Why do People Make Art?

I think that people way back in the beg. of time decided to draw stuff and create art because they wanted to remember something they saw in the day or if they had like a dream or something then they wanted to record what they saw they would draw it instead of writing it because a lot of people didn't know how to write. Now a days, I think that people decide to make art to pretty much do the same exact thing. Artists want to take an image that can change over time and capture it in the moment when they see it. Also art is made to show an artist point of view on something. Overall, I think the purpose of creating art hasn't changed at all.

Reflecting on Four Hour Project

For my four hour project was making 3D shapes and use leading lines and movement. The first half of it is in black and white and the other half is in color. I wanted to show the contrast between black and white and color. I have really enjoyed doing this project because it gives me the freedom to do whatever I want. But it is also hard because there are so many opportunity to do many differnet things. My process was going in my sketch book and decided what to do. Then I just went for it and started my project. It is taking a longer than I thought and I decided to take it home in order to finish it. Overall, this project is really fun and I can't wait for Art Principles next term.

The Book Project...progress and planning.

For my story I am having two brothers. Eventually, one brother wants the other to be a monk, but the brother wants to be a photographer. One day the inspiring photographer brother see's a van with the name of his favorite photo magazine. He starts to chase them but then they drive away and he has to become a monk. I think it is going pretty well, somethings that might turn out to be hard are trying to change the happy theme to an anger theme in one of the photos, and also trying to be able to change the body structure of one of the characters. Nothing has changed so far in my planning other than the placement of some of the characters.

Drawing the Human Figure from the Inside Out.

Today's goals were to think about proportion when drawing someone. You also want to draw from the perspective that you are at and not what your mind tells you. I thought that today, this activity was challenging and interesting. It really made the drawings much easier when you kept going and didn't stop to take a moment and think about it. I think on my first picture I was just starting to work on the perspective thing, but the second one I really got it. Overall, I like drawing people more than I have before.

Shades of Gray

Today in class, I really liked this drawing activity. I liked it a lot because we got to use many different drawing utensils. I really liked how we got to use the different type of charcoal. Overall, I was not so much satisfied but not mad at my work. I think that the proportions of my picture don't make much sense. Overall, I also liked working with the background and then you got to erase. Also, it was MUCH easier to erase on the different paper. I hope we do this again!!

Studying Nighthawks...

1)
Night Hawks by Edward Hopper
America
1942
Oil on Canvas





2) I feel as if I have seen this painting before and that it is just a painting of a common scene. I am drawn to the bright white wall paper in the diner place.

3) Edward Hopper is a man who was born in Manhattan, New York. He started to paint right after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This painting is painted to show the urban life in night time. It also shows how lonely the open streets and urban life can be.

4) Hopper uses many Principles of Design, one thing he uses is contrast. There is contrast because of the brightness of the white wall in the diner and with the dark outside of the diner. Another thing that Nighthawks uses is emphasis. Even though the diner is not right in the middle of the picture, it still catches the eye of the viewer.

Finding Images that are balanced

The Japanese Bridge by Claude Monet

Something that makes this painting balanced is the symmetry with the reflection of the bridge and bright colors.
"Tête de Femme" by Pablo Picasso
This picture is balanced because of the amount of almost symmetry.

Mount Sainte-Victoire- Paul Cezanne

This picture is balanced because the trees and hills are all so wide spread it just causes you to look at every part of the picture.

Starry Night- Vincent Van Gogh

This picture is balanced because all of the stars flow together creating a balanced look.

The Principles of Design

The Principles of Design- are rules; which help artists organize shapes, lines, forms, and colors to communicate effectively. Also to create a sense of unity in the piece of art.
Balance- when the visual "weight" of an artwork feels equally distributed.
4 Types of Balance- Symmetry (same as it is on the right and left), approximately symmetrical (almost symmetrical), asymmetry (opposite of symmetrical), radial (the same if you divide it anyway).
Emphasis- When one element in an artwork appears to be more important or attract the most attention. You can do it in 3 ways: Placement, Contrast (something is really different than what's around it e.g. color, shape, etc), and Grouping (when an artist decides to put a bunch of elements they want you to focus on).
Rhythm and Movement- how the artist guides the artist through a work of art. Artist do this in 5 ways, repetition (same elements, alternating elements, progression (element is repeated but changing, *makes the illusion that it has distance*), leading lines (lines in the picture that you travel through the painting aka a path), implied movement (when the artist create movement in the picture: body position, how things get affected by movement), optical movement (when you repeat a line or shape that create an illusion), and actual movement (when artist make things ACTUALLY move).
Proportion- we are talking about the size relationship of parts to one another or to the whole.
(Color, Shape, Form) You want it also to convey a story behind the art...think about how it looks and possibility to create a story or emotional component.
Unity- a feeling that everything in the picture works together somehow.
Variety- can happen by introducing differences into the picture to increase visual interest.

Reflectiong on Found Object Sculpture

For my F.O.S I made 'Poppin and Lockin Bunny". This sculpture is of a cool bunny. I started with the major purple back part. I thought it looked like a hippo, so I tried to make one. Later on it somehow became a cat. Then I found various pieces that made it into a bunny. Finally it all came together...I really liked this project it was VERY fun!

Reflecting at Mid-Term

Thus far in Art Principles, I think that I have been doing a swell job. I have really been enjoying art principles. I think that in art, I have been a student who has been involved in the work, and dedicated to my art projects. I think as an artist my work has grown, such as it has many stages. One piece of art that had many stages, was my found object sculpture. I started out my animal as being a hippo, then it progressed to a cat, and finally it ended up being a bunny. I think this shows that my project has evolved in many ways from the beginning to the end. As in participation, I believe that I am someone who puts out ideas, and then seeks other people's opinions in order to conform my small idea, into a bigger idea. I think that I do offer out good ideas, and they are used in bettering the discussions we have. Overall, I hope I will improve on the areas that could use mending and hope I keep up the good work.

What's In the Sack

The goals for today were to work from very vague structures then go into detail, to use light and dark verses each other, and to practice your drawing skills. I think I did okay with achieving these goals. I think that this was a very difficult project for me because I am not someone who really likes to draw. I say that I did complete the goal, but also could have enhanced my performance with the goals. For my process, I just sort of started to draw and tried not to stop. Exciting and very difficult exercise.

The Changing Still Life

Today we did the drawing activity called The Changing Still Life. I think that this was a very hard thing to do. Three things I thought to think about was looking at the drawing constantly because Ms. Roberts was always changing it. I had to be able to want to change...I have to admitt that I like my drawing in some stages but then another element came up. And the last thing I had to do was really focus on detail. One thing I want to do better is only draw from my point of view...I sort of just drew the picture as a whole and not exactly from my perspective.

The Potential of Found Objects

I found many different parts from my mini pottery wheel. And it is really cool because they are fun colors such as purple, green, and black. If I put all those colors together it would have a really cool color combo. I really like the yellow abstract art creation. If causes you to think about and and imagine the many things it could be.

Reflecting on my first critique!

So for my little collage, I got feedback on how to improve my art. Even though most of the feedback was really good, I think that I could try to figure out a final way to connect them. There could be like two stories and I want to make that to only one BIG story. It felt fine when I got feedback from my classmates. Everyone had different ideas on how to improve my collage.

The work of Ingird Calame

The Work of Ingird Calame
-WHO Ingrid Calame is
-HOW she makes her paintings
-WHY she makes her paintings the way she does

Ingrid Calame is a artist who does paintings by taking copies of stains or mess ups, and incorporating it into her paintings.

She makes her painting by having a big team of people help her, and going to a location and copying down shapes, and then tracing them and using them in her paintings.

She makes her paintings this way because she wants to take natural things/ or things that happened by mistake and making them beautiful and making them fit.

Info on Painting-
Ingrid Calame (American, born 1965).
Secular Response 2A.H., 2004.
paint on Mylar
Dimensions variable: each mylar panel 12ft. 4 in. x 5ft. (3.76 x 1.53m).
Installation at Kunstverein, Hanover, Germany.
Courtesy the artist and James Cohen Gallery, New York.
Image courtesy Raimund Zakowski
3. I like this painting because I love how it is really simple and only has two colors. I really like how it looks as if the green was put on with a sponge. The shapes that it creates in the white are also really interesting.

Reflections of our Work!

All of these activities have many things in common. A few of the things that they have in common is that it is teaching us how to work with our mistakes, take things one step as a time, and they are all challenging us to think outside the box and make bigger and better ideas. I really thing that everything we do in art is going to connect in someway or another. Art is all connected in some way. I have really enjoyed all the work we have done so far except the drawing but not! Very Hard!

Re-visiting observation/description activity.

For my postcard called "Birthday" by Marc Chagall (1923) Ben was the person who took on the great task of trying to recreate it. I thought that this project was very hard. I feel that I have NO IDEA how you can be more successful. Well maybe if we had more time to write directions it would be easier. Because mine had so many shapes it was difficult to name all of them when explaining my picture. I can tell that my description was NOT very good because the picture doesn't look anything like it. For my description it is pretty accurate. It was extremely hard to explain difficult shapes that were in between to shapes.

Re-visiting my Pour painting!!!

I found in my pour paintings:
1. Fireworks
2. A shoe
3. Kidney bean
4. Eiffel Tower
5. Peacock feather (the top part that looks like an eye)
6. Snake
7. Car (station wagon)
8. Praying Mantis head

Giving up control: POURS

Giving up control: POURS

Describe the process of creating paintings through pouring paint you experienced today. How did it work?

How did it FEEL to give up some control over the shapes you created? Describe any surprises.
______________________________________________________________________

The process of the Giving up control: Pours was a very unique experience. My partner was Molly. One our first painting...we decided to use red and yellow. We create an orange masterpiece! Overall, I thought this process was really fun and rewarding. It was rewarding because it teaches you how if you make a mistake or something you don't like, you can always make something out of it!

Collabortive Drawing

Well now... I made a beautiful scene of a penguin wedding. I thought it was going to be a gorgeous scene of the marital ceremony between two loving penguins. When I left my piece of art, there was a scene of the bride on walking down the aisle and he groom waiting for her at the end. Also in the picture there was many different animals in the seats in the church there to celebrate them. When I cam back to my art at the end, I thought it was a COMPLETE mess. And the worse thing is that it was really hard to revive my picture which had died in the process of this class. The only thing I liked when I came back was that there was a car/limo thingy that had a just married sign on it. I liked how this fit into the theme but why would there be a car in the church! Any who, I am sad because I felt as if I couldn't fix and so now I think it is just a DISASTER! Well, this was an unique process, and can teach us that each individual artists vision are different and that it is close to impossible for someone to came up to a painting/drawing etc and finish it! UGGGGGG i wish it was still they way is was :(

Blog for 9-18-09

What makes someone an artist? (An artist is someone who...)
I think someone can be considered an artist when they can use they're hands and be creative in some sort of way.

What does it mean to be creative? (To be creative is to...)
I think it means to be creative that you can work with many different materials into something that shows their own self expression.

Describe at least 3 or 4 things an artist needs to be creative and productive. (An artist needs...)
An artist needs to have self expression, a place to create your artwork, something to spill out all your thoughts out on (like paper or a material) and maybe a muse of some sort!

1 1/2 blog

"An American Exodus"

Dorothea Lange, American

1938

I really like this photo because it symbolizes like you are on this long road, but far in the back there is your destination.

This picture just lures people in and makes them want to walk down this road. I like to think of it as a magnet.

1st Post

This is the costume I chose! It is really cool.

Here is the information about it:

1911Paul Poiret (French, 1879–1944), DesignerFrenchmetal, silk, cotton; Length (a): 50 1/4 in. (127.6 cm) Diameter (b): 8 1/8 in. (20.6 cm)Purchase, Irene Lewisohn Trust Gift, 1983 (1983.8a, b)