Baby!

Surface research and destroy 1/7: Birth

Details:

Full veiw:
Materials used: golden doily, paper doily, toilet paper, tissue paper, map of new york, price tag, cardstock, colored pencil, gesso, and brown artist pen.

Painting over this is going to be painful.....

Figure Study

The consensus in crit was the my poorly drawn feet. I didn't detail them because it wasn't the focus... unfortunately it caused the opposite affect because the totally distracted people from the rest of my painting! I plan to go back and make their shape more detailed, as well as adjust some of the highlights and shadows to conform to the light source better.

I chose to do a figure drawing for my major (communication arts), colored pencil as the medium I am comfortable with, and gauche as my medium which I haven't used (Also, I used some microns to touch up and detail some areas).

Despite some difficulties, I really enjoyed making this piece. Working with gauche was... interesting. I did a practice before this piece, which was very helpful when I did my final. In retrospect, I wish I had made the adjustments I mentioned in the previous paragraph, as well as made a slightly bigger piece (it looked so tiny on the wall!!). Overall, though, I am happy with the result.

Mother Nature

Acrylic Paint, Gold Doily, and Mica flakes on canvas.

This painting has consumed most of my week- it is hands-down the most time I have devoted to one piece within a week. I am very proud with the result, though there are parts where I wish I had more time to have tweaked and perfected... I am nervous and interested to see what people will say in critique. Regardless, this was definitely a great learning experience, and I feel like I now understand painting a lot better (though... I still have a LOT to learn). I feel like my ambitious sketch turned into a very rewarding challenge- and though I haven't slept regularly in a week, I really enjoyed putting so much work into tackling a variety of subjects and mediums I am unfamiliar with.

There were many times, of course, where I would mess up or realize I had to do large sections over. Times like those called for blasting my favorite angry song ever... the Christian Bale remix.

abstracts (paintings)

Abstracts

Showing Form with Light

February 5, 2010

Critique for this peice went fairly well, people were confused about how the hands were placed beneath the blanket, but other than that the feedback was fairly positive. It was also mentioned that the circle being imperfect was distracting. This was my own fault, I probably should have traced something circular or sketched with pencil first.

7 2 Self Portraits

January 29, 2010

Response:

I felt like my critique for this piece was very constructive. The main issues people brought up were that the eye located on my hand is awkward, and that leaving the left side of the paper unoccupied was a compositional issue.

I didn't not realize the awkwardness of the "strip" left on the left side of the paper when viewing my work before critique. When it was brought up, I felt like it was so obvious, and I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it!! I plan on adjusting the piece to engage the left side of the paper by extending the black skirt-like part of the figure so that it is wider and makes her appear more stable. Luckily for me, this is an easy fix.

As for the eye on the hand, it is to late for me to change that. My original purpose for putting it there was to represent myself as an artist; what I perceive is communicated through the work I create with my hands. From a compositional perspective, I didn't realize it would feel out of place, though it was clearly meant to make people feel a little bit uncomfortable due to the strange imagery. It was one of the very first things I drew when beginning the piece, and by the end, my work had developed into something different than where it had began. Had I drawn everything but the eye first, I may have decided not to draw it at all (considering the new composition that developed). However, I realize now that it's placement interrupts the flow of viewing the piece and was not a good compositional choice.

I am glad to have had such a constructive critique, and I really enjoyed analyzing my classmates work. I am excited to apply what I learn in these critiques to what I create in the future.