Art History

Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini "Wedding" Portrait

This piece is a women and a man holding hands and a dog on the ground. The women is pregnant and holding her stomach. What makes this portrait cool is that in the mirror of the painting, you can see the artist painting in it. The mirror reflects the artist. The movement of this peice was The Renaissance. This was a time when a lot of different things were becoming discovered and invented. 

In my group we all painted the poster board which was our background. We each had a head cut out in the background, so we painted or character. We all contributed to painting the background together. 

If I was to do this project again, I would try making a more detailed background. Ours was good, but it was definitely missing little details.

 

Survival illustration

Portrait

Artists develop art making skills-

During this project I definitely learned how to draw the different features of the human face. I traced them and it helped me get the shapes of the features. During the process I learned how to trace lightly, and then go back over it and make it your own shape. I likes tweaking the features until they looked just right to me.

I was familiar with using colored pencils, but not so much shading with them. I had to experience a lot of different colors to find the right color for skin, eyes, hair and other features. For shading I made some of the sections darkr than others. I used the same technique for shading that I used for pencil so I was farmiliar with it. I gained skill from colored pencils by experiencing different color mixtures and shading. I was going for a soft look so for coloring I did lightly shading. 

Artists solve problems-

During this project I came across a few difficulties/ problems. When I mixed different colors for skin color it didn't always turn out looking good. I would get frustrated because it looked bad, but to solve this problem I would just keep mixing until I found the color that looked right. It takes a lot of patience to find the right color for every thing. 

When I was coloring the final copy of this project I got mad at how young I had made the person in my portrait look. To fix this problem I took a gray colored pencil and drew in a lot of wrinkles and did some shading. I was still unhappy about how the hair looked so I shaded grey in the hair. I realized during this project that when you first color the portrait it probably won't look how you want it to. You have to keep mixing different colors until you find the colors that look best for your portrait. 

Printmaking

Artists develop art making skills

In the printmaking project I learned what printmaking was and how to do it. I had never heard of it before and had no idea how to do it. When we were first assigned this project I was confused on what to do. After doing a few stamps I started to understand printmaking. I developed new skills with it and got really good at it by the end of the project. 

Techniques I practiced during this project were sketching, tracing, and mixing paints. I had to sketch out the rubiks cube which was difficult because I had to measure out all the squares to be the same size. I had to trace it which wasn't very hard. During the printmaking process, I had to mix different paints to get the colors just right for this project. 

Artists take risks

I chose a popart with a lot of different colors which means a lot of different layers. I wasn't sure how it would turn out sense I had never done printmaking before. It was a risk with all the different colors, and it took a really long time. I'm glad I decided to do it. 

Printmaking was a process I was unfamiliar with. The technique was new to me and I did a lot of practice before I did the final prices. It was really hard for me at first but once I got the hang of it, it wasn't that hard. 

Finished Printmaking Peice 

Volleyball GIF

GIF

This GIF represents me because I love to play volleyball. As the volleyball soars through the air it just really speaks to me. As the girl passes the volleyball it represents me playing volleyball.

Oragami Project

Color Project

 Color Project

Progress
I have chosen the creature theme for my color project. I drew a butterfly with exotic designs. I incorporate the theme by making the butterfly a creature.

I chose the medium acrylic paint. I decided to make the background of the butterfly a dark gray to really make it stand out. I want to do a bright background to make the butterfly pop. I like the acrylic paint because it really shows the color well and makes it look very real. The colors are pretty and it's easy to mix paints and make new colors.

Some difficulties I have had was deciding what designs to do in the butterfly's wings. I wanted the designs to be interesting so in the planning picture the wings are basically my different ideas. In my final design the wings are different then in the first sketch. Another difficulty I had was outlining the butterfly because the brushes made it hard. I had to go over it a few times to make it thick and finished looking.

Finished
I think my project was successful because the butterfly turned out really exotic. I like the design I did inside the butterfly's wings. I am most proud of the butterfly because I like the color scheme I chose and the shape of the butterfly.

If I could go back and change one thing it would be to even out the background more. I did an ombre pink background and it doesn't look very even. I would want to go back and plan out the spacing of it more. 

From this project I learned how to mix different paints to make new colors. Also, to make colors lighter or darker. It was fun to experiment and I really enjoyed using paint.