Made it!

Whew!, I made the deadline! I don't know how I did it, but I made it. And they don't look so shabby either-if I do say so myself. I painted my friends Cherie, Lea and Alex. They do need touch ups now that I see them, but I finished the next 3 that are due today (will post them shortly).
For the next four, I will try and avoid this stressful situation by trying to complete as many as I can during my break. I have four due next and I plan on having a head start on all of them.

AP sign up

Last week we met up with Rowsam; Alex and I had signed up online and now have our accounts on the AP drawing website. However, so far Rowsam only took photos of my artwork, minus 3 of my concentrations. Hopefully, that means I'm ahead in that aspect.
But, unfortunately, I'm a week behind on my current concentrations given the week the CSAP (or whatever they renamed it) took from us. However, I'll still try to meet the deadline this coming Friday; yet I don't want to rush them. I think I have a dilemma on my hands, both Alex and I. But I don't want to ask for an extension, it was partly my fault I'm behind-partly school.
First time I'm behind on my AP art schedule-- don't like it one bit!!!!

Artist block

I don't know if it's because its almost the end of the year or because I'm starting to get tired of creating the same thing, over and over again- but my portraits have been slowly losing improvement. As I'm starting my next three-the pre-sketch for starters are very off and are becoming less symmetrical.
Which makes my whole portrait off as well. So, I hope that this is just a stage and I get out of it real quick, otherwise I'm gonna get behind. (or maybe its just my perfectionist quirk-hopefully).
But, looking at my first couple of portraits compared to my newer ones, I think their becoming worse. I don't know how to change that.......

Josh's portrait

I tried to add more to the shirts this time and it was a bit difficult. But it ended up better than I predicted- I was totally on my own with the shirt too, next time I'll have to look at other portraits to help me with the clothing.
I think his skin tone turned out pretty well, I mean it definitely still needs work, but with his eyes squinting and his face tilted, it was hard enough just getting the proportions correct. It didn't end-up like I wanted but it turned out decent. Need help in order to get better.

Jordan's Portrait_disaster

 

No one likes this one. Everyone had told me this one is my worst portraits so far. It was not bad at the beginning, but everyone kept telling me to fix the face and make her slimmer, it was all over the place and now I wish I hadn't listen to them- it doesnt look like Jordan anymore. I think I might end up just not submitting this one.

*side note* I need people who know how to help me with the proportions from my class, or those who would know how changing one thing will effect the entire face. Because right now, I don't have much help or have no one who wants to help me. I'm in an artist-block right now-don't know how to go from here.

Amanda's portrait

I finished Amanda's portrait about 3 weeks ago and have slowly been adding more detail as time went on. She is a little off, but considering I've never painted a person smiling before I think her's came out pretty good. Amanda thinks so too!

Maybe I should change my painting process

Maybe if I paint in this process, I can acheive the realistic look I'm striving for. However, I think the colors are going to be the tricky part, I will definately need to blend better, but I have no idea how to do this, and can not even get the colors that are in this painting AT ALL. I don't know HOW this person did the colors, but I defiately need to try to imitate it, otherwise my portraits will never improve! HEEEEELLLPPPP!!!

My father's portrait

This was really my first time painting a man. I never realize how much diffrent it is to paint a man than a woman. When I first started, I made him look so feminme, he look like a transgender. And since I don't have a transgender as a father (definately not) I had to work on his eyes considerably more and make his eyebrows thicker, to make him more masculine. However, I did like trying something new. And plan on improving to make them look more realsitic.

My mother's portrait

I definitely added more blending to the face this time. I was trying to make it more realistic than the last portrait. With this portrait you can see the brushstrokes-I'm still not sure if that's what I wanted, but it allowed the painting have more depth. The hair, again, gave me the run for my money, it was so much harder to create individual strands of hair than I had thought. However, it is a definite improvement.

Finally finished my grandmother's portrait

This portrait was extremely hard for me to get the right tone. She had such fair skin that the color started to look like the color white, right from the tube. However, about midway I started to make the skin tone darker with shades of brown in it, which brought her face out from the "blendings" of a wall.
*I will definitely have to work on the hair next time, make it more individual than collective.

Ink stamp_coyfish

I found this in my room, it was one of my stamps I created and inked. I really liked this one, it took me a while to carve, but I actually didn't mind it. Its different than what I was used to at the time, but I took a liking to it. And I think I did a pretty good job for my first time using the median.

Georgia O'Keeffe recreation

This was a project (about a year ago) where I had to recreate a painting from an artist. I, of course, did Georgia O'Keeffe. Mine is on the Left. I Love it..and I think I did a pretty good job, it surprized me.

Another still life

I had done this still life almost 2 years ago. And now that I see it again, I see the proportions are off and the depth in the painting is not completed. But this was before I really understood these concepts. And now that I think about it, I grew greatly from here on out. Hopefully.....

More of a Commentary

This, believe it or not, I actually drew in a car on the way to Estes Park! Which probably explains the simple lines and the "off-ness" of the whole drawing. However, I was just having fun. I drew a woman holding a burning tree representing the negative environmental impact humans have on the earth and then I drew a man with his arms around the woman holding an atomic bomb, representing the negative weaponry destruction humans have on the earth. Around them I represented natural disasters, starvation, domestic violence, endangered species, war and death. I didn't have any references to draw from, so I mainly did this from memory AND on the road. I had lots of fun with this though despite the subject.

Old painting

I did this last year. I never had time to finish this. I think I might finish it soon. It would definatley look better.

Charcoal Erasing

I got this idea since I saw one of the ajoining art classes doing this project. I thought it looked fun since it was a real mess. I started by covering the cotten rag with charcoal powder and got it to a very dark shade. then started erasing away!..and wala!...I decided to do an animal since I used to always draw animals and noticed that I hadn't made one in my portfolio. So I made one!. I always loved drawing elephants, they have to best skin to recreate, such beautiful creatures.

Redid my 1st AP art project- Pen mark making

To be honest, when my teacher first gave me this assignment, I didn't know it was an actual assignment-since it was our first week in the class-I thought she was just giving us AP kids something to do before she gave us our"real" assignments. But now understanding the said assignment-I actually decided to redo it. Everything here is done in pen, which particualary made me crindge since if a mistake is made....its made....-nothing you can do about it but go with the flow. However, when finished with this assignment I actually did enjoy this markmaking project, it's diffrent for me, it's a change.

My Abrela's senior portrait

Don't laugh, I'm not even close to finishing this portrait of my grandma when she was in her late to early teen years. I think it was her senior photo. Anyway, I'm still working may way from the underlayer coat and I have to watch every brush stroke since in real life, the painting looks like an old photography, which is what I was planning for.

Music Room

This was my ink drawing. At this point, while I was making it, I didnt have an essel with me, thus presenting the slant and uneven-ness of the piano keys. It gets on my nerves so bad, but of course it would for any perfectionists. But by the time I notices it, the ink already dried and there was nothing I could do. But for my first time using ink, I think I did a darn good job. Hopefully

Working Hands

I had the perfect hand on the left then it didn't match up on the bottom hand and then the top hand was a complete mess. Presenting :the good, the bad, and the ugly. However, my idea that I wanted to convey came out exactly how I wanted it to. Where an artist puts their blood, sweat and tears into their own artwork for themselves, showing the cycle (a.k.a. the hands drawing the hands).

Illusion

Well, first I have to finish this piece, but in the meantime I wanted to make an Illusion with figures-since i never made an illusion before (it is WAYYY harder that one would think, and it even confused the person drawing it). I tried to make it to where you did know which figure's body is missing or is somewhere else (at this time the orange figure morphs into the yellow figure).

Nesting Dolls

This artwork was made with pastel and crayon, something I don't normally use. It was a bit hard for me since I wanted to emphasis shadow yet keep hints on what they were.
On this project, I had fun with their faces, the eyes made their faces and each had a different expression that I hopefully conveyed through the nesting dolls.

Black/ white face

This artwork was actually fun for me, it was different than what i was used to and I actually used black for this piece. I tried to use simple lines, and I think I did a pretty good job with it.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe is one of my favorite 21st century artists, as many of my close friends know. Looking at her flower paintings, I can see her macro style show through magnificently. Her macro is so defined that her own art becomes abstract in itself.

Robert Longo and Gernard Richter

Robert Longo

Full of charcoal and patience, detail and smoothness, sweetness and satire. This artist I definitely admire and would very well love to create and see the world in this way. Absolutely incredible. Something I would defiantly love to explore in his manner of art.

Gernard Richter
VVery intresting and unique, its a normal activity yet seen in a different perspective. As if it was a candid photograph. Something that is unique in it's own way and an emphasis on normal activitites that we tend to overlook. A composition of life on paper.

Pictorial Composition: an introduction

The Importance of Balance
"the sensitive eye of artist and viewer tests every picture fro balance, a judgment usually rendered naturally by everyone, with or without knowledge of artistic laws"

• balance is very important for all paintings and works of art, it creates an emphasis and pulls in a crowd which in turn makes an art piece strong in a visual aspect
• "the value of a unit depends on its attraction, and its attraction varies according to placement"
• "a unit near the edge has more attraction than the same unit at the middle"

-balances that many artists include in their work is balance of line, of mass, of light and dark, and of measure, so just making sure that everything is balanced throughout the piece. Making every section equal in attraction as in another section.
Looking back on my work, I realize I probably should have more acknowledged balance in my artwork. this of course would help me more on my composition and elements that include to make my artwork stronger, hopefully I can make them stronger. Practice and effort is the key.

Some of my recent work

DCA: Chapter 4

There are 6 categories of light as it falls over a form: highlight, light, shadow, core of shadow, reflected light, and cast shadow. All of these relate back to any artwork, of all the art elemets, " value has the greatest potential for spartical development" or basically just to any artwork.
* I think I got the concept down for light sources, however, I need to concentrate and apply it more to my Artwork, to create more depth and to create better form in my art. With my next project, a corner still life, I will definately need this to apply onto my figures in my actural artwork. How I'm going to get there.....I haven't quite figured that out.

Reading: Colston pg 84, 91

Perspective is actually very hard for me to recreate and of course, it helps with depth and distance. If I get this down, I will defiantly improve at least a level or two with my art work. Wish me luck on that.
Hint- viewpoint gives extra perspective that attracts the eye.
What I defiantly love...is side walk art...they definitely show depth and distance and are extremely well done. If I was good enough to do sidewalk art...I would do it.

Moon lighting: all about diagonal beams, in the end just use an eraser to emphasize the lighting. It's basically just like regular lighting on a still life, just more emphasised.

Landscape Artists

Bob Ross

I really love Bob Ross, I used to watch his t.v. series as well. I just admired how he was able to create such detail in his paintings with relatively simple pain brush techniques, he even used his pallet knife. He was able to create trees and water with either a dab or a swipe, all with great detail and most within a half hour time period.

                                                                                                                                                             

                                             Parham Mill at Gillingham-John Constable          

The Opening of Waterloo Bridge seen from White Hall Stairs-John Constable

John Constable is an English Romantic Painter from 1776-1837, an older era artist, but still quite remarkable. I would love to be able to create such detail like this, everything is very strong and concise, absolutely marvelous.

                                                                                                                                                                   

                                      Tower Mill at Wijk bij Duurstede-Jacob Van Ruisdael

                                          Bentheim Castle- Jacob Van Ruisdael
Jacob Van Ruisdael was a Dutch landscape painter from about 1628-1682, his paintings are very detailed and relitivlely realistic. I would only dream of painting like Ruisdael.