Artist Statement: Every artist has a style, or a dialect in which they create their pieces. I'm not completely convinced the style I have is completely unique, but my moral behind my style may be. When I start to create a piece I first focus on the aesthetic of it, and how that kind of aesthetic makes me feel. My goal in making that piece then becomes to put that feeling into someone else when they look at my work. The feel of my work for a while has been eery, but beautiful. I love when art and photography change my opinion of beauty even just a little bit. I'd love to show someone something that they may not initially believe to be what they consider lovely, but then change their perception, and broaden their definition of beauty. My overall value in my art is to push the boundaries of peoples minds, and broaden the view of beauty for everyone.
Fruit oil paintings:
I did this apple painting with oil paint and brushes, this was a super helpful practice to be successful with my landscape oil painting.
I did this apple painting with oil paint and a palette knife to create the interpretative effect, but i didn't end up loving this method of painting.
Reflection Project
Coming up with this idea was challenging because I had a hard time not being generic with the idea. I've always loved meditation however, so I have a bunch of candles and incense that inspired this piece. The candles are not reflective enough without the glasses though so I think adding them added a lot of highlights and really awesome reflective elements. Some challenges while I was doing this project were that the yellow reflects that I wanted to do in this piece aren't showing up very well on the black paper. This is generally what happens with yellow prismas anyways, but I really wanted some yellow in the piece, so that was frustrating. Some things that went well with this piece however are the really bright white highlights that I was able to achieve on the glass. Overall this piece was pretty successful I think, its clear what I was trying to convey in the piece, there is a reflective element, and my love for adding a little color was in this piece as well.
Everyday Object
When I started this piece I wasn't sure how to make it clear that I was trying to convey night time. I started by making a very warm purple toned sky, and as I did the sketches I just added lots of shadows. The everyday object part of this piece became everyday objects when I realized that the couch looked a little too out of place, in terms of the placement and the abrupt color. So I decided to add a lamp too to give some context for the couch, and add to the colors on the piece. Some problems I had with this piece were the highlights, I couldn't get a lot of bright highlights on or from the lamp on the couch or grass. I think in the future the best way to fix this would be to add more white to my mix of colors and not over blend the paint with water and other paints already. This piece is my favorite that I was able to do so far in this class, and I think its really unique and pushed me out of my comfort zone.
Interior Spaces
These are some of the sketches I did to create this project.
This piece was really difficult for me for some reason and I think I chose a medium that only made it more challenging. When I started thinking of ideas I knew I was going to do a home theater or the interiors of a cooler. I decided to go with the theater, but the challenge with that is that I don't have any personal reference photos, so I had to create something out of pictures I didn't take, which I've done successfully before, but in this project it added another challenging element. Something that went well in this project was the colors I chose were different than the color palette I normally choose, and I think the colors are pretty together. However if I were to do this project again I would probably add more color, since the blacks and brown and subtle warm tones kind of made it look monochromatic. I think the overall success of this piece could have been better, but I learned a lot about the way I want to do watercolor in the future. My issues with this piece were mostly because of my bland composition and lack of range of colors. I know what to do in the future that would make this piece better though, so I'm seeing this as a learning experience.
Self Portrait
My self portrait started with several ideas for the back round and I tried to decide whether I wanted to do realistic coloring or not. My sketches ended up with a black and white composition, realistic coloring, or filtered with blue and red tones throughout the entirety of the piece. I ended up going with a more realistic composition and a simple background. Some things that went well with this piece were the eyes, though they are a little disproportional, they had a lot of good values and the eye shadow on the lids I think was good, and it gave the piece the look that I wanted to get. Some things that went poorly however was the shirt,I think the pattern didn't work out very realistically and it doesn't look the way I wanted it to like the reference picture I used. I learned while doing this piece to take my time, when painting I tend to move quickly and rush through blending, but using a small brush and spending time on the small details and layering colors really helped me focus. This focus improved my technique with paints and were a great method for my first portrait painting. Overall I think this piece was successful and I had a great experience with this challenge.
Pet Portrait
For this pet portrait project I drew my best friends cat in prisma color pencils. Starting this project I knew that I would struggle with the fur texture so I wanted to do an animal with dark fur so that I could really focus on contrasting colors and highlights, which ended up being a crucial element in the success of this piece. A successful part of this piece was the eyes, I decided to start this piece with the eyes so that I could tell what else I would want to I would want to focus on in realism. Another successful element was the whiskers, I think using the white gel pen made them a lot brighter and more convincing, and they added more dimension to the fur which was crucial to this piece. An element that was unsuccessful was that I struggled with some of the proportioning with the ears and the one leg coming onto the blanket. I thought that they made this piece look a little more juvenile and if I had a chance to redo this piece I think I would try to focus on that more. While doing this piece I learned how to do fur texture with pencils which I had never done previously, there was a lot more layering than I expected, but getting the pencils layered thickly to a varnish I think was essential to get any sense of realism. I also learned how to create a glossy look with eyes so they look like they reflect and so they look like they're focused on something. (not looking two different directions)
Oil Landscape
This is my landscape oil painting for art 4. I did this piece with intention to create a warm sunset in nature, which I don't think was translated very well so this piece ended up looking a lot cooler than I expected. I learned a lot with this piece though, I learned to take my time blending so that I could get a really nice gradient in the sky, and I had what I think is an effective reflective look in the water. Something that didn't go well with this piece however was the trees in the back, I added layer after layer with different greens and blue and yellow to try to create depth and convincing highlights, but I couldn't get the realism that I was shooting for. Over all I think this piece was okay, but not the best work I've done, and I would definitely done a lot of things differently if I had the chance to do this piece again.
Nature Vs. Mechanical
Starting this project was kind of difficult for me because I had some trouble coming up with an original composition. I ended up going with an idea that has been in my head for a little while, though the composition is on the nose I think it's fitting for this project. I did a computer mouse in a real mouse hole, with realistic coloring, and a lot of focus on highlighting. Something that went well in this project was the mechanical aspect of the piece, I think that the coloring and extreme highlights on the mouse in the front turned out really well. Something that didn't go well was the brick work on the ground of the piece, I thought it turned out kind of flat, but I varnished it a bit too quickly so I had a hard time added more dimension and shading. If I had a chance to do this piece over again that's probably something Id focus on, as well as adding more vines, and maybe adding a vines around the cords on the mouses. Some techniques I learned inn this piece came through to me with the challenge of shading, I learned that layering the pencils more carefully is a much more effective way to get depth with the pencils. I did make the mistake of doing thick layers on the ground, but with the rest of the piece I really took my time and I think that shows with the mice and the vines in the background. Over all this piece turned out well and I'm proud of the outcome of it, I learned a lot about prisma color, and I'm inspired to work with the pencils again in the future.
Final Reflection
This class was a huge challenge with a fast pace and lots of projects to keep up with. I not only learned about different techniques in art but time management and self motivation. I had a lot of difficulty keeping up with all of the projects that we had as well as the blog posts, but I ended up having success with a lot of the pieces. The best unit for me was the animal portrait, I had never drawn an animal at that amount of detail, and focusing on fur texture and the level of realism I did was super challenging although satisfying. I learned this semester a lot about my creative limits as well. In addition to this class I took a painting class third period, and though I love art and enjoyed taking two art classes, it sometimes felt like a lot, and I sometimes became overwhelmed with creative blocks or lack of motivation to paint for several hours in the day. And I think this came through in some of my pieces this semester, although I really wanted to create unique and tactfully created pieces in this class, I sometimes lacked motivation and felt burnt out, leading to a few pieces I think could have used a lot more attention and precision. Next semester I'm taking just one class in art, so I can't wait to give it my full attention and come up with some really great concentration pieces. Over all I learned a lot in this class, and I think I really thrived in a class with peers that are incredibly talented, along with having a teacher that constantly provides creative intel, constructive criticism, and motivation.