Mixed Media

*sorry I didn't realize that I had saved this as a draft and not published it*

Artist Take Risks
For this unit I had never really experienced mixed media like this, were everyone in the class was scrambling around the class and all using different materials. This unit presented a challenge for me as it was very random, yet very thought out. Since this was so random I had trouble thinking of ideas that would work well together. This unit and projects really pushed me to think outside of my comfort zone and kind of experiment with art and not be so structured.

Artist Develop Art Making Skills
We started this project by doing a mini lesson where we had to pick two topics and I chose "stars" and "Day in the life of the future". This was the first time I was doing a specific mixed media where we were assigned to use multiple mediums. I found that I really enjoyed using the gel medium on magazine paper. I tried using computer paper where I printed my images and then using the glue but it always made the picture darker and sometimes wore away the ink; I found the magazines to work better. You had also mentioned to avoid cutting and straight lines by tearing and I really liked that method. Also I had never seen the ink transfer with the tape and I thought that was really cool.

Artist Reflects
I've mentioned this before but this unit was very random, but at the same time it wasn't. When we were shown the examples of mixed media it was very surprising to see how well things worked out. I definitely tried to do that during the lesson, it didn't work out so well during the final. Multiple times I had to take a break and look at what I was doing. I made sketching to plan and drew out where things were going to go and how much space I was going to take up with a certain area. When i was trying to find pictures I had to only use certain sized ones because I knew it would fit in well with everything else. Even though mixed media seems very random it is very meticulous and thought out.

Sticky Situation - Ice Cream

Artists Take Risks

For this painting you mentioned that we could use real life things to include in our painting to just add another dimension and make it more interesting. For this painting I didn't go too far into using real life objects but I did use a new technique that i've never used before. I wanted to paint the ice cream to add an added effect and make it look real with texture. To do this I painted with the palette knife to add texture to the painting. It was honestly really hard to use this because you can't really blend without messing the paint up. And once the paint dried it kind of wen't back to 2-D. Overall im glad that I tried this anyway because it helped determine the flow of the ice cream and where I wanted to add  my shading.

Artists Solve Problems

During this project I found the stool to be really hard because it hard very bright and distinct reflections that made the stool seem a little unrealistic to me. I tried painting the stool multiple times but it just kept changing the entire time. Overall i think i'm happy with the overall result but it is my least favorite part of the painting.Also I had a really big problem with the shadow that the cone made on the wall. I learned that to make shadows you want to not just use greys but use a darker shade of the color. When I had to use a darker shade of the yellow wall it turned green and a really ugly color. I couldn't seem to make a dark yellow. i ended up using the dark yellow that turned more blue than yellow but I ended up leaving the color anyway.

Artists Develop Art Making Skills

For this painting I found it really interesting to use the backwash color because it did change the color or the paint and you had to be mindful of it. I also learned a lot more about shading and layering my colors effectively. The more shadows I put into it, the more it brought out the center focus of my painting and brought it more proportionally to the front. i also had to focus on the shading in the cone to bring it more shape instead of flat. I also learned that it was a lot easier to start with the background and add to it, to make painting easier and cleaner.

Up Close and Personal Theme - Softball

Artists Create Original Work
For this project when we started out by doing the different techniques I noticed how bright the different medias all were. When I was picking my ideas I focused them on bright things, then i thought of doing a softball and I found I really liked the way it turned out in my sketched and trying out the different medias. For my reference pictures I actually took my own pictures to make it easier when i was sketching. I put my original pictures into the sketches and then used the more professionally done pictures for my values and seeing how the color reacts to the light source. I'm really glad I chose to do this idea because I had my object so accessible to me and I was more familiar with it.

Artists Solve Problems
When I was doing my project I noticed how the quality of the construction paper didn't really mix well with the chalk. When I first started the project  by doing my sketches in my sketchbook the color was really bright and vibrant and smooth. On the construction paper the chalk didn't mix smoothly and it made it hard to  layer the colors to get my value in between. Also because of the layering problems I had to leave a blank spot for the stitches of the ball because that was where i had most of my highlights so I needed the whites as bright as possible. Also to overcome the dulling colors and the increased difficulty to layer I just had to spend a lot more time than I originally thought, but i'm glad I did because I thought it turned out really well.

Artists Reflect
My camera made the color look really separated and not blended! For this project I really had to step back and look at it to make sure I was following my value well and staying true to how it would really look. When I had to move onto the second softball (bottom right) I remembered how hard it was to get my color bright so when I had to move onto the next one I tried making the back completely white and then adding on top of the white. Even though I thought this would help it really didn't make that much of a difference but I'm glad I tested it out. My favorite part of this project was when I would finally do the stitches and laces because it really tied everything together and make it look really good. I had to do this part last because it had to be completely on top of the other colors to make it the most prominent and to keep it separated. I also faced a challenge when deciding my background. I originally was just going to do dirt/sand because I thought grass was going to be really hard. I am very happy with the grass though. I thought it added a really great factor that i hadn't thought of. I know I was dreading doing the background because I thought it was going to ruin everything but it turned out great! Overall, this was my favorite project even though i had to wash my hands 3,000 times I loved the way this one turned out compared to other projects.

Scientific Theme - Icecube

Artist Develop Art Making Skills
When we started this unit and we were going over the technique I found I liked the pen material the best. Out of all the ink techniques I liked stippling the best. I found it was easier to show the value this way. For me the cross-hatching and other methods were very hard for me to maintain shape of the object. I learned when doing stippling you have to be very steady and precise when you're placing the dots. When i first started in my sketchbook I was doing the dots too fast, creating the tails at the end, which is not what I wanted. Later in the project I learned how to make my dots smaller than others to make even more variety between the values. Even though the stippling was very time consuming I enjoyed to overall technique and I enjoyed the way the stippling turns out in other drawings.

Artists Solve Problems
While doing the project one of the elements of art that we had to include was value and contrast. Overall the contrast was easy because I was working with black ink on a white background. When it came to value I found it to be more of a problem than I usually have. One of the reference pictures I had showed no value and It was just black on the inside but then you (Mrs. Rossi) told me to make the value and light source more prominent. When I first started this project I did the top of the icecube first and ended up making it all black, where I wish i could go back and fix the value in it. When I realized that I was doing it wrong I quickly had to change the direction of my light source and try to direct the value elsewhere. Overall, other than that mistake, I liked the way my final turned out.

Artist Collaborate
During the project I again faced many problems which you helped me out and you also helped me out deciding what else to include in my background and how to fill up the page. I consulted in my friends from the other table because I really liked how they performed the stippling while I was having trouble in the beginning. While deciding what to do for my project I originally had a huge iceberg and was going to do that, the people at my table directed me to do the Icecube and push myself towards what I thought was the harder object. I really like my final and I LOVED the stippling so I would definitely do the stippling even though it was so time consuming.

Colored Pencil/Oil Pastels/Chalk Pastel

For the colored pencil lollipop I didn't really like this one. I think the fact that the paper was brown kind of messed up the color. I had a really hard time getting the colored pencil to look colorful and get the value. Since I only had certain colors I couldn't get a good gradient going. I'm not sure if you are able to blend with the colored pencil but it was hard to get the brights and the dark values. Overall, this was my least favorite technique to work with.

I really enjoyed working with the oil pastels. I don't think that it looks that good since it doesn't look as smooth as the others and you can see the lines that you make while drawing it. This was my favorite technique to layer the colors. I found this easier to blend with and get the values. I liked when we had to layer the white last because I feel that it really added another level and aspect to the drawing. I think I might choose this to do my final because I liked this the most. The one downside I think the oil pastels have is that the look like crayons and I don't like the way crayons look. This was a little bit above the chalk pastels for my overall favorite, but just by a little bit.

I liked how this turned out but I wish I spent a little bit more time on the wrapper. When I first started the project I really didn't enjoy the chalk because I found it really to spread around and fill up the page to blend. When you blend the chalk I felt it really dulled down the original color when I didn't want it to. My favorite part of this material is the fact that it looks so smooth compared to the other materials. I think I'm starting to like this more than the others because of the final and the fact that it looks so smooth. This was originally my second favorite but   I think I'm going to end up using this as my final. 

Print Making

For the Print Making project we made a sketch of our animal using the reference photos. Then we cut out our sketch on the linoleum using the gouging tool to carve the shapes out. I've used the gouging tool before but it was on cardboard so this time it was a lot easier. The hardest part of my project was the top of my fish because it had very small dots and I didn't think that it would print. To print we rolled the ink and used the brayer to roll the ink onto the linoleum. The hardest of that process was dropping the linoleum so that it was straight with the paper. I liked how my finals came out though. I liked the color and the contrast that it made. Overall, I liked this project and I wish that I did the multi-color prints to.

Frog Tongue

     For this project I thought that it was a lot harder than the other one. In the middle of the project when we had to do the clone stamp I kept messing up and I eventually had to start over. I liked doing this project but it was much more frustrating than the other photoshop project. I liked how mine turned out but i think the clone stamp isnt very good thing to use with this because it made a wierd texture inside the tongue. Even though I had to rush through this because I had to start over, I like how everything worked out.