Printmaking project

One thing you've never got the chance to say?

-I am extremely proud of my brother, and will forever stand by his side. 

My project was based on my feelings for my brother, and therefore I chose to make a heart of infinity signs. I used the linoleum block to carve out the infinity sign, painted it black, and then made the shape of a heart using printmaking skills. I also wanted to do a silhouette of some sort, so I decided to paint my brother and I. I made it a point for my figure to be a little ahead, and with my head turned towards him because I wanted to represent the guidance I give for my brother. This project was less of a technique-based project, and more of an emotional one, that I think is respective towards each person's personal feelings; so I made sure I did something that was more personal and mysterious for people to be unknown to. 

Art Museum

1. I liked this piece because it reflects a lot of rush, confusion, and color. My personal style is based on lots of bright colors and emotion, therefore I was most attracted to this creative artwork. I also like how the majority of the splashes of paint are concentrated on one side of the painting. Also, the bright, neon background adds emphasis to the emotion and color. I admire the numerous types of brush strokes that vary between thick and thin lines of paint. Although this piece is just splotches of paint, there is something unique and beautiful about the aggression of how the paint is applied.













2. I particularly didn't see anything in this painting that could be interesting or creative. I admit that the technique was interesting since it was done through his "soak-stain" paint style, however the design itself was very ordinary. I feel if the artist made a unique design through his soak-stain technique, then the piece would appear much more impressive and impactful.











3. "Eh Piece": I liked this piece because the color pink contrasted nicely with the tan shade of the pots. I also liked the shapes of the pots considering that these were made a long time ago. However, I felt that they were very common or ordinary looking. I wouldn't have been attracted to it even now because I'm used to seeing theses traditional pieces from various countries. I feel that a common pottery-maker could easily replicate this design, therefore making this piece a little boring and common.

Best Art Store Doesn't Sell Art Supplies

I felt that this article was helpful in learning how to incorporate different, natural materials into art. I initially was never really interested in creating art that was made out of non-traditional materials like pennies, stones, seeds, etc. because I always thought it was hard to come up with a unique idea. However, after reading this article, I'm now more exposed to different and random materials that could actually end up being a fantastic art piece. Also, I always felt that a lot of artists who choose to do art with non-traditional supplies tend to make art pieces on a much larger scale. But with the examples of the smaller-scale materials, I started to understand different uses for these projects. I thought the hardware and garden store materials really helped in triggering art students into recognizing unusual resources for artistic uses. 

Postmodern Principles

My project was a painting of the Taj Mahal based on the principle of appropriation. I took a famous monument that is actually completely white in real life, and made it my own by adding a a
variety of colors such as purple, pink, yellow, green, blue, turquoise, black, orange, red, etc. The medium I used was acrylic paint, and was painted on a 3ft by 2ft canvas. I used appropriation by adding more colors for the sky, building, and landscape, which makes it my own colorful way of perceiving the Taj Mahal. The reason I chose appropriation was because I needed to work on creating ideas of my own with my own with no inspiration whatsoever. Therefore, I took the painting as my own and randomly splattered color on the canvas thinking that it'll eventually look somewhat like the Taj. This was a tedious and long process, but I enjoyed doing something different and took it as a challenge.

Olivia Gude

I feel the use of postmodern principles is important to know as an art student, however I don't agree that you have to study art textbooks in order to make great art. In that way, art is one of those subjects that doesn't require a specific curriculum because it's eventually up to the artist and how they would want to interpret their artwork. There are many art pieces in the world that have no connection to any one of the postmodern principles yet still worth millions. Also, I feel that artists have these principles within their artwork without even knowing it. Therefore, I believe that these principles are known to be just general ideas rather than specific vocabulary words for a student to study and be tested on.

My favorite postmodern principles would be appropriation and layering. I feel with technology advancing its way into works of art, many artists have adopted different ways of making art a lot more interesting. For example, with appropriation, there are tons of ideas you could create since it's just a combination of multiple types of art styles; therefore your options are limitless. I also agree that a lot of people create art based on their environment like with the example of living in the woods, which can also be an example of appropriation. I also like layering because it's more technological-based. I like the fact that you can layer piles of different art styles on top of each other to eventually create a whole new piece. It's also a fun way to incorporate photography into art. 

Essential Question Project 10/2

For my project, I chose the word "beauty". At first, I wanted to do a portrait of a young, beautiful woman but eventually changed my idea to do something completely different. My question changed to "How has beauty evolved?"; so I decided to do an evolution of makeup from the 1920s to the present day, 2015. There were 4 distinct looks that I chose to do on my model, Carissa Ayers. We then took photographs of each look and I put them on a powerpoint slideshow with descriptions of each look.
    I wanted to do this project because a lot of people underestimate makeup, or cosmetics, to be a kind of art. Many techniques we learn in class can also be applied to the human face; like contouring, shading, value, lines, color, etc. By researching about the different styles of makeup, I applied certain eyeshadow colors, foundation colors, and variations of lines on her face.

1990s

2015

1970s

1920s

The 1920s look: Flapper

• Bright red lipstick
• Defined, thick top eyeliner, minimal bottom eyeliner
• Long eyelashes
• Thick, dark eyebrows
• Heavily white, powdered face
• Rosy pink cheeks
• I also pulled her hair back and teased it in order for hair to have the '20s "puff look"

    The 1970s look: Disco

• prominent blue eyeshadow with bright purple eyeshadow on the creases
• winged eyeliner; heavy mascara 
• hot pink/magenta lipstick with pink lipgloss 
• lots of pink blush on the cheekbones 
• added a glittery hairband to represent the colorful, shiny look from the 1970s

    The 1990s look: Grunge

• fully covered black eyeshadow above and below the eyelids; silver eyeshadow in the creases
• thick, intense black winged eyeliner on top and bottom
• minimal mascara
• thick, dark eyebrows
• lots of concealer for bright, white skin
• Dark lips: dark maroon shade 
• No blush; just a little bronzer for contours on her cheekbones
• septum piercing; beanie; choker
• pin-straight hair

     The 2015 look: Modern

• Heavy contouring of the face: tan-colored foundation used on cheekbones, jawline, forehead line, and nose
• navy blue and orange smokey eye 
• thinner eyeliner
• heavy mascara
• nude lipstick/lipgloss
• bronzer and minimal blush on cheeks
• tight, high bun w/ shiny silver earrings

Is art without meaning decoration?

-I agree with the article because it helps art students to be more cooperative, connected, and intelligent about what kind of project they want to create. It's true that students are obliged to follow instructions that the teacher demonstrates, however it's eventually up to how the student would want to incorporate those skills into hes/her meaningful art pieces. I also feel like the "non-meaningful" aspects to art, like all the techniques we learn in class, enhances the meaning of an art piece. Therefore, I don't agree with the fact that "non-meaningful" art skills don't affect an art project that conveys some sort of theme, message, or concept. With every project of mine, I personally try to incorporate a message or purpose for why I'm doing something; otherwise I end up losing interest in working for it. So asking art students to present a theme for their art won't add any more pressure since we usually already have some sort of inspiration before starting an art project.

This is a project I did in Art 2. There's
 not any specific meaning/message or theme shown
in this drawing, However, with important techniques like
value and shading, the drawing makes the piece look very realistic
So I wouldn't consider this as just a random "decoration" piece. 

Element Project: Visual Arts III Proficient

What element did you use?

-The element I chose to do was Line. The designs portray line to be used in many different ways such as delicate curves for the shapes, shading within the designs, variations between thick and thin lines, and many more. In order for my element to really stand out, I decided to use a contrast of dark and light colors which was black and reddish-orange. This helped the intricate details of the designed lines to pop out from the canvas.

Why choose this form of media?

-I chose to do a painting one, because I enjoy painting, but most importantly because I've never tried to do extremely intricate designs with a paint brush before. Although it seems easy because the brush is so delicate, it turned out to be very difficult and tedious for me. That's why I enjoyed this form of media for this kind of a project because the experience was new and unexpected. Also, with acrylic paint, the background can easily be brushed and smoothed out evenly throughout the canvas; you can you use a variety of colors, brushes, and techniques to help cover the whole painting.

Why choose this subject?

-I chose to do a line project specifically because I'm quite comfortable with drawing unique designs. I do an art form called Henna, so I'm used to drawing these types of designs, however I've never put them on a canvas before. Therefore, I deliberately chose to integrate my style of art with a medium that could enhance my designing skills. I also really liked the fact that this painting displays nothing but a large portion of mixed designs. It allows the viewers to form their own views, opinions, and/or suggestions for it. Hence, this subject on painting designed lines helped me visualize a new form of art that I've never done in the past.

You can see the resemblance of my
henna designs with the designs on
the canvas.

Mixed Media Project-1/5/14

I Create Original Art: 

How did you use your own unique ideas in your work?

-For the mixed media project, my idea was to first paint a silhouette of a couple under a red umbrella, and then paste love quotes surrounding the painting. The theme I chose to do was romantic/loving; therefore I did a combination of red, black, and gray. I wanted the image to be shown as if the painting was depicting the thoughts shared between two individuals in a loving relationship. Therefore, I made the overall background to be just filled with quotes and words that describe love; this makes the viewer easily read what the theme or idea was from my perspective. Silhouette paintings are very common, but I wanted to show a contrast of the black and the red. I painted the umbrella red so it can be the somewhat focus of the painting itself; and then adding the rain also made the scene look more realistic and obvious. Another aspect of the mixed media was that I wanted the overall shape to be in a oval-like shape. This gives it a dreamy effect, as well as variation with different sized quotes pasted on a grayish/blackish background. And lastly, adding the corner borders, I tried to be unique in adding in shiny ribbon strips to give it a more presentable look.  

I Developed My Art Making Skills:

Did you learn new techniques or processes as part of the work for this project? 

-The biggest skill I learned with doing mixed media was involving random pieces of paper (strips of quotes) with the overall theme. Starting with the painting part of it, I started with the gesso paint, so it'll be easy for the printed pieces of paper to stick. Then I painting the center of the canvas white, in an oval shape. I continued this with a grayish shade, eventually ending with black painting on the edges and corners. I used a fine brush to make the outline for the silhouette and the umbrella. I also tried to add some shading onto the umbrella, so it looks dimensional and not flat. At the bottom, I added somewhat of a surface where I very dryly painted some wavy lines. For the mixed media, I cut sections of doilies to frame a border around the oval shape I painted earlier. This added more texture, as well as variation in media. Again, relating back to the romantic theme, I stuck with the original color of love: red. So I dryly painted red on the doilies to give it color. With the quote strips, the hardest part was cutting the pieces small enough to fit the limited areas surrounding the silhouette. Also, I tried something different for the rain. I squeezed a paper towel that was soaked in white/gray paint, giving the raining effect. Then with a dry brush, I spread the paint to make it look like the rain had movement. 

I Communicate Through My Work.

What is this artwork intended to say?

-As I mentioned before, I chose the theme of romance/love. My artwork was not a specific message, but I revealed the theme through the painting of the couple, the love quotes, and the typical scene of rain in the background. Some quotes that I took from online were: "You don't love someone because they're perfect.", "Love never dies a natural death.", "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind". So these simple quotes describe the innocence of a common topic known as love. I also intentionally added in the painting of the silhouette because I wanted the quotes to reveal something about a specific scene for the viewer to connect to. The red umbrella also gives the romantic effect because firstly, the color red represents love, and it also contrasts with the black silhouette and grayish colored rain. So I intended to present the common "love theme" with a different look of combining quotes with a painting.