Up-Close and Personal

        This is my Up-close and personal project. My two ideas that I chose were snake/Scales, and a frog, as seen in my thumbnails. Our medium choices were oil pastels, colored pencils, or chalk pastels. I used chalk pastel pencils that I had and I believe it turned out great.One of the problems I continually faced was excess chalk getting EVERYWHERE. On others papers, on backpacks, and on any white space on the paper. As you can see, the addition of a background reduced the brightness of the snake and in turn made it more natural.I enjoyed using the chalk pastels, as I have never used them before. It was a new experience that brought complications, but overall was enjoyed.I wasn't sure adding the background was a smart idea, considering I usually would not, but I decided to take a risk and try it. I am definitely pleased with the results, and will hopefully be using this technique again.

Scientific Drawing

                        These are pictures of my Scientific Drawings. We had a choice of pen, pencil, or charcoal as as a medium for this project, and I chose to use all three.The first picture is of my thumbnail sketches, of which I chose to sketch Bigfoot or electricity. Both of those are relatively scientific. I got the Bigfoot idea from Robert Patterson's Bigfoot video filmed in California, and I chose to do one of my topics on Bigfoot. I got the idea to put the Bigfoot in a forest from a picture of a snowy forest i found on pintrest. The artistic element that we used was Value and Contrast. I felt that electricity, or specifically lightning would better represent this, so that's what chose.I used the familiar shading of pencils with the harshness  of charcoal to create deep pools of darkness with an epic contrast of white lightning.The hardest part of this project was getting the different shades blended to look natural. Another problem was that I kept getting black charcoal fingerprints in the streaks of lightning, and that was frustrating.Fortunately my rubber eraser lifted them easily, and it also helped create highlights on the kite. Overall, the encouragement of my peers helped me get through this project, from the constructive criticism to the words of encouragement around the room. I enjoyed this project, and it greatly improved my artistic abilities.

          This drawing is based on the work of MC Escher. He used two and three point drawings to make his creations POP, and I tried to do the same. Mine is a two point drawing, with all of the horizontal lines leading to two points. We created these by taping two sheets of scrap paper to the sides and forming a horizon line with multiple vanishing points. My drawing is supposed to be of an underwater house, with many creatures around it. One of the things I liked about this project was the freedom we had designing it. We got to choose the background and we were allowed to even create fictional creatures and scenes. We also used value to create light and dark spots on the building. This was one of my favorites to draw.

            This is my drawing of my pair of Nike shoes. We each had to draw our shoes so that we could practice drawing perspective and distance. The shoe underneath is made to look in the back, giving the illusion of distance. There is a couple methods of creating distance, both of which I used. Drawing the back shoe lighter is a method, along with making it slightly smaller that the front shoe. I personally think this is my best pencil drawing, and I am really proud of it.

            My third project was an acrylic painting done on canvas. This painting has 4 layers, known as the composition. These include the sky, background, middle ground, and foreground. The sky is stormy, and has lightning, which helps to give the effect of atmospheric pressure. The objects in the background are lighter that those of the foreground. This is also atmospheric pressure. The light source in the painting is the lightning. The edges of the mountains are lit up, along with the shadow of the plants all show the value of the painting. I used an analogous color scheme, with various "blues" in use. Short brush strokes give the feeling of choppy, torn waves, while smoother strokes allow the mountains to look more realistic.

                 This is my finished ceramic bowl. You can see the radial design emitting from the center of the dish, of which was required. The bowl is 1 foot long, by 8 inches wide and is 2 inches deep. Symmetry was a large part of my design, meaning each side is identical. We wedged the clay, removing air, and we then flattened it to the size we needed. After it was flattened, we either slumped or humped it over a mold. Mine was slumped over the mold, so that the edges would end up flattened, like shown. I am currently using my bowl to hold fruits, which was it's original purpose. When  I began, I decided that I wanted a pointy or spiky design, so the outer edge is multiple triangles. I learned that when using clay, you need to wedge it or it could explode. I also learned that if you are going to work on clay over multiple days, you need to keep it covered and soft. If I were to redo this project, I would probably use other colors. 

         This is my finished pastel painting. I had stacked three soup cans on top of each other, with a small bottle of hot sauce in the middle. I wanted to create something unusual  and unique, and I believe that is what I have done. It took me a few tries, but I finally got the cans to stay. I used a thumbnail sketch, which is a series of quick sketches to brainstorm ideas. To create a thumbnail sketch, you use a view finder, which is a cardboard rectangle with the center cut out, forming a frame. The 3D effect on the cans was created by adding value to the pastel. The shadows are an example of value, and were formed by darkening the base shade. This adds the effect to the pastel. The light source is coming out of the top right corner, which is lighter than the other corners.