Art Journaling

My topic for art journaling was "outside" I used this to create a landscape made out of lots of different materials.

Artists Communicate Through their Work

My piece conveys the true meaning of the word "outside". I added the definition of outside to show that it doesn't just mean outdoors, it is anything beyond a boundary which is very broad. The openness in the definition is represented by a broad mountain range and wide sky. This piece also shows who I am or what I like. I love nature and I spend as much time outside as I can. One of my favorite things about nature is flowers. I love flowers because of their beauty, shape, and diversity. I incorporated flowers into my piece at the base of the mountain so viewers can see their beauty and how it enhances the beauty of the outdoors. 

Artists Develop Art-making Skills

I have always enjoyed collages and art journaling, but before this project I had never done it myself. I love the look of mixed media and how everything fits together even though it came from different sources. I used gel medium for the first time during this project and I really like the effect it gives. I hope to do more art journaling in the future and to get better at the skill.

Land Art

Artists Collaborate

My land art piece was created collaboratively with Nicole. We made a stop motion video using rocks outside. It was really fun to work together because we could help each other and give one another feed back. We also got a lot more done in a short period of time. It was a really good experience for me to work with someone else because I developed art skills as well as group work skills.

Artists Take Risks

Before doing this project I had not done stop motion that much and I had never used the program we used to make our video. I also took a risk in trusting that my partner's ideas were good and just going with it. Here are a few frames from the video:

  

Sculpture Project

My sculpture piece is a book carving of the evolution timeline. It is mixed media because I used acrylic paint as well as the book. This follows the theme "tell a story" because it shows the history of man and how man came to be. I made the older adaptations deeper then how man is today in piece to represent time. Each part of the piece is 50 pages deeper then the last going from right to left. 

Artists Create Original Art 

I feel like my sculpture piece was one of my best pieces this semester. It was definitely my most original idea and I am exetremly proud of how it turned out. For the theme "tell a story" I immediately thought of evolution, and the famous timeline of monkey evolving into man. I used a refrence image from the internet but combined it with my own idea to carve a book and paint around the carving.

Artists Solve Problems

It was originally unplanned for me to paint around the edge of the page. As I went along though, I decided to add more and I am proud I did. Another challenge I faced along the way was that it was difficult to cut in very small places. The really thin parts of the picture such as the arms, feet, laptop, etc.were extremely hard to cut out as I got deeper. To solve this I modified some parts of the reference picture. For example, I made the book wider and the feet shorter. I don't think this changed the picture too dramatically and it actually made it more original.

Shibori Artist

Shibori is an ancient form of dying fabric that originated in Japan. This technique is the equivalent to the popular craft: tie dye. Amy Nguyen is a shibori dye artist who makes structural clothing and accessory pieces. She is inspired by the ancient art form and other artists with similar styles. Nguyen likes her work to be structural while still accenting the natural curves on people. She starts her pieces by intricately folding an expanse of plain white cloth. During her process she uses techniques like sewing, folding, quilting, and of course, shibori dyeing. Amy's work consists of a lot of planned things, but she also relies on chance to make the piece its own. The color she can present with the shibori dye paired with the intense structural folds are unbelievable.

Amy Nguyen's style is more structural. She uses a lot of deep folds in her pieces to add texture. She also tends to have a lot of large graphic designs in her piece. Her work is more retail because it is clothing and accessories, however I think her work would be nice in a gallery as well. She sells her pieces on her website and in several stores. I chose this artist because I think her work is beautiful. I find it really interesting that she can make a flat blank piece of fabric turn into something with deep texture and color.

Perspective Project

For the perspective project, I followed the theme "What fuels me?". I chose to watercolor a picture of an ipod that gives the viewer the illusion that they are looking down at their hand holding the ipod. Here is a picture of the piece:

Artists Collaborate:
During the process of making this piece I definitely collaborated with the people at my table. I often asked for advice and feedback and it helped me a lot through the process. I also got help understanding the idea of three point perspective from my teacher. Doing these things definitely helped me develop my art making skills.
Artists Reflect:

While making this art piece I stepped back to reflect on the progress I was making. It helped me understand what needed fixing and how to fix it. Now that I have finished this piece I have reflected on it. I think it's pretty good, but I should have added more shading in the creases of the hand and below the hand to help it give the illusion that the viewer is looking down. 

Art History

"100 Cans of Campbell Soup"

The art piece Alex, Liv, Nicole and I recreated is Andy Warhol's "100 Cans of Campbell Soup". The painting depicts exactly what it's called- 100 cans of Campbell soup. It is from the popart movement which began in the 1950's. Popart is unique because it illustartes recognizable things from modern culture. Andy Warhol is probably the most famous popart artist but some others are Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns. 

Our Piece 

When creating the piece, my group worked together to paint the cans. Liv made the presentation and helped Alex and I present it. Nicole volunteered to have her face painted and actually appear in the video. We had an equal share of the work involved in the project.

If I were to do this project again I don't think I would change much, I am really proud of the way it turned out. I would definitely want to do this project again though, it was really fun and I learned a lot.

Portrait

My portrait peice is a charcoal drawing of my twin sister when she was younger. I definitely took a risk in the process of making this piece. I decided to use charcoal- one of my least favorite materials. I have very little experience using charcoal and I was sort of nervous, but once I got the hang of it I really enjoyed it. By using an unfamiliar material, I developed my art making skills.  Maybe I will choose to use charcoal on a future project. 

GIF

Art is really important to me, and I always find myself doodling. So, my GIF is a doodling pencil.

Pop Art Print

In Progress

Artists develop art making skills: 

Before this project, I had never printed layers of color on top of each other. I have used a brayer and bench hook before to print cork board  stamps, but I hadn't used linoleum before. 

Artists take risks:

I found it really risky to carve away part of my peice after each layer in order to continue. It was a process I had never experienced before and it almost made me nervous knowing that there was no going back. 

Finished: 

Color Project

In Progress

The theme of my project is explore. The paper airplane flying around the globe symbolizes exploration as well as the vintage map I used in place of a paper background. I chose to use acrylic paints for this project because it is quite thick and I knew it cover the lines on the map pretty easily. I think it would have been near impossible to cover those lines using a different material such as watercolor or colored pencil. I haven't had many difficulties so far, however I have found that it is fairly difficult to paint inside the tiny lines created by the continents borders. 

Finished

I think my project was very successful, I am very happy with the map I was able to find to use as the background of my peice. It is a National Geographic map of China from 1945. I also really like the contrast in the paper airplane between the white and the black outline. If I could go back and change one thing I would probably make the red dashed line more curvy, but other then that I am really proud of my peice. Throughout this project I deepened my experience with acrylic paints and mixing colors. I also learned to take risks by using the map.

Paper Sculpture Project

Artists create original art, and in the paper sculpture project I created something I have never done before and have never seen before. I got the idea to use origami flowers to cover the cardboard shape because I absolutely love floral prints and I have some experience with origami. My inspiration came from Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/tesswiegmann/paper-folding/). 

Artists also collaborate. I would never have the artistic skills that I do if I didn't communicate with the artists around me. During the paper sculpture project I helped my classmates when they were stumped with the origami steps online. Sometimes the steps are hard to figure out and because I have some experience with the material I was able to help a few people. 

Two in One Project

In Progress

I am drawing a zebra transforming into a piano keyboard for my two in one project. This follows the two in one theme because the drawing gives the illusion that the piano and the zebra are one even though realistically they are two completely different subjects. I plan on using pen and ink for the final project though I may decide later on to use graphite. As I begin the final project sketch, I am finding it hard to get the proportions of the zebra's legs right. I decided to use the comparison technique by measuring the head on my one page sketch and seeing where that length lines up with the legs, then transfer proportional measurements to the head and legs of the final project sketch. I can't wait to see how the final copy will turn out.

Finished

I am very proud of my completed art piece. I think it was very successful and I learned a lot in the process. I am most proud of the zebra portion of the piece. I love how defined the stripes are and I really like how the stripes and the background fade into the piano keyboard. If I could go back to change one thing, I would probably give the tree and grass some more detail. I learned a lot through the process of this project. For example, I learned to look at the shapes created by the background when sketching. I look forward to learn more in future projects.