Mixed Media - Shoe Collage

Artists Create Original Art

I used my own unique ideas in this project by not only making a shoe collage but placing a photo behind each shoe that relates to the shoe.  For example, the yellow shoe with the red bow is from Snow White and the apple that the shoe is placed on is a significant item of Snow White; therefore, they correspond with eachother in the same disney movie.  Likewise, I did this for the other two shoes, being Cinderella and Aladin.  The source I used for inspiration was Disney.  I originally did not know what to do but I decided that the idea of Disney could be portrayed through shoes from famous Disney characters.  

Artists Develop Art Making Skills

The new skills I learned through this project was how to use mixed media within one piece of art work.  The one thing I had difficulty with was painting over the paper that I glued in the background.  The pumpkin, apple, and magic carpet were all printed out on paper so the texture was a bit difficult to paint over, but I just had to use multiple layers of painter after each layer dried.  I learned skill with the familiar technique of painting.  I have painted before in multiple pieces of art work, but this was definetly the most difficult project in terms of painting.  

Artists Reflect   

I took time to step back and reflect my work after each major part of my project.  First, I stepped back and looked at my project after I placed the pumpkin, apple, and magic carpet on the poster board.  I put these at an angle because I didn't want them straight and too confined.  After this, I added the corresponding shoes to the items and took some time to reflect how these looked.  Lastly, I added my third medium of tissue paper to Snow White's shoe and this added some volume and originality to the project.  I did consider how this project would turn and how to add each element to the peice of art work, but as I was going I added a few items such a glitter that I did not think about earlier.  Overall, this project allowed me to step out of my comfort-zone and I really like how this project turned out.   

Apple Progression Painting

Artists Take Risks
I took a risk by adding real leaves to the canvas with glue.  I was not sure if i wanted to do this because it might be a negative addition to the overall painting but it turned out to look good because it added different texture and life-like aspects.  Also, I was originally not going to do the progression of apples being eaten but once I started painting the apples I really liked how the overall product looked!

Artists Reflect
I stepped back and looked at the project first after painting the apples and then next after adding the leaves to the overall painting.  I did not consider how the painting would look as I was adding different parts to it but I then realized at the end of the project that I really liked how it turned out because I incorporated real leaves and a neat idea of the progression of an apple being eaten.  Lastly, the leaves were mainly in groups of three and this made a cool shape which I really like.

Artists Develop Art-Making Skills
I gained experience with painting because this project was paint on canvas.  I learned new techniques for this project by blending colors to make them look like a gradual transition from lights to dark.  In addition, I had to paint small apples which were hard to work with because I had to put transitions of color in a small place. I painted a darker color of red near the left bottom of the apples and then a lighter red with white streaks near the top right of the apples which made the apples have different colors throughout their shape.  

Up Close and Personal

Artists Create Original Idea: This is the beginning of my project before completion and I used my original ideas because instead of showing the whole face of someone blowing a bubble, I cropped the face and zoomed in so it met the standards of the theme, "Up Close and Personal."  I printed out some references so that I knew where to begin but I created my own face through my imagination and shaded in the color of the bubble blue/purple instead of pink/red.  I had to look around at some faces for a brief reference but the face itself was original and out of my imagination.  As the project progressed, I rounded the shape of the face to look more realistic.      

Artists Develop Art Making Skills:  This project is now coming closer to completing because I'm starting to fill the rest of the page.  I was not sure what background to use because the face was close up; therefore, I decided to go with a pattern.  The new techniques I used with this project was shading with chalk pastel color pencil.  I have only ever used chalk pastel on a stick so this was a new experience but it was definitely an enjoyable one.  The color pencils were easy to maneuver and easy to blend which made the background of diamonds and the shading of the bubble realistic and pretty.  

Artists Take Risk: I definitely took a major risk in this art piece with the background.  Because I made the face close up and near, I did not want to have an object(s) in the background because I thought that would take away from the main point of the drawing.  With that in mind, I went with a pattern in the background, and this pattern consists of green diamonds.  I picked a shape that I was comfortable and familiar with that allowed me to blend dark, shaped corners such as the diamond's edges.  Also, I originally had black as the darkest shade for the diamonds but changed that so I now have a dark green as the darkest color of my diamonds.  I transitioned my colors as a gradient so the diamonds have consistent shading.     

   

   

Lollipop, Candy & Soda Can

These three drawings are my drawings using different mediums for the "Up Close and Personal" project. The first drawing was a lollipop that was done by using color pencil.  I did not enjoy this project because color pencil did not show any blending so it was unable to look real or lively.  The second drawing of a piece of candy was much better than the color pencil because I used chalk pastel.  The chalk pastel was enjoyable to use because I was able to blend the colors easily which made the overall project look much better.  The hardest part for this project was the wrapper because it was hard to make it look wrinkly and real without adding too much of one color and overdoing it.  The last drawing was a soda-can.  I drew this soda can with oil pastel and I liked this medium.  Oil pastel was easy to blend; allowing the overall project to look lively and real.  The only thing I wish I did better was making the oil-pastel a lot more heavy and exaggerated instead of light and relaxed as my drawing is.  Overall, I think the oil-pastel and chalk-pastel are my favorite mediums because of its easiness to blend colors.       

This piece is a stippling drawing of two light bulbs with element symbols in the background.  This portrays my design solution for the theme "scientific" because light bulbs represent ideas and various aspects of scientific topics.  The mini lessons leading up to this final piece were very beneficial because they allowed me to practice the value contrast of stippling and not maintain a single value throughout the whole piece.  I showed contrast in my artwork by placing darker and more compact dots in the dark regions of the light bulbs and light, spaced out dots in the lighter regions.  The medium I used was pen.  The technique I decided to use was stippling because not only did I like the overall result with this technique, but I enjoyed the the process of creating this product and the value that corresponds.  Originally, I had the spiral light bulb in this product and the elements surrounding.  Mrs. Rossi said to add more to this product; therefore I added a circular light bulb hanging from the top.  This was definitely a risk for me because getting the circular light bulb to be perfectly rounded and retain a decent size was challenging.  Overall, my experience with this project was very successful because I learned a new technique that I extremely enjoyed (Stippling) and my final product follows the criteria and value that is required.