Reflecting on Group Work

Working in a group on one artwork has been more difficult than I expected. I thought because everyone in my group is friends and we all have our own strengths it would be easier. We all have our own ideas and what we think would look good which makes it hard. When you make art on your own, you can do whatever you want to it and use all the ideas you have in your head. With a group, you have to be able to compromise and admit that some of other peoples ideas are good and better than your own. Even though it has been hard, there are many great things that have come up while working. Once my group stuck to a plan and idea of what to do, we knew we wanted to make it happen. We all agreed on a specific plan and had an idea of how to work with everyone's strengths and weaknesses. We were able to mix colors correctly to a shade everyone agreed on and work on one paper all at the same time without getting too frustrated. I feel like I have helped the group out with ideas. I am a very organized person, so when I knew something would not look right or would not look good I was able to say it. Once we started the mural everything came together and as of right now, I really like how the mural looks!

Start of a Long Lasting Ritual

End of Term 1 Reflection

At my previous school, art class was a joke. I didn't know what to expect coming to Beaver and knowing art was a major part of this school. I did not enjoy art as much as I do now before coming to Beaver. I believe that my skills have grown since the beginning of the term and I have learned what materials I am best at using. From all the projects we have done, I have learned many things. For example, I have experienced drawing from observation. I learned how to shade objects and try to make them look like their actual shape. Also,  after using all the different materials, I realized that I really enjoy using pastels. I like being able to smudge the colors into each other. Also, I was surprised to know that I like using charcoal and being able to use the white charcoal to shade the colors into each other. I didn't think I would like the charcoal because I am a perfectionist and using the charcoal means you are going to have smudges and marks on places where you don't want them to be. My biggest success and the piece of artwork that I like the most was the extending our findings from the pour paintings. I drew a flower out of pastels and had each of the petals different colors blended together. I have learned over the course of the term that I need to be able to let loose and go with the flow. I need to be able to say that it is okay if I do not like one of my artworks and be able to move on.

Overall, I have learned a lot about myself as an artist over the course of the term and am excited to see what the next term will teach me!

Chair with Coat

I found today's drop everything and draw less complicated compared to the last few weeks still life's we have had to draw. Even though the shape of the chair's headrest was not perfect, i was able to shade it to get the feeling that it was a headrest. The white paper, sticks, and fabric was much for difficult than drawing the chair because it the other still life's had many aspects to them. For example, in the past weeks, we have had to draw multiply sticks over lapping, whereas this week we only had to draw one simple object.

I used the skills of shading that I learned over the past. I also was able to make my drawing of the chair feel like a chair which i would not have been able to do a few weeks ago.

Change of Seasons

 For my glass half full project I drew the seasons winter and fall. The positive piece of the project is the fall part. It is a tree with colorful leaves on it with leaves started to fall off due to the wind. The background is a light blue so it does not take away the attention from the tree, which is also known as emphasis. I used symmetry throughout the drawing. Repetition was also used in my drawing. I repeated the shape of the leaves coming off the tree. The leaves falling off the tree used implied movement. For the negative part, I created a tree with no leaves on it and bare. Winter comes after fall and makes the trees look ugly. The trees become bare and it shows how bitter the season winter is. I used repeating lines by making the branches on the tree in the same shape. I also used a gray background so it would make an emphasis on the tree, but also have it show how bitter the winter is.

Found Object Sculpture Reflection

Sailing Away

The sculpture my partner and I made is suppose to be a sailboat on the water sailing away. When you move the gears, the sailboat moves back and forth. Whoever is viewing the artwork then gets the feeling of an actual sailboat sailing away on the water. The process of making this sculpture was fun! We had to find all the right shades of blue for the water, and find something to create the base of the boat out of. I loved having to search for the objects we needed, and being able to think of a way each object could be used. One struggle we encountered was the gears becoming lose and falling off. At one point during the process of making this sculpture, the gears to make the sailboat move fell of. We tried to glue it back on, but it took a gluing to make the gears stay back on and still work. The most successful aspect of the project was having the boat move. I believe that people enjoyed that part the most.

Principles of Design Research

The work of art I looked at and researched was Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. It was a painting that took place in New York City in an empty bar. The artist used The Principles of Design to support the story or message of the work. Edward Hopper uses balance in his artwork. Specifically, he used asymmetry to show the lonely streets of new york compared to the bar that had only four people in it. Another thing Edward Hopper uses is emphasis, particularly placement. He put brighter lights in the bar rather than on the streets. In the bar, there was implied movement with the bar tender.  He was bending down to get a cup or something in the bar. Edward Hopper also used proportion in his artwork. He made the bar a lot larger than the people to prove that the bar was lonely will few people in it.