You've got style

The several behaviours that are shown in the apex high school's rubric include some of my weaknesses and strengths. Most of my art comes from an idea that sparked in my head from seeing something else, like for example my mural I'm creating in art. I saw a post about a type of sketch called a mandala and I thought it had to be one of the coolest things ever. Like something that seemed so simple actually turned out quite hard to do as you want the entire piece to be somewhat symmetrical. So most of my art consists of being something that was triggered in my head from seeing something. 

I like to try to expand and develop my art making skills as I like to learn a lot about the different materials and techniques but to also study those of the greater artists in the word and see exactly what else there can be to learn about the different styles. 

One thing I think is a weakness for me is my communication though my artwork. I know that a lot of the time I'm just creating a piece just because I feel like it and not having any meaning or message. What this tells me is that I have to improve on this in my future in college.

Taking risks- another weakness of mine. I like to play things safe. I do this because I want things to turn out the way I pictured them and taking risks can either make or break that vision. Part of being an artist is all about taking risks and learning from your failures and I'm attempting this more often now with the pieces I am creating. An example would be the sculpture I tried to make this semester. Although it started off fine, the more I worked on it and the farther it progressed it got farther and farther from what I wanted to to look like. The proportions were off and the final look bothered me A LOT. Although i don't really like the piece I can look back on it and see it as probably one of the first risks I have taken.

Collaboration is something I dislike to do in a way. I'm okay with getting together with someone and sharing ideas and helping them and stuff like that but when it comes to the critiquing part count me out. I don't really want to hear or give negative input on someone else's work as it can really effect a person. I know I would absolutely hate it if someone said my art sucked. This is like this for everything though, not art. Nobody wants to hear the negatives about something, especially from other people around you. Criticism is one way to grow as an artist and hopefully one day I can learn to accept what people have to say (if negative) process it and then improve.

Solving problems- I'm getting better at this! I used to just abandon any project that would face me with a problem but now I am able to sit there and think of possible ways to fix it. Once again an example of my cat sculpture ( this piece was horrible but it turns out I'm learning a lot from it¿) the biggest problem I encountered was when the clay dried. It cracked and it broke. The frustration was so real when this happened. I tried to fix it with many things and unfortunately nothing really worked, but hey I tried right? In the end I tried my best to fill the cracks with more clay hoping it would eventually build up a lot and stay nice but it didn't so I had to go to my backup plan and just paint it in attempt to hide it. 

Reflecting- in a way what this post is, is reflecting so I guess I can do this alright. As an artist I'm able to look at my pieces and see what went wrong and what went right. But I can also take what has happened to me in the past and use what I have learned to apply it to my future work.

I tend to think I understand art in the world but do I really? Does anyone really? Like the artists of the past you can look at their work and see what they've done but you can't actually talk to them to know EXACTLY what they were feeling at the time, or what was going on in their life or why they felt like creating that piece. With artists of the current century it is a lot easier as you can actually ask them these questions and hopefully get an answer. Luckily with the age that we are in, we have a cool thing called the Internet. Where you can look up anything and get some sort of answer. This has been helping people ever since it has first come out, educating millions about the many different things happening around the world!

My priorities when I make art is I do something that I enjoy. I want to enjoy what I'm doing because if I don't I find the work that you're creating can get boring extremely fast and that makes the artist start to not car how the finished product turns out - sometimes makes them not finish their artwork! So when I'm about to start some sort of artwork I think about something that I'd really like to do and that I know will keep my interest long enough so that I won't give up on it. An example of this would have to be when we were starting our series assignment and we were all asked to choose one topic to focus three creations on. I know I don't have many things that I am enthusiastic about but one thing I was, was definitely cats. They are such a big part of my life it's crazy. So thinking things over like that I find extremely crucial when it comes to making art. Another priority is that I want my art to be perfect and to have it look exactly the way it was in my head. Although this is extremely difficult and can take up a lot of time. It has worked sometimes but some projects I have done this year did not follow this at all and it made me so so frustrated I basically gave up and tried finishing it as soon as possible so I can move on to the next project. You may have guessed my cat sculpture and if you did, you are correct. When certain things don't go exactly how their supposed to we all know it can make us angry. Another priority is definitely time. When I'm doing art I need a lot of time. And I mean a lot. I get so easily distracted my attention span is like a goldfish. Some days I can be right into my art and like so focus and other days I don't even feel like doing it. 

When I create my art I try to express feeling through some of it. By this I usually mean happiness. I haven't really done any pieces where I had to communicate something to an audience. Quite possibly in last years grade 11 class but not this year have I had to do something on an emotional level to connect to people. With all pieces I have created this year I've tried to have like a happy vibe to them as that I how I want to feel when I look back at the pieces I have created.

The materials that an artist works with are extremely important when it comes to communicating effectively. I say this because all materials that have ever been used to create something in art, are all used to express and communicate different things. One thing I do when I'm creating art is that I like to know I'm able to use a material properly and have it work with any techniques that I'm using. Like I dislike working with things like charcoal as an example because it smudges so easily and it can wreck the look of a piece by one little slip of a hand. So I like to stick with materials like pen, pencil, marker, & paint that have some hope to fixing. Understanding how a material works and the different ways you can use it can really help and artist with how to communicate something effectively. Every technique an artist works with matters. This is because some techniques don't work out for some artists where as for others it does. It's all about getting comfortable with what you like to do and what you feel works right and makes your creation the way you want it to be. I'm like 100% that any artist wouldn't work with just any material, when in the creating process a big part of it is taking your idea and think what materials and techniques would work best to be able to create your vision.

Proper presentation - probably an extremely important thing. When your work is finally done you want people to look at what you've created and just be like "wow" at least that's what I want people to do when they look at my work. And I mean this by not the forced "wow" I want the audience who looks upon anything I create to be amazed by it. All artists are like this too, as it sometimes is what they were looking to achieve. Only when the piece is finished can it really give a feel to the work. Proper presentation is a huge thing when it comes to being an artist. Like sure your artwork might be complete and all but the way you show it off to the world really matters. Sometimes art work can have a whole story/emotion in it from just looking at it and sometimes it needs a little help from the artist by possibly a brief description. All artists want people to think something when an audience looks at their artwork, whether they hate it or like it.

Appropriate Appropriation

To start off this discussion about appropriation, you kinda have to know what it is so...

What exactly is appropriation??

Now that we know what appropriation is, it's time to look at the scandal that has happened recently in art news. A man named Richard Prince had taken to his Instagram feed to create his next art collection. Simply by scrolling down his feed, he screenshotted photos that fit together somewhat and from there blew them up and put them on display to eventually make $100,000 off of them.

In my opinion what Richard Prince did was completely wrong. Firstly by taking the pictures from Instagram without any permission whatsoever but also selling them to make a profit. Even though there is somewhat credit to the Instagram user he used the photos from by displaying their user name and comments. I was so curious in this incident a bit more.. I found a site called theverge.com which had an article about the topic. In it it talked about how the photos were "mostly of young women in seductive or vulnerable poses" which left me to the question why would he choose these photos? Was it a plan to sell them in the long run? Continuing on with the article it stated that Richard Prince wasn't new at all to the art of appropriation. His entire career is built on it!

On the debate if his work is controversial or just a way of expression I would think its a bit of both really. I think he may of started of his career as an artist as this being a way to express himself but eventually as he rised to popularity it may have slightly turned controversial. Being an artist and having that 'untouchable' status when it comes to your artwork is like invincibly. He can do what he wants and use appropriation on almost any artists other work. This tweet he made May 28, 2015 shows his controversial side.

The people in the photos he used had mixed feelings. Some okay with the idea and others completely outraged by it. He's been taking to court and sued - a lot. But somehow he finds ways to surpass the laws of copyright and get free from being sued - partially because of his riches (from what he's made off his appropriated artwork). You may be thinking right now "hey if this guy can do it, why can't anyone else?" Wouldn't that be amazing to make $100,000 off of someone else's photo? That's not the thing though, we all know anyone could do this but the thing is why would anyone by your work? Richard Prince's name is very well know across the artists universe and to own one of his pieces people would pay a lot of money - obviously! Yeah sure we can all be upset about this incident but as long as he isn't breaking any laws what really can be done?

I think I would be angry as an artist to know that someone was stealing my work and distorting it only a little bit and then making profit from it. What would especially make me angry is if someone used my work without asking any permission at all. Unfortunately there are people who do this, like Richard Prince. I feel like originality is pretty important when it comes to art. Everyone has their own originality within different styles of art. Like for example many people can create something within the style of abstract and all of them be different. This is one thing, but taking someones work that they worked so hard on and created is absolutely wrong.

Wall mural update

So I have been working on this thing a lot! Here's the progress I have made with it so far! I have finished the pastel circles, painted on a black border, and started the mandala!

Series part 3

So for my final part to the series I decided to do something different then originally planned. I wanted to do something that didn't involve a paintbrush or paint, wire, clay, etc. I wanted to use photography. I think photography is a beatiful form of art in which the artist is able to capture a moment and be able to cherish it forever in just one photo. As everyone knows, my cat is probably one of the most important things in my life and therefore I get the nickname of the crazy cat lady. So on a nice day I had gone outside with my handsome cat and had gotten some photos of him! Fortunately he was in a good mood so I was able to get photos that didn't look like they were forced! I decided the best place to take photos was in a place that made him the centre of attention and the main focus of the pictures. So with him being a black cat I decided on a place with lots of dandelions as the yellow made the black stand out lots. Here are some photos I captured! 

Isn't he just gorgeous?

Out of the photos above #4 & #5 have to be my absolute favourite.

Here are more photos with another colour to contract with his black fur.

Wall mural in the classroom

So being a senior graduating this year, I wanted to leave my mark on my favourite place in the high school - the art room. So with saying that, I get to paint almost a mural type thing on the wall! So for the past half week I marked off a rectangle, primed it (twice) and today I started my process. I really had no idea at all what I wanted to do so I got some colours ready and I started to mix a magenta with white to form a pink. Just from doing this and making a pastel pink and idea formed in my mind. I would sponge on the wall pastel colours in a sort of pattern and overtop do an intricate black design. Here's from today's work:

But Is it Art? Responce

So after reading this post i got really interested in it and i wanted to download an app so i could cube-ify a couple of my posts. Unfortunately there is no such app that has a cubism option!! So instead i had to connect my phone to the computer and do it through that way. So when first looking at this Kubist web application i had no idea whatsoever on what i was doing. I started off by uploading my picture cause that's probably the first step you're supposed to do.

This is my cat August

So no after i uploaded it it turned into a bunch of blobs of greyish/black colours. I had to play around with the point/circle/border sizes for a while. I put the picture at 1000 points to make it the most clear it would get. I choose to do the triangle style as it showed the picture a lot more clearer than the cell one did. I didn't know what the circle size exactly was (i do now) so i put it to 5 and i thought there wasn't much of a change. Only when i went to save the picture to make this post did i realize a problem.. THERE WERE WHITE DOTS ALL OVER MY PICTURE! so me being blonde, had to take a couple minutes to figure out that the circle size was indeed the white dots and i put it back down to 0. This is my final product.

cube-ified

In my opinion i don't really like this style of art because its not very clear. I like to see the fine details in art and to be able to recognize what it is. To me i think of cubism like this as a picture someone had taken that would've been an excellent photo, but they moved their arm or something causing it to blur to the extreme.

Scratch and Mix Project Responce

My first impression of the exhibition was that it is a great thing to do as it shows the artists' experiments, achievements, their stories and their challenges. I think by showing all of that through art is powerful way to convey how the artist feels, as each artist has different styles and techniques, as well as different pasts and stories. I looked at some of the artist’s websites that showed their work and I found all of them unique and interesting. For example, one of the artists named Oluseye has a style where he creates people in monochromatic colors with almost a geometric look to them. He uses materials like acrylic paint, pastels, charcoal, wire and graphite pencil on canvas. Overall, his work I find very unique and interesting. Looking at some of the artists' work that were put in links under their description i saw many different types of art. There were photographers, painters, etc. And what was most noticeable was how everyone had their own significant style. The exhibition is a wonderful idea, and the chosen artists' have amazing work that deserve to be shown to the public about their achievements, lives, stories and challenges!

Series in a series

So I have completed the next part of my series. What I did was I purchased four white canvases and then I researched online why cats always landed on their feet. This is a unique characteristic that cats have and it happens almost 98% of the time. I did a couple tests with my own cat to prove this theory and out of the three times I tried it, he landed on his feet. The cat righting reflex starts to become effective in cats at the young age of 3-4 weeks old. It has been proven that a cat with a higher drop may have the better outcome than that of a lower drop.  A test was conducted of a cat falling five floors and a cat falling two floors and the cat that fell from higher resulted in less injuries. This is because in the longer time of the higher drop the cat had enough time to re-position itself properly to land without as many injuries.

Alright back to the actual project now. After doing the first part of my series I decided I could not only do it on cats, but a certain cat, my cat. So with the next part of the series I decided to stick to two colours that go well together but are complete opposites - also monochromatic. I started looking at the different positions a cat fell in as they turn from upside down to right side up. Since I had only four canvases i had to decide on four positions of falling. I know i had to incorporate the first and last sequence and then i had to choose two from the middle.

SERIES UPDATE

So I’m pretty much done with my sculpture as I started to get mad with it. The clay in the box had said that it was air dry-able and that it wasn't likely to crack. Unfortunately with my luck, it did crack and it basically ruined the entire design. I tried my best to fill in the crack with more clay to fill up the space so much it couldn't crack but it wasn't very successful. Right now I’m at a standstill with that portion of my series and I’m trying to think of a way to fill in the cracks so that I can paint it and put a clear coating over top. 

So currently while I’m thinking about this I have started another part of my series which is a series within a series. I have bought four canvases and I have started to draw the images of cats on them. What I plan on doing is called the cat righting reflex. This reflex is when a cat can be falling upside down and he corrects himself mid fall to land on his feet. The cat rotates its body at the middle on an axis that is different for both the front and back end of the cat. A cat usually lands like this with no injury but that isn't the case 100% of the time. 

Canadian coin

For this assignment in art is was technically classified as a sketchbook assignment. The point of it was to create a coin that represents Canada. Fortunately but unfortunately, Canada is so huge and diverse, making it difficult to choose just one thing to represent it. I settled on the idea of the land shape because that's one thing that probably won't ever change. I then decided to incorporate a maple leaf as well as it is from the national flag. I know that the map isn't exact and the shapes aren't all correct but at a glance it looks to be Canada's shape.

Fauvism Art History

Overview

Fauvism- a time period in which it was referred to as a time where there were plenty of new possibilities for colour in art. This art era happened in the early 20th century and was out of the ordinary. Created by some French men, inspired by famous names like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin,etc., grew to be a very popular. The group of men who were well known for using this type of art style were called the "fauves" -meaning wild beasts. They were called wild beasts due to the way they used the pallet of colours wildly. Being part of this art group was almost seen as liberation. The man who led this group was named Henri Matisse. He and a bunch of other people formed a group surrounding this unique art form and brought it recognition to this world. Colour is used at a maximum intensity and the artists usually painted with the colours that they believed should be there. When first looking at this style of artwork you tend to think is doesn't follow any guidelines but if you continue to study it, you realize it uses a lot of visual elements. The main features this art had were distinctive brush lines, vivid colour, and the expression of feelings through artists in their paintings.

L'Atelier Rouge (The Red Studio)by Henri Matisse (1911)

This first piece is one of Henri's most famous pieces he's ever created. My understanding of this piece is that the artist painted his studio in the colours he saw it in. With the main colour of red, it colour possibly be showing the motion he felt while painting it. red. anger? love? happiness? Was he particularly angry that day with his studio/art? or maybe he could've been totally happy. This painting was done with oil paint on canvas as that was a typical way for paintings to be at this time. If you study the picture closer to the painted artworks you can see possibly inspirations to why he would want to paint this scene. The first thing you notice would have to be the most important though. As said before, red has a huge impact on this piece. Where a painter might’ve used black the artist for some reason used red and made it work. Without the black the painting has a very different visual effect. Using the same tone throughout, he was still able to include depth which I find very amazing. At the time of this painting there was lots of international stress going on, with the war to come in three years.

At the Circus (The Mad Clown) by Georges Rouault (1907)

So right away looking at this painting you notice the dark colour choice. I would assume this under a hidden meaning he painting has with the two characters in it.  So the name of the artwork “At the Circus (The Mad Clown)” you can pick out the clown character but it is still unknown who the girl is – viewer or performer? Another question that comes to mind is why the clown is mad and what his back story is. The painting is done with oil paints on a piece of cardboard. Cardboard is a very interesting choice of canvas and it makes you wonder why it was chosen to do the art on. The painter was a student of Moreau (a very popular artist) and a friend of Matisse. Two very well-known artists who helped inspire Rouault to create this painting. The artist was seen as someone in this era to do more quiet and physiological paintings – paintings with a background. Using some of the main elements like intense brush strokes and application techniques, he had a preference to darker colours which echoed ‘human suffering’. As I have learned, the artist has done multiple paintings of clowns and acrobats off stage, which is very important to know as a viewer needs to know who the characters are in a painting. Using psychological inspiration he was always able to display the characters in full circus makeup but also reveal the deep sadness within. 

Yacht at Le Havre Decorated with Flags by Raoul Dufy (1905)

When first glancing at this painting you notice what exactly is in the picture but that there are no outlines to it. This was a feature of the fauvism era and I find it to be pretty interesting on how an artist can have a lack of detail and still are able to form a picture which has lots of detail. So you can see that in the picture it is a beautiful windy day at the marina/lake side and that there are many coloured flags attached to the yacht. The artist Dufy, was very much like popular artists Claude Monet and Eugene Boudin, painting scenes of one certain place that was his favourite. With the many different types of strokes the artist used he is able to convey different textures and effects throughout his work. The artist’s expression through this painting might’ve been happy as it was a favourite place. Events at this time were when cars were being factored into cities and horses were becoming less common. This painting was done on canvas with oil paint.

TVO on the road - Walking With Our Sisters Art Installation

After seeing Mrs. Rose’s blog post I decided to look into the Walking With Our Sisters Art Installation a bit more as I was very interested in it. After watching the video, I followed the link to the website, reading the information about the project and taking a closer look at some of the pieces they collected that came with stories. Each pair of vamps collected represents one missing or murdered indigenous woman. All the vamps were beautifully crafted and I found it moving how the country can come together to show their respect to those indigenous women who went missing or were murdered. I think that this project is very important as it honours the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Canada and the United States. The project revolves around these pieces called Moccasin vamps, which are the top decorative pieces of the moccasin. The vamps symbolize the unfinished lives of the women whose lives were cut short. The vamps that are collected were then to be attached with Velcro to a red cloth path so viewers who go to see it can walk along the path of vamps. This project is a great way to raise awareness to everyone about this issue, and to pay respect to the women’s lives and existence. This link is to the project’s website (http://walkingwithoursisters.ca/) and I encourage anyone that reads this post to check it out and to see the work that the women of Walking With Our Sisters is doing.

Fourth Sketch Book Assignment

Juxtaposition 

Two things that are placed closely together which contrast each other.

With this sketch I chose to contrast the bird on where it can't be and how it's there. For this assignment I used value, space, and shape. Since I use graphite pencils in all or many of my sketches I tend to use value to show the different shades. For space, I have the foreground of the bird and the sign, the middle ground of the lighthouse and rocks, and the background of the ocean horizon. Finally with shape I used both geometric and organic. Geometric for the design of the lighthouse and the sign and organic for the rocks.

Third Sketch Book Assignment

Sketched with Faber Castle pencils

This picture began as just a spiral on the page as I had no idea what I wanted to do with it and then I thought about the scary outdoors and a pine tree came to mind and eventually I was drawing this. This picture has a focal point which the line of the spiral draws the eye into and the different sizes of the trees make it seem as if you're being pulled into the picture.

Series Art Piece #1 Update!

So I have started my first piece for the series assignment. It was the actual 3D cat piece and it went a lot different from planned. Originally I wanted to make it out of clay but then there was the fear of it staying together or the possibility of it cracking so I decided to use different materials. I started out making like a skeletal structure with two different types of wire, one thicker and one thinner. The main supports I did out of the thicker wire to make sure it held itself up, and the little details I did out of the thinner wire which was much easy to bend and maneuver.

Side picture of wire work

Top view

So after I have all of the main pieces of the body built I was able to continue with progress on making it look realistic. The plaster strips were difficult to use at first, as they had nothing to adhere to making it difficult to stick to the wire. Eventually after one piece successfully dried I was able to add more.

Adding plaster strips

More plaster strips

I finally covered the main parts of the body but then I realized I needed to fill out the shape of the cat more to make him look bigger as he looked pretty bony with his fake skeletal structure. To do this I used pieces of Plasticine to ball up and put in the deep parts and then re-cover them with the plaster strips. My next step with this piece will be to see if any places need re-patching after Plasticine is put down and then hopefully over the weekend I will have gone to town to pick up some sort of soft material to cover the "sculpture" and then add details to it.

Series Art - cats

As a class we were told to think of something that meant a lot to us as it will need most of our attention on it without being bored. To me, cats are one of the most important things in my life. To even break it down a bit more, my own cat, August means the world to me. I even refer to him as my literal child even though that's 100% not possible. I'm pretty sure my future will consist of me being a crazy cat lady with 15+ cats in my house. I'm not sure why I have a connection to cats but I can say it started at a very young age. Possibly when I got my first cat Petrie? I have no idea. Growing up my life was just cats. I collected items that resembled them, referred to them, just anything. By grade 6/7 age, I had so many things I had to put them away and my "obsession" died a little bit. I think I feel close to cats because I know they can't judge me as a person aloud (like sure they can talk to their little cat friends and whatnot) but this makes me feel comfortable around them. When I’m angry or stressed out I find myself talking to my cat, just to talk about it, even though I know I’m not going to get a response it's nice just to talk. Cats are also sensitive to vibes people give off, believe it or not. Depending on the person, if a cat senses they are sad they will go to them and comfort them. (Cool eh?) a known fact is that 84% of women with breast cancer said that their cat helped them through the disease. A cats comforting is shown to lower blood pressure. Like this cat that soothes the baby to sleep.

Alright so for my series now. I plan on using three different materials. Sculpting, painting and some form of graphic design to be printed out. For sculpting I want to make almost a realistic sculpture of a cat sitting down. The shape of it should be pretty easy it’s just the details that might be really hard.

Similar to this but different position and more features.

For my second piece I would like to do almost a series painting itself of four components on different canvases.

.

Using this image almost as an outline I'd like to recreate it as it is simple, yet complex. For my third piece I would like to do something that is considered as graphic design. Something where I create one image in the original colour and then either make duplicates digitally or by person in different colours. I think this would be a really cool thing to do.

With this style to it but only four squares not nine.

I think my three ideas are all very different and easily fit into the theme of cats. :)

Art 21 Film/Artist

The artist Do Ho Suh does very unique work with his form of art. In the piece shown in the video it's called "Floor" . He installed it into the floor of the Seattle Art Museum, in Washington. Using little figurines of people he made a statement on personal space. His art is also a form of architecture so it has multipurpose to it other than to just look at. He used the inspiration of his city Seoul with the crowded streets to make this piece. Using many different colours of little figurines he is able to show multiculturalism and give it a symbolic meaning. The little figures symbolise the diverse groups of people who either support or resist the floor and the people above them. The following are some pictures of what it looks like.

My Reaction:

Alrighty, at first when I saw it I thought it was just a glass floor. Like nothing special what can be so artistic about this. As a first impression it wasn't looking very good to me, but as it got closer and it showed you what it actually was, you see it as a really cool thing. Having a bunch of tiny little "people" hold you up and also give a symbolic meaning to it. This work brings unity to mind. How a bunch of people from the different cultures and backgrounds can get together to literally support someone/something. This doesn't necessarily evoke any emotion to me but if I had to say maybe happiness? The thought of multiple people working together on something can be a happy thing right? As it could be a step towards a better world. What puzzles me most is how aren't the figurines crumbling under the weight of the viewer on top? Are they made from a specific material that allows them to stay together? Maybe something like concrete? Or is it the distribution and placement that allows the weight to be held? I can't really make any connections to this as I've never seen anything like it before and it’s very unique.

The only source of social media that Do Ho Suh has would be a Facebook page that hasn't been updated since 2009 unfortunately. I don’t have any questions for the artist but I do have a liking to his art that he creates not only for the way it looks but for the symbolic meanings they have.

 Here are a few of his other interesting pieces:

"Home within home" (2013)

"Karma" (2003)

"Some/One" (2001)

Second Sketch Book Assignment

Poor quality picture but its obviously a rose

So for the week of the 9th - 13th of February I chose to pick my own theme and eventually decided on one that went with Valentine’s Day which was on the 14th. As I've said many, many, many times before. I dislike using colour so much as it can really ruin a vision of the art I've done. This sketch to me is an exact example of it as well. I had previously drawn the picture out with graphite pencils and then moved on to colouring it with my water colour pencils. I really wanted to try them out, as I had had them for over a year but had never really touched them to paper. Anyways, back to the point. The elements I used in this week’s sketch book assignment were colour and form. Colour is obvious from the red and greens. Form is somewhat used on the petals to give them a 3 dimensional look, using shading.

Elements of Art

My interpretation of the elements

So instead of looking up pictures on the internet of the different elements I decided to just draw them instead. Drawing them would give my interpretation of the element to the way that I understand it. 

Colour - one of the most easily known elements. Colour can play a major role with art, depending in if you are choosing to use it. It can be warm (reds and oranges) or cold (blues and greys) Colour is seen in three ways: hue, intensity, and value. 

Line - line can be used in many different ways. Line can be used to draw the viewers eye into a picture or to a certain point in the picture. There are many many different lines known to art as well. Lines show the distance and spance of one place to another. Lines have width, direction and length which all can contribute to shape. 

Space - an area which the artist makes on purpose to provide a purpose. Space usually shows the foreground, middle ground and background which gives the picture dimension to it. Space can also be broken into two areas: negative and positive. 

Value - refers to the light and dark in a piece of work. Often referred to with the black and white spectrum.

Texture - used to describe how a 2 dimensional piece of work looks like it feels or how

 a 3 dimensional piece actually feels.

Shape - the use of an area to create space defined by edges and curves in 2 dimensional art. Shapes can either be geometric or organic. Shape is usually defined by the other elements.

Form - pertains to the actual or perceived volume. 3 dimensional art has depth, width, and height. 2 dimensional can only get this look from the use of perspective using techniques like shading.

First Sketch Book Assignment

So for my first sketch book assignment I decided to do the first thing that came to my mind. This ended up being a turtle, I have no idea why but I just went with it. I think having the factor of just drawing/sketching anything that comes to mind is important because even though sometimes you may want to the think of the greatest idea, it’s better to be able to just get started on something. The shell isn't an actual representation as I had learned after, there are supposed to be 28 pieces to the outer rim of the shell with thirteen bigger chunks on the inside. I used three main pencils to sketch this: HB, B, 6B. Of my 6 pencil set I wanted to use a soft, medium and hard to show the different lines and textures in my work. Principles that I used included: line, shape, value, and texture. Line is used in the pieces of the shell mainly. It outlines and it gives it a textured look to make it look somewhat realistic. Shape would be those within the shell and the turtle itself. Value is the shading that I have done and the darkness and lightness to it. Texture is the feel the picture appears to have.

The first stages of my drawing

Finished product

The criteria the class came up with for the sketch book assignments

My sketch meets all of the criteria. It shows four of the 7 elements as well as it shows a lot of effort I put into it. I met the deadline of Friday to hand it in (This blog post is a little late though) and it shows the appropriate level of detail. As of now there isn't any improvement to be shown as it is the first sketch of the year.