freshman year and I was not happy with my final product; however, while doing this painting I learned a lot of new techniques and processes! For one, I learned the proper way to mix colors and working with my tablemates learned how to make just the right shades of colors we were looking for. I also learned different brushstroke techniques that allowed me to blend colors together to really make my painting have depth.

2. I definitely gained a lot of familiarity with the materials. I am now a lot more comfortable with mixing and painting with acrylic paint and I actually do it on my own time at home now!

Artists Collaborate

1. While working on this project I did ask for a lot of advice from my tablemates. Before I started each layer of the background/foreground I would ask Kalabria and Breanna what they thought of it and would make a few colors and see which ones I think would work best to start with. We also shared colors a lot which saved a lot of time.

2. Breanna inspired me partly with the color scheme because even though we were doing completely different objects we ended up using a lot of the same colors and as I was working I would see her using a color and realize that color would fit perfectly in my painting too.

Artists Solve Problems

1. The major challenges I faced while doing this work was pushing my self on the lights and darks in the painting. When painting I am always very cautious on adding lights and darks in because if you mess those up it will set off the entire composition; however, if you don't put enough end the painting ends up very bland and your eyes have nowhere to focus on. I responded to this challenge by trying to push myself to really add in darks and lights. I added in whites for the reflection on the teeth and gum even though I wasn't sure if I should and I darkened up the back teeth with grey and the tongue with a lot more dark blue and purple than I first wanted to.

2. My work took a slight turn when I accidently got a drop of red paint on one of my teeth. Fortunately for me, the chipped tooth was the one with the red and I decided to blend the red in with the yellows which made the chipped tooth stand out more and appear as if it was "injured". I also accidently painted a dark brown line facing the wrong direction on one of the bottom teeth; however, this mistake encouraged me to darken up the bottom back teeth with grey and more yellow which I think embellished my piece in the end.

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.

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!

First project: contrast

I was very proud of my outcome of my first project. I went from a less-refined idea to one that really worked with pen ink. I enjoyed doing the stippling in the center and on the corners a lot and I like the contrast of the tips of the petals and the ends of them.  However, I could've been more delicate when shading the petals and leaves; my lines are a little all over the place and in some areas they don't flow very well.

Paper bag

Today in class we worked on shading with charcoal/pencils to draw the values of a paper bag. I used pencils and I'm actually really proud of my bag. Although it's not perfect I think I outdid my self which makes me really happy.