Hello everyone! This piece is yet to be finished, however since we're all on a deadline, I'm giving a preview. The piece, so far, is only half of the face of a woman, and I'm proud to say it's turned out beautifully. However, I'm still debating what to do in the background, after I try Anna's inspiring idea of colorful hair. Any and all suggestions would be welcome. Thanks guys!

grains of flesh

This is another photo I considered putting into my breadth. I liked the contrast of sand on skin. It is also connected to nature but i focused more on textures in this picture. I love contrast and that is what i was going for in this photo. Any suggestions would be appreciated. --kate

my nature

This is a photograph i took to place into my breadth. I changed my entire concentration to photography so i would really like some opinions on my photos. This piece is supposed to be abstract in a sense. I wanted to portray the impact our footprints have on nature. How humans can truly effect nature and its future. I like the picture as it is..but am open to suggestions about editing. thanks for reading and considering my piece. --kate

Green Honey

So once upon a time I said to myself....hey....colors. And paint. Also happiness. How could I combine them? And I set out on a mission to create something amazing containing those three elements. In three days time, I came up with this piece of wonder. There's a few things to alter and a few things to fix, but for the most part, this is finished.

I love starting and finishing things quickly. It gives me a sense of accomplishment. Like, hey, I really can make this deadline.

Plus, who doesn't think a giant space-alien bear holding an inverted world is awesome?

Credit to Anna for the title, and to Josh for the bear's name. (It's Spackle by the way.)

Drawing from Life: Mmherry

The title of this piece is the sound of contentment I make when I sit like this, which I do very, very often.

I drew this piece last year in my last-minute run to make a portfolio for GT's tryouts, or whatever. I wasn't accepted, but I think this is a decent, realistic piece & decided to turn it in again.

My use of rough, bold lines are still evident & my rough shading is still there. I enjoy drawing realistic pieces only when I can give them a folk-arty touch. I hope this piece is good enough.

On my legs there are slight details of my scars & freckles, and I enjoy the folds & design of the skirt I was wearing the day I made this, as well.

ps. Feet and noses are probably my favorite parts of the human body, by the way. They just have so much personality. :)

The Orchids.

Hello everyone!

This is my latest piece, titled simply : The Orchids. I did it in white charcoal on black paper, something I discovered to be my favorite medium. I plan on doing many, many more pieces like this one.

I was inspired by my birthday present, orchids of course. The ones I have are white with a fushia center, and the petals have all fallen off by now...but I still wanted to draw them. I did a earlier version of this in my scetchbook, exept it was in pencil on brown paper and i didn't like it as much as this. This was a very fun peice, I love the contrast of black and white and I am currently thinking about other ideas to draw that are like this one.

~kate

Lonely Wisdom

HEY ART GANG!!!

This piece took me forever to complete but I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I wanted to do a painting of an owl because my mom loves them (just look at our christmas tree every year...its always decked out in cute little owls made out of pinecones and what not :) ) Also, I've always wanted to incorportate nature in one of my pieces and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. I think using real bark and pine cones gave it an even more woodsy feel rather than just painting the trees would have. Although, I did paint the trees before I hot glued down the bark so as not to leave any white spots, and the owl was painted before putting on the bark. I used a 16x20 canvas and acrylic paints.

After I was all done I felt like it was lacking in the background, so i added some stars. Just let me know if they look bad....I can always paint over them. I named this piece "Lonely Wisdom" because I get a sense of loneliness when I look at it. Not a bad lonely...just an at peace lonely. Like the owl has been through alot and is thinking back on his life, and us as the viewer, we have caught him in this kind of meditative sort of intimate moment in his life. "Wisdom" of course because thats what the owl symbolizes to human beings.

Hope you all like it!!!!! Thanks for taking the time to look! And if anyone thinks I could add or take away.....I'm open for suggestions!

PEACE and LOVE

3D Piece: Monster

This is a tin box that I've painted inside & out. I have to make a 3D piece for my art portfolio, so I've decided to make a cute little monster out of found objects. I'm not near finished, but the Christmas lights twisted around on the piece of pipecleaner are going to be his intestines. I'm planning to make a rib cage/spine out of paper that's cut so that the monsters heart (probably made out of glass) can show through. The lid of the tin box is going to be the monster's face. I'm planning on the face being 2D instead of 3D. I don't think I'm just going to draw the face on, though. I'm going to use paper cut-outs of eyes & such. There's no really any message behind this piece, I just have a penchant for monsters & using recycled materials for my pieces. :)

Red Sunglasses

Hello fellow artists and fans of art.

This piece of work was a deliberate challenge to myself, that I am glad to say I passed. I've been told that, on the portraits I draw, the eyes, of all the features, are the strongest part of the face or figure and I wanted to see how it would look if I took them away. So, I decided to cover up the eyes by using sunglasses. (Thus the title). I am pleased with the outcome of the artwork, but in all honesty, I missed drawing the eyes. I feel as though I've covered up a part of her personality. Ah, well. I'm also disappointed how the picture looks online. The actual art is much better...

For my medium, I used charcoal pencils, my favorite, and I drew the piece on 11" by 14" paper. However, the actual size is close to 13" by 18" as I glued the drawing onto a large piece of red construction paper.

Any and all feedback would be very welcome!!!!!

The State of the Nation (of Rachel)

Right now I'm in the middle of several different pieces in a desperate rush to get it all done two months from now. I have an oil painting that's been in progress for the past two years, a big 4'x3' canvas of a scene inspired by The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai, a few other misc. acrylic paintings, and a few other illustrations here and there.

Despite my several works in progress, I've been able to turn out a few fast-paced brush pen illustrations with one or two class periods spent on each. They're fun, easy, and I love creating them. I love the way these pens work and how they blend.

On my fourth one, however, a few of my markers ran dry. I guess it's back to painting 'til I buy some more!