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.

Pancake Jaws

I had fun with this project, it was very interesting. I always have trouble using photoshop, but I feel like with this project I was able to use it easier with step-by-step instructions. I think the most difficult part of this project was changing the hue because I couldn't find a color that worked with the color of the pancakes. I found a way to erase and blend the mouth because it was very grey fish like before. I like my finished project, I could have done a better job when I pulled the mouth because it made weird lines at the bottom that I tried to fix, but it didn't really work out. It's been awhile since I have used photoshop so I hope I can remember everything and get better.

Stencil Project

For this project I really liked it. I liked doing something other than pencil value. The things that I didn't like about it was that I messed up my spray paint so it dripped on the other colors which made me have to paint my background again. Then for my final product there was some spray that went on the middle of it that I didn't like. I liked the spray painting part of the project though, it was cool doing something different from drawing. I liked how my final looked but I wish I picked different colors because I think I would have liked it with brighter colors. Other than the things about my final that I didn't like I really liked my the overall idea of the project and I thought everyone's turned out good.

Value Unit

     When we started this unit I found it very hard to use the pencils to shade in value; I had trouble with my lines showing and I couldn't blend. When we did the oil pastel I found it easier to blend. I really enjoyed the oil pastels, I liked how mine turned out in the end. I like how easy the iPads were to use, it was just I didnt like the end product. It seemed more of a fake and computer look to it, rather than a realistic shading that you get with the pencil and sometimes with the pastels. With this unit I learned that to make it look realistic, you have to shade with the lines of the shape; before this my shading was just filling in the lines with shading. I can see how technology is very useful in art and makes things easier, but I like the more realistic feel from other medians.