Mixed Media Project

This project was a quick, end of the year, fun project. I am not a fan of mixed media, but this project was enjoyable even for me. We had a variety of choices of themes for this project, and the one I chose was Questionable. As you can see, my idea revolved around the Virgina Battle flag, commonly known as the "Confederate Flag". This is most definitely a questionable symbol in today's society, and when my teacher first mentioned the themes, this instantly popped into my head. The purpose behind my project was to try and prove the "Confederate" flag was not racist. The main piece is cardboard, and glued to it are newspaper clippings, song lyrics, internet research, and quotes all supporting the "Confederate" flag. I then painted over it with (to my loathing) watercolor paints (which I am not a fan of). The border is thick wire, with homemade barbs on it. I had originally planned on doing an intricate border, but through the course of the project I realized I wouldn't have time to do it. The barbed wire was a quick idea that I put into motion, that I believe turned out great. Over the course of this project, many people have come up to me and asked why I wanted to do this. Personally, I believe this flag represents southern pride and the spirit of our ancestors. I in no way support racism, or the ill treatment of anyone. I have actually used this project to help educate people who mistakenly believe that this flag is racist. This has definitely been one of my favorite projects to do, and I love how it turned out.

Sticky Situation Blog

      The theme for our project was a "sticky situation". We had to have rhythm, repetition, and our media was paints. I chose acrylic paint, and I repeated the barbs on the barb wire fence. I added rhythm by adding a surface to the pond and by giving texture to the grass. This is a sticky situation because the sign on the fence says "No Fishing", but the pond is clearly stocked with fish. In my opinion this was as bad of a situation as I could think of. My original plan had nothing to do with a fishing pond, as it was just repeating lots of old wooden fish hooks. I later on realized I wouldn't have time to do this, and so I changed. I am pleased with the result, even with the rushed timing on my part. Media wise, I am definitely pleased with the paints. In my opinion, acrylic paint will always be brighter and stronger than watercolors, which is why I chose it. Overall, I am happy with how this piece turned out.

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.