Project #5: Prints

The project I picked for my second and final freestyle piece of art were my prints. This project was probably in my top two. It required a lot of different skills and I enjoyed learning all of them. The panda on the right was made in a different process then the leaf print on the left. For the panda, we first had to pick an animal. I have always loved pandas, so I picked that as my subject. Then drew the animal onto thin paper, which we then retraced with sharpie onto a small square of linoleum. Linoleum is usually what the tiles on the classroom are made out of. It consists of renewable materials such as wood flour, ground cork dust, solidified linseed oil, and mineral fillers like calcium carbonate. We used this because it is a material that can easily be cut. We used small knives and different cutters in order to create different lines or textures. Once we traced the animal onto the linoleum with sharpie we cut the lines with the small knives and began to add small details. While cutting we used a tool called a "stop." The name explains what it is; it is a tool that you hold against the table that you hold to the linoleum up against to prevent it from sliding. Although the knives were small we still had to be careful. Ms.Brokke always reminded us to cut in the direction away from us, and move the piece of linoleum when it was difficult to cut the other way. After all the cutting was done, we selected multiple colors of ink, and you could combine colors as well. You would put a little bit of ink on the stop and use the roller to get a consistent amount of ink on all sides of the roller. The next step was to roll the ink on the linoleum. You would keep rolling until the whole square was covered and you would then put piece of paper on top of the linoleum, press down on it evenly all over and wait a little bit. After that you would peel back a corner to see if it was ready, and if it was, you would peel the paper off and then a print would be made. The leaf print was a side project after the animal print, but I thought it was a really cool project because of the way it was made so simply. For this small project, you take masking tape and you make a rectangle/square on the bare table. You then take any colored ink and roll it onto the table. After that you can make any design. I took an unsharpened pencil and drew a few leaves. I used two different color inks, blue and pink to create somewhat of a purple. This was one of the projects that I learned the most from because there were so many steps to this.

Project #4: Photograph

I used this photograph as one of my freestyle pieces of art because I like the way I was captured in the photo. It shows a different side of me because I'm usually very loud and obnoxious. This picture shows that I can be quiet and that I can be calm. There wasn't much in the process of taking these photographs. Ms.Brokke gave us cameras and allowed us to be with partners of our choosing. You would go to an area around the school and have your partner take a picture of you. Tray was my partner and it didn't take long for us to find a spot for picture taking. I saw these really pretty pink flowered trees and knew I wanted my picture to be in this tree. I climbed on the branch of the tree and at first I sat on the tree in a different way with my face towards the camera, but I didn't like it that way. So I asked tray to take a picture of me in this pose with my face directed away from the camera. After we finished taking pictures, we went to the computer lab and learned how to use photoshop to enhance these pictures and turn them into black and white. We also cropped them and put different values in, even though it was black and white. This project gave me the opportunity to work with photoshop for the first time, and also showed me that different background or poses can change a picture.

Project #2:Ceramics project

This project was one of my favorite projects because it was a hands on project and I could add my own designs. The medium of this project was clay. A medium is the material you used to create or make something. The clay was originally gray but when it was heated it turned white. I feel that the design element that was most stressed for this project was form and shape. Form is when something not only has length and height, but depth as well. Shape is an enclosed area that is made by line, texture, space , and value. These elements can be combined as well. The technique used for this project was radial design. Radial design is any type of design that goes outward from the center. I used diamonds as my radial design. I put them all to create to follow a star like shape. I didn't really make this project to have a purpose, but it was made in a bowl like way. The thought of the diamonds didn't really occur to me until Ms.Brokke told us to draw some random designs as a warm up. I learned the process of cutting clay and repeatedly hitting it until all the air bubble are out, and cutting it, and using rollers to create a flat piece of clay. I also learned the process of putting glaze on it and which temperatures the clay has to be heated in. If we had the chance to redo this project I would add color to my bowl and I would glaze every single area.

Project #3: Acrylic Landscape Painting

       

This was the longest assignment we have worked on in art. There were many steps and lessons we had to learn to make this. First, we had to choose a certain landscape that we would want to use in our painting. We then printed it out so we could incorporate everything that was in the picture into our painting. My picture had more of an Asian theme and there was a temple like structure in the back with trees surrounding it, and included rocks and a small pond surrounding it as well. For this painting I used the red monochromatic theme. This means I can only use red and black and white with red. To create this paintings we had to use atmospheric perspective. Atmospheric perspective is how the atmosphere affects the appearance and when is it seen from a distance. When you get closer to the object the colors and details of the object become less obvious. To create this perspective I tried to bring the temple like structure closer, to make the smaller details less obvious. I tried to make it seem like the light source was coming from the top left corner. In order  to do that I make the left side lighter in value. I put more white on top of the rocks and adding more value made it seem more dimensional. I used different brush strokes for different parts of the painting. For the background I used thick messy strokes to fill it with color, and I used thin wispy brush strokes for the water. This project didn't really turn out the way I wanted it to, but I enjoyed working with the paints and learning how to make new colors with the primary and secondary colors. 

Project #1: Pastel still life

For this project we had to bring in five items or more. You could bring in any five random items or you could bring items that were all in the same category, such as, candy. I used two glass bottles and three wine cups for my project. My project did not turn out the way it actually looked on the table. The original plan was to make the large wine cup stand out and look like it was in front of all the other items, but instead it looks like they are all right next to each other. A thumbnail sketch is a small picture or description. We used small cardboard cutouts as a "viewfinder." It helped me view the different ways I could place my items and it helped me decide on which I liked best, and which I would use for my actual project. I tried putting more value into the objects. Value is when you make some parts of an object lighter or darker. Adding value to an object makes it seem more real and dimensional. I created a light source by placing the objects in an angle so that the light would hit one place. I enjoyed this project because I was able to use pastel, and I was able to pick the items I could draw.