End of Term Reflection

I believe that this term has gone very well for me. I think that I really got a chance to improve on my physical skills of drawing and painting but also on my skills of being about to come up with an idea that is relevant and makes sense with what we are doing. I have learned how to control my brush more while painting, shading correctly with paint, how to make shapes look 3-D with paint, how to draw people's faces so that they look more real and how to brainstorm ideas more efficiently. I think that I have grown both skill wise and idea wise as an artist this year. Last year I would need to have someone telling me that my ideas are good and that they would work well every step of the way, now I feel a bit more independent on my ideas and try to make them work regardless of what other people say. Something that surprised me was how much good looking work I could get done in a short-ish amount of time. Another thing was that my brainstorming process takes a very long time so I don't usually get started on projects until later, I was surprised at how long it really takes me to come up with an idea. Some of my biggest successes would have to be my finished work. I especially like my "what if project" and my "heros" project and how they look and are turning out. I would say one of my biggest challenges is many technical things that I struggle with (mostly making drawings or paintings look real) but also my lack of confidence in my art and the process. At the beginning of this term I would have advised myself to try and move through brainstorm a bit faster so I would have more time to work on the actual piece of artwork. I would say to continue growing as an artist I will have to work on my confidence in my art and also working on more realistic drawing and painting.

Clean It Up project (Untitled)

My goals for this project was to try and convey that today people are more concerned with partying and only caring for themselves, rather then thinking about the other people in the world who really need help. I tried to do this by taking song lyrics from too very influential artists (The Beatles and The Police) that were about having peace among people and poverty and how those bottles are large, full and unused by people. The third bottle is about having a good time and not caring (Miley Cryus) and it is used up because that is what people are choosing to use because that is what concerns them most.

What if everyone stopped caring?

I actually really like the way that this turned out. I think that at first no one really had any idea what I was talking about when I tried to explain this idea, but it really came together the way that I pictured it in my head. Some of the details that really helped bring it together for me was the silver paint on the newspaper to make it look more like metal and the water color on the little plant because it just made it look very fragile and small like I wanted it too.

Heroes.

Boston Globe Online when searched for "heroes" came up with articles about movie stars, broadway stars, athletes and very few politicians.

New York Times Online when searched for "heroes" came up with articles about greek mythes, normal people who work to rescue other people, mothers and athletes.

I think that there are different kinds of heros and that really any person can be a hero. There are the larger scale heros who change the world and effect everyone in some way and to be that kind of hero you just need to represent what is truly ethically correct, having no prejudice or hate involved. There are also smaller scale heros who are just heros in their own life. They are the people who are just strong enough to keep their chin up and keep being positive when nothing seems to be going right. The people who can still honestly smile when thing aren't the best in their life. I think these are both very important types of heros and that the world needs both of them to become a more tolerant and peaceful place.

Mid-term Reflection

So far this term I haven't really had too many completely finished projects. The only one that I have finished so far is the Text Project which didn't exactly come out the way that I wanted it to but it was still good.

Usually my process is just me working in my sketch book drawing and just trying to come up with ideas. I don't use very much source imagery to actually draw from it but sometimes I use it to get an idea or get a general sense of what something should look like. I don't do blogging to help me brainstorm. I like getting feedback while I'm working and I usually do from Ms. Roberts which is really good.

I feel like for almost every class I am engaged and working hard. I really enjoy art so its not very hard to be. I never typically look engaged because I don't like to talk much or really look at whoever is talking but most of the time I am listening and paying attention.

Relax

Claude Monet, French, 1840-1926

Andy Goldsworthy, British, born 1956

What if...? Ideas and feedback.

Feedback:

- Try and make the newspaper look more like metal

- Make the plant stand out more compared to the newspaper metal

Text as a Visual Medium

The concept of my piece is how nature is relaxing and its a place to take a step back and look at your life. My classmates said that they liked the color choice and the style of font that I choose to write in and that it portrayed the idea that I'm trying to convey. As there is not very much done on my piece there wasn't much to talk about but if I continue hopefully the idea I want to portray will happen.

Blindfold Drawings

I didn't feel very confident about doing a drawing where I couldn't actually see what I was drawing, but it didn't really matter all that much to me because I am not the best realistic drawer anyways..

The blindfold actually really helped me picture the place that I was thinking about because without seeing anything else around me now it put me where I was trying to draw.

At the beginning of drawing I tried to draw like I normally do but I quickly realized that that wouldn't work very well. I tried to not take my pencil off the page so that I had more of an idea that how big I was making things and where my lines ended and started. I also would try to feel the paper to see where I was drawing certain things so I could draw other thing in accordance to it.

The outcome is not as good as I would normally want it to be but given that I couldn't see what I was doing I would say it came out pretty well.

This drawing is harder to figure out depth and what things are supposed and there is a lot less detail then my normal drawings would have.

Observation vs. Imagination

For me the drawing from observation was easier to start to draw. I'm not the best at drawing realistically, but its much easier for me to just dive in and start with realistic drawings because I don't need to think about a concept or how my art represents something, I can just go.

But I like to think that some of my best work is the more abstract work that I do or at least the less literal work. Its just much harder for me to start, but once I get going its much easier and more fun.

I have been drawing my whole life but started taking real drawing/art classes in 5th grade. Other then that all of my drawing and art skills have really just come as I started to work more.