Thursday, December 23, 2010

"Dancing Color"
This piece was originally a gesture drawing study that was then created into anything i could make out of the sketches. I'm not very good at drawing figures so i hated this study at first but once i added the colors, it all came together very well. It was fun using all the different mediums like the watercolor and oil pastel and the bright colors all mixed together made the figures pop. It's a piece that makes you stop and stare and that to me sounds like a successful art work so i'm overall pleased with the turn out:)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Crosshatching in Pen
I love this piece because it has a lot of meaning behind each separate picture and i remember being very excited about the finishing product. I never liked using pen because it was so permanent but i messed up a couple times in this and had to learn to work with it so it was a good learning lesson. I also had to practice a lot with the shading and using crosshatching to create value and depth. I'm obviously no expert at it and still think this looks too cartoony bt the composition is creative and the story it tells is meaningful to me so i like it:)


Friday, November 12, 2010


"Peace"
Self-Portrait Bug Study

This painting was done in acrylics
with a white oil pastel glow around
the portrait. I absolutely love this
piece because the colors that make
up the hair and face are bright and
blend together very smoothly. I also
think the shirt and hands look fairly
realistic. The butterflies in the back
are very light because the self-portrait
was such a center focus that i didn't
want to take the emphasis off that by
cluttering the composition with bold
butterflies. This piece is dedicated to
my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Gotschalk,
who passed away from cancer when i was
still in her class. Her favorite animals
were monarch butterflies and she helped us
raise some from cocoons but passed before
she could see them be released. After they grew into beautiful butterflies,
the class released them in honor of her life. Basically, the painting is a
reminder that i still remember her and every time i see a monarch butterfly,
i say a quick prayer to say thank you for being an amazing teacher.
Charcoal Bike Study

This piece is a interesting view on a bike using my favorite medium and I think it turned out great. This was a challenge to me because I've never done objects with reflected light on them before. The bell was extremely difficult to capture the different light sources hitting it and I'm not overly pleased with how that part turned out but i especially love the detail in the top handle bar. I probably could have used more value and contrast with the shading to create more realistic looking reflections but it was my first time so I'm hoping to improve in that area. Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out :)