Messing With Nature

Because my drawing final is currently being hung for display I'm now posting a design project from last quarter.  For this we had to turn a object from nature into a man-made object in five steps. I turned a stick into scissors. No, I'm not a magician, just a....well...I'll keep that for myself.












-gouche, ink

Color Theory

Probably because my hardest class taken yet. It was basically trial and error, that is to say I tried very hard and made many errors. The first design seen is one using a cool color template , inspired by cherry blossoms. The second is a template using traits of the first design using colors extracted from a magazine clipping. I think they are more like cousins than siblings.

The Strings Has Two Ends

It's time for spring break for my school, which means it's time for me to update this blog. *listens for cheers* * Hears crickets*
Fine, the project I worked on for a month was well.... a long process. I basically drew a hallway, or let's say the platform for stairs and added surreal elements to it keeping in mind lighting and balance. I guess this could be an extension of my concentration about the effects of control and question of ownership and freedom ( or it could I just wanted to draw marionettes for a longs time. You choose. But here are some process shots and my final product ( which I may go back and edit a bit, but I'm not sure yet) For my first time draw with ink ever, I think I did a fair job.

I Miss Charcoal

There it is I said it. I have done a complete one-eighty since entering uuniversity, but anyway moving on. This is piece I finised this week...I think. My apologies, the days just mesh together now. It feels like I left finals and just walked back in and yet I still got something dragging me down. But Anyway. In this work I used forur other alternative ways of shading and rendering. I suppose one could only see them if the picture was enlarge and focuse but they are there. Can you find them? The most difficult part of this was the reflections of the glass and plastic. Not only that , but the fact that most of the materials I was drawing did not have many darks and were translucent, so not only did I have to draw the object , but was behind the object as well, and make it believable.  The next project I am taking on now, is going to take me about a month. I will probably not be updating. My apologies to the readers....if you're there ....

Final

Okay now this is my Final Drawing from Last qaurter. Again, I couldn't post it because it was suppose to be on display, but now I have it back. Now those who have a question for the composition, I requested and got permission to do this display in this fashion.I think it was my favorite last qaurter. I never thought I'd say this but....

IT Looks so Much like a Duck It Might as Well Be a Chicken

And then she made us add white charcoal. Now I have only used the item once or twice during high school, but the kicker is that we were using medium tone paper. The back charcoal was our darks, the white our lights and we were somehow suppose to draw this still-- With No Blending. the two charcoals could never touch! I truly forgot how many hours I spent on this, but I can't seem to shake this 'painterly' style everyone keeps saying I have. Doesn't mean I won't try.

Add a Little Difficulty

After we had grasped the basics of  perspective, ellipses, and placement ( or at least attempted to grasp them) , we moved to value. And what better medium to use than possibly the one of the messiest. Charcoal!  While my linear drawing took a better part of 19 hours, I believe I only spent a little over 15 hours on this. My favorite part? The lighting.

I'm Still Here

After much contemplation, rest, and time, I am now saying salutations to all of you who are reading. All three of you. Goodbye winter break! As I am returning back to the dorms the day after tomorrow, it is time to reflect on what was during my first quarter on college. This is my line still-life. The goal was to illustrate the items and the material they were made out of through the use of contour and cross-contour lines, without the uses of value. Now I have long held a intense aversion to still-lives but as those ten grueling weeks continued I can now say....well.... keep on  reading

Ow.

Owwwwwwwwwwwwww
Hear that?
Those are my feet after being on them for over five hours. FIve hours. FIVE HOURS!~
If you don't know what I am referring to . let me fill in the blanks.
Friday was the AP ARt exhibition, where all the advanced students displayed some of their best work over the semester.
 If you were there GREAT!
If you were not.......I have no words.
I will post a video of my stuff ( a very very short video. My phone is out of memory thank you very much) later on  in the week, or when feet stop crying......whatever comes first.

Well Folks....

No pic this week folks, well for now at least. As the year is drwaing to a close and AP course ar slowly draining all the life out of me, I must stop now and say this had been a strange experience. Just stop and say. Not time to go in Depth. Time. No time. I'm out. I'm nearly done. But I can't stop ticking.

I My Me Mine

So many things are coming to a head, and just can't lie low anymore.  Do you think when they came up with the phrase " shoot yourself in the foot" if someone tested it out first. Moving on this is an "In Progress" pic of my mechanical piece. The piece is finished will be seen as soon as technology stops betraying me. *holds hammer over camera*.
I suppose I should explain the piece before I post the finished product so here it is and bare with me: In my concentration I said would stick to three classic games , chess, checkers (Chinese too) , and playing cards, but now I am think of adding toys. like dolls and puppets, because they fit so well with the concept of ' no control', and 'what one's role is'. To continue this I used two wind up dolls connected to each other through puppet strings. Now I know one can't see this, but each gild as the  ACE letter written somewhere on their bodies and I went really loose with making these girls the Ace and the Ace of Spades. According to my sources, some suits go nice with each while some don't work so great and when multiples of a suit show up it can cause a completely different  meaning , hence why this work has two main character's instead of one like I usually do. While each girl is moving on gears one can tell there's someone winding them up, yet they are trying to control each other through the strings. They pretty much getting no where, thus causing a  "Stalemate".

P.S. Remember to always blame technology!

Spring Break is a Misnomer

I should spell-check my posts more. And I should stop saying 'anyway' . Anyway ( I did it again!)  as the week draws to a close, I guess I should say my break was basically filled with paper-work, sleep, and campus tours, which equal two things: Mental breakdowns and sore feet. Basically my break was not fun, but when is it ever ? V_V
Okay, enough of my rants, when I return to school I will resume my mechanical art piece where we had to incorporate a realistic mechanical piece into our concetration. So far , I think I'm really missing the mark with this one, but I can't start over. You'll see what I mean by next week, but  soon I will have an ' in progress' pic up ( if my computer stops being a female dog)

I am NOT the King of Nigeria!

The title for this post is a inside joke between me and a fellow classmate/ artist. You know who you are ......
 Anyway, I don;t know why my last picture isn;t showing. Recently, all my accounts have been on the blink.
Oh the joys of technology.
 Anyway this is probaly the second or third self-portrait I've done in four years  and I guess it didn't turn out that bad. Usually I've found that many of things I was afraid of or hated my freshman year of art I either enjoy or excel at now. Weird. Who knows , maybe my next concetration (if I ever get another one) will be portraits. Yes? Maybe? Probably not. '

And to those wondering, no I am not that scary, only when I need to be ( Now come to think of it...that's quite alot) ...

In the Eye of the Beholder

Just last week we were assigned to do large scale portrait of ourselves. This is probably the second portrait of my self in a total of four years, and I was apphensive going in. So i just didnt think of it,; I simply let my hand move (and getting very dirty in the process). This the beginning. the finsihed product is to come




You get the picture?

"Abstract IT!" "Okay....How?"

This was assignment we received. Bascially it was "Draw IT...than Abstact IT!". I tried, really I did, but even looking at 30+ examples I still didn't get. All I thought is that it that abstract art involved using line and color, so...  I basicallly took the same theme I was working on and made so the lines and color created the shape and the objects.  And they all came tumbling after.....



Discarding the Tools


-pastel, acrylic

Must Remember...

The Pass it art. Wanna know what it looked like before ? Well here's your answer.

Just Flew in From Atlanta and Boy Do I Feel....

....Terrified. That's the word terrified. I was at the NAHS conference and let me say this now, I don't stand a chance. IN LIFE.

Anyway, back on more productive note, This is my pass it art. The assignment was to pass our art to someone else and have them work on it the way they wanted and then we got it back and made it our own. THIS is waht I ended up with. It's not that I don't like it; I just feel detached from it, since it's not all my ideas. I am feeling this with my pieces lately. I feel detached. I don't love my lastest ones as much I did. I think what I need to do is go back to what I love doing, but the problem is how do I improve if I'm stuck in one place?

Portrait for a Thousand

For this project we were assigned to make a portrait of our favorite teacher. Truthfully this may only be the third portrait I've ever made and I feel I'll have to do it again. It's not because I think this turned out bad. I think I can do better if I keep doing it. ' So without farther delay, this is my birthday present to you Ms. Anne-Rose Baker!

The Key To My Heart is the Key to Your Doom

The theme for this piece was "Lock It." Let me start out by saying this piece literally drained me. I was so excited to start and had the idea in my head for about a week. To put it down to basics: Me, one week, hours of drafting, hours of coloring, very little sleep.

Okay moving on, because I have moved on to playing cards I decided to continue that route in a less literal fashion. In my research for our last assignment, I found out the Club suit is many times associated with marriage. Also there's this metaphor, saying in marriage the man represent the key and the woman represents the lock. To incorporate these two concepts I had the woman's body shaped like a key and have the key look like a Club, holding a heart shaped locket. I wanted to invoke a play on words ( Lock It=Locket), and invoke two meanings with the picture. One the woman is the key to her own lock and two ....well... notice the vague hand in the cell reaching for the lock and the small 'A' on the woman's cheek? I'll leave the viewer to come up with their own thought. Now some may be wondering why I didn't use the Heart suit. Well, I think it's grossly over used and I wanted to try something...interesting....

Fifty-Two Pick UP!

To continue my theme of manipulation and control through games, I have shifted to chess and plating boards to cards. The foundation for this piece was the theme "Book It". I wanted to make the cards look like they were flying outward. I did not choose the cards' signs by random, I actully went through all 52 cards and found their basic meanings and chose the cards that relate to stories. And so, not neccessarily in order:

'Face Down Card' - The Unknown, Mystery

' Ace of Clubs' - New Endeavor, New Beginning

'Five of Daimonds'- Change in Scenery, Setting

'Seven of Clubs'- Competition, Fending Off One's Adversaries

'Joker'- 'Wild Card', Plot Twist

'Jack of Hearts'- Impractical, Immature, Kind, but Unrealistic -Basically the handsome, funny guy that's always the first to go...or burn