For this project we had to choose an item that is reflective, or reflects ourselves in some item. I decided to draw a night stand with a lamp, glass, and alarm clock. I chose this because the idea of the night stand reflects me, because I love sleeping, and I decided to draw the reflection of a bed in the clock, which also expresses my love for sleep. For this picture I had to use Prisma colored pencils, which I do not enjoy because I find it hard to use them. This picture actually turned out a lot better than I thought it would have. My favorite part of the picture would be the walls and the lamp, because I think I was able to get the lighting and smoothness right. The worst part of the picture to me was the clock and the glass of water, because of the details. I find it difficult to get small details into a picture, and have it look right. But I can say that I think I have definitely improved over the few times I have used Prismas.
In class today we learned how to use oil paints. We practiced with painting apples and mixing colors with a palette knife. For the first apple picture we painted we used brushes, and for the second we used our palette knives. I realy enjoyed using the palette knife, because of the textuer it gave the paint
I enjoyed working on this project, even though I found it hard to work with. My favorite part of this picture to work on was the pancakes and the syrup. My least favorite part of this painting is the blueberries and the plate. I wish I had added more shadow to the pancakes and in the background to make it pop more, and look realistic. I also would go back and make the whip cream whiter. Overall I am happy with how it turned out
I really loved working on this project and working with chalk pastels. This was my first picture i've ever done in chalk pastels and I thought that they were pretty easy to work with. My favorite part of this picture would have to be skulls. I liked adding the yellow to the top to look like highlights. I also like the shading I did. My least favorite part of this picture would be the frames, because I didn't make them look 3D, the frames look too flat.
For my nature goes mechanical projects I decided to a dragonfly. i did not really enjoy this project because its not something I find fun to do, and I think my picture turned out too childish and not very good. My least favorite part to do was the flower, because to me it isn't realistic enough and I barely added any detail too it. My favorite part is the gears, it was the only fun part and I think I did them pretty well. I wish I had added more shading to the whole picture to make it pop more because the dragonfly and flower look too flat. I also wish I had added more color to the whole picture because it just looks plain to me.
This was my self portrait project. For this picture I decided to use pin and water color pencils. This was my first time using pen to make a larger project. I enjoyed using pen because I found it was pretty easy to use. I used crosshatching for the background and the shadows on the face and under the hair. The part I least enjoyed working on was the hair, because I could not get the values of the hair right, and it was a long process. I really like adding the streaks of color under the eye and face, I think it brought out the picture more, and was just a nice change from black and white.
This was my mixed media project that I made with with my mentee. For this project we just took random pictures, colored tissue paper, and other flat items and glued them to a board. After we finished we both decided what section of the picture we wanted and cut it out.
Colored pencil contest project
I really loved working on our pet portrait projects. I decided to use prisma pencils on this picture because I wanted to practice more with using them. I also decided to go big and work on my largest picture yet. My favorite part of this project was working on the eyes and nose. I really like how the eyes turned out. I also enjoyed working on the wavy hair for the ears. Even though this project will take me a while to finish, its been my favorite, and the most fun to do. Still in progress!
This is my landscape picture.
What I like about it- I love how I got the background to look foggy and distant. In the original picture there were buildings, and hills in the background, but i decided to just make a green jungle landscape. I like how the trees in the left corner turned out. At first I could really get the texture of the leave on the trees because I was painting it flat and decided to add volume. I'm also happy with the colors i used in the trees and background.
What I don't like- I do not like how the two front trees turned out. they aren't textured enough and I couldn't find the right colors to match the real picture so I came up with my own. I found it hard to create texture to the trees behind the two main trees. I made it look like just a green background.
Overall it came out ok to me especially for an oil painting, because I have a hard time with painting.
What I like about it- I love how I got the background to look foggy and distant. In the original picture there were buildings, and hills in the background, but i decided to just make a green jungle landscape. I like how the trees in the left corner turned out. At first I could really get the texture of the leave on the trees because I was painting it flat and decided to add volume. I'm also happy with the colors i used in the trees and background.
What I don't like- I do not like how the two front trees turned out. they aren't textured enough and I couldn't find the right colors to match the real picture so I came up with my own. I found it hard to create texture to the trees behind the two main trees. I made it look like just a green background.
Overall it came out ok to me especially for an oil painting, because I have a hard time with painting.
Concentration Picture #1
At first for my concentration I wanted to do animals in action, but realized that we had to take the pictures ourselves. I realized that I could only take pictures of dogs, and horses because that's all I'm around everyday. I decided on doing horses as my concentration. The first picture I decided to do was a picture of a racehorse that my dad took at a steeplechase. At first I didn't know if I wanted to do one of a horse with a rider, and tack because they make drawing a horse 100 times harder, but I decided to try anyways. I also didn't know what to do for the back, because I wanted to mainly focus on the horse and not have a bunch of stuff behind it, so I chose just to draw the grass area where the horse's shadow was. The trickiest parts of this picture to draw were definitely the horses bridle, mouth area, and the riders clothes. Because there were so many wrinkles and details in the bridle and outfit, it took me most of my time to do. I really enjoyed drawing in the shadows on the horse, and working on his tail. I often find it very hard, and frustrating to draw hair, so I was glad I had a chance to work on some in this picture. I would always make the hair look too fake by drawing it too dark and not having enough highlights, or draw it too light not putting in enough shadows. I was pretty satisfied with the way his tail turned out, considering I had not worked on, or with hair in a while. After my first to concentrations of racehorses, I would like to try doing one of just a horse to see how it would turn out considering it would not have tack or a rider with it. Overall I'm very pleased with how this picture turned out.
Concentration picture #2
This is one of the pictures taken at a steeplechase that my family and I went to a few years ago. This picture is one of my favorites, because of the angle it was taken. I wanted to draw a picture where the horse wasn't just running across the paper, but in a completely different perspective. The hardest part of this picture to draw was the tail, and the tack. I always find it difficult to work with a picture with a lot of shadows, because it makes the picture blend. The tail was one of the hardest parts, because there was so much shadow and it was hard to tell where the tail ended. My favorite part of this picture is the jockey, and the saddle blanket. I was pretty happy with how the jockey turned out especially since drawing people isn't the easiest thing to draw. I would like to go back, if I have time too, and blend the horse's hair, because it looks too grainy. I would also like to add more detail in this picture, because I didn't get to add as much details as I wanted to.
concentration #3
This is a picture of my horse and I. I'm pretty proud of this picture, because it is the biggest horse pictures I've done, and I didn't think I was going to be able to finish it. My favorite part of this picture is the saddle, and the boots. I liked the highlights i put on the saddle, it made it look more smooth, and gave it depth. In the original picture there wasn't much highlighting in the tack or the boot, so i decided to add more in it. I'm also happy with how the horse's muscles turned out. This picture was much easier to do, because it was very light, and there weren't many shadows. I would like to go back and darken all the dark spots in the picture to make it pop even more, and fix the ground, because it doesn't look blended enough.
Concentration #4
This is another picture taken at a steeplechase. For my #4 concentration I wanted to go smaller because I had spent so much time on my third. I picked this picture out but about half way through working on it realized that that I really need to draw a horse without any rider or tack. I made this picture much smaller, but still spent more time than I wanted on it because of everything on the horse. All of the wrinkles in the clothes and pad, the highlights on the tack, and the extra small details gave me a hard time. The horse alone was pretty quick and easy to finish, but I got frustrated with working on the other parts and took a break from working on it. I do love how it turned out. My favorite part of the finished picture is the tail, even though I didn't end up adding in highlights to it, the jockey, and the horses legs, I just think they turned out nicely :P My least favorite part is the horses body, I was struggling with the muscles and highlights on the back. It might be because they just look out of place and odd to me. I also wish that I had had more time to work on the background and the grass under the horse, because it looks like the horse is floating above lines. If I have time after finishing all 12 concentration pieces, I will go back and add a background , and try to fix the muscles on the horse.
concentration #5
This so far is my favorite picture I have done. Although this one took me about three weeks to finally finish it, it was worth the time. The best part about this picture would be the horses face, I really love how it turned out. I was able to add lots of realistic detail to make this picture really stand out compared to the others I've finished. The saddle and the bridle were the hardest parts to finish. because the picture was a close up it took longer to finish the tack because of the details, and highlights on the leather. I wasn't able to make the tack as realistic as I wanted too because it was taking to long. I still need to do some touch ups on the hair.
concentration #6
Concentration #7
Concentration#8
concentration#9
concentration#10
concentration#11
concentration#12
My concentration and breadth slideshow
My AP ART EXPERIENCE
At the beginning of AP art, I felt very confident in the amount of time I had to create all of my concentration pieces. My concentration was the beauty, power, and diversity of horses. I decided on how much time I would need to be able to finish each picture and when I should be finished with all the pieces and ready to work on sending them into college board. At the time I did not realize how difficult it would be to come up with twelve pieces of art in five months. After working on the first five pictures , I began to become very lazy with my art, and tired of drawing horses. I definitely began to struggle through the last few months. I would rush through some of my pieces and sometimes just completely give up on one, because I was running out of time to get them finished. While working on my ninth picture I realized I had a little more than a month left and decided to just buckle down and get them finished. I worked every day on my pictures and was able to finish one of my favorites in three days. I was able to get to number eleven and had to use one of my summer projects because there just was not any time left to do one more. The whole experience of this class has definitely taught me to( at the beginning) work as hard as you can just focus on finishing. At the end of AP art it was an amazing feeling looking back at all twelve pieces together and just feeling the relief of being done. It was a rough experience but all the hard work was worth it and I'm glad I decided to take the class. With every piece I completed I could see so much growth from the first to the last picture. I know that I will continue to work of my art skill, and grow even more in art.