Wood dollhouse

Making the wood dollhouse with definitely my favorite project this term. I have never worked with wood before and it was so much fun cutting the wood and learning how to use the tools. I also liked how it was a group project and we were all able to work together. Cutting the wood was a bit of a challenge because it wouldn't always come out in a straight line. When we had the base of the house done we glued printed paper of red bricks on it and then put modge podge over it. Then we painted the inside of the house white. When the paint dried we put tape on the floor of it and painted over it in different colors so we could make a checkered design. The ceiling of the house has a line of chandeliers that we made out of paper clips. There are about 7 bunched up paper clips in a row. The roof is supposed to be like a garden. We put moss on half of the ground and glued it down then built pool chairs with towels and pillows to have a hang out area. Next to that we put down mulch and built a pool. The pool is made up of blue glitter that we found and we surrounded it with little rocks from outside. The whole house came out great and it was a really fun experience. I learned a lot about wood making this.

Plaster Pals

When we worked with plasters everyone made a plaster pal. I thought this was a really fun project. I made a pig. First I had to blow up a balloon and then put plaster sheets on it. When it dried some of it was cracked so I put paper mache over the whole balloon, which made it more stable. When that dried I made a nose made up of wires and paper mached it and glued it on. Then I made ears and eyes. The ears were also made with wires and newspaper. When I finished glueing everything on I painted the whole pig face pink. This project was so fun. The most challenging thing was getting the plaster and paper mache to stay stable and not break. It was really cool starting from just a balloon then working on it for a week and seeing what came out of it. I am very happy with my finished work.

Paper Reflection

Overall, I think our project/presentation went really well. I think we explained the uses of paper and the history of paper really well. We made a cudy catcher to tell the classmates different facts about paper and it really made the class interact with each other. I thought this was a fun and creative way to present our project. We had a good basic background on the history of paper. I think we could of added a bit more but we had all the general facts about it. I really liked that we brought in different paper objects like Liza's sketchbook and print making. We also made origami objects like paper cranes paper hats. I thought it was good for us to show the class how to make paper hats at the end of our presentation because it is a fun and easy thing to make. One thing we could of added was more detail in the making of paper, but it was too long to be in our presentation. I thought it was a good idea to add in the things you need to make paper, instead of writing the steps. For the first presentation to go I think our group did a great job and set the tone for the next groups to go and present. 

Sculpter of Ropes course

For our first project this year we made a  sculpture of a different object in school. We had to use only cardboard. We learned how to cute with a knife and make cardboard 3D. I chose to make a sculpture of the  ropes course by upper field. I really liked how it looked and the different objects on it.

I started off making a sketch of my object in my sketch book. Then I made it 3D. The different between my object and my sketch is that I didnt incorporate all the objects in the actual ropes course to my sculpture. I did not put in a tire swing and the color of the actual sculpture is a little different than mine.  At the end I painted the whole thing brown. I liked making this project because I have never worked with cardboard before and I thought it was interesting and fun.

Final project

For the next couple of days I am going to draw in my sketchbook. I could not think of one project I wanted to do, but I thought it would be fun to make different drawings. I have been looking through pictures of peoples drawings in their sketchbooks on Ms. Roberts site and it has given me great ideas. Also, looking through the material in the art room helps me a lot. I can't wait to see what all my finishing drawings will look like

End of year Reflection

Art this year has gone amazing for me. I really have gotten a lot more into art class and I think my skills have improved a lot. I have always loved art, and coming into this year I thought my feelings for it wouldn't change, but I have grown to love it even more. I have learned new skills and techniques that will help me forever. I think my strengths are my creativity in projects, and figuring out how to use different materials, and drawing. I would love to be better at making my artwork more detailed. I will leave this class with a whole new view on art class, and a bigger passion for art. I am looking forward for the next three years of art class at Beaver.

SKETCHBOOK ARCHEOLOGY

When I look at the cover of my sketchbook I see myself in the beginning of freshman year. I remember all I cared about was bright colors and fun designs. I think I have learned a lot this year, I still incorporate bright colors into my art work, but I also learned a lot this year about symmetry and texture and adding it into my work. I also started to love pencil drawings and using charcoal and oil pastels. As I turn the pages of my sketchbook I see all the bright colors I incorporated with my drawings and all of the collages I have made. As I turn through the pages of the middle of my book I start seeing more materials I have used like the xerox transfer of a picture of Marlyn Monroe and also many different designs with oil pastel. Towards the end of all my drawings you can see there is a very diverse amount of work. Anything from blendings oil pastel colors, pencil drawings, layering of paper, details in my drawings, to spray painting different designs. I have really enjoyed working in my sketchbook a lot. It has definitely helped me with projects I have done, and also expressing my feelings throughout the year. It has let me test out different materials and designs I wanted to try. I am really happy with my sketchbook from this past year and will hopefully keep it with my for a long time.

Sculpture brainstorming

I am making a portrait of my 3 month old brother named Adam. I am going to make a bunny because they are so adorable, sweet, cuddly,  and innocent. My brother shows all those traits, he is the sweetest thing ever. I am going to put the bunny right in the middle with a backdrop of New York City because he lives there. New York City is such a crazy loud and fun city and it shows all the traits of  how my family is.

Cranes for Japan

Watching the videos of the Tsunami in Japan and looking at photos was devastating. Some of the things that stayed with me was watching the water rush onto the land and destroy everything. It was very sad seeing the little kids getting checked for radiation. The photo that made the most impact on me was a mother talking to a policeman searching for her family, she looked so sad. My three wishes for Japan are for families to find each other and reunite, for other people in the world to help them in any way possible, and for the people in Japan to be happy again and have peace in their world.

Getting Back to Materials

In today's class I decided to use red masking tape for my self portrait. I wanted to see if I was able to form different shapes with this stiff object. It was hard to cut the tape and put it into the exact shapes I wanted. I started off playing with it and seeing how I can transorm this one object into different shapes and sizes. The eyes were hard to create because it took me a while to decide how I wanted to make them.  I was very surprised how I transformed a role of tape into a portrait of myself. I think it turned out really good. 

End of term 1 reflection

Art Principles this term has been great. I have learned so many new things from the principles of design, to drawing still lives. At the beginning of the term I did not think I was artistic or creative at all, but now I realize that I really love art and want to keep going with it through out high school. The one thing I will take with me is to just relax when working on art, I do not need to be so stressed out and tight. When I just relax my work comes out a lot better. I learned to relax while drawing the still lives. When I first started drawing all the different objects I would just be so stressed out about them and over think the object too much. I learned to look more at the object than my paper. Another thing I learned while drawing still lives is the shading and contrast between making something have flow and making something look straight. The objects that helped me with that was drawing a pile of sticks and drawing different cloths hanging from the ceiling. Everything I did this term surprised me, I never thought I could be good at art, and to see my finishing touches on some of my work was crazy. I really loved how my pour painting came out and the camera I made with Liza. The poor painting project was really fun because I really got to look into my own painting and decide what images were in it. The first thing I saw in it was a skull, so I just went with it. My finishing work on it was great, it really looks like a skull and I love it! Making the camera with Liza was one of my favorite projects this term. It was so fun finding all different random objects to use and making them into something. The end product is so cool, it looks so realistic and is so detailed. Looking ahead to the next term I would really love to get better at my drawing still life objects because I love doing that. Art this term was so amazing and I can not wait for the spring,

Chair With Coat.

Today in class we had to draw a chair with a coat on it. It looked very easy when I first looked at it, but actually it is very difficult. Most of the time my hand was very tense and I kept think in my mind chair, chair, chair or coat, coat, coat. This activity was different than the other because you needed to make straight lines and loose lines. It was like the fabric and the sticks drawing combined. I tried to look a lot at the object more than my paper and really thought which lines go were and were it should flow or straight.

Summer and School

The concept of my drawings is the good and bad aspects of coming back to school. First I drew a girl sitting at a desk in all black, grey, and white. My second picture is of the same girl sitting in a hammock with two palm trees next to her. The drawing has very bright colors in it. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to draw about, but once I figured out my topic the whole drawing just came to me. Drawing these two picture made me realize how hard it is to draw a person. In the drawings I found contrast between the two drawings and proportions in each drawing. I really like the back to school picture the most because it just describes what the picture is trying to say. I love how the desk is overpowering her.

Fabric Drawings.

Today in class we drew a sculpture of fabric. It went okay, I kept erasing my drawings and starting over. It was very hard getting the shape for me and making it flow. It took me a while to really get used to drawing the fabric. I think my end result turned out to be good, a lot better than I thought. This drawing was a lot harder than drawing the sticks because you needed to use movement in it and a lot more shading.

Found Object Sculpture Reflection Discussions.

• beautiful
• flash
• shiny
• The Flash caught my eyes
• The lens and button makes it obvious 
• the glue is shown too much 

The other person in our group was maddie and she made an elephant head. I really loved it because she used random objects that really worked together.

Mid-term Reflection

I love art class so much, it is definitely my favorite class this term. I think my art skills have improved so much just in the last two months of school. I think my engagement in class is very good, I usually ask questions if I have any and I pay attention in class. I always hand in my sketchbook on time and the blog posts. I am pretty happy with all the art work I have done so far. The one that got me thinking a lot and got me frustrated was the Found Images Collage. I changed my mind a lot on that project, but the end result was great. My favorite project I have done so far are either the pour paintings or the sculpture. Drawing in the sketchbook is really fun for me. It gives me a time to just put anything I want on the paper and be as creative as I want to be. I think I could take more time in the sketchbooks though and put even more effort in it. Every Tuesday we do Drop Everything and Draw and I have to admit it is not my favorite day, but it has definitely helped me so much over the past two months in school. Drawing those random objects taught me that everything does not need to be perfect and I should not stress about the drawing so much. I am very excited to do more projects in art and expand my creativity more.

Found images collage reflection

The title for my artwork is "Eye Spy". My art work is a big eye shaped piece of paper and an eye that I put together with all different color papers. Around the blue eye I made are all different sizes of eyes I cut out from magazines. The process of this project was very difficult. I kept changing my idea. At first I had the eye in the middle of a square piece of paper with pink and purple flowers around. Then I added different shapes and sizes of crystals. Then I decided to add eyes. When I came back the next day I decided I HATED what I just did, so I started over. I love how my artwork came out in the end because even though it took forever to add those small eyes I think it is really cool to look at and it is a very interesting design. I love my big eye in the middle because I am just shocked I could do something like that. I took all different colors of blue from magazines and put them together so they made the eye color and all went together. Then I took a picture of snow from a magazine and put at the edges of the blue and put a black circle for the pupal.  During this project I discovered that I change my mind a lot!

changing still life

The activity we just did was very interesting. Looking back on it, I am laughing because I kept adding and erasing things. If I did this again I would make the box bigger, so it covered the whole page. I would also not color things in so darkly like I did. I also would not stress so much about it and just have fun with it. I also would not worry about making everything perfect because that was not the point of the activity. Even though this project was stressful and hard, I liked it because I really learned a lot.

three forms drawing

I liked this activity. I thought it was difficult but it brought me out of my comfort zone and made me try something new. For some reason it was hard for me to draw the cup and the block, but I had no problem drawing the pine cone. I was so surprised when I saw the result of my drawing of the pine cone, I didn't think I did it. I never thought I had it in me to draw that. From this activity I learned that I am way better at observation drawing than I thought I was, and I should never doubt myself before I even start something. Drawing the cup and block was hard for me because I didn't really know were to draw different lines and were to shade it dark or light. Also I kept trying to make it perfect and that was not what we were supposed to do. When I started drawing the pine cone I just eased up a lot and tried not to care if it was perfect, I just drew what I saw and it turned out really good.

Pour Paintings

I thought the Pour Painting activity was so much fun. I liked how we did not know what the painting were going to turn out like, and we just let the paint go wherever. At first when you finished it just looked like a giant blob but when it started to dry I could see different shapes and images in the painting. The picture I picked to go further with was the one that I thought looked like a skeleton. I started going over the shape with oil pastels and made it a lot more detailed. Now My painting is a skeleton head with a sword going through it. It has a big mouth with many teeth and black eyes. The colors I used in this painting are black, white, and grey.