Apples/ Oil Paint Practice

Last week we started practicing using oil paints and painting apples. I did one apple with a paint brush and the other with a palette knife. I learned techniques with the materials as well as the helpful tip of putting washes down before you start painting.

Painting of apple using a palette knife

Painting of apple using brushes

Reflection Prisma Colors Project

I decided to make a prisma drawing of a vinyl record reflecting trees from outside my window. I chose to draw a record because it reflects me and my love for music. It is also special to me because one of the first people to introduce me to good music was my dad and he was the one who got me a record player along with a starter collection of records. One of those records is included in the drawing, which would be Billie Holiday.This was a very fun yet challenging project. I spent a couple days practicing how I would draw the record first. Then I sketched it out on a tan piece of construction paper. I chose blues, greens, and reds for my color theme. Some thing I learned from this project was to layer colors and substitute black. At first I wasn't sure if I could do it without the black because most records are black and in my mind at the time I didn't know I could replace it with dark blues. I'm actually pretty pleased with the way the record turned out. I really like that I was able to substitute the black and I think it looks a lot better than how it would look with it. 

Here you can see the sketch I did.

The finished project.

Five Summer Pieces

This is a portrait I did of myself from a picture I took last year.
I think the emotion shown in this piece would be pensiveness. I myself
often stare off into the distance because I'm always in deep in thought and
I thought that would be interesting to incorporate in the painting.

This is a pen and ink of the interior of the inside of my shelf of books and
an old jewelry box I have had since I was five. On this piece I have to work on creating
more shadows on the edges on the jewelry box as well as in between the books. When
I finish the improvement I will make sure to post it. 

I did a acrylic painting of an object submerged in water. For this project I did consider actually
taking an object like a shirt or something and putting it in water, but I chose something more typical. In a way it is not so "typical" because it does have meaning. On my mother's birthday I made her gifts of coarse, but wanted to put in something extra just to make my representation of the gifts prettier so I found flowers in my backyard and put it in a glass bottle. I liked how it looked so I took that advantage to make a painting of it for the object submerged in water project.

This is a watercolor painting of reflective objects showing my makeup and perfumes
on my vanity.
 

This is a charcoal drawing for the cafe project. I decided to walk to Common Grounds Coffee shop
and draw in the inside of the coffee shop. This is my least favorite of  my summer pieces. However it was my first time working with charcoal pencils and I think that with more practice I could make a better charcoal drawing.

Artist Statement

 I express myself through everyday things I see and dream in life that I transform into a page of my sketchbook. I like to over exaggerate things in my pieces I create. Instead of drawing a sky, I want to draw a melted sky with cotton candy clouds and bright neon fragments of stars peering off from a distance. I combined reality with dreams to create my art.  I try to draw anything that I like or that interests me like eye balls or skeletons. I am always open to new ideas and themes. The mediums I prefer to use are acrylic paints, water color, and pen.

Progress Through the Reflection Project

This week in art IV/ AP, we've been working with prisma colored pencils and water colors. Our first project this semester is to do with reflection and how an image you pick reflects you in some way. I've really been enjoying working with prisma colored pencils for the first time. Because this is my first time working with them, I have been practicing by testing the colors and shades. I have also been practicing drawing and coloring in the record in the image I have chosen. As you can see at the very top is my practice work and a rough idea of what it should look like.