Shoe Drawing

The shoe drawing project was one of my favorite projects I did in art this year. The first step I had to do was take my shoes off my feet and arrange them on the table in an interesting way. Maybe turn one to the side, or put one in front of the other. After creating an original and interesting display, I began to draw my shoes. I started with one shoe and sketched the outline. I looked at the sole of my shoe and followed the line to begin drawing it on my paper. This helped me to learn about and understand contour lines. After drawing the entire outline, I begin to add the small details to the boot, such as seams and the tag. I then repeated this process with the second shoe, except I drew it further back in the background in order to create depth. After I finished drawing both my boots, I outlined them darker so that they would stand out. I think I did pretty good on this project. This project taught me all about contour lines and depth, and helped me understand those two things as well.

Bird Stamp

The first thing I did when creating my bird stamp was pick a picture from offline that I liked and printing it off in color. Then I used that picture to draw a sketch of the bird. I then did a final drawing on a small piece of paper and transferred it to the stamp material by shading the back of my drawing and taping it to the material. I then traced over my design with a pen and removed the paper. Then I used a cutting tool to retrace over my design and carve it out. I then rolled paint over my design and placed it face down on a piece of white paper. I then pressed down on my print and slowly peeled it back. After letting it dry, I used markers, water, and a paint brush to add colors and pull out the paint to the edges of the paper. This created a more interesting, water color look to the print. I learned from this project all the steps that go into print making, and how difficult it can be. 

Acrylic Landscape Painting

The composition of my painting had three portions; a background, foreground, and middle ground. I had a sky, the ocean, and ground/sand. I organized my painting by creating a scene and following my example picture. Atmospheric perspective is the effect the atmosphere has on how a object will look from a distance. I created atmospheric perspective in my painting by adding mountains and clouds in the background. I also made parts of the ocean darker to add a more gloomy effect. I created a light source by choosing where I think the light would come from, and then adding shadows to my objects. I than added value to the shadows of the objects according to the light source. My color scheme was monochromatic. I choose blue to use in my monochromatic color scheme. I mainly used straight lined brush strokes in my painting, but I also used wavy lines in parts of the ocean and also jagged lines in the mountains. I used value in my painting by making parts of my painting darker in some spots and lighter in others. I also added value to my shadows in order to create the desired effect. 

Ceramics Project

The medium of my project was clay. My project was about the size of a Frisbee  The design element I stressed during the construction was shape. I wanted to create an interesting and original shape in my project. One technique I used in my project was smoothing out the clay with various tools. That way, when my piece was fired in the kiln, it would be smooth and free of sharp pieces. My piece does serve a function. It could be used as a bowl or platter to hold things such as ice cream and chips. I created a design for my project by drawing two squares that were different sizes and connecting them with various lines. I learned from this project how to create pottery, and also how pottery is created and fired in the kiln. If I could do my project over, I would probably spend more time creating a more interesting design. 

Pastel Still Life

I planned my composition in a way that would make it unique. I put some objects closer to the front, and other objects in the back in order to create depth. I also placed one of my objects to the side to create dimension. A thumbnail sketch is a small sketch of what you are creating that can help you out. My thumbnail sketch helped me plan my composition, and how I wanted to organize my project. The viewfinder helped me decide on my composition by showing me the different options I had to choose from, and helping me pick the one that looked the best. I made items look three dimensional by turning them to the side to create dimension. I also put some objects behind each other. I created a light source by picking the lights location and creating cast shadows on the objects going the opposite direction. I also added value to the objects by shading them darker the farther away from the light source they were.