Why Do People Make Art?

I think there are several reasons people make art. They do it to prove a point or show people their opinion on something. This is shown in art work like the famous painting of George Washington crossing the Deleware River. The picture glorifies Washinton and the troops making them seem ready and fit for battle. Another reason I think people make art is to simply express themselves. They could have an idea in their head for a while and then just let explode out int the world in their own way in a sculpture or a painitng or a poem or what have you.

4 Hour Project

This project has been much different then anything else we've ever done in art because we had choice about every single aspect. I think this has made my project a lot more challenging but I think it turned out much better in the end because of all the choices I got to make about the size and positioning of everything in the picture unlike in other drawing assignments. I think the whole process went very well except for in the beginning when I messed up the size of the model. The making of the picture largely consisted of shading and then erasing and blending. The picture actually means a lot to me because I spent the majority of my summer at a beach house and at night I would always go down to the beach and just watch the ocean. I don't know whether or not the girl in the picture is me but I tried to capture the same mood that I had while I was there. This was a calm, quiet kind of acceptance of just being there in the moment.

The Book Project....Process and Planning

The original plan for my story was as follows. There were 6 sisters who's house was burned down and their parents died. One sister says basically, "Let's rebuild it!" So they have a new house and a realotor see's it then offers to buy it. The girl who said lets build it says "NO WAY!" Time passes and all the siblings move to America except the sister who wanted to build the farm. The last picture is of her farming looking happy saying, "Mine!"

This plan has only worked in some areas. For example, I had to switch it so the sisters dropped in number and became a few became boys in order to make different characters. Also, I've discovered ground is really hard to make and once it is there it's hard to make it so the people stand out in the picture.

Drawing the Human Figure Inside Out

The goal of today was to draw the human figure proportionaly from the angle we were at. I think I did well because for example we were drawing Alex lying down his head was very close to me and his knees were high up and far away. His head was much larger then his feet so I think in comparison that went well. The hard part was when I was drawing Taylor and he was standing with his back facing me. I had to draw his head in comparison to his much larger body.

Shades of Grey

1. The goal of today's project was to draw the still life infront of you in 5 different shades of grey. The background was grey and you had to erase or shade in more depending on the object.
2. This was achieved by using charcol to shade things in deeper, an eraser to lighten areas, and a paper towel to balance the tones.
3. It was hard because if you weren't careful your hand would blend everything it touched and you have to redo it all.

Studying Nighthawks

1. This Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. He's from Nyack, New York. This painting was made 1942, it is oil paint on a canvas.

2. My first impression of this painting is that it seems like he was in a good mood when he made it. The colors seem happy and the lines are spaced out, making it very open. Even though it's late a night, it doesn't seem like like something climactic is about to happen. It just seems like lonely people in a diner.

3. This is a painting based on a diner on Greenwich Avenue in New York City, which was destroyed. This though unintetionaly, captures the lonliness and the worry going on in the USA at the time because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Hopper is quoted to have said, "unconciencally, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city."

4. Hopper draws your eye to the white space inside the diner with the contrast of light and dark outside. Also the bottom of the window is a leading line, focusing your eye on the bar at the diner

Balance Pictures

aproximate symmetry

radial symmetry

asymmetry

symmetry

Principales of Design Notes

Principles of Design: set of rules that helps artists organize their work to make the picture come out effectively
Balance: visual weight of something appears visually evenly distributed
Emphasis: to stress a certain point
Rhythm and Movement:
Unity: when everything is equal and the same
Variety: having a difference in color, shape, etc.
Symmetry: even on either side, a mirror image of one half
Approximately Symmetrical: almost symmetrical but not quite
Asymmetry: One half does not line up with the other, but still can be balanced
Radial Balance: symmetry coming out from the middle infinitely

EMPHASIS NOTES

Emphasis: one element that attracts the attention in artwork
Contrast: when things are different then whats around it
Placement: where the artists put each object, color, line, etc.
Grouping: a lot of things around one object

RHYTHM AND MOVEMENT NOTES

Rhythm and movemnent: how artist guides viewer through work of art
Repetition: same elelments, alter aternating elements, progression (can be getting smaller but it's just a series)
Leading lines: lines on picture create path for eye to follow when looking at art
Implied Movement: lines or shapes angled to try to show that a figure is moving
Optical Movement: line or shape repeating that causes your eye to think there is motion even though there is not
Actual Movement: art that moves by itself for real

PROPORTION NOTES
Proportion: size relationships with in painting or sculputure
-Compares: colors, shapes, forms
-Words used for proportion: a lot, a little, many, few, big, small, similar, etc.
Proportion can add an emotional effect or a story

Reflecting on Found Object Sculptures

This is Adi and I's sculptsure, Bob the Evil Robot. It wasn't really anything major, it was just hey this could be a body and the big circle is head and with the big pieces we found the idea developed. The main feedback we recieved in class was that it was big and metal. I like how we used different mediums and ways of attaching things (hot glue, wire, string). If we had had more time I would have added a base

Reflecting at Midterm

I have changed for the better in art this term so far. My patience with making art has increased along with my ability to observe more then just look then make my own interpretation of an object. Being creative I've discovered, isn't just going, "Oh that looks like to art, let's draw it." It's about seeing things in a way that isn't necessarily how it appeared originally or once you figured out what it really was. Art isn't just a class, you can do it whenever, wherever even when it's not an assignment. Also on a less deep, I have learned how to draw with charcoal, which is something I have never done before. I'm glad I chose Art Principales.

What's in the Sack?

I think the goal of today was to increase our ability to draw longer and to try to draw from perspective. The first was achieved because at the end of the 35 minutes I was still drawing and had more to add to the picture. Also the picture was drawn from perspective and didn't look disproportionate so i think that went well too. it wa hard today to do the lights reflection on the bags and the lights and darks.

The Changing Still Life

In order to keep up with the activity today there several main things we had to do.

1. We had to be able to realize that no matter how pretty our drawing may be, if the scene changes, so does the picture and you need to be able to edit that.
2. We had to go quickly so that when the picture changed we were ready.
3. We had to be able to see the picture for what it is, not something we made up in our heads. This was sort of forced upon us as we created (and erased) the changing still life rapidly.

The Potential of Found Objects

Any object can be part of a sculpture if the artists' inspiration is right. To some, a straw is just a straw, but an artist could see it as a leg or an elephant trunk, or who knows what. The artists might have had some sort of plan when they started their project so they knew what sort of thing to look for. But it all depends on inspiration in the end. For example, not many people would choose to take apart a lamp and turn into a dog. But that's what the artist saw in it so that's what it became.

Ingrid Calame

I've never heard of her before. She is an artist who traces graffiti and layers it with other drawings. Then she paints all the different piecces different colors so it looks like a big puzzle. She paints like this because it reminds her how mortal we are, how we won't last forever.

Reflection on This Week

What do all of the activities have in common?

All of these projects have to do with control and seeing things for what they are, not as you want them to be when you draw them. With all of the projects, especially the pour, you couldn't really tell how the art was going to come out. All of these were a mix-up of working in ways we weren't used to and showing a fun way of doing art that wasn't as traditional.

Revisiting observation/desscription activity

Not much looked like the actual drawing except for the part that had a pink spot in the middle which is where the woman was. Mostly everything was missed i have to say, just because of the shape of the background objects and the way the woman's dress billowed out. If I had to do this again I would probably keep asking until it was okay to use nouns in our description.

What I See In Pours

First one:

2 blob guys
Tree
lake
splatter of blood
leg
weird bird

Second one:

aligator
face
bird
claw
foot prints
raindrops
tree with face
roots

Giving Up Control: Pours

Describe the process of creating through pouring paint you experienced today. How did it work?
How did it FEEL to give up control over the shapes u created? Describe any surprises.

Today we had to pour watery paint on to a large piece of paper and move it around. We didn't really have any control over where it went or how far it glided. It just made art and we had to see something in it. It felt fine to me because it sometimes turned out really pretty. There weren't really any surprises because I expected it to be weird.

Collaborative Art

Today we did collaborative drawing. I decided to do a penguin standing a iceberg watching a polar bear get on another one. After 10 min though, the class had to switch pictures, this happening multiple times. When we finally got back to our pictures it was a completely different story. My penguin was wishing it could swim as the polar bear drowned and the coast came to save it and the sun had shades on. I had to fix it a little bit. I think collaborative art ca be good, if not a little weird

Artist Stuff....

An artist is someone who captures everyday life and their thoughts and potrays them in their own creative way. It can be through painting, cooking, dancing or who knows what.

To be creative is to have the ability to not use the expected way or thing and to make something your own.

An artist needs to be free-thiniking, have something they need/ want to express, and willing to redo things.

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Title: Cypresse

Date:1889

First Impressions:

I like this painting because of the swirly way he painted and the colors he used in it.

Description:

Van Gogh created this painting shortly after being voluntarily admitted to an asylum in the spring of 1889. He liked his painting because it challenged him.

What I Learned:

Van Goh was insane possibly.