Game Drawings in Perspective

I think my overall piece turned out pretty good. The colored pencils on top of light washes of watercolor  really helped add value and made the overall product look a lot more realistic. I think this piece is pretty successful because it looks so realistic. Drawing the actual game was pretty easy because it was in one-point perspective and there was only one vanishing point instead of two. The horizon was also closer to the top and it was tilted, which made it a little harder.One of the hardest parts was drawing the game piece, Peter Pan. I think I found it hard because I'm not the best at drawing people and the game piece had a lot of human characteristics. Another hard part was that many of the objects were overlapping, so I had to figure out where to put the different shadows so it looked realistic. If I was to do this project over again, I would probably take my time and blend a lot better. It's hard to blend some of the some of the colored pencils, so sometimes blending turns out sloppy. I think my blending in the game piece is somewhat sloppy. Overall, I like the way the piece turned out. The different values with the colored pencils helped bring out the different highlights on in the game board. This project taught me how colored pencil on top of light washed of watercolor makes the color look a lot brighter and stronger.

Anamorphosis Critique

1. Describe the process you went through to change your object into the correct perspective to create the drawing. This is when you were in the lab. The first thing I had to do was pick a picture and transform it in photoshop. I had to scale the image to make it larger, and then I had to change the perspective to make the top bigger than the bottom.

2. How did distorting and stretching the object allow for you to create a drawing that would look different to the viewer? The actual object was bigger at the top than it was at the bottom, so by making it even larger at the top, it created a distorted image. A distorted image is the main reference you need to draw an anamorphosis object.

3. What were the most important concepts in the project to make it successful? One of the most important things in drawing this piece was the grid. The grid helped line up the parts of picture so it still looked distorted. The next thing was using colored pencils to create value. Since it is a 3D object, the different values definitely brought out the different sides of the ice cream cone. The last thing was making sure the object had a proper shadow. In my opinion, this was the most important part because when you take a picture like the one above, it actually looks like the ice cream cone is standing up.

Famous Landmark Stencil

1. Explain how you changed your photo in the lab to create a stencil.

 To create the stencil, we chose a picture and imported it to photoshop. I changed the threshold of the picture, so it was just black and white. This created positive/negative space so we could choose which color to cut out.

2. When creating the collage background explain your choices of colors, materials (magazine paper, books pages, etc), and placement. How does it relate to your topic? If no relation discuss general idea.

  I chose to use only pages from the book to make my collage look uniform, like the guards in London. I ripped small pieces and made sure there was no empty space in all of my collage. My color choice had nothing to do with the topic, I just thought that green and purple contrasted well. I used a green watercolor, and I spray painted purple on top of that with lace.

3. Discuss the way positive and negative space was used to create your stencil.

  I choose to cut out the negative space in my stencil so it would be easier to connect the positive space. Positive and negative space was used to show the different shapes in my landmark.

4. When using the xacto knife, explain the safety procedures, how to use the knife and any challenges you had to overcome while cutting.

  Using the xacto knife was difficult because there were so many little details I had to cut out. You had to be very careful with the knife so you didn't hurt yourself or cut anything unnecessarily

5. How was your experience with the spray paint? Discuss how color choice is important, placement of stencil, and any other concepts you noticed while creating this. 
 When I spray painted, it didn't exactly turn out how I thought it would. I didn't tape down the stencil so the spray paint turned out a little messy and you couldn't see some of the small details. When choosing the color, I was deciding between either white or black. Black wouldn't show up as well because the back ground had dark purple in it. The white was light, and I thought it would stand out against the background. So I choose white and it ended up looking really good.

           

Print Making

1. Describe the overall composition of your artwork (balance, unity, rhythm and movement). 

 I think my overall composition flowed together nicely. The positive and negative space defined the piece well and there weren't any rough shapes or anything that stood out in a bad way.

  

2. How did you add texture and contrast to your print? Is this important? Why?

I added a lot of different lines to show all the feathers on the parrot. Yes, it is important because without texture and contrast, the print would look plain and wouldn't catch the viewer's eye.  

3. Explain how you used positive and negative space to show your image.

I used negative space to outline all the shapes. The positive space was used to fill in the different shapes. 

4. Describe the craftsmanship of your print. (How good the project is technically crafted) 

I think the overall craftsmanship of my print was good. The only things that didn't really look good were the big pieces i had to cut out. It was hard to keep all the pieces leveled and it just looked really messy. But when I printed, it didn't make a difference so it was fine.

5. Were you able to achieve depth by showing a foreground, middle ground and back- ground? Explain.

Yes, but unlike most of the other prints, my animal was in the foreground. There were some buildings in the middle ground and the river and the rest of the city was in the background.

6. Explain your experience with Printmaking. What were the obstacles and advantages?

The hardest thing was making the print look realistic. You can't shade and add value so you really have to pay attention to the different shapes in the print. In my print, there were also a lot of little details that were kind of hard to carve into linoleum. Figuring out which parts of the drawing to cut out was also a challenge.

 

Print Making Sketches

1. Why is texture so important to have in your sketches?

You can only use two colors in print making and if you don't include texture, you won't be able to see the different parts of the drawing. If I had just done an outline of the parrot I drew, then you wouldn't be able to see the all the different feathers because I can't color them all different colors. You also have to include texture in the background because there would be too big of a contrast between the animal and the background if you didn't.

2. Why is it necessary for you to have several references of each animal and each background? Explain.

If you don't have references, then you don't have anything to base you're drawing on. I didn't know off the top of my head what a parrot looks like when it's flying or how it's feathers overlap. References are necessary because they help make you make your sketch look more realistic.

3. When you look at your sketches are you able to see which sketch is the strongest and will make the best print? How do you know this?

Yes, because the strongest print will have the most texture, the best contrast between positive and negative space, will be the easiest to crop, and will look the most realistic.

Interactive Chalk Murals

1. Explain your experience working on a team and executing your ideas for the mural.

Working on a team was a lot more enjoyable than working alone because you don't have to do all the work by yourself. We agreed pretty quickly on what our mural would be of, and everyone found a piece of the mural to work on. I think the only problem was that we almost didn't finish and had to get help from someone from the other class.

2. Explain the importance of collaboration when working on a team

You have to collaborate in order to complete the project or the project won't be finished. You have to compromise on the ideas you have in order to please everyone on the team and you have to make sure everyone has a job to do so the piece gets finished on time.

3.  How successful was this project? Explain how and why.

I think this piece turned out okay, but it could have been more successful. I think making the 3D objects actually look 3D was the hardest part. The shadows could have been a lot thicker, and also we could have used different values for the clouds. Although, I think we did a pretty good job.

4. Explain how you feel about creating artwork that others can interact with. Ex. Involving the whole school? 

I thought it would be weird at first, but my friends looked really excited to see all the murals on the wall. So it just seemed normal after that.

Value Portraits

1. Explain the process you went through to develop your drawing.

First, you take the portrait and put tracing paper over it. On the tracing paper, you outline the different values that you see. Once you're done tracing values, you transfer the shapes from the tracing paper onto a page in your sketch book. You do this by completely coloring the back of the tracing paper, putting the tracing paper on top of a page in your sketch book, and then re-outlining the values that you found on the tracing paper. After your outlined shapes are all in your sketch book, you shade in the values as dark or as light as you see on on the portrait. You blend the different values as you go, and then your portrait starts to look like a real person.

2. Explain how you found the different values in the portrait?

Finding different values was hard because the portrait was in black and white and all the dark values and light values looked the same through the tracing paper. Holding the portrait and tracing paper against the window helps because the light makes the portrait more transparent, and then you can find different values a lot easier. I started out without the window and just did a rough outline of all the values I saw. Then I held the portrait and tracing paper up to the window and outlined in a little more detail.

3.  Did you achieve a full range of the different values within your portrait?  How?

Yes, I used my value chart to help me. Also, using your pencil with different pressures creates different values. Using your pencil lightly creates lighter values and using your pencil with a lot of pressure creates a darker value.

4. Describe your craftsmanship.  Is the artwork executed and crafted neatly?

Yes, I think it is. I worked really hard on this portrait and it looks life-like. The only thing I would change is the smudge marks. When I worked on the portrait, I got pencil all over the side of my hand, and as I worked, some of that pencil transferred to the portrait. I would also change the shape of the jaw so that the face doesn't look too squished up. Overall, I think the shadows and highlights turned out really well.

5. List any obstacles you had to overcome and how you dealt with them.
I think the hardest part for me was getting the hat right. When I was tracing values, I thought the hat and the forehead were the same thing because through the tracing paper it looked like the same thing. When I was about to start shading the hat, I realized my mistake. Instead of using the tracing paper, I just drew in the shape of the hat because it was easier to see without the tracing paper. Overall, I think through the tracing paper a lot of the values looked the same, so when it came time to shading I had a hard time because I couldn't see the difference between some of the features.