
Artist Statements
Title: Katniss
Media: Pencil on paper
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At the beginning of class, we each had to select a reference of a person to draw on a grid, so me being me, I chose Katniss Everdeen. The Hunger Games series is one of my current favorite movie series, so I thought this would be an interesting project and a pretty easy one to draw, but I was wrong. It was a little complicated.
To start with I divided the reference into the same amount of grids my paper was, then I began mapping everything out lightly. Getting the face to match the angle of her head on your first day of art was kind of hard, especially since it was such a weird angle. I believe the mouth was the hardest part of her face. I turned the paper the way I needed to draw it, and watched the reference closely as I mapped out her mouth. I cannot tell you how many times I erased and redrew it. When I thought it was good enough, I went onto the next thing. To do the eyebrows, I sketched them in the opposite direction they grow in so it would look more like eyebrows rather than solid lines above her eyes. Another thing that was challenging was Katniss' hair, because it was messy and kind of in "clumps" I guess you could say. I just kind of had to let my hand draw freely in any direction it went to get the look I needed. I used an eight value for her hair to achieve the darkness of it. I shaded in her clothing, trying to get it as dark as needed, and added value to her face to get ready for adding the minor details I needed. But before I did the minor details, I colored in the background in a rush, and was almost out of time for this project. I didn't get to add the extra shading into her face, which is why it is so pale and her eyes are very light, but you can easily tell the subject is Katniss Everdeen. This project required a lot of hard work and attention to tiny details.
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Title: The Elements and Principles
Media: Color pencil and stencil on paper
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In learning "The Elements of Art" and "The Principles of Design" my art teacher had us create a poster of our own using a logo or a character of our choice. In this project, we were to have an example of each element and principle and be able to tell what each one is by looking at it.
For my piece, I used Stitch from "Lilo and Stitch". I first sketched and cut out Stitch on card stock paper and traced him fourteen times for each element and principle. I began creating the elements first, starting with form. To do form, I colored Stitch as he would usually look, and added in darker shading behind him to make a shadow to show that he was a 3D object. I went on to the other elements, making each of them different. To do space, I left the inside white and colored around the figure. Texture was my favorite one to do, because Stitch looks like a little adorable furball. I colored him with a light blue, and then added a variety blues in short strokes to show the fur. I then moved onto the principles. Movement and Rhythm are very similar, so I had to be careful with how I represented them. For movement, I did a whirlpool look with a few different colors. To represent pattern, I created a design using zigzags, stripes and polka dots in a continuous order. For balance, I did one thick stripe of purple on one side of Stitch and two stripes on the opposite side, using the same amount of space.
I think this project was a creative way to get us to remember the elements and principles, and the different ways they could look.
Title: Fiery Fall
Media: Acrylic Paint on canvas
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This piece is in the Impressionism style and is inspired by Fall. There is a tree in my town that my mom and I often drive passed in the fall just to see the beautiful fiery colors it produces. It is near the city so in my image I painted it in the 'country', with a wooden post fence and cypress trees in the background.
I started creating this piece by laying down a very light grey color for the sky, because generally the sky is grey in the fall. Then I started on the grass, adding a variety of greens and browns to make a more detailed look rather than cartoonish. The cypress trees came next, to make the background look fuller. After getting the majority of the background finished, I started working on the main focus of the painting: the tree. I mapped it out lightly and started with a light brown paint, and then added darker browns to add depth. To begin with, the tree was going to be red, but I decided to add some yellow and orange into it. To get the look of the Impressionism style, I rolled the paint onto the canvas in short strokes.
Title: Your Eyes
Media: White pencil on black paper
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For this project, we had to create a reflection, but there was a catch. We had to draw it in "reverse". How, you ask? With a white pencil on black paper.
I was inspired by a band for this piece. The meaning behind my drawing is "In my eyes you're everything, but in yours I'm just another face in the crowd." My drawing is an image of two eyes. A band members eye on the right with a reflection of a crowd from stage view, and a fan's eye of the left with a reflection of the band. When you're on stage with the spotlights on you, you can't really see the faces of the people in the crowd, you only see the figures and the flashing lights. To a fan, their favorite band or artist can be everything to them. Whether it's because they're funny, talented, down to earth, or relatable on a personal level.
When I made this piece, I drew everything out in my sketch book, and I used Luke Hemmings' eye for the band member's, just to get a reference. I practiced on sample sheets so I would know how to do it properly on the big sheet. I mapped the eyes and eyebrows out with a regular pencil before starting on the pupils. I went ahead and put the highlight in it so I wouldn't forget. I lightly shaded the bottom half of the pupil on the right and added a bunch of little dots representing the fans in the crowd, and then other shape as signs. If you look close, you can see the band's logo in the back, "5SOS". In the fan's eye I again mapped out the band using a reference and a number two pencil, and then just colored over them with the white pencil. The number two pencil added the little details I needed in each of the band members.
Title: Riverside
Media: Water color on canvas
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Water color is a very hard thing to do. It takes a lot of practice and patience. This project was pretty complicated, and it could have gone a lot better than it did for me, but it was a learning stone.
For this piece, I took a photo from my vacation to Boone a few years ago, and sketched it on a canvas. I began putting a grayish/green color for the water. After that had dried, I added a gray wash for my background for the 'wooded' area. After layer upon layer of paint to both sections, I finally got to start adding a little detail, such as leaves and the outlines of the trees. I added a few different values of brown to the trees so they wouldn't look like random brown stripes. For this project, I used the wet-on-dry and wet-on-wet methods of watercolor.
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Title: The City
Media: Pencil on paper
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For this piece, we did two-point perspective. At first, I was not looking forward to this project, because it just wasn't the type of art that I like, but after I started working on it, it was really easy and pretty fun.
To start, I made a kite shape on the paper, and then decided where and how big to put my buildings. After I had all the buildings I needed, I started adding signs and windows, along with some bricks on a few buildings. I decided for the names on some of the buildings to be businesses my friend and I made up. This was an interesting project to do, and you had to think and work carefully otherwise your piece would be way off.
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