The Unexpected Match

Term 1 Art Principles Reflection

This term in Art Principles has been terrific. I've been able to hone my artistic skills dramatically. Before Art Principles, I was able to draw with a steady hand, but I only saw what was in front of me, and copied it. I learned to take what I was given, and make it into a real work of art, exemplified in the Found Object Project and the Found Image Project. Also, rather than starting out precisely, I learned to take a mess of pencil marks and shape it into a realistic picture, Like in the Drop Everything and Draw with sticks. These are just a couple of skills I've honed or acquired this term. Though I've been extremely satisfied with my work, I now see that many of my Drop Everything and Draw projects are incomplete due to running out of time, but I will try to put in extra hours in the future. I'd like to thank Ms. Roberts for a great term, and I'm excited for next term.

Glass Half Full Project

In this project, we were supposed to choose one general theme and reflect its good and bad attributes. I chose winter, because my feelings towards winter are very ambivalent. I love skiing, wrestling, snow fights and watching basketball, but I hate dirty snow and the gloominess that seems to take over Massachusetts. For the positive attribute, I portrayed a skier going off of a jump. I love skiing and the picture looks fun. In contrast, as the negative attribute, I have a pair of lonely footprints adjacent to a cold, icy road. I struggled making the road look gloomy rather than peaceful, since it was supposed to be a negative. Ms. Roberts helped me a lot by telling me to contrast one side of the road more by making it lighter. I think that by using white charcoal, I accomplished what I wanted in my picture.

Chair Drawings

This project was the combination of almost every project we've done. We had to get the shininess of a vinyl chair, as well as the sturdiness of its wooden base. In addition to that, we had to draw a wrinkled coat on top of the chair. I spent too much time on my chair, so I wasn't able to finish the project, but if I had more time I think it would have looked really good.

Principles of Design

The work of art I looked at with my partner was called "Dempsey & Firpo." by George Bellows. It depicted one boxer knocking another out of the ring. There was Emphasis on the boxers because there was light on them and they were in the middle of the ring. The picture's balance was asymmetrical and movement was implied. It was clearly shown in the punch thrown and the boxer falling. There was proportion on the picture, because audience members were at different distances. All the people were grouped together, and the light shone in a way to contrast the boxers from the audience members.

Fabric Drawings

This exercise started out difficult for me. It required us to make vague shapes which we would gradually transform into fabric. I guess the concept of vague shapes didn't compute with me while drawing fabric, because of all of the intricate folds. It was different than drawing the sticks, because rather than adding clarity to a mess, we had to use shading to make folds out. Rather than shading specific parts, it was more comfortable for me to shade all of the cloth and use an eraser point to make the drawing appear to have shadows. Overall, the end-product was good, but unfinished.

Found Object Sculpture Reflection Discussions

I didn't get much feedback on my projects, mostly because they were supposedly perfect and had nothing to improve. The only feedback I got was, "That's cool." My group members both had cool projects, but Sammy and Mandy's Sailboat was especially cool because of the moving aspect of the project, involving the gears of a stereo. My group's discussion didn't do much as far as improving my current work, but did however give me ideas for projects in the future.