Art Slideshow

After a long hiatus, I am happy to announce my return! Only to post one more piece (mwahaha). In my art class we were instructed to construct an online slideshow of all of our work from the year, a total of 8 projects. Being the procrastinator I am, I totally forgot that it was supposed to be uploaded two days ago (doh!). But after some time with photoshop and downloading music, I constructed, in my opinion, a pretty decent slideshow!

I sadly do not know how to convert an embedded code to a video file so you can view it by clicking here, enjoy!

Let's Play Pretend

Personal Collages.

This Is Me.

So in the beginning of our second marking period we, individually, were asked to gather materials that resembled ourselves. These materials could range from any personal object such as a thimble to a dead mouse tail.. Using these objects we were to create a collage on a square piece of thick card stock using the personal materials along with the mixed media mediums that were supplied. Me, being obsessed with nature, warm browns, shadows, reading, sunlight, and rough texture came up with a piece that truly resembled these things. I used leaves and dirt to create a terrain-like surface along with modeling paste. I also used brown acrylic paints to produce a balanced shade. I sewed strips of paper onto the center of my piece using thread and needle and in the center I ripped open a hole, exposing a leaf. I used pine cone pieces to trail off from underneath the paper, highlighting and shadowing as it slowly grew out. Ontop of this I dusted the entire piece with charcoal and gold powder giving it a shadowed yet luminescent flair.

Let's Play Pretend.

Self Portraits Final Product

Finally.

So now that the new marking period has commenced, we have finally wrapped up on our self portraits, but I am still pretty late on posting this. There were many great turn outs and most of the self portraits were clear and actually resemblent (I don't believe mine was). I feel that my face is unproportional but I still like the color, texture, & depth that I created.

Here it is!

Let's Play Pretend.

The Makings of Metals.

#$@%&^*!

...the only noise able to be heard from my boisterous art room. Ding ding goes the hammer as it strikes metal upon a small anvil. This is the process I used to create a textured piece of metal for my piece. Using a small ballpoint metal rod & a wooden mallet, I slowly dinged small pock marks into my metal giving it a bubbly, almost iridescent appearance. Then I used a large rod with a larger ball point to give it a more weathered appearance. This piece of metal will be used as a background for my first metal piece (a stag's head). Inside this metal piece, which will be a circle (representing a moon) will be a lovely star.

Let's Play Pretend.

Artist Research: Frida Kahlo

Untouched Beauty

Frida Kahlo was a unique artist who lived and died in the beautiful Mexico City. She lived in a house known as the "Blue House". At age 6, Frida was stricken with polio which made her right leg much thinner than the other, a permanent feature. At her high school, the National Preparatory School, she met her future husband Diego Rivera. When Frida was only 18 years old was involved in a terrible bus accident that damaged her body to the point where no one thought she would live. After a month in the hospital she returned home where she began to paint in her bed on an easel that her mother created for her. By looking into a mirror she began to paint the famous subject of her paintings, her self. Frida's paintings reflected her emotions. Through many of her works one can tell what she was feeling; whether it was anger with her husband or tranquility with her self. Frida was a prominent figure in the art world and attracted attention from many! Her life was very eventful: she gave asylum to Trotsky in her own own, she dined with Picasso in France, and she even made it to the cover of Vogue. 

Frida inspires me because like her, I am also very emotional and have many more issues and complications beneath the surface I portray. Through my work I like to establish my hidden pains and like to be asked what certain things symbolize. I have a certain style that reflects myself just as Frida did. I admire the beauty she created in her paintings, especially the contrasts between the beautiful flowers that adorned her head and different facial expressions. To me, she is a woman of pure genius and deserves all of the recognition she has received. 

"Madness is perfection, perfection is madness."

Let's Play Pretend.

Self Portraits Part II.

Pencils Are Perfect.

Here are some samples of the studies that we've created based off of my original self portrait. In order to achieve a piece anywhere close to perfection, our class has to experiment with colors and shading on smaller studies (cropped portions of the larger original). Here are two of mine ontop of eachother, as you can see I have used brown tempera paint on one and red tempera paint on another. I unfortunately rinsed off too much paint so the basic tinted paper was left. The paper is the lightest shade of the paint that was ontop and there is no more value. Now that I have experienced that mistake, I will of course use that into consideration for my final. I love creating texture in my pieces so I used a pointed wooden scewer to do a scratched criss-cross texture ontop of my colored pencil. Oops, I forgot to mention that we used colored pencil on top of the tempera to rework the shading and value (now you know). As you can see, my pieces are not completely done and I feel I still need some practice before I move on to the actual self portrait. I will once again leave you at that and return with more details and pictures of my progress later...

Let's Play Pretend.

Self Portraits.

Reflections

In art class, we are creating self portraits using a tempera batik method. Currently we have lightly sketched and outlined our chosen photographs by using a grid method. Using a grid method is really helpful for some students who struggle with drawing and it is also very helpful for even the most skilled drawer to focus on detail and precision. The scary thing is that my drawing actually looks like me... I would have never thought that I, a mediocre drawer, would be able to accomplish such a thing. I am so content and happy with my piece that I would honestly just leave it as is... In the future (after the weekend) I am going to have to move on to the next step and go over the basic lines with a permanent marker. Until this task is done, I shall leave you hanging......

Let's Play Pretend.