The Younger Years

I drew these the other day even though Art Class is over. The first one is my sister when she was four or five. The second one is of my other sister when she was about two. The third one is a boy named Aaron from the book that I'm writing.

The Monalloona

 

Around Thanksgiving we made a picture of the Monalisa completely out of balloons. First we made a grid divided into four sections. Each section was divided into grid squares. In this project, all of the art classes in the school helped. Each of my classmates was given a number. When their number was called they received a balloon and whatever section our group was working on we would place our balloons their. For example, if my group was working on section A for that row and I had the number 7 then I would receive my specially colored balloon and then place it on the seventh place on the grid. It turned out very well I think. When we were doing this we weren't sure if the classes would finish by fourth period. It would was very well organized though. If we were to do it again I would try to put more balloons in the middle.  

Stencils

A while ago we studied street artists such as Banksy who use stencils and spray paint to make their art. I have always enjoyed nature so I made a design for a complication of vines around my first initial. I first started by drawing my design on a piece of paper and then cutting out places to keep "islands" from forming. Afterwords, I used a knife to cut out the design on a piece of plastic. I then went outside and used spraypaint to put the design on a piece of paper. I enjoyed this project. It was fun, quick, and easy. The most difficult part of this project was cutting out the design. If I could change anything I might try to make a different more complex design that would cover the whole page. Also, I would make sure that I cleaned my template after each use. It was really hard to make a good stencil picture with a dirty template. The excess spray paint kept on ruining the other stencil pictures that I made.

Post- it Note Murals

 

A few weeks ago we made mural of Orlando Bloom completely out of Post- it notes. We came up with the idea of making Orlando Bloom because well... all the other girls in my group loved the idea of doing a "cute" celebrity. First we found a picture online of Orlando Bloom and put it onto Photoshop. After adjusting the settings, the picture was transformed into many colored cubes. Since our mural was supposed to be on the stairs, we decided to make our mural on several sheets of paper taped together. We used the picture from Photoshop to place the Post- it notes in the correct places one row at a time. If I were to do this project again I think it would be fun to make a mural of Mr. White the principal and place his picture above the stairs like one of the communist dictator pictures all over Asia. Of course it would probably be taken down, but it would be a funny April Fools Day Joke. It's funny for some reason we don't have school on that day. In this piece I would take out some of the random hot pink Post- it notes. One thing that didn't work in this project was the face itself. It simply doesn't look a thing like Orlando Bloom. Overall I think it was really fun to work on. I really enjoyed working with my group.

Pastels

 

  A few months back we used pastels for the first time. In this project, we practiced drawing still life. Before we started each table arranged several objects. I enjoyed working on this piece. Each day my hands were so messy that I could hardly get the dust off (I don't usually use blending sticks. Fingers work just as well). If I could  change anything I would work on the perspective and add more shadows. The most difficult part of this piece was mixing the colors. I think that's the reason I had trouble making shadows. This piece definitely helped me learn more about drawing pictures in color, which was a good preparation for our paintings several weeks later.

Clay

A few weeks ago we worked on Ceramics. I made pretty little tray with flowers designs of it. It can be seen above. When the clay was considered plastic, or soft in moldable, I place it in a pan as a mold. When the clay was leatherhard I painted the flowered parts with a layer of slip. Once the clay became hardened as greenware it was put into the kiln and became bisqueware. Afterwards, it was glazed. For a first piece I think that it's pretty good, although I don't plan on becoming a potter anytime soon. The most difficult part of this piece was making the curved sides. If I was to do this project again I would like to sand it when it was bisqueware as to take out all the bumps.

Landscape Painting

Here's my lovely painting in the works. The finished piece is above. First I painted the background a shade of light blue and added clouds. Then I painted the darkened trees and the grass over it as the foreground.The dog, which actually is my neighbors and the tree with the Autumn leaves is my middle-ground. I loved this piece when I was finished. My class loved it too, comparing me to Monet and Van Gogh (hopefully I haven't gone that crazy yet). You should have seen my neighbors' faces when I showed them the finished piece. The two younger kids insisted in showing their dog. If I were to do this piece again I probably wouldn't do a landscape. I would have loved to do a close up of my neighbors dog. The most difficult part of completing this piece was probably the Autumn tree. I didn't want in to look to dark or two fake compared to the dog.