Finished Oil #1

Finished Oil Painting #1

Is there contrast? How did you use light and dark shapes to make your object dimensional?

I think there is a lot of contrast, especially between the background and the head itself, as well as the parts of the face where the light is hitting compared to the actual color of the piece.  I tried to ad dramatic shadow where there was simply regular shadow to make things pop on the face. I mainly worked with different varieties of blue to show cooler shadow and different varieties of yellow to show warmer colors.

Are the figures floating in space. or do they have shadows and sit in the space?

I don’t think that its really floating in space, but I can see how to some it may simply look like a head floating around. Although since I added the neck and not all of the head, I though that hinted that there was more to the object than what meats the eye.

How did you compose your object? Balance of positive and negative space? Diagonals?

I started with a light pencil outline and then added the background with warm colors, knowing that the majority of the face would be colored with cool blues. I had the face on the side of the painting without taking up the entire page so there would be a balance negative and positive space. Diagonals were greatly present in the painting, since this was a painting of a head.

How did you use complementary colors to choose your background or mix your colors?

As I said earlier, knowing that the main focus of the painting would be on the face of the object, I used warm yellows and pinks to contrast with the blues of the face. I didn’t much mix complementary colors for my paints since I was already working with greatly complementary colors for the majority of the painting.

What are you happy with? What would you change?

I’m happy with the structure of the face and the background colors as well. I like the cheek, nose, and lips mainly on the head. If I were able to start this painting over, I would avoid adding too much texture in the beginning so I could do that in the later layers of the process. I would try to focus on adding more white or choosing an image that was not almost completely in shadow, so it would look more white either way. 

Line-o Cut Final

For this project, I wanted to create a type of glitch-like effect with the final piece. I do not particularly think I accomplished this, however, as the piece instead looks a bit messy because I had messed up the paint or tried to add too much detail. I was also trying to work on texture and dramatic shadow, since that really seemed to be the major themes while working with line-o cut prints. The most difficult challenge was printing, itself. For the effect I had wanted, I would have to wait for the paint on the bottom layer to dry for a day before putting on the next. The task of making a glitch-effect was thus difficult to accomplish because it would have taken too long. I do like, however how the face on the left turned out. I think it manifests itself as almost what I had in mind. Something I need to remember is that I do not need to add so much detail. I could have accomplished something just as good as this, or better, if I had just left out the tedious details of the print. The mentor I used was Nicole Didudch who showed me about great texture and color through her works. I had an artist's work in the class that I liked, although I don't know her name, and her work was very pretty simply because it was so simply cut. She had two sockets for eyes, simple hair texturing, and I could tell it was a person just from little amounts of great detail. If I had a do-over I would do the same and make the piece a mot more simplified. I do like my idea of having it work with  glitch effect, but I, again, think I could have gone about it in a different way.

Line-O Cut Sketch and Reference

Here is the sketch and the photo I worked on for the lineo cut project. I was not able to post the lineo cut itself because it is not finished yet, however I at least have my original sketch to show. 

What Is Meaningful to You?

Although they may not know it, my friends are the most meaningful things in my life. I value them greatly beyond compare and I wouldn't be anywhere without them.

What do you love/fear?

I love my animals. I have a very strong connection to all of them, especially the one shown in the picture. He comes and sits with me if he knows I'm upset and is providing me comfort as I write this. 

I am afraid of the dark and what could be hiding in the dark. This also could translate to a fear of the unknown that causes anxiety. I can not sleep well in a pitch black room. 

Pumpkin Shadow Project

DOORWAY OF LIGHT

My goal, as was with my last project, was to create an image in hyper realism. With this project, I allowed myself to use extremely dark charcoal with high contrast with eraser. I focused mainly on shadow. I saw how the shadow landed on the pumpkins and if it gently fades from light to dark or if it was a direct change. I feel that I accomplished my goal well enough for me to be proud of the drawing. Then again, I am still getting used to working with items such as charcoal and erasing to form highlights. The most difficult part was trying to get the pumpkin to appear realistic. I worked from one pumpkin to the next, focusing on just the one at a time so I could get the best view of shadow and detail as I could. To me, the smaller pumpkin in the middle turned out best. It seems the most realistic. I feel as though I learned a lot through this project about the importance of value and contrast in a drawing. The mentor that came to my mind while I was drawing this was a Russian artist named Ilya Kuvshinov. She primarily draws people and landscapes, but she works greatly with the idea of shadow and how a lot of shadow goes a long way, but so does minor detail, to create a wonderful piece of art. In class, I mainly looked to my instructor for guidance since I had no past experience of drawing with such dark colors and using charcoal on a project like this. If I were to go back and fix anything, I would try to possibly blend a bit more to get rid of the streaky texture in the back and on some of the pumpkins. However, I think that if you squint your eyes a bit and maybe tilt your head you can see a very realistic drawing of pumpkins, and that I am proud of accomplishing.

Lines, Value, Shapes/Form, Color, Texture, Space

Lines

This was the first thing I saw when I woke up in the morning and I immediately thought that this would work perfectly for this project. 

Color

My mom and I bought these recently and let me tell you, they bring absolute joy to out household! Sometimes we like to joke and call them our pretty gay flowers, but I also think they're just very nice to look at.

Texture

I had to get down on the ground for this one. I wonder what my neighbors would have thought if they had seen me trying to take a picture of the wood on the floor of my deck.

Value

This is a picture of the sheets I have strung across the top of my bed. I love the way they create such beautiful lines and shading. They are especially pretty with my Christmas lights on around them, but that would have impaired on the shadow of this image.

Shape/Forms

I honestly believe that this picture could have also accounted for texture and line, but what I was really trying to get out of this picture was the image of the pieces on the board and the way they intimidate each other mid battle. I incredibly enjoy this photo.

Space

This one was hard to think of until I realized that space is virtually all around us, but no one simply wants to look at a picture of my arm or a wall? I just had to find a nice photo then.

BONUS !

This is a rather old picture of me with my long hair. When I explained this assignment to my mom, she suggested this photo because of the way my hair moved in such a natural and pretty way. I think this would fall under the category of line.