Looking forward

For my final project, I don't know exactly what I want to do. I think I would incorporate collages in it. Maybe I could think of a theme, or a general set of colors to base it off of, and go from there. I would also like to add other materials to it, too. I was thinking maybe I could glue beads on it. I could also use spray paint or a hot glue gun to emphasize certain things. The process I would use to pursue it would be to brainstorm many ideas in my sketchbook. I would write and draw all my ideas. 

Reflecting at the end of the year

I think I have developed greatly this year as an artist. I truly think this course has changed the way I feel about art completely. At the beginning of the year, I was not very proud of my work and I thought I was bad at art. I did not realize that if I kept practicing art everyday, my work would definitely improve. My artistic strengths are making collages and putting different materials together in unusual ways. One of my biggest challenges was the clay sculpture. Since we did not spend a lot of time with clay this year, it was very hard for me. I had a hard time making the shapes and at the end, making it all come together into one sculpture. Another challenge of mine this year was that I would think about my work too much when I was doing it. When I drew my crane on a piece of paper, I tried really hard not to stress about it, and just to do it. After I finished it, I realized that it came out really well. I will leave this class thinking about art more so then before. I would normally never think about art on a regular basis, but now I am always interested in how things are made. I see art influencing my life in the future because when I go places and I see something interesting, I always think about how I could make my own version of that, using many different shapes and materials.

Sketchbook Archeology

My first two pages is a big collage of random things I found in a magazine. I really think this sparked my interest in making collages, and I'm so glad that happened. When I filled the spread with circles, I tried to be really creative, but it didn't turn the way I wanted. I tried to combine all different shapes and colors of circles to make it look interesting. As I look back at the beginning of my sketchbook, I see that everything I have done is very rough looking, and it looks like I didn't have much familiarity with the art I was making. More towards the beginning, I realize that I used markers a lot more than I have been recently, because I think I use other materials better. I notice that I used tape a lot in my sketchbook. There are some pages that I used to just test out different materials and see how they would look together. I really like using the hot glue gun. I also liked using different colors to draw different shapes and patterns. Once my second term of art began, I think my sketchbook improved. I think it has played a big role in my artistic development because it allows me to be creative with art, using different materials, than I do when I am in class. Multiple times, I would get a picture to put in the middle of the page, and outside of that I would color the page or make different patterns with different colors. I think that I really tried to try new things and use different materials in my sketchbook. Something new that I tried that I really liked was using the spray paint.Materials:

• magazine paper
• marker
• ripped paper
• paint
• paint markers
• colored pencils
• duct tape
• pencil
• hot glue gun
• highlighter
• pens
• glitter
• sparkly paper
• tin foil
• bubble letters
• collage
• pastels
• charcoal
• watercolors
• construction paper
• nail polish
• spray paint

Getting back to materials

I chose to use the red ribbon because I thought it would be very simple to use it to make my face. I thought that it was flexible, and all the other materials seemed too difficult. First, I made the outline of the head. This was the most difficult because the ribbon would not align with where I put the glue. Then I did the eyes, which were pretty difficult as well. I figured out that the easiest way to make a curve with the ribbon was to fold it. Then I did the mouth. After that, I did the hair, which was the easiest part. It was easy because I just cut a bunch of ribbon and put it over the glue. I feel that my finished product could have been better if I had more time, and if I used different material. If I had more time, I could have made the face look like my own, and added more details. I think if I used different materials, my work would have come out better.

Chair With Coat

How I found today's still life less complicated then the still life's over the past few weeks was that I think everything came together. Over the past few weeks, I learned a lot and I think today I used everything I learned and put it all together. I think I still could have done better but I think it turned out well using everything I have learned. How I used some of the skills we've developed over the past three weeks was remembering how I made a mistake in my last drawing. I tried to think about how I messed up, and tried to do the same thing, but in the right way. Some of the skills were blending, emphasizing, and drawing the big picture.

Heart Breaking

The concept of my artwork was to have a full, bright, happy hear and a broken heart. The process went well for me and it was pretty easy. I brainstormed my idea before I drew it, and everything turned out the way we wanted it to. A struggle I encountered was the fact that it may have been too plain. I am not sure if I should have added more to it, but it looked filled up enough. I don't think there was anything else I thought would look good that I needed to add. I discovered that using the principles of design was really helpful. I tried to use as many aspects of it that I could. I think the most useful feedback I got was from Natalie and Sophie. They told me that in the drawing with the happy heart, I should add something on the edge of the paper, just too emphasize the heart even more. I think all my work was pretty successful. What I thought was most successful, though, was in the broken heart, the places where it was broken was in bold.

Found Object Sculpture Reflection Discussions

feedback:
-functional
-environmental
-it was good how there were people in there

one that I liked:
Natalie and Sophie's

Found Object Sculpture Reflection

Kings of the Sky

The concept for my work was to build a helicopter. I started out with the front of a radio. After I saw that, I could picture that as the front of a helicopter. The process of making my work wasn't to hard for me. The only hard part was finding the objects to go on the sides, which ended up being clickers. Other then that, I think everything went the way I wanted it to. The biggest struggle I encountered were the two bottoms parts that the helicopter rested on, which didn't turn it out quite the way I wanted it to. I wanted the two things to show and make the helicopter higher up, but I had to leave before the glue was dry. When I left, it unfortunately didn't stay in place. What I discovered doing this project was that if I think it though and plan it before, then it won't be as stressful when it comes to making it. I also found that having many extra supplies and materials to work with helped me think of new possibilities and ideas. The aspects of my work that I thought was most interesting was the propeller. I made it so it could actually twist, which I thought was really interesting. I had it resting on a doorknob so it was higher up.

Mid-term Reflection

I think I am doing well with engagement in class. I am always prepared for class, with materials and my mind set on my artwork. I always ask Ms. Roberts if I need help or am stuck and do not know what to do next. I always follow the directions and listen to the teacher. I don't talk too much during class and I always clean up after myself. I think my art up to this point has been pretty good, and I think I am doing better than I did last year, which is a good achievement. Something I could try to work on would be to try to brainstorm more ideas, instead of automatically going with the first idea I think of. I also think I should be taking more risks in my art, because something great could come out of that. Something I really enjoy that I never knew about before, is making collages. I already made a projects that incorporated collages in it, and I think I am pretty good at making them. I also two collages in my sketchbook, one of magazines and newspaper, and one of duct tape. I think my sketchbook is coming along pretty well. I really like working on it during X block because there are a lot more art materials in the art room then there is at my house. However, I always feel rushed when I do it during X block. Something that I could change about that would be to maybe do half of it at home with the materials I have, and half of it during X block. On Tuesdays, drawing from observation has been pretty tough and frustrating for me. I feel that I struggle a lot by just flat out drawing. Although, I think I am improving and I'd like to keep going with it, knowing that I learn a lot and improve each time I do it.

Found Images Collage Reflection

SCATTERED BRAIN

The concept of my work was that a brain has tons of stuff in it. That helped me pick out objects and patterns to put in my collage. I put some things like toy trucks, and nail polish in it, to random shades of  colors and designs. The process of making my collage was pretty easy for me. Something I struggled with was trying to find objects that would go in the section, and not just doing a bunch of random designs. I discovered that I had to work the random colors and the objects together. I wanted to do a little of both, so I had to make it so they went together and that there was a bunch of shades of that certain color. The aspect of the work that I thought was most successful was thinking it through. Every image I saw, I had to picture it in my picture, and make sure it looked good. I didn't just automatically put it in because it was the right color.

The Changing Still Life

Three things I you had to do to accomplish the goal of keeping up with the changed that were happening and keeping the drawing looking like the still life were: being neat, making sure everything is in the right place, and coloring in certain objects so you can see what is what. It was helpful to be neat because that would prevent erasing. The erasing was the hardest part I think because it made everything so messy. Making sure everything was int he right place was also important. I had a couple times when I almost didn't have enough room on my page. Also, a lot of the things that I drew were way to close up, so everything else that came in front of it didn't look right because there really wasn't room for it. Coloring in certain objects was also important. It helped to distinguish which object was which. When you colored them in, it didn't look like one big blob, it looked more like different objects.

three forms drawing

I thought making that drawing today was difficult. I had a really hard time making the colors go together and "blend". Something that made me feel successful was the block. Not all of it came out very well, but I shaded the bottom part well, and I think it looked a lot better than some of the other parts of the block. I also think I outlined each shape to the best of my ability. Something I learned during the process was to use a lot of charcoal when you try to blend the colors. I thought it would have been easier to use the least possible, but I was wrong. Something else I learned during this process was that it sometimes can look really cool when you use your finger to blend colors.

Pour Paintings

When we poured paint onto the paper, I thought it was pretty hard to know that I couldn't control what was happening on the paper. I sometimes started to see certain interesting shapes form, but then then the paint kept spreading and she shape went away. Something that surprised me that I saw happen was when one color overlapped another color. Instead of making an ugly brown, the colors mixed together to make another interesting, pretty color. In my picture, I think I'm going to continue making more smaller pictures within it. Since the pour wasn't all in one big place, and is spread out, there isn't one major theme. I am going to keep turning the paper around and look at it from different angles so I can find more little shapes that I can draw.

Collaborative Drawings.

My experience today making collaborative drawings was really fun, but extremely frustrating at the same time. It was pretty annoying having someone else work on my drawing. I thought that the people working on it weren't going to see what my idea was, and they were going to completely mess it up. When I originally worked on my drawing, I thought it was pretty good, so I felt accomplished. When I saw other people's marks on it, it was frustrating because all of the work that was put into it wasn't all mine. I think having someone else work on my drawing added and took away from the final result. There were some things that were added to it that went perfectly, that I would never have thought to do. Also, there were some big mistakes that bothered me a lot that could have been avoided.