Color: Dark Lady

Hello fellow bloggers and artists! The theme for this project was Color, so I decided to get creative and try a media I hardly ever use: water color. I wanted to create a contrast with dark and light, however, I didn't want the dark to be overbearing or "sad." So, I used an African American woman for the piece. The woman is "dark" but the background was meant to convey a lightheartedness, as was the necklace and her eyes. When I worked on this piece, I didn't have symbolism in mind. Instead, I decided that the colors should make the viewers "think." Let them, come up with the symbolis.

It was much easier than I anticipated in shading the woman's body and I was able to fully convey the affect I was going for with her hair and the background. However, I feel that her face could have been shaded a bit more, but I like it as it is. Her face was the hardest to color, in that it had the most detail and I didn't want to be overbearing with the blue. I was also disappointed in the coloring of her lips, but thanks to many, including Kate (thanks girl!) I decided to keep them that particular shade and it has grown on me. I believe this piece to be done, but if any of you have ideas, please feel free to tell me.

Art 4 - Advanced Placement

Please begin posting your work, not only for the assignments but other pieces you are working on for the breadth section of your portfolio. Discuss your composition, media and what element and pricipal of art you focusing on.

Project: Color

Students in Art 4 are well underway with a new project. This project will focus on the element of art, color. Color can add so much to a piece of work and depending on the color scheme can create or set the mood of a painting. We can see this in the art by Pablo Picasso. During his 'Blue Period' (1900 - 1904) his paintings were monochromatic in shades of blue and blue-green and sometimes warmed by adding other colors. Some say that during this period he was not happy with his life and this was reflected in the cool colors used as opposed to the 'Rose Period' (1905 - 1907) that followed when things were going well for him. Image, how would the overall effect have been changed if he had painted 'The Old Guitarist' in shades of red?

Blog Assignment: Post a picture of your work in progress by Wednesday evening, October 1st, 7 pm. Discuss your color scheme, it's meaning or purpose to the overall composing of your piece, what message you hope to convey to the viewer upon completion, and any problems you maybe having.

Comment on others work and reply to those who comment on your piece by Saturday, October 4th, 7pm.

Your completed piece is to be turned into Mrs. Glenn by Thursday, October 9th at the beginning of class with your completed grade sheet.

My three criteria were color, contrast and non-objective. So basically I had the freedom to do as I wish on this project. I love doing portraits to that was my focus. I achieved contrast through doing the portrait in color pencil and making the flowers around her out of yarn and string. I feel this piece is not quite finished so any suggestions are welcome. This was a fairly easy project and I enjoyed doing it. Thank you.

Due Date for Roll of the Dice

Now that everyone has posted their work for 'Roll of the Dice' and comments are being posted also to help guide you with your finished project, they are due to me by the end of the day Wednesday, September 17 with the grade sheet filled out.

Your next project will focus on color.  We will talk more about this on Wednesday.

Hope Springs Eternal

Hey Art Gang! I hope you like what I've created and please don't hesitate with any criticism. I want to know more ideas for the background and what I can do to make it more mesmerizing. I'll take whatever you say into consideration and try my very best to apply it.

When rolling the dice, I received the elements: emphasis, non-objective and value. As you can see I placed the emphasis on the ribbon, value on the souls and non-objective on the bodies of the souls. From the very beginning I knew I wanted to do something disturbing to make people think so that they could come up with their own idea of the meaning in it. I started off with drawing an enormous blob. However, after a few pencil strokes, I gave this blob an arm and a head. Before I knew it I had created this ominous spirit that was strange but needed something more. I wanted to give it color but not too much because I didn't want to throw off the eerie sensation it produced for me. So I began thinking about ghosts and how they supposedly drift and glide in mid-air. This inspired me to create the ribbons around them, providing the element, emphasis, I needed.

Well I know your probably wondering why their are two up there. After creating the one on the right I noticed some small but significant details that I wanted to change about it such as making the ribbon larger, making the head into a skull, and also adding the slime onto the arm. However, once I completed that one I couldn't help but using the original piece also. I found it really odd how both arms fit together perfectly so I connected both together and got my final project.

Some Beauty is Only Skin Deep

Hello my fellow bloggers! The theme for this project was the 'Roll of the Dice' and, when it came to my luck, my project was based on the elements and principles of Value, Contrast, and Interior. Value for the project was easy, since it was simply shading, where executed correctly is for you as viewers to say. Contrast was easy as well (mmm, the idea was easy) as shown in the drawing of good and evil, light and dark, nice and mean. Again, to whether it is successful is for you to tell. However, interior took some brainstorming because frankly, I would get bored very quickly trying to draw the inside of a house or any other building, and my idea of a dissected cadaver didn't go over well either... So my project focuses on the interior of the human conscience.

The media used for the project was colored pencil on paper. Colored pencil is not my strongest media, however I was satisfied with the results. The only thing I regret is the background. I really struggled with it.

Roll of the Dice - Blocks and Podium

I rolled my dice and fate dealt me internal, balance, and lines. I had dealt with balance before, it's difficult to not use lines and internal can be taken several ways so I felt relatively comfortable going into this project. While I don't think my humble graphite stands up to my classmates previous posts I think I came out with pieces relavent to my instructions.

I haven't drawn much over the summer so I kept both pieces relatively geometric. What I liked about this project was the chance I had to experiment with balance. In both pieces I tried to use a different method of artistic balance, having heavier objects force light ones higher (like literally being on scales) rather than methods like having several small objects in the middle balancing one large object to the side. I'm not sure if its a new idea, but I thought it was interesting.

I used the same methodology I always use when working on a project: think for a long time on it and get whatever result I'm after relatively quickly. Obviously "Blocks" is the more geometric of the two. I tried to keep it pretty uniform and solid. I'm not sure I succeeded.

With "Podium" I tried using minimalism, as I think it's called, wich was fun since I haven't realy used so much implied surface before.

Roll of the Dice: Teaparty In My Ear

The idea behind this piece came to me in a dream; vivid, lifelike, and full of energy. I, however, cannot decide how to recreate it's magic in an artform. The idea remains trapped in a 2D black and white sketch format, but I wish to redraw and paint it with acryllic. I wanted to try to do it in oil due to a suggestion by Kimberly but I still remain quite confused.

The three things I got for this piece were Architecture, Repetition, and Paper so honestly, I don't believe I could've gotten away with painting it. I honestly love this idea quite a lot and I really hope I can revise it and redo it much better than it is now. In this state, there wasn't much more I could do to it.

I vaguely like how this interesting scene is contrasted by its boring color scheme.

I hate how I feel like I didn't do my idea justice, but I really could go too far. I also hate how after I "finished" it, so many more ideas came to me and I grow angry at myself for not incorperating some of them.

I can say that M.C. Esher inspired part of this piece...along with bits of Picasso for the characters. I just really, really, want to redo this picture; I feel it has so much potential, but I didn't do it justice.

Hello everyone! My project is called The Oriental Landscape. I was going for a kind of Asian look; similar to the paintings you see at Chinese restaurants…I hope I captured that effect. The three things that I rolled on the dice were landscape, color, and pattern; they inspired me to begin this piece, even though two of the elements I rolled are not included. I was originally planning to do the piece in color, a light, purple-blue color to be exact, maybe with a sunset in the background. But after a few days of working of the piece, I kind of lost the feeling that it needed to be in color, so I decided to leave it as it was. In the end that turned out to be the best decision anyways, keeping it black and white gives it a faint, serene quality that I prefer to color.
I was really hoping to draw the viewers eye to the waterfall in the background, but I do not think that that happened; much to my disappointment. The waterfall does not appear as realistic as the cliffs and trees do; I may try this piece again later to see if I can fix that, maybe I shall even add the sunset next time...
I had alot of fun doing this piece. It is an expression of me in a way, and I like it. I find Art 4 to be so much more fun than the other art classes I have had, there is so much more freedom. I love being able to choose to do my project on and can’t wait to do more pieces.

~kate

Roll of the Dice: junkfood land

rolled: archtecture, collage,emphasis

i wanted to portray an out-there snack world created by my boredom in study hall while counting down the time for lunch....i was really hungry.

For the collage element in this piece i decided to use a bunch of diffrent snack foods, candies, and other food themed items, alas fate proved not to be on my side when i discovered most of what i wanted to use as my materials had been accidentally thrown away on me. so i used basically just dorito chips (nacho cheese and cool ranch)for the spikes on the sun and the stones for the path, fritos were used to stand like randomly placed weeds growing throughout the landscape, and i used twizzlers to pipe up the sprring wire supports of the sun.

The archetecture element in this project is the wire springs used to support my happy dorito sun(which is constructed out of two half sphered pieces of floral foam pinned together),which is my element of emphasis.

This piece is at the momment still needing a lot of work, i still want to add some more twizzlers to the wires, maybe some peeps marshmellow chicks (they'll be the edible residents :D), sprinkles for gravel (help distract the audience from all the green), candy accents for the bushes (will seem like berries..or something), and i still need to comeplete covering up the base of the wires and the electrical tape.

Roll of the Dice/ Buddy

The criteria I received for the “Roll of the Dice” project were interior, balance, and color. I got the idea for this piece one day while I was messing around on photoshop with pictures of my horses. I decided to outline Buddy in black and white so that I could print him out and then bring him to life with paint, which is the medium I have the most trouble working with.

After I cut him out I placed him in a long, colorful corridor and left the white space for effect and movement. The mountain scene is meant to decribe the spirit of my horse and sort of contradict the horse being in a confined space. Also, I didn't intend to create pop art, it just sort of evolved into it, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. :-)

If there's anything I might could add or take away let me know, I'm open to criticism. Thanks!

New Posts

Students: when you post your work make sure you put a title. Your title should consist of the assignment title / Blog title the title of your art.

For example: Anna's post title should be - Roll of the Dice: Peacock. That way I and other readers can look back at my 'Post Question' and see what the assignment was.

Oil, one of my favorite mediums of all. This piece is not done, i need to finish the eyes, lengthen the hair once it is dry, touch up the lips, fix the nose a bit & play with the eyebrows. I really enjoyed starting this and working on it. I had to take a picture of it from the shoulders up because it consists of nudity. Like i said, it's not done, but i'll take any criticism. Thank you. <3

peacock

The numbers I rolled on the dice were for architectural, paper, & rhythm. I wasn't very pleased with my options, but I do like working with paper, so I went for it.

The colors of my piece were the colors that caught my eye. I love color beyond reason, so I took advantage of the construction paper supply. The colors reminded me of a peacock, so I played with the idea that I could actually make something that looked like a peacock.

At first I cut out all of the polka dots that make up the peacock. At the time, I just knew I wanted to do something with dots and something with the shape of peacock feathers. The feathers and flow of the dots give my piece two seperate rhythms, but there's rhythm there nonetheless.

I could not figure out how to make my piece architectural, but secretly the peacock's nest is a grand feat of architectural genius.

Urban Curve

For my "Roll of the Dice" project, I wanted to do something I was comfortable with to start the year off with. I rolled numbers for Contrast, Architecture, and Paper. At first, I wasn't sure how to incorporate architecture into a paper project, much less how I could mold this idea into my own creation. I wanted it to look familiar to my style, but still fit the three main ideas of this project.

I've taken to calling this piece "Urban Curve," because of the urban feel I got from making it and the obvious direction of motion. I used bright, eye-catching colors with white highlights to attract my audience's attention, and made it stand out with the darker areas, creating a comfortable contrast. To pull the audience's eyes around the page, I incorporated a moderately fast-paced movement starting on the center subject and directing attention around the rest of the piece with the secondary object and a cut-out border I created.

To plan this piece out, I did little more than spark an idea, and grab the concept of buildings with personality from earlier drawings in previous sketch books. Most of the cut-and-pasteing of shapes was spontanious, and I was pleased with the result. After getting the basic skeleton down, I reverted back to a medium I am more comfortable with: colored pencils.

This piece is unfinished as of the present, but near completion. I'm stuck on what to do to make the "faces" of the buildings more dominant, and how to make the rest of the unfilled spaces interesting.

More of Mrs. Glenn's summer work

Good Evening!

Here are two more pieces that I worked on over the summer, both pieces are 10 x 14 watercolors.  The one on the left is the first piece I completed during the Summer Institute with watercolor artist Rusty Jewel.  I was drawn to this house (as I mentioned in an earlier post, we went around the historic area of Seneca around Blue Ridge Arts Center and took pictures.) with the red door and red flowers at the end of the walkway.  I love Impressionism but my work has always been more realistic.  This project really got me to become more observant as to how the light was effecting the subject matter.  I took risks with this piece with the color combinations such as using complementary colors to dull a color and then putting watercolor in a spray bottle to add dots of colors.  This was so much fun and scary at the same time.  Although I was pleased with this piece, I felt that I could do better from what I had learned while creating this piece.

Following this course I began the AP Certification course at USC Upstate.  This was a two week course with 15 other art teachers from all over South Carolina.  An exercise for our sketchbook one day was to go outside and pick items of interest and bring back inside to create a still life.  I kept picking leaves.  But I more drawn to how the light would hit the ground as it came through trees.  After various other one day projects we had to complete a final piece that will be on display during the SC Art Educators Conference in Greenville in November.  I couldn't get my earlier watercolor off my mind, therefore I went back and started over.  Here you can see the final piece on the right.  I am so much happier with it than the first.  I was very pleased with the feeling that you get that at any moment someone will come to the front door to welcome you to their home.  And although you can not see the big oak tree that was to the right off of the picture plane, the suggestion of the tree is there because of the highlights on the grass and house that have come through the openings in the leaves and branches on leaves.

I prefer the arch and the green of the flowers at the end of the walk in the first picture, but was much happier with the overall craftsmanship and intensity of the color in the second.

Mrs. Glenn's Summer Work

I'll go first!  Here is a piece that I did over the summer as a result of one of the two courses that I took.  During the second week of June I participated in the Summer Institute for a week that the school district sponsored.  For two of those days the art teachers were working at Blue Ridge Arts Center with watercolor artists Rusty Jewel.  It was awesome, we spent time experimenting and being guided as to how Mr. Jewel works with watercolors.  We took pictures of local houses in the historic area of Seneca.  I am generally very 'tight' and precise with paint, but he showed how with glazing colors and seeing the colors in a shadow how much more interesting our work can be. 

The entire class created a painting together from a picture that Mr. Jewel had.  It was interesting to see how we all went though the same steps to create this piece, yet each person's piece was different.  If you are interested in working more with watercolors, I bought some excellent books over the summer.  Some have work by Mr. Jewel that I think you will find very interesting.

TOMORROW:  I'll show you my other watercolor painting and talk about the AP Certification course that I took this summer.

'Roll of the Dice'

Art 4: GT and AP students, your completed work for this project is due posted here by Wednesday, September 12. Post a picture of your work, list what you rolled on the dice to help with your composition and discuss how this piece evolved. You must also comment by Friday, September 14 on two of your classmates pieces.

Looking Forward to a Wonderful 2008 -09 year!

Welcome to the WHS Visual Art Blog! This year students in Art 4: Gifted and Talented and Art 4: Advance Placement will be posting their work for our online critique. We would love to also get feedback about the work from faculty, students and parents. You can also check here for updates about what students in all classes are working on.