Scratch board

1. Artists Communicate through their work:
This scratch board project really gave me a chance to express my feelings, while also showing movements and detail. It is probably hard to tell from the picture, but these planes are flying above the earth in an atmosphere they would not normally fly in due to the air pressure and amount of oxygen. Anyways, that wasn't the point, I was trying to demonstrate the need to be free with your life in a sense that sometimes things will bring you down, but you still have literally the whole world to look around for new opportunities.

2. Artists Reflect:
During my time on this piece, I often thought to myself about what I was planning on doing to give this a twisted, interesting outcome and still manage my time. Well the background I was first going to us was a sophisticated sunset that would have taken a long tie to complete, and probably take away from the focus of the planes. This gave me an idea of having a cool, not as detailed, but still good background. I thought it might be cool to have the planes flying above the sky and the clouds to a higher part of the earth where the sun was rising. This idea stuck with me ever since, and is what I used to finalize this piece.

3. Artists develop Art Making Skills:
Although I have some experience with scratch boards, I have never really created something on my own with something this big. When I was little, I had small scratch boards that showed a light picture of where I would carve in to. That way it acted sort of like a trace type thing to help me, but now it's different. I have to understand where all the highlights go, where shadows are so I can leave them black, and to be sure I add in extensive detail. Some of the minor details that the naked eye wouldn't see at first actually make a big difference upon closer examination. This way the viewer has 2 ways to look at the art instead of 1.

Figure Drawing (Full size)

1. Artists Collaborate:
This figure drawing involved a lot of effort from me and my partner. This was an assignment that required a classmate in order for me to draw him and vice-versa. My partner, Noah, was working with me on this project. We talked with each other and came up with many ideas after drawing our other figure drawings. Since we had to be more expressive than usual, our poses had to be more "abstract" than we might normally do. This way it will teach us new techniques for drawings, as well as creating a very interesting piece of art that shows a different way of using line to demonstrate figures.

2. Artists Solve Problems:
This figure drawing project had to be completed in either dark pencil, or charcoal. Being that charcoal is the best option because it is the most visible, and a better way to express values. What really troubled me was perfecting the proportions on such a large scale. It had to be "Life sized" but not actual size so there was still a margin for error. The way I fixed this problem was to follow a technique where the body is 8 heads high, etc. Even though the body was in a particularly awkward position, I still managed to get the proportions.

3. Artists Develop Art Making Skills:
During the entirety of this project, I effectively learned how to use shading and value for clothes in the areas of charcoal. Although charcoal can me easy to create mistakes and turn things black, you can control the amount by assessing: where the light is coming from, and how the folds of the fabric will influence the flow of the piece. Through some of the earlier exercises we did in the past, like the "Cloth hanging over a table" sketch where we captured the lighting and shaded folds.

P.S- Ms. Rossi, for some reason the pictures I took were fine, but when I uploaded them they got distorted to a lower resolution. I hope you can excuse this, there is nothing I can do about it right now.

Detailed Gesture

Finished Portrait

 

Artists Communicate through their Work:

Using the style that I had while making this piece really speaks to the viewer. When you see the terminator, you wouldn't think of him as being happy and generic. I also picked this due to the nature of the project as being "Expressionist." Also these expressions are all the more reason for me to learn how to draw it better in the future.

Artists Reflect:

This project was really hard to decide and coordinate how everything would work out. Everyone in our class thought that with expressive portraits that include twisted art always have to incorporate "Zombies." I thought about doing that, but other people were doing it too so I thought I might spice it up a little by using a half-cyborg face.

Artists Develop Art Making Skills:

As I was working through the details of the face in this project I realized that I could add in some blood and some other special features. Features including rips in the skin, tears in the clothes, and burns along the afflicted area. It took a lot of time and effort to try and perfect these techniques. Although this is my first time, I feel I can improve later on.

 

Gesture Drawings

Artists Collaborate: 

Gesture drawings require a partner in order to actually draw it from life. As our drawing sessions went on, we each thought of new expressive ways for each other to pose as. This way we could deepen our thought-process of how these figures are converted from life to paper.  

Artists Solve Problems:

These drawings should be completed within a couple minutes and a major problem that strikes many is proportions. Even though gestures can seem extremely simple, there is much to think about when drawing the curvature of the body. This can be solved by starting off with easier gestures, and slowly movig up to more difficult ones.

Artists Develop Art Making Skills:

Every artist has there own special way of drawing, especially when it comes to something like this. I thought my gesture drawings were pretty good, until I saw some of the ones that other people had drawn. They were unbelievable! But then I had come to realize that some of these people had been working with figures for many years, and me only just for a little while.

Digital Figure Drawing [iPad]

The digital gesture drawings is very different from drawing with pencil and pen. There is more realism that can be added, and mistakes are easy to fix. This really helped me draw the gestures better because the tools on the iPads are more unique than an actual pen.

Practice Cyborg Portrait

Self Portrait #1

For this new project we are practicing how to catch the scales of the figures. In order to boost us up a bit, our teacher gave a skull and some tracer-paper. We were supposed to align all the facial features correctly and draw like it was your own skull. I didn't like it very much do to the fact that it used little "Still life drawing" meaning that looked at a mirror for a little bit, but it was mostly paper. 

Skeleton Sketch

This skeleton is one of my first basic figure drawings that will aid in my understanding of the human body and the way it moves. Use this as a "Base" will surely help me determine the correct ways for drawing the body in unique types of positions.

Completed Marble Project

Artists Take Risks:
This project was te first time I ever used prisma colored pencils, and I liked them. Prisma pencils provide more advantages when it comes to highlights and coloring when compared to regular colored pencils. The hardest part of this project was perfecting the highlights and correcting the shading on the pastel-paper.


Artists Solve Problems:
As I was working through this piece, I went through some drastic changes. One of which was changing the background entirely to a different subject. I think this change made the artwork look better than if it were a blank background with only a few colors. I also had trouble trying to get good highlights on the marbles during my practice drawing, but found that if I combine the colors together, it works.


Artists Reflect:
During this project, I had to take breaks to figure out what to do next. Of course the most important element of this project was demonstrating translucent abilities in the marbles. Anyways, when I was reflecting I decided I had to spruce up the colors and brights to bring the viewer's eye across the page. In order to do this I combined complementary colors with one-another. I also added more white to the highlights and brighter areas.

The Things We See Though (Project Progress)

Prisma Candy

Iteresting Perspective Project

 

Artists Take Risks:

This was my first project where I really elaborated on the use of colored pencils. I also used a particular perspective that might find other artists stumped. The purpose was for me to test my skills with using gradients in both regular drawing pencils and colored. The color used in this picture was meant to stand out due to the fact that it is the only color in the picture and that it everything else is gray. 

Artists Develop Art Making Skills:

In order to create such a piece as this, I had to explore the different types of perspectives that involve specific detail in order to give the viewer a different feeling. The technique for this perspective was to involve a sort of bending in the work, like as if you were looking through a key-hole or a glass. In a way, this is a 4 point perspective piece because of the vanishing points.

Artists Create Original Art:

Before we even started brainstorming about this project, I remembered a time when I would always play with Hot Wheels and see how they would look. The different points of view that was given when looking down at the ground as if you were an ant. This sparked an idea of having a scene where cars pass by and you see them as if you were literally sitting in the middle of the road.

Instrument Contour

Classroom Contour

Colored Bottle