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.

Care Package "Oh Canada"

We got a Care Package from our sister school in Canada. Oh Canada thanks so much! Enjoy all the snow.

Dragons

 

Dragons yeah. Last week our sketchbook project was to draw a dragon. As my blog name the eye of the beholder inplies I find the essence of a dragon in it's eyes. I used a regular #2 pencil for this project. I first drew the pupil in the middle and then the eye structure around it. I then drew scales and shaded them in places that I thought they would be shaded. I'm really excited about shading, which I used to not do so much. I think that the eye of the dragon really captured it's thoughts and emotions at the time that "I snatched it out of the air in the realm of imagination and brought it into my studio for study." When I showed it to my class, they didn't like it as much as I did. They believed that I should have drawn a whole dragon. However, I believe they missed the point of this piece.

Self Portrait

This is a self portrait which I made of myself. Our self portrait project was inspired mainly by Rembrandt. We each used a mirror and drew ourselves using our knowledge of Valve. Like the drawing of the girl from our sister school in London, Ontario, Canada this is also one of the best humans I have ever drawn. If you look at the rest of my work I prefer to draw animals. I feel extremely successful in the area of drawing humans compared to my failed attempts last year (believe me they looked more like rats with short, pointy noses). If I were to do this project again I would consider spending more on the hair and my shirt. Also I would work on my expression ( I seem a little boring and inexpressive in this picture).

Value Scale Drawings

This is a picture of a girl from our sister school in London, Ontario Canada. The main point of this project was to understand Valve. Valve is also known as the Value scale and is used for color and shadowing. We started with a black and white picture of one of the members of our sister school. I chose this girl, because she reminded me of my sister. I used a piece of tracing paper to trace her face and all of the basic shapes which showed her shadowing. When I was done tracing I shaded the back of the tracing paper. I then pressed the back of the tracing paper on the top of a clean sheet of paper and retraced the original design. I spent the rest of the time looking at the picture and shading in certain areas. It turned out beautifully and actually ended up looking remarkably like the girl I was trying to draw. This is most likely the best human I've ever drawn in my life. The most difficult part of this project was the tracing. I ended up having to press the picture and the tracing paper up against the window in order to trace efficiently.

Light Drawings

I'm seeing stars

Zoom, Zoom

A happy day always starts with a balloon.

At least it's a happy day until the balloon deflates

My name is Layne and your watching Disney Channel.

Ummm....Could we turn this Harry Potter sign around

Sorry everyone, including the only person who follows my Blog (thanks Kylie), I haven't updated my blog lately. These are some pictures of the day, afew weeks ago, when we made drawings using light. This project was based off the art of Jan Wollert . On the day when we made this project, we were each given a camera with a special setting, which  keep the lense open for thirty seconds. We then turned out all the lights in the art room and started making our art. We used glowsticks to draw the pictures, during the thirty second time period, when the lense was open. The designs were made up as my group went along. When the project was first announced I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I thought that it might be like a Stop Motion Video. It ended up being much cooler than that. If I were to do this project again, I would definetly make sure that we did all the letters in the right direction and make sure all the lines were connected. It's so hard to see what it's going to turn out like when the lense is open.  For example, the Harry Potter sign above was shown afterwords to be backwards and the Disney Channel Mickey Mouse Ears proved to be a bit disconnected.

Color- Me- Katie

Our artist of the week is Color- Me - Katie, a street artist and a photographer. http://colormekatie.blogspot.com/

Double Or Not?

Well you' re probably wondering, "Why do you have a a two headed person on your blog?" You are either saying this to yourself or jumping up in down yelling, "Ewww I didn't know two people could be attached by their ears!". Both of these questions are beside the point that I was trying to make while creating this piece of art. As I told you all in another post, my art focuses on the eyes of another. The eyes are the mirror to the soul in my art they show the inner being of my subject. I started with a simple concept when I started this piece: the word double. I thought to myself, "What does double mean to me." From that simple question I began to understand what I would draw for my assignment. First I took a picture of my self using the my handi dandy (you know this those of you who watched Blues Clues)............Computer!!! I used the Webcam to  create a double image of myself and used it to create my art. This art used the technique we learned this week called shading using the value scale. We also learned about simple shapes and how they can apply to our art. This is overall the best picture of a human I have ever created.The point of this project is that we both have two sides to ourselves, what we look like on the outside and what we look like on the inside. There is only one of us as a person, but two parts of who we are. Which is more important?

The Values Tree

This week in art we made Self- portrait, No- portraits. A Self- portrait know portrait is when you create a sculpture or piece of art with reflects your inner self. I made a clay tree and hung what I the character traits which I value in both myself and those I meet. I began with getting some clay from A. C. Moore and sculpting it. Then, after the clay dried, I tied the value leaves onto the branches. I believe that the tree fits my personality and the leaves turned out wonderfully (thanks mom). I wish I had used wires to support the branches, it's very fragile and while it was drying many of the branches kept on falling off. If I were to make this project again I would definitely use support.

Masking Tape Everywhere!

This is the Masking Tape Mural that I made with my team....Team Etch- A- Sketch (named after the mural)Below are some cool murals from around the school!

Our team began our idea by drawing seperate thumbnail drawings. The next day we showed eachother our drawings and picked out our favorite: The Etch- A Sketch. We then debated how to best do the masking tape mural, tossing idea's about pawprints and make art. We set out yesterday and started to make our  masking tape near the football fields. The Etch- Sketch- Logo was definitly the hardest part to make. We decided to write COUGARS MAKE ART at the last moment. If I could do it over again I would suggest that my team and I plan a little more before we made our mural. This includes making sure the place we make it is the right place. Overall, the mural turned out great, but the next day the Coach of the Football Team tore it down. Ah well, pictures speak a thousand words.

Diyana, Catherine, Dipali, Sarah

Masking Tape Murals can also be used in politics.

Tick Tock

The Fallen...whoever they are.

The Bathroom

Hmmm... I wonder where this hallway leads.

Angry Cougar

M@ke @rt Turtle, Cupcake the Turtle and Reach For The Stars Turtle

It's Our Future, Destiny, Legacy Cougar, Apex Cougar, M@ke @rt Cougar

This a Cougar I made using the Cross Contour Line Technique we learned in art class. I used colors that I thought reflected it's emotions.

Next week we're going to make Masking Tape Murals on the school. I'll be sure to blog about that. Until then, here's some of my thoughts and idea's of what the murals should look like in thumbnail drawings. We were going to try to do a mural of Mr. White the principal, but that would be a little scary.

Skeletons!!!

This is the Mr. Sands girlfriend Chick, who we drew two times. The one above right is the one that we drew the first week. The picture above in the center is the drawing of Chick I drew today. Do you see the improvement?

The Coolest Video Ever: Big Bang Big Boom

Mr. Sands showed this video to us in art class today. It's the most amazing street art I've ever seen!

Turtles!!!

The other day in art we practiced drawing turtles.