Sculpture Project

During my sculpture project, i used a lot of artistic behaviors. The first one i used was artists create original art. My first assignment was to create a functional sculpture that could be used in everyday life. I chose to make a octopus bowl. I attached the legs and eyes by slipping and scoring and carved out the mouth. This was the end result of my functional sculpture. 

The next artistic behavior i used was artists take risks. I needed to make another sculpture but this time it didnt have to be functional. I decided to create a flower, but there wasn't enough clay for me to make it out of it. I decided my best move was to make it out of cardboard. I painted small slivers of cardboard and hot glued them together. I then used coffee filters to make an outer covering. This is how my cardboard flower turned out. 

After a lot of looking at my flower, I decided i didnt like the way it turned out. I wanted it to look more like a flower and less like a discarded ball of cardboard. The last artistic ability i used was artists solve problems. I wanted to create a new and improved flower. I found out that we had gotten some extra clay and i began molding a tropical flower. I slipped and scored the petals together and the middle part on. Then i painted it to mimic some of the beautiful flowers that look tropical like this one. In the end, i liked how the clay flower turned out a lot better than how the cardboard flower turned out and i ended up turning it in instead. 

Style Project

The first skill i used when creating my style project, which was based on Jackson Pollock, was "artists have a global awareness of artmaking". I used knowledge of Jackson Pollock's work to create a piece in his style. I found pictures of Jackson Pollock's work on google and really liked the energy they had, which is why i chose him. This is one of the works he did. 

The next artistic behavior i used was artist solve problems. When i did the "rough draft" of my work in my sketchbook, i didn't like the shade of the background. I wanted the painting to represent a mysterious feeling, maybe gloomy. I also didn't know how to paint like Jackson Pollock did. I used acrylic paint but it was very thick. After doing this in my sketchbook i figured out that i needed to mix my paints with water so that rather than dripping the paint i could throw it like Pollock. This is what my first draft looked like. 

One artistic behaviour i could have executed  better was "artists communicate through their work". I wanted to use dark shades to create a feeling of gloom, but even with me making it i feel like this feeling wasn't portrayed as well as it could have been. I think if it had deeper colors like blues in it it would have turned out better, which was a paint mixing mistake. Saying that, painting the background gray did give it a better feeling of gloom and made the painting a lot darker than the orginal draft. 

Overall, I like how my style project turned out and enjoyed doing work in the style of Jackson Pollock. 

Flower - Color Project

When starting to create my color project, I had to learn new techniques with paint by developing new art making skills. The first thing i learned was to make a value scale. I had to go from the lightest parts of one color by making tints (adding white) to the darkest parts of that color (by adding black). This is what i did using that skill in my sketch book. 

   After i learned new skills using tempera paint, i wanted to do my color project using water colors. I tried a couple of different pictures, but when i reflected over my art work i wasn't happy with any of it. I continued to explore using complementary colors to make a bright picture and using blotting to create texture and interest but still wasn't impressed with how they turned out. These were the paintings i had in my sketchbook 

When i decided i wanted to communicate a feeling of gloom through my painting I decided to paint a dying yellow flower. I used a tecnique i learned in class called drybrush to get deeper lines for the stem. I also needed to get a sad shadow around my flower petals, which were yellow, so i used the skills I learned in class and used complementary colors, which was purple, to create a brownish shadow. Here is the painting (rough draft) of a dying flower for my color project 

Space in a Box

  While making my "Space Project" i tried to use a lot of artistic behaviors. The first one i presented in my project was developing new art making skills. I learned to use oil pastels which i eventually used in my final project. Here is a picture of a sphere i drew using oil pastels. I learned how to combine colors in with the pastels to make a core shadow and a highlight. 

The next skill i used was problem solving. When i first started my project, i aspired to draw and create something way out of my skillset. I tried drawing it in my sketchbook and it just wasn't turning out the way i wanted it. I eventually scratched that idea and made a new one to be more successful. This is a picture of the original sketch i wanted to draw. It was going to be a silhouette made in the negative space of the shadows of trees. I was going to use shading and value to create her body, but it was too hard.

The last skill i used was reflecting over my work. After i finished creating a new design i had to figure out which to use; colored pencils or oil pastels. Here is a picture of the sketch including both

I thought it had more of the vibe i wanted with the oil pastels, so that is what i went with. The oil pastels texture i thought gave it a deeper feeling, and the burnishing of the colors created the right effect for the universe. After looking over my final copy and my sketch, i realized that there were a lot of differences, but thats okay. Thats what makes it original art. I am happy with the way my space project turned out. 

Zenturtle

The first artistic behavior i exhibited during the zentangle project was creating original art. To use unique ideas for my artwork, i layed out the design of the turtle myself the way i thought it should look. I used inspiration from the people around me and the setting of the picture to inspire the patterns i used within the turtle and its surrounding area. 

The next skill i used to create the "Zenturtle" drawing was developing art making skills. I learned to use value during class. 

Using value in my turtle zentangle, I think, made the drawing way more interesting because i didn't use any color. I also think i gained skill using just pencils and in the future will be more successful drawing with them. 

The last skill i used to create my zentangle drawing would be solving problems. Not everything i tried in my zentangle project looked right. I had to keep trying new patterns until it fit right into the shapes. I also had to figure out what to put in the background of my figure because the page felt empty without a setting. 

I also had to keep adjusting the shapes inside the turtle until they all looked about equal and fit nicely together. 

Overall I think my zentangle drawing turned out good for one of my first art projects and I am happy with it.