Self-Portrait Project

This self-portrait was done by using charcoal to draw the features of the face and value, and using a mirror to see all the features of my face as a model while I'm drawing. The light source in this drawing is in the top left corner of my paper, and is shown in the shading of the charcoal. The lower right side of the page is shaded much darker because it is farthest from the light source and also in the shadow of the head. In order to make the features of the face more realistic, I used certain measurements to place all the parts in the right spot. I drew a line down the middle of the page 10 inches long. at the half way mark I made a vertical dash and again at the 1/4 mark and 3/4 mark. The hair began on the 1/4 line mark, the eyes were drawn on the 1/2 line mark, and the nose went from the 1/2 line mark down to the 3/4 line mark. Then, the lips were placed just above the halfway mark of the section of the 3/4 mark to the end of the head. After all the exact measurements were found I was able to personalize each part to the features of my face, the thickness of the lips and the size of the eyes. I also made sure to include eyelids over the eyes to make it more natural and realistic, instead of looking like a deer in the headlights. Another plan was to make the face as symmetrical as possible, because in real life my face is the same on both the left half and the right half. I included value on the face depending on where the light source was, which in this case was the top left. I lightly shaded the right half of my face because it was facing away from the light and is three dimensional. To make the portrait more three-dimensional I also shaded following the contours of the neck and face. The neck is cylindrical, so the shading should emphasize the contours of the three-dimensional neck and I used my finger to move the lines in this stroke. I wanted to include an expression that reflected my personal views and opinions on life, but I struggled with how to view my inner self. I finally decided that I was a nonchalant observer, who takes life as it comes and try to go with the flow. I find myself letting things control me and not minding, so I attempted to express this in my drawing as it is a very serene portrait with the hint of light in the persons eyes and the slightest smile. If I got to do this project again, I would spend more time working on all of the little details of my face and transferring it to my portrait. That way it would have resembled me more, and also I could have included more value in the face.

Escher Drawing

This type of drawing was inspired by the famous artist, Escher, who often sketched buildings with perspective and strange creatures. This drawing included a structure that was made three dimensional by using two point perspective. In order to do this, we created a horizon line towards the middle of the paper and extended it onto two different sheets to the left and right of the actual drawing sheet. On the extended paper we drew a vanishing point on each side to where all of the lines met. I drew the front of the house first and extended the lines to the vanishing point to make it three dimensional, and then used the same vanishing points for the side of the house. In making the roof of the house I found the middle of the front wall and back wall of the house, then created the size of the roof based on the triangle in the front. Then I connected the peak of the roof to the line extending from the middle of the back wall and drew it to the vanishing point. Then where that line ended I connected it to the back corner of the house. That way I had the correct three dimensional, two point perspective of this house. In order to make it more Escher-like, I then had to add some imaginative creatures and situations as well as value. My house structure is being lifted into the air by the balloons tied to the top of its roof. It's far in the sky, therefore the sun appears closer and the clouds are bigger, and you can see new imaginative creatures. There is a devil poking out of the sun because of it's heat and an angel poking out of the cloud because of it's peace and happiness. I included the value by the light source, which in this painting is the sun. The front side of the house is not facing the sun at all so it is the .darkest side with it's shading, while the top left corner of the roof is straight in the sun so it is not shaded at all. The balloons are also shaded depending on their location in correspondence to the sun, and the cloud gets darker as it moves away from the light source. The last example of the value in my drawing is the small shadow underneath the house to further imply that the house is in the air and casting the tiny shadow below it. If i did this project again I would probably work to add more Escher-inspired details. I ran out of time but I wanted to include a checkerboard or tesselations somewhere in my project, so I would definitely add those next time.

Landscape Painting

I created my landscape painting by choosing a picture I took from the beach and transferring it to the painting using acrylic paints and different sizes of paintbrushes. I planned my composition by choosing a picture that had somewhat symmetry and balance to make the painting very pleasing to the eye. Then, I made a plan on how to fit the picture on my painting and what brush strokes to use with sharpie on a white sheet of paper. After that, I made sure to include atmospheric perspective, which is the idea that as things go back farther into the distance, they have less intensity and details. I created my atmospheric perspective in the houses in the background of my painting. Up close these houses are light colors, but in the picture the atmospheric perspective hazes that. Therefore, I used their colors with less intensity and included only the big details of the houses. I also created a light source in my painting by the direction the sun is coming from. My painting is of a sunset falling over the bay area, and this setting sun is just hidden by the horizon. The light is then reflected in the water and also shown in the shadows of the houses and in the value of the horizon. My color scheme was complementary, blue and orange. I was able to use many shades of these colors to emphasize the dark and tints to emphasize the lighter areas facing the light source. I used many different brush strokes depending on the texture of the structure. For the water of the bay I did wavy brush strokes to represent the current and how the water moved. The sky changed values a lot so i used straight back and forth strokes with layers of colors to represent the silky sky. I used value in my painting in the sky to show where the light source was and emphasize things that were closer than those that were farther away. 

Pastel Still Life Project

I planned my composition for this project by setting up the water bottles to get as much of the color and diversity of the arrangement in the drawing. I set up many different possible perspectives to use as my final layout for the drawing until I found the perfect one. I used the viewfinder to make many thumbnail sketches until I found my favorite. A thumbnail sketch is a smaller version of a planned larger drawing, mostly used to determine composition. The viewfinder helped me to determine my composition by allowing me to plan several different set-ups and imagine what they would look like as the drawing, and then pick the best one. I made items appear three dimensional by using value to emphasize that the objects were rounded and three dimensional, and shadows to show that they took up space and were not flat. I created a light source by again using value and having shadows cast in the opposite direction of my light source, and creating lighter value on the side of the light source. In this still life drawing, my light source is in the top left corner that casts shadows angled towards the bottom left corner. I also used darker shades of the color on the table when casting the shadows because shadows are not just black. If I had to do this project again, I would add some more props besides bottles to my still life to add variety and make the composition more interesting. This project was definitely my favorite out of all that we did, because I enjoyed working with the colorful pastels and felt really good about my finishing piece.                              

Ceramics Project

The medium of my project is clay. The size of my project is 2.25 inches high and 10.25 inches in diameter. The design element stressed during the construction is the form I sculpted by hand. The technique used was a hump mold that the shape of the bowl was formed on, and rolled out the clay with a rolling pin. I carved my radial design into the clay while it was still drying to allow it to permanently form into the bowl. When the clay was fully dry I was able to paint certain parts of my design with red clay, and when that dried I was able to coat the whole bowl in gloss to give it a shiny appearance. My piece is very shallow and will not hold much, so it's function is simply decoration or as the centerpiece of a table. I created a design for my project by cutting a design out of paper and then holding that to my rolled out clay to cut. After it was cut it was placed onto the hump mold and created valleys where the clay was raised from the mold. The shape of my design was inspired by the idea of a flower by the way the edges resemble flowers and the drapery flows. The radial design is also circular to reflect the center of a flower that I colored with red clay to make it stand out. I learned from this project about how to work with clay and the importance of form in your artwork. I also learned that a radial design is any design that goes out from the center. If I were to repeat this project I would use a larger hump mold to allow for my bowl to hold more and have more purpose. I really enjoyed this project because it was fun to be able to sculpt art with your hands rather than draw it on paper, and it was nice to do something different.