Scholastic Art and Writing Awards =D

So for school I entered some of my stuff into the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. and I won a gold key award and got an honorable mention!

 Got gold for this one =)

Got an Honorable Mention for this one.

I entered this one last year and got a gold key for is as well.

Self Portrait

22.5 inch by 35 inch self portrait entitled "The Extent of Fatigue"

End of Trimester Statement

This trimester went by very fast. Looking back through all of the work I did this tri, I feel like what I set out to accomplish. I wanted to learn new skills and develop the ones that I already had. I knew how to paint with oils and water colors before this tri, but now I can say that I am a lot better at it. Before this tri, I had never learned how to paint with palette knives, know I can...to some degree. Here is my artist statement, followed by pictures:

ARTIST STATEMENT

In the beginning, I knew what my general goals were for the trimester, but I didn't know were to start. So I decided to do an oil painting of my vacation this summer. This painting doesn't really fit in with any of my other work. This was painting was based off of a picture, rather then life, unlike all of my other work during this class. 

I next moved on to impasto, palette knife painting. I had never done anything like it before and wanted to learn it. I started out by doing several sketches of different objects, and then moved to doing self portraits. The more time I put into practicing with the knives, I became better and better. 

started out here

ended up here.

After several weeks of Impasto I moved on to water color. The goal here was to become more proficient in using water colors in general. Like with the Impasto, I started out with a few sketches. While working with the water colors I became much better at getting all of the little details, and getting the different levels of shading. 

Started here

 (this ones my favorite)

my backpack.

ended here.
( this one is about how greed and hunger for power always over powers the kind and the weak)

 For me, this class was about developing myself and my painting skills. I still have a long, long way to go to get to were I want to be as an artist, but I have made significant progress in that direction. I'm sad to have to end this class =( 

Pencil Drawing of My Niece =)

18 by 24 inches

Week of Watercolor

This past week I focused on watercolors. I started out the week with a skull painting.

My favorite part of this one is the background. I had a lot of fun blowing the water colors around! I really think that the background makes this a LOT better!

This one was a quick 10-15 minute sketch on a small piece of paper. I really like the patterns that are on this vase!

This one is probably my favorite thing, or one of my favorite things that i have done this tri. I found an old metal sculpture of a dog in the art room and placed it on the table with a couple of animal skulls. 

The last thing I did with watercolors was....of course a self portrait! this one is probably my favorite self portrait so far. and I realize that it looks like I'm flipping you off. That was unintentional!! (though I was in an upset/bad mood on the day that I did this...)

Palette Knife/Self Portrait Painting

The first palette knife sketch that I did. It took a while to get used too, but after a while I started to get the hand of it. I made the mistake of starting out with the red on the tube of paint, making it harder for me to get the white to...well be white instead of pink.

The second sketch that I did. 

I did this one while listening to a Mrs. Woods talk about color and color schemes and  stuff.

This one is horrible, and its not even the first sketch I did. My eyes are all off and stuff. Each one of these I did in an hour.

 If I look really tired in this one...well it's because I was really tired. I did this one in very late at night.

My final self portrait. After looking at myself for hours in the mirror
 and painting myself, I just finally gave up and called it done.

A closer up look.

Impasto

For the past couple of weeks I have been exploring painting with palette knives. It took me a couple of days to get into it, but after I did, I began to enjoy it started working hard to improve my newly founded skills with a palette knife.

I would say that I've done between 10 and 11 small oil paint sketches using palette knives. I began by painting still life objects including: tubes of paint, skulls, and more animal bones! After I got the hang of it I started painting myself. With each portrait that I did, I got better. And soon I began to recognize myself!! 

Here is portrait sketch #5

Advanced Painting

A couple of weeks ago I started my advanced painting independent study. I have been waiting ever since the end of the last school year to get back to working and improving my skills and was ecstatic, to say the least, to get going!

In this class I will be working mainly with oil paint and some watercolor. I plan on doing at least 5 paintings (and probably a few other things) during this class. My goal is to get down the basics of painting: different brush stroke styles, thicknesses, colors, and positioning, and too begin creating my own "unique" style.


Yesterday, I finished my first painting! I choose to do an oil painting of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado from my vacation this summer. I started out by painting the sky, then moved on to the mountains, and then finished with the foreground.
The sky was the easiest part for me, I got it painted in a few hours. The mountains were a bit more tricky for me but were still fairly easy for me get right. The hardest part by far for me, and what took me the longest, was the foreground. 
When I first painted the foreground, the greens were way too similar to the greens in the mountain. It made the painting look very flat and brought down the overall quality of the painting as a whole. I went back through and added some browns, yellow ochre, and lighter greens. Doing that brought forward the trees and pushed back the mountains, and made the painting look a lot better.

 You cant see all of the details and colors in the clouds and mountains in this one so I added some closer up pictures below.

The End: Trimester Artist Statement

           

        My edtitions for this trimester looked at both nature and industrialization, as well as personal identity. I started out this class with a linoleum print of a sunset in the background and a silhouetted tree line in the foreground. This edition had no real deep symbolic meaning; it was just what I wanted to start the class with. After a brief look at the natural, I moved on to Industrial with an edition of a phonograph.

In a historical aspect the Industrial Revolution was a time of both light and dark. We were developing new forms of technology and creating a new societal format. With this shift in economical priorities and societal changes, the working class sank into poverty. The phonograph, to me, both represents the music of the new, as well as the price that it took on the working class.

My next two editions looked at personal identity, starting out with how consumerism can distort who we perceive ourselves to be. This edition was an etching of a man whose face was half mad out of logos including the Nike, Mercedes-Benz, and Apple Logos. The edition represents who our society has to have the latest and greatest of everything, and how it starts to overtake us and becomes who we are. In my next edition I took a look at my own identity. I did a linocut self portrait with a checkerboard-style background. The background shows that at my innermost being I am a perfectionist and have to have every detail in its right place.

For the end, I took another look at nature with an edition of the growth rings of a tree. This edition represents that life is both simple and complex. We start out our lives simply, represented in the edition by the growth rings, and continue to grow. As we grow, our lives get more and more complicated, represented by the cracks in the growth rings, yet life still manages to retain that simplicity.

Tree Stump Linoleum Prints

For my last edition I choose to do the growth rings of a tree. I liked the idea of doing this because its very simple and complex at the same time. After I had started carving out all of the details I realized just how complex it was. This is probably hands down the hardest lino that I have carved.

I am probably most proud about this edition more then the other ones that I have made so far. My end results turned out way better then I have imagined. This was my last edition for my independent study. I knew that this has been coming for a while now, but it hasn't really sunk in until know that I probably wont be doing any editions for a long time.

Here are a few prints:



This one isn't the best one, some of the details are covered by some of the ink, but I still like it.




Red, Black, and White. ( I also did one that was Red, White, and Blue. I was feeling patriotic)

Lino Print Self Portrait

For my latest edition in my printmaking class I choose to do a lino self portrait. Until know I haven't really drawn or printed something of myself and I thought this would be the perfect week for it. This was probably the fastest edition that i have made to date. I got the picture drawn on the lino on Wednesday night and on Thursday I carved it out and began printing! 

My favorite thing about this is the background and how it make the print ten times better. I also really like how my hair turned out. So far I have about 7 or 8 prints made and I will finish up printing on Monday. 

Im really sad that its the end of the year because that means that I'll be done with printmaking. I hope that I can at least draw out these last few weeks and make at least one more edition!

I really like how the background is still visible through the black ink.