Famous Landmark Stencil Critique

                 

     For my landmark stencil, I picked a picture of an arch that I took on a trip to Rome, Italy. On the computer, I inserted the image into Photoshop and made it black and white, to outline the parts I would need to cut out for my stencil.To go along with my picture of an ancient Roman landmark, I decided to make the theme of my collage background "ancient civilizations." At first, I was just going to do an Ancient Rome theme, but I quickly found there wasn't going to be enough pictures and book pages, so I expanded it to an ancient civilizations theme. You probably can't tell from the picture above, but I included pictures and pages from books about the ancient Greeks and Egyptians as well. I included everything from pictures of the gods and the emperors, to famous landmarks (like the Coliseum). I even found a menu of a typical Roman diet in one of the books. After I finished gluing down all the pictures and pages, I decided to add a light shade of orange watercolor on top, for no good reason other than the fact that orange is my favorite color. After, I unwisely decided to add some blue spray-paint on top. I didn't like the way it turned out. I intended for it to be a light mist of blue to contrast with the orange, but it turned out too dark and I think it looked better without the blue spray paint.

     When I was drawing my stencil, I cut out the areas that would separate the different shapes. For example, I cut out the area around the columns and the windows so that their shape would show up on the collage once I spray painted. The negative space contrasts against the positive space to create the image of the arch and the building behind the arch. Cutting out my stencil was a tricky and somewhat frustrating process. I had an idea of what I wanted my cutout to look like, but it proved difficult once I actually started cutting. Using the xacto knife wasn't the frustrating part. When cutting out your stencil, you always have to remember to keep everything connected, which was the difficult part. There were a lot of areas that I didn't know how to connect and I ended up with a lot of very thin lines.When I had to go spray paint, I also ended up having to use tape to make up for all the skinny lines, and to tape down areas that came up and otherwise would not have shown up on the collage. I chose to spray paint my stencil black because I thought that would show up best on my orange/blue collage. First, I went over it with white spray paint, and then with the black. I also chose to spray-paint the stencil in the center of the collage because as much I loved my collage, I wanted the stencil to be the focus of attention. If I placed it anywhere else, it might have been overshadowed by the collage. At the end, I added in a mist of black spray paint around the stencil to dilute the collage and bring more attention to the stencil.

Game Drawing in Perspective

 

      I was really happy with how my Clue game drawing turned out. Luckily, the vanishing point on the photograph wasn't difficult to spot. But when I first started out, I was having a hard time keeping everything in line with the vanishing point and drawing them in perspective, and I wasn't sure if I would be able to make the objects look three-dimensional. But in the end, the final result was fairly successful. There were things that I really liked and some things that I would change if I could, but the overall effect is good. For example, I am happy with how the dice and the blue pawn turned out. I also liked the front of the drawing. The dining room, the chair, and the game board turned out neat considering the hard time I had with the watercolors (They spread everywhere! It was hard to keep the color within the thin lines). I was able to make all the lines lead back to the vanishing point, and the final product looks close to the actual game board. Going over the watercolor in colored pencil added a nice effect and allowed me to add perspective, value and shadows in order to make the drawing look more realistic.
     However, if could go back and do it over, I would try to make the Clue envelope more three-dimensional and make it a darker color. It looks flat and blends in with the game board. I tried to make the objects as close to their original color as possible, but some of the colors of the objects are so similar that they all blend in together. I would also try to do a better job of blending the colors in the back of the game board. I added in some brown in the back to make it darker and thus give the impression that it is further back, but the shading is uneven and there is an evident contrast in color between the back and the front of the game board. Overall, I don't think I was successful in making it look like the back was darker because it was farther away.
     This piece was a challenge because I do not have the patience for perspective. I found it tedious to have to use the vanishing point to draw all of my lines and objects. However, the painting and coloring part was fun, and the final project turned out better than I expected it too, which was a nice surprise.

Anamorphosis Drawing

1. First, I Googled a picture of a long, heeled boot and copied the image into Photoshop. Then, I transformed the image by stretching it  out vertically and changed the scale to widen it. I printed out the image and then proceeded to split the page up into 1" squares to create a grid. Afterwards, I made a grid in my sketchbook and drew the boot as it appeared in the printed picture. I colored in the boot, trying to add value to the drawing by mixing the brown and black, and added in a shadow.

2. Distorting and stretching the object allowed me to present my colored pencil anamorphosis to the viewer in a different perspective. If I had printed out the original picture of the boot and drawn it that way on my sketchbook, my drawing would have been smaller and flatter. By distorting and stretching the image, I was able to create a more lifelike and life-size drawing.

3. The most important concepts in this project were distorting the object and adding value to the drawing. Distorting the object allow for it to be seen in a different perspective, and adding value brings the image to life and makes it jump off the page.

Print Making

1.   Describe the overall composition of your artwork (balance, unity, rhythm and movement).

I used larger areas of pink at the top to balance out the larger areas of white at the bottom. I used thick, curved lines for the tree branches at the top to balance out the thinner, straight lines at the bottom of the print. I used negative and positive space by using the positive space to draw attention to the negative space.

2.     How did you add texture and contrast to your print? Is this important? Why?

I added texture by carving out the lines, spots, whiskers, and features (eyes, mouth, nose) on the cheetah's face. I also carved out short, thin lines, close together, to give the illusion of fur around the cheetah's face. I added contrast to the print by carving out the cheetah, the grass, and the tree branches and leaves to make them stand out from the ink.

3.     Explain how you used positive and negative space to show your image.

The positive space contrasts against the negative space to create the image of the cheetah, the branches, and the grass. There is more positive space on the top, which balances out the negative space on the bottom.

4.     Describe the craftsmanship of your print. (How good the project is technically crafted)

The craftsmanship isn't perfect, but I worked really hard on my print and did the best I could. The image carved on the linoleum looked good, but it didn't turn out the same way on the final print. Some of the ink smudged on the leaves and some of the shapes, like the grass, didn't turn out the way I had planned.

5.     Were you able to achieve depth by showing a foreground, middle ground and back- ground? Explain.

There isn't much distinction between the foreground, middlegorund and background. The cheetah is supposed to be the foreground, the grass the middleground, and the tree branches the background. However, this idea is lost since the thick, curved lines of the branches make the branches dominate the print.

6.     Explain your experience with Printmaking. What were the obstacles and advantages?

Drawing the cheetah in my sketchbook was difficult because I had trouble penciling in all the little details on the fur and the face. Once I was able to do that, I was able to enjoy the rest of the process. It was fun carving out the outline on the linoleum, though carving out the small details, like the leaves and the spots ont the cheetah, did take time and patience. Rolling the ink onto the linoleum was fun, but getting the print onto the paper was tricky. The ink kept smudging and the first few tries, I couldn't get the print within the registration lines. However, I did get better at it, and the final print turned out pretty good, even if the ink still smudged a little at the top.

Print Sketch

1. Why is texture so important to have in your sketches?

It is important to have texture in your sketches because that is what makes the drawing look realistic and three-dimensional. Adding texture makes the sketch come to life.

2. Why is it neccessary for you to have several references of each animal and each background? Explain.

It was helpful to have several references of each animal and background because it allowed me to study the different angles of the animals to decide in what position I wanted to draw them. Having several references helped in that I didn't have to go off of just one picture. I was also able to take the parts I liked most about each reference and incorporate them into my sketch, which I thought made it more original.

 

3. When you look at your sketches are you able to see which sketch is the strongest and will make the best print? How do you know this? 

I am not yet sure which of my sketches will make the best print. There are things that I like and dislike about each sketch, so I will have to make some improvements to all of them before I decide which one is the best.

Chalk Mural

It is importnat that everyone in a team contribute their ideas and do their part to make the project successful. At first, our team had trouble coming up with an idea for our mural, but in the end, we all agreed on a bookbag that would look as if the person was really carrying it. Along the way, we added in the school supplies falling out of the bookbag and the lockers in the background. Everyone on the team helped out with drawing, coloring, and adding value. Everyone also contributed their ideas throughout the process in order to make our mural better.

Collaboration is crucial when working on a team, otherwise the project would not get done. It is important to have good communication to make sure that everyone is on the page. That way, everyone's ideas are brought together to create one project as opposed to several ideas put all together in one area. It is also important that everyone collaborate in actually creating the project so that everyone can use their talents and abilities in different aspects of the project to make it better.

I thought our project was fairly successful because we all worked together as a team to create it, and we had fun with it. In the end, our mural turned out better than I thought it would, although I do think our craftsmanship could still use improvement. Our final product didn't look as three-dimensional as they could have, but we still a pretty good job of shading and blending our colors.  

I had never even heard of interactive art before this project, so it was a challenge, but it was also fun, to create artwork that others can interact with. Usually, it is exciting to know that people are going to see and appreciate the art you have created. But it's especially exciting to know that people can actually put themselves in your artwork and have as much fun with it as you did.

Value Portrait

The process of creating my value portrati began by tracing the face onto a piece of tracing paper and and then colored the back of it in pencil and transferred the drawing into my sketchbook. Then, I shaded in all the different values with a pencil. I also went back and tried to blend the values together at the end.

To find the different values, I put the picture and the tracing paper against a window so the light would allow me to see all the different shades and highlights in the face. Then, I traced the outlines of the values onto my tracing paper. While I was shading, I found some values in the picuture that I had missed and shaded those too.

I don't think I achieved a full range of the different values. I included most of them; however, I didn't do a great job of blending them. It was difficult to blend the values and some of the values turned out darker or lighter than they were supposed to be.

I worked hard on my portrait and did the best I could but, I need more practice in order to craft my artwork neatly. I already mentioned that my blending wasn't the best, and I thought the values in the hair especially, could have been blended better to make it look closer to the actual picture.The values on the face looked a little better than the hair, but some of the values were too dark and weren't blended well with the lighter values.

The most difficult part of the value portrait was shading in the values. I thought it would be easy but it turned out to be tricky. There were so may values, and I had to focus and pay a lot of attention to the little details, which was a bit frustrating sometimes.

Value Study

I thought my final piece turned out better than my first pieces. The shapes looked more three-dimensional, and I blended the colors better. Overall, I think my piece was successful, but I still need to work on blending colors and shading. The most difficult part of this piece was giving the shapes a 3-D effect. At first, I had trouble shading with the shapes, and they ended up looking flat. But for my final piece, I concentrated on shading with the shapes, and I was able to give them more of a 3-D effect.