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Week 10 - Slideshow, Blog, Artist’s Statement// Sharron Norton

Posted by Sharron Norton in Advanced Art · Hull · y1 Band on
​ In the first quarter of my art class, we were giving 3 major assignments and these art pieces resulted in the finishing of a ceiling tile, fall theme hanging, and self-portrait. During the process of this task to complete, my artist mind was unleashed. Through trial and error, I was able to learn the true meaning of what an artist is. 
One of the important thing that happened during making art this quarter was beginning to possess a level of awareness with my art pieces.  By establishing a sense of a purpose to my work, I was able to explore the vast expansion of my creativities. Slowing, I became comfortable with letting this part of me run wild shaping the development as an artist. Traits of knowledge, desire, significance, and meaning began to show through my work each week. My understanding started to development each class we had, making it easier for viewers to actually see what I was trying to portray to others. And to maintain this gift, I feel the need for corrective criticism is well needed. This is leading to the action of showing your work in public and to communicate to viewers in a way.  By this, you are able to see mistakes you never would have and learn from them.  
I spent my studio time from the beginning of class until the end really focusing. Me and Mrs. Hull have this thing where I always play music for the class to set the tone for the class. I feel the music I play really gives me a piece of mind; it sort of relaxes me relieving myself of stress that may have attached itself to me from previous classes. During class, I  always seem to have my usual conversations with Mrs. Hull who unfailingly tells me that I am in a non stressful environment where I am free to create any artwork I put my heart to.  Whenever I get really frustrated with an obstacle in the assignment, Mrs. Hull brings me back down. Even though I still get upset with myself, from her I have been able to truly understand that I am not only here to make art but also to experiment with new concepts,  types, styles, methods and even aspects of working that I haven't been fully exposed to yet. That in this environment,  I have complete freedom to create-- both to succeed and to fail-- inevitably leading to confidence and certainty about my art and direction. Through this process of trial and error, I have discovered a better attitude towards art. I know now that art is a trying process where you will fail tremendously before beauty comes along. But the key is to never give up. 
A key component that others should know about the process of making art that really helped me complete my assignments is to work every day-- not when you feel like it, not when inspiration strikes. In this day of the world, you make your own inspiration. You won't progress by staring at a blank sheet of paper waiting for inspiration to magically come upon you. For some, it may work, but that's always never the case. Completing an assignment that you could actually say you are proud of, and in this case, an art piece takes time, just like any other duty you will take on in the years of school. And for others who don't fashion their art class and truly believe they don't process the artist's eye. My advice is,  either get serious about meeting the requirements of the art assignment or prepare for the low grade you will receive. Even if you aren't best compared to a person who can draw really good, this class is an easy A. You hold possession of what your turnout grade will be, and I say takes this advantage and put effort and time into whats assigned to you. The endgame here is figuring out how to overcome this obstacle, thereby maximizing the value of what is most important in the end. 

Q1 Artist's Statement and Slideshow

Posted by Mary Lamb in Advanced Art · Hull · x2 Band on

Final Artist’s Statement

I made three art pieces this quarter. The first one was a ceiling tile painting. I used acrylic paint to create it and a number of different brushes. My final product was an image of a lizard and croissants. The process for the ceiling tile was long and stretched over a bunch of class periods. First, I sketched out a bunch of ideas on paper, making sure they were to scale. In order to reach my final design, combined two of my initial ideas into one. I chose the lizard and croissant design because I draw lizards a lot and I wanted to do one large scale, and because croissants are one of my favorite things to eat. Then I prepped my tile with a background, a pink and blue gradient. Now I had my final design, I opted to use that as a guide but draw the sketch directly on the panel in pencil without using the projector. This was partly because I was a little short on time. Then I completed the painting over two class periods. I really had to squeeze it in, unfortunately, and I feel like I could’ve done a lot better.  Overall, I really like working with acrylics because they paint on quite smooth but they’re not thin either, and they’re really nice for mixing.

My second piece was my fall wall hanging, and I made a bunch of paper characters hanging from a metal rod. We had about two weeks to do it, and I really feel like I maximized that time. When we got the assignment, I knew immediately what I wanted to do. I started up drawing my characters with pencil, inked that in with pen, and finally colored with markers. Then I cut them out, glued them to construction paper backing, taped them to string, and tied the string around a painted dowel. I really love halloween so my characters were all spooky creatures. I really liked this assignment because I could incorporate my drawing style and the sort of thing I like to draw. It was also done in one of my favorite mediums, marker. If I had more time I would’ve put the drawings on both sides so when the strings made them spin around it wouldn’t be a problem.  

My third piece was my self portrait. We had a lot of time for this but I’m not sure I really maximized it. I made a couple of little sketches  based on photos of me to get what I wanted it to look like, and then began to draw in pencil on the big paper. Pencil’s not my favorite medium because I feel like it is pretty annoying to get a dramatic difference in value out of it. My portrait includes a bunch of plants to really fill up the paper, and I really like the look of it. If I had given myself  more time, I would’ve made the portrait more accurate, it looks more like my mom more than it does me.                                          


Q1: Art Slideshow (Justin Peccina)

Posted by Justin Peccina in Advanced Art · Hull · x2 Band on
​ For this quarter, the art class consisted of three different assignments: Ceiling Tile, Fall Wall Hanging, and Self-Portrait. For each, we were given four to six periods to complete the assignment and hand it in. Completing each assignment made me realize not only a good amount about my preferences in art, but also concepts I can utilize in real life.
For art class, I realized the importance of knowing which mediums you enjoy using. A medium is what you use to complete an art project, such as pencil, paint, or charcoal. In this quarter, I mainly used pencil and paint. I realized that I preferred painting over drawing, but I also realized that some mediums are preferred for certain projects. It is interesting to see which mediums work for which assignment and which do not. For example, paint is a great medium for large scale projects like the ceiling tile, but it is not optimal for shorter periods of time because paint  has to dry before you can paint a new layer again. Thus, mediums like pencil or charcoal are optimal for short projects.
Since certain pieces of art can look better with certain mediums, I haven't found my preferred medium or technique in general yet. I am hoping that the next quarter I can begin to form opinions on which mediums I prefer over the others so that I can use them more and even learn something new about these preferred mediums. 
I can also connect what we did in art to other subjects and classes. The class itself was mostly about how you manage your studio time, and what you can complete in an hour period. With this knowledge, I planned out what I would do each class so I could hand my assignment in on time. Because of this, I was able to learn how to plan out my time for other classes. This means that my process for making art greatly helped in my process of making projects and doing assignments in other classes.
Overall, art class this quarter was a great learning process. I learn a lot about what mediums I like, and what ways I can manage my time to complete assignments. I also gained a great perspective from this class that I can utilize in all of my classes. 

Maya Kohl 1st Quarter Masterpieces

Posted by Maya Kohl in Advanced Art · Hull · y1 Band on
​    For my ceiling tile. My inspiration for this piece was my own personality. I consider myself to be sweet and colorful and to give off having a fun vibe. On top of that, I love to eat. So I thought what sweet, colorful and fun but edible? That would be Candy. I love cotton candy I love gummies and chocolate M&M’s. I choose to draw a lollipop because it is the generic sign of candy, not my favorite but it still expressed who I am. I am proud of this because of my details on my gummy bear's faces and the swirls to my lollipop. I wish I had spent more time on painting it itself so my colors could be more accurate to real M&M’s or real gummies. I spent my class time with this carefully, I think I timed things well I had spent more of my time sketching out what I wanted to express on the ceiling. I learned some techniques while using paint on such materials, and that would be to do a second coat. I outlined my drawing in black sharpie thinking that would be enough, then later discovering after added color you retrace those lines again with paint, it makes your artwork stand out more bolded. I think this was important in tying my whole piece together.

      My fall wall drawing. Immediately after being assigned the fall wall drawing, I thought pumpkins. To me, if fall had a matching object to go with it it would be a pumpkin. I am proud of this work because I used well shading on my tree trying to go from light to dark purple. I used purple on my tree because it is the opposite color of orange, my pumpkin is orange and I used purple as an effect to make the pumpkin stick out. Pumpkins mean more to me than most my family always had a pumpkin carving party they went to at this place called the spooky garden, it is always hosted by some dear family friends. Each year people in my neighborhoods bring their kids to carve pumpkins along with food. It's quite nice, everyone does it together. At this get together the children; most younger then me a few my age go to play in the newly fallen leaves that's why I incorporated a tree with leaves falling. I also included the foxes because down where my grandparents are they have foxes running about their yard they live near the woods. I spent my class time on a different drawing I did not use also involving the centerpiece which was a pumpkin. I spent a lot more time at home trying to figure out a good way to draw a welcoming looking pumpkin for this project, I am proud most of the colors and the way they pour into one another. A good strategy I learned was to blend colors you can overlap and lightly shade with your pencil as well as your finger, it creates a more gentle look.

      For my self-portrait I was inspired by this picture because I remember taking this selfie when I was happy, so drawing it reminded me of this happy day. I am extremely proud of my self-portrait because it actually turned out looking like me. I was inspired to do this one because it was from a different angle, an angle above me rather than in front or below me. That mattered because my eyes were interesting and it was good for detail in the drawing. I also learned that shading with your fingers works well to accentuate shadows and body creases, I believe really contrasts well. I wish I had more time to shade in with colors to make it look more realistic. As well as some shading for my background. I did not spend any time in class working on this portrait because I found working on my previous work of artists working at home gave me better results in my artwork.

Naima DeBrest: Quarter 1 Slideshow and Artist Statement

Posted by Naima DeBrest in Advanced Art · Hull · y1 Band on

During this first quarter we eased into advanced art with three diverse assignments. I was extremely excited about the first assignment, which was to design and paint your own ceiling tile that would be hung up in the school. For my tile I decided to put a bible verse, I also wanted to incorporate my middle name which is Beloved. So I chose the Song of Solomon 6:3, “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine”. The to accent the piece I decided to put some of my favorite flowers: hibiscus. For the second assignment we had to design a fall wall hanging. I admit that I did not use all of my studio time to my advantage during this assignment. I did however have an idea of what tool I wanted to use to complete this piece. I had seen some art done on youtube where an artist used paper and stacked it on top of each other make an image. For my wall hanging I wanted to reflect something that reminded me of fall, for me that is sweet potato pie. So I used various shades of paper to make a pie. For the third assignment of the quarter we had to compose a self portrait. I think that this was the assignment that I was the most nervous about, because it had to look like something specific. I think that I took the most time actually drawing my face because I didn’t want to trace it. Then I made the decision to paint my portrait because I thought that it would be easier to make the colors that resembled my hair and skin color. All and all I think that this was a very successful quarter and I am proud of my work.


Final Art Station - Caroline P.

Posted by Caroline Pitone in Advanced Art · Hull · x2 Band on
Final Art Station (1)
​For this quarter, I created 3 art pieces that were; a ceiling tile, a fall wall hanging, and a self portrait. For my ides of art, I am mostly influenced by music, and fashion that is around me. By seeing current trends, it helps me create ideas for an art piece. Much like what I did with my ceiling tile, by drawing Marilyn Manson, as Marilyn Manson is popular right now. He is a talented artist that has been in the industry for a while. He showcases a very dark and intense side, that many rappers have seen. This has changed the rap industry to suggest that rapper are “rockstars”. This is very interesting to me, that it brought me to do this art piece. My fall wall hanging involved me in cutting out pieces of art that I drew, and then pasting them onto a colorful piece of paper. I normally hate doing pieces in color, but this assignment was fun. Originally, I drew a piece, but found out the day that it was do, that it was “C” work, so I started over. Although that was upsetting, it got me doing an art piece I normally would not do. My last art piece was a self portrait, I used a photo to refer to, of a photo my friend took of me. 
For my preferences, I prefer drawing with charcoal and just pencil. But while exploring myself as an artist, I have branched out into using color. I would say I have not learned anything new about art this quarter, but I have learned about my preferences. During studio time, I spent time drawing and coming up with ideas for my art assignments. Some important things that happened during this quarter, are that my classmates and I learned how to come together and come up with ideas for each other. It was very fun to collaborate ideas together. For my artwork, I would like people to know that I tried during art that I would normally never do. For my process of art, I have to start early, in order to do everything I want to do for it. I do not enjoy rushed art.

Artistry Slideshow

Posted by William Matthews in Senior Art · Hull · A Band on
With the exception of the watercolor and self portrait to some extent, I desired to do art work that had a sense of purpose and meaning to me as a person. What I mean by that is I decided to do art work that reminded me of home, or reminds of me of things that I enjoy in my normal life. In terms of materials, techniques, and design I really didn't have a different sense of style than the average person. However, I tend to "free draw" my art instead of trace. Because it teaches me the importance of patience and trying to be a perfectionist in my work, so that way I know I put my all into it. With that there weren't really any new tools that I quite needed for my projects. I prefer to use "normal" paint versus pencils and watercolor paint due to how much it can cover on my paper, and leaves the least amount of blank spaces. Since I have been taking art class for years, there isn't a new technique that I have learned so far, however I am certainly opened up to learn. Now quite honestly, even though I turn in my assignments on time and get pretty good grades, most of the time I use class as a study hall and work on my projects at home; or in class once the deadline is approaching. The most important thing that happened to me this period was having my University of Detroit Mercy's logo ceiling tile hung on the ceiling, because UDM means a lot to me. And it's comforting to know that it will be apart of SLA forever. One thing I want people to know about my artwork and process is that my art means something to me and reflects my personality most of the time. And my process is simple yet complicated. So, in other words if you want perfection for you, you have to be willing to put on your headphones in order to put you into the zone and work.

Hamidou's Art Work

Posted by Hamidou Doumbia in Advanced Art · Hull · y1 Band on
​
Artist's Statement:

During the first quarter of Advanced Art, I know it was going to be challenging. I never believe that I should drawing or even making art. My art piece has improved as we had a new project.

Our first assignment was ceiling tile. I didn't know if I would be able to create a nice ceiling tile. I didn't even know what art was going be on the ceiling tile. I had drawn three different ideas which I didn't like. So I thought about my favorite hobbies which are basketball. So I tried to draw the N.B.A logo but I didn't like how it turns out on paper. So I had a choice to make between two of my favorite players Lebron James and Stephen Curry. I choose Lebron James because he was inspired me to watch the N.B.A for the first time.

Our second assignment was fall wall hanging. I want to draw something that remembers me about fall.  So I created a pumpkin house with scare ghost and apple tree. Halloween had big part why I choose a pumpkin house with scare items around it. I don't celebrate these holidays but my friends do. I draw things that inspired my friends and their holiday and what remind them of fall.

The last art assignment was a self-portrait. I was having trouble to start the drawing because I didn't know how to draw a person's face. This assignment I wanted to push my self because everyone else was tracing off the board. So I freehanded my whole drawing because I believe it would help me become a better drawer. I even draw the pore on my face to give it more detail. The final product could be better but I learned so much.

Overall, I have learned so much as artistic in advanced art class. The tool for success is pushing your self into an uncomfortable situation. Also, you need a creative mindset and use the thing that inspired you as a person to create a wonderful piece.

Lauryn's Slideshow, Blog, and Artist's Statement

Posted by Lauryn Lewis in Advanced Art · Hull · y1 Band on
During the first quarter of advanced art, things were pretty tense. I think it was mainly because a lot of us would work slowly and then realize that the project was due the next day. Although sometimes I felt like I ran out of time for my artwork, I am proud of the three pieces that I created over the course of the first quarter. 

The first piece that I created was the ceiling tile. I was excited about creating the ceiling tile because it was something that we had complete control over. For a while, I struggled with what I was going to put on my ceiling tile. I then decided to design my ceiling tile in honor of my "hood". I am from Uptown, Philadelphia and it is something that I talk about everyday. Therefore, I felt the need to incorporate the track cover of Kur's 'Uptop Uptop' on my ceiling tile. I have always been a fan of the cover because it was appealing and clever to me. So I ended up making that the cover of my ceiling tile. 

The second piece was the fall wall hanging. I was never a huge fan of fall so I did not really have that much enthusiasm about the project as I did with the ceiling tile. The idea for my project came from a diy project that I found on google for kids in the fall. I liked the idea of the owl sitting on the tree in rather vibrant colors because bright colors make the project really stick out. I was not sure exactly how the project would come out when I was finish. In the end, I saw my owl as the cutest thing ever. I even gave the project a cute title, 'Hoot Hoot!'. 

The third and last piece that I created was the self portrait. I was excited to do this piece but it was really frustrating to do. I have a big head and it took me the longest time to get my fake head to look somewhat like my real head. The picture I used as a model for my portrait was one from my 15th birthday I believe. It was the first picture I had taken on Snapchat so it was sort of a big deal. That is how it ended up with the title 'Lauryn In Her Natural Habitat'. Overall, the picture sort of looks like me being that I am not the best artist.

Zaire's Art Slide Show

Posted by Zaire Williams in Advanced Art · Hull · x2 Band on
​My first artistic piece was my best, a ceiling tile painting of one of my old favorite games, "Ratchet and Clank". Before creating this painting I wanted to work on something that could be challenge for myself and enjoy at the same time to see how skillful I am. To start off this project, I first did a short trace with a pencil around the two characters head to make sure I'm painting in the right area. Then, I used different mixtures of colors to find the right kind I needed to for certain places. Going into my second period of working on this project, I started painting Clank first because I thought since he's a robot and there's not much detail to him, he'll be better to start off. While painting I tried to get mix colors in at the top of his head based on how the shading was in the picture. During that second period and in the beginning of the third working period I finished Clank. For the rest of that time, I started on Ratchet, but he was a little difficult to paint because he had much more detail on his face and armor. Then, I didn't have the brown I need for his face so I had to mix more colors together to make sure it was close to how he looked. I then had one more working period to finish, so I made the decision to skip my lunch and work on it two periods. throughout thoughts period I finished Ratchet, fixed up Clank a little and added the background with good detail. When I was finished I thought I put in hard work to finish it but it was a lot that could have been better and done differently.
For my second artistic piece. I wasn't exactly what I wanted. The project was to make a "Fall wall hanging". for my first two working periods I had no clue what to make at all, there were different option but I did right like them. Until I something Halloween related. What I did first was, sketch out the picture on a paper and took my time on it. Because I took too long to find a something to make I did have much time to take, but I made it work. After my sketch, I found out it didn't me the expectation so I had to think of something to add on to it. I decided to get some colored construction paper, cut out different colors with the shape of my drawing and glued it all on top. It didn't come out how I wanted it to look but I didn't have enough time to add on so I had to submit what I had. What I could have done differently was manage my time wisely and good have gotten a better result.
  For my final artistic piece of the quarter. We had to work on a self-portrait, one of the hardest art pieces to work on for me. I first went through my photo gallery and search for an image of me that wasn't too difficult. Throughout this project, I felt that I was too focus on detail and not drawing out everything first. What I did was finish one part of the face then moved on to the next such as the head shape, then the nose, then the mouth and so forth. I took so long doing that, that I had to take my project home and finish before the time it's due. When I thought I was finished I tried to take multiple pictures to submit it but the picture was too dark then to light, my lighting was off so I had to color it. I really could take my time on that because I had less than an hour to finish so  I just made should it was colored in the right areas. It was much better to see but it was how I want it. Again, to make this project better I could have handled my timing better.
     

Final Q1-4 Slideshow

Posted by Lauren Matthews in Advanced Art · Hull · x2 Band on
​For the first few weeks in art class, I created an interior design painting of Yogi Bear on a ceiling tile. The next assignment I created a junk art collage of things that resemble Autumn and used real leaves and tree bark to bring my art to life. My final assignment I  drew a portrait of myself using crayons to bring color to it. Out of the three assignments, my least favorite assignment was that self-portrait. I feel that that was my least favorite because my weakness is drawing faces. When drawing faces I struggle with drawing eyes and noses. 

Some things that I would people to know about my artwork that I spent a lot of time on my artwork. I used my studio time wisely and also used my free time at home working on my artwork. The most time I spent for one of my assignments was the fall wall hanging assignment. For the fall wall hanging, I did all of my homework due that nigh during class so That when I got home, I can work on the assignment. I walked around outside and collected tree bark and leaves that have fallen off the ground. Then I cut up all of the things I found and glued each piece to where they belong. 

I would also like people to know that the process of making art is hard and takes a time to process ideas. By the time ideas come to mind, you have to express those ideas using different kinds of art. When I found the ideas for my ceiling tile, it was hard to capture the idea of what I would want it to look like on the tile. I wanted to catch the idea of Yogi Bear and his picnic basket but I just choose the idea of painting his face because I was running out of time it was easiest.

MP1 Art Work

Posted by Brendan Barnes in Advanced Art · Hull · y1 Band on

The first assignment we did this quarter was ceiling tiles. I chose to use Kyrie Irving’s logo as my ceiling tile because he is one of my favorite basketball players, he is arguably the best point guard in the whole NBA. I chose the color scheme of green and white because he was recently traded to the Boston Celtics. I have always been curious about splatter paint and how to properly do it. Ms. Hull always pushes us to do more or to at least try to make the assignment, so I decided why not just try splatter paint.  I was very proud of my end result because it came out exactly how I pictured it in my head.

My second assignment was a fall wall hang. Since most people in the class were choosing to do things that were thanksgiving themed, I chose to go with the Halloween theme. I began brainstorming about what I should do. Then I decided to draw a bat because that relates to Halloween and they are one of my favorite animals. So I drew a bat but it was clearly not enough. So I drew a giant red moon because I felt like that would add a scary aspect to it. The moon took me forever to fully color and I didn’t get the grade that I wanted on this assignment. It kind of discouraged me and I felt like I got that grade because I just wasn’t as talented as other kids when it came down to arts and crafts.  

The third assignment was a self portrait and I had a really bad start to this assignment because I could not even draw my head the way I truly wanted to. So I ended up tracing the oval for my head and then free handed everything else. We had more time on this project than any other assignment and I still had to work on it outside of the class, I had to come in during my lunch and take it home. Just to make sure it was done on time. I was very surprised with the final product because I did not know I was capable of doing that kind of work. I was very happy with myself portrait.


Georjelis' Art Slideshow

Posted by Georjelis Rujano in Advanced Art · Hull · x2 Band on
In this quarter for advanced art I made multiple art works. I made a fall art hanging, a drawing for a ceiling tile and a self-portrait. When I made my art I had different influences to create it. For the ceiling tile I made it about something important to me and my country is important to me, also to create awareness about the crisis in Venezuela. Compared to the fall hanging I didn't wasn't really prepared and focused but I tried to do something different. I took leafs from the tree in front of my house and with the leafs I took pieces and made it so I can be a pumpkin. I colored over it with fall like colors like red, orange, green, and yellow. Now my self portrait I wanted to do my flaws in my drawing. I know one eye is bigger than the other and one eyebrow is more arched than the other, but a mistake I did was picked a photo that I had makeup on. I could've had a natural face so I can really show my scars. 
In the process of making my art I used a various of tools, and techniques. For most of my art works I used pencil to trace and make it like my blueprint. Paint, paint brushes, colored pencils, glue, paper, water was also used throughout. Techniques I learned was that shading is a big part to doing the nose, no harsh lines. Also a really good technique that I've been doing since I was a kid was when you sharpen a color pencil you take a shavings off and use the small pieces of the color pencil and rub it so it can be a soft texture to the art work. When you want to draw a self portrait it good to have different types of pencils. For example, 4B is for harsh lines and bold, 2H, H, and HB are pencils that are from light to dark shades. These drawing pencils are a good tool to use to create a realistic drawing from scratch. 
I admit that I wasn't focused in class and I missed a class of art but my passion for art never changed. I will always love art especially coloring. My goal is to be more focused in my work and use every work period like I suppose to. I learned a lot this quarter either from grading, techniques to socially in art class. Also I observed that I'm in a class with artists that are amazing with their art work and they are very inspiring with their work.

personal essay

Posted by Olufemi Beatty in English 2 · Pahomov · C Band on

One of the things that all people have in common is that we have blood flowing through our veins. And like most parts of the human anatomy, there are various blood disorders and mutations. One of these mutations is sickle cell anemia. Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder where red blood cells in the body are misshapen. Because of their shape, they cause blockages in veins and arteries the blockages in these blood vessels cause severe pain throughout the body. I was born with sickle cell and throughout my life, it has put things in perspective for me while also acting as a deterrent for different activities and experiences. In short, sickle cell sorta sucks, and since infancy, I had been used to spending periods of time in the hospital.

                Truthfully I am lucky to go to a hospital like CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia). When I was younger I used to love going to the hospital and didn’t want to leave. The hospital building is very large, comprising of multiple units focusing on various ologies. But as a kid, it seems more like toy shop than any other hospital I have seen. In every room, there were (and still are) TVs with cable, PlayStation 2’s, speedy Wi-Fi, playrooms filled with board games and toys, and a marble machine in the hospital’s lobby. It was probably one of the best places to be while in pain, but it is still a hospital. Some things will always be the way they are, water will always be wet and hospitals will always be depressing. The hospital became less and less appealing as I grew up. I started to tolerate the painkillers they gave me, so I would be in pain while high. I would have to catch up on schoolwork after leaving the hospital and miss out on different experiences and opportunities. But the hospital had given me the chance to create new experiences.

Last summer I had been given the chance to go to the hole in the wall gang camp for the first time. A camp founded by Paul Newman. The camp is in the middle of the woods in northeast Connecticut near Massachusetts. It is a place is for kids with various diseases and illnesses. Some kids are survivors of life-threatening illnesses and some are their siblings. I’d heard stories about the camp from kids I knew from the hospital so I was excited to go, but I was still a little nervous. The bus to get to camp left around 6am and was a 6-hour ride. Once we reached the campsite we saw our counselors outside our cabins singing and dancing.

The bus had emptied by cabin and my cabin was the second to last to empty out the bus. We’d entered the cabin and unpacked and greeted each other. Outside people were throwing frisbees, running around and blasting music out on speakers. During the day, all of the counselors did their best to make us feel welcome and comfortable, but I still felt a little stifled.The camp is technology free, and at home, I had always been listening to music 24/7. I literally fell asleep with earbuds, so not being able to listen my to music was the one thing that bothered me. The next day, our cabin had gone to the camp’s boathouse that overlooked a huge lake. Our counselors ask if we had wanted to fish or boat. A kid named Luis and I both wanted to paddleboat, so our counselor Kerwin took us along with his speaker. I remember asking “Do we have to listen to censored music?” he simply replied “Nah, I don’t care. As long as you don’t tell anybody.” me and Luis were both ecstatic. We spent our time on the paddle boat sharing music talking and talking about living with sickle cell (which we all had).I still keep in touch with Luis And Kerwin's probably the reason I'd like to be a counselor. Being on that boat had made me feel more comfortable and had given me two people to talk to who could relate to my problems.


Carlos Rivera Artist Statement

Posted by Carlos Rivera in Senior Art · Hull · A Band on
Ceiling Tile - This is the symbol of the video game "Deus Ex", a sci fi shooter about conspiracies and the future of mankind. This painting uses shading, tinting, and shape placement to create the illusion of 3D. My best work so far. Fall Wall Hanging - This is a view of a fictional river in upstate. Used no.2 pencil to create the shape of everything and make the road. Also used colored pencil to color in fall colors, the cliff, and the river. Not my best work, but still decent Self Portrait - A portrait of me. Used the same techniques as in the fall wall hanging along with a selfie. Pretty proud of this one. Watercolor - A fruit basket on a table. Used watercolor techniques, like covering certain areas with tape temporarily, flicking the brush, and creating a shape before coloring it in. It's pretty good, could use some more color.

Keith Hodge Q1 Senior Art Slideshow

Posted by Keith Hodge in Senior Art · Hull · A Band on
​I felt very proud of myself with every piece of art I did. The first piece of art I did was the fall wall hanging and that was pretty cool looking because it featured the flyers logo,Philly skyline, retired numbers and Ed Snider looking down at the sky line also it the best part was that I was able to hang it up and the whole class and SLA community can see it for years to come. The second piece of art I did was the fall wall hanging, This one looked awesome too because the fall time reminds me of the simpsons treehouse of horrors special, so I have them on their couch and they are surrounded by the characters in the past treehouse episodes. The 3rd piece of art was the self portrait of me I think I did pretty good for my first drawing of myself. The last piece of art is the water color art and I think it was good as well because it featured a lot of cool fruits. So overall I felt very proud of every piece I completed.

Quarter One Art Project

Posted by Jaszmine Randle in Senior Art · Hull · A Band on

Throughout this first quarter of senior year I have worked on four time consuming projects. I have painted a ceiling tile, designed a fall wall hanging, created a self portrait of myself, and I have designed a fruit/vegetable watercolor painting. I have struggled but still was able to accomplish each project each time learning new tactics.

I have learned how to go further with my art. Detail is important and it’s an essential in most art pieces. With detail I have gone further by adding shadows, lighting and different textures on each of my artwork pieces. At first I was struggling to do these things but with a little help and some extra practice I was able to pick up on the skill and be successful with it.

I also learned how important “patience” is. Patience is so important because you need a lot of it when you are completing any art work. You need patience because everything takes time and if you don’t take your time you will never have a good final product. Once I learned the key to patience my artwork began to look much better.

During our pieces I used color pencils, water color, water color paper, and paint. All of these materials were used when creating my projects. Each project I used different materials some that I worked with before others new. I had fun with new materials because it is new and I like trying new things sometimes.

My favorite artwork piece would have to be my self portrait. At first I didn’t like this project but as I sat and thought about it I have began to like it more and more. I like the project because it took me the most time and I helped me with discipline. When you take your time it makes the artwork look even better and it shows discipline because it shows that you had the focus and patience to complete the project. If I were to do this project again I would probably add even more lights and darks than I already used. I would also find a picture of myself involving more detail then the picture i had used.


Q1 Artist Statement Thea Risher

Posted by Emma Risher on
Artist Statement
Thea Risher
This quarter, I was very proud of the art that I made. To start, we painted ceiling tiles, then did fall wall hangings, and finally self portraits. Throughout the quarter I had a lot of inspiration and had to independently come up with my own ideas for most of the projects. 
For the ceiling tile project, I found it very difficult to find an idea. I knew we had to paint with acrylics, which was a medium I did not use before. I went through a lot of rough sketches because I did not like my ideas. For inspiration, I thought about past art pieces I made and eventually came up with the idea of a hot air balloon. I looked up some photos and finally made a sketch that I liked. I use past art of mine as inspiration for a lot of my work. After this, we got a ceiling tile from the ceiling and I remade my sketch onto the smooth side of the tile after cleaning it off. Next, I painted the a light blue for my base color to represent the sky. Because the paint supply was getting very low, I ended up using water to make the paint last longer. This ended up being a very effective technique because it also made the texture of the paint very smooth in addition to using less paint. I thought that painting with acrylics would go very quickly, but I spent all of my work periods as well as one lunch period on the project and just barely finished in time. The paints required a lot of mixing and different layers and such. I enjoyed this art piece because I think I expanded a lot of knowledge about different art mediums and worked really hard, so I was proud of it. I learned about acrylic paints, which I look forward to using more in the future. 
The next art piece that I made was a fall wall hanging. We had a lot of creative license for this project, so I easily decided to make a charcoal drawing because charcoal is one of my favorite mediums to work with. I wanted to make a tree because I was inspired by my neighborhood and all the falling leaves in autumn. Nature often inspires me as well. The tree that I drew started as a tracing of the basic outline. Then I began to texturize the bark and branches with pencil because I like sketching in pencil. Finally, I went over and shaded with charcoal and added more color as well as added leaves and more background setting for the tree. I think for this project I managed my class time very well and focused the entirety of the time. I liked this art piece a lot because I think I exercised old techniques that I don't use in my artwork as much as I would like to, and I think this expanded my different techniques. 
The final project was a self portrait. I was a little nervous about this because a strong point of mine has never been peoples faces, especially my own. I find it very difficult to replicate peoples faces in general. Because of this, I used the technique of tracing. I found a picture of myself on my computer that I wanted use, then traced the screen using tracing paper. I downloaded a photo of my tracing to the computer, then projected it onto a larger paper where my final drawing was going to be. For my medium I decided to use pencil just because I think it is very easy to draw small details with pencil and a face has a lot of tiny details on it, such as wrinkles and eyelashes. Once I had the basic tracing outline of my face on the paper, I used my phone to look at my reflection and started filling in all of the details. This was harder than I anticipated, because a lot of the details are very hard to replicate on paper. I spent a lot of time shading in around the eyes, but I think the end product was very well done. What this project taught me about art is it requires a lot of patience and dedication, but the time you put in will pay off if you focus and invest yourself in it. 
I learned a lot of new things about art this year. I learned more about mediums that I thought I was familiar with, such as pencil and charcoal. I learned more about shading and how to lightly use pencil as well as charcoal, and I used more blending techniques with both of these mediums. I had never used acrylic paint before, so I learned that watering them down makes the paint smoother and the colors mix very easily. I learned throughout that you need to always be working and use all of your time, because you never have to be finished with a work of art. I learned that focusing and trying new techniques pay off and you are always expanding your knowledge. For process, I would want everyone to know that I am still learning and improving but this is my art so far and I am happy to share it with you! 

Q1 Art Portfolio

Posted by Julia Furman in Advanced Art · Hull · x2 Band on

I painted a wall tile, and made a fall wall hanging and a self portrait using colored pencils. I painted the tile with a purple dragon with a black eye and a dark blue background. This is actually a version of a doodle I like to do. The only two differences is that the tail does not usually curl like it does on the tile, and the eye is blue in the doodle. For the fall wall hanging, I drew two leaves falling through the air. The background is light blue, which symbolizes the sky. The self portrait was particularly difficult to figure out. I do not consider myself to be good at drawing people, so I decided to go for a style similar to the kind seen in Japanese animation, or anime. The pink on my face, just below the eyes, is supposed to be blush. The variety of different colors I used in the background of the self portrait is purely a result of me running out of colored pencils.

My main process of arting starts with me making a rough draft of the art in my sketchbook, and then making the good copy on a separate piece of paper. I developed this method during this art course. I spend most of the time in class working on my art, unless I felt I had nothing to do. This mainly happened on the last days of work, since I did not want to get too much of a head start on the next assignment. I usually like all art materials the same, but I prefer colored pencils over crayons, because I like the way art made by colored pencils look.

I learned that when more time is spent on the artwork, the final product will turn out better. Before, I did not consider myself good at art, but the art I have done before was always done in less than an hour, compared to the four days spent on these projects. I’m a new artist, but I hope my art is good enough to be noticed.


Art Q1

Posted by Horace Ryans in Advanced Art · Hull · y1 Band on

In quarter one of advanced art, we created three different art pieces. The first one was painting one a ceiling tile that would be placed in the school. The second was a fall wall hanging where we were instructed to draw something that reflect what we related to the season fall. The third was a self portrait. All three of these examples can be seen in the slides below my post. 

Most of my art pieces were inspired by my adoration for seasonal men's fashion. For the first project, the ceiling tile, I think the hardest part is actually deciding what you want to draw because you only get to do one. So I chose a bow tie. To me, the bow tie represents a form of fashion that is old but never dies. After taking a look at for a while I started to realize that the bow tie looks like an hour glass. Which kinda to me represents its' timeliness. 

If you choose to take something away from my art work, let it be this. My art represents who I am and what I'm about. I appreciate a good sense of style. I tried to have my art reflect on how much fashions means to me. I'm not the best artist but I know that even if I'm not great, I still was able to express what I love in one way or another. 

Art Work Q1

Posted by Cristina Valenzo in Advanced Art · Hull · y1 Band on
​ This quarter in art class was really fun and I really enjoyed creating these art pieces. I got to use different tool and materials, like very different types of paints, charcoal and other materials necessary to get my end result. While using these materials I also learned new techniques such as how to hold charcoal in order to create shading using pressure, or how to use different colors to create ombre-like, effects.  Now as for my art I had different inspirations for each art piece. 
    My very first art piece this year was the ceiling tile. For me, this is the most important art piece that I have created so far this quarter. For one, my inspiration behind it was the dreamer's act movement. Around the time that this assignment was assigned Trump had removed the Dreamer Act and many immigrants were left with nothing and all they could do was fight for their rights. I am Latina and I wanted to show my support to the thousands of Latinos that had been hurt by this, so I painted the word dreamers on the ceiling tile. I also painted a moon and stars to show that to them the stars and moon are the limits. As long as one fights for what they believe in anything is possible. I wanted to create an ombre-like effect so I used the two colors of the sky, light blue for daytime and dark blue for nighttime, and created an ombre-like effect as well. Throughout this whole art piece, I used paint as my main material. I felt very proud creating this work of art.
    The second work of art that I created was the fall wall hanging, this assignment was one of the more easier ones and an assignment where I had one image in mind. For this assignment, a typical fall scene was the inspiration for my artwork. When I thought of fall I thought about the leaves falling and the time change. I tried to create a theme throughout all my artwork so for the sky I also created an ombre-like effect like I did for the ceiling tile, however, I went for warmer tones. The main material I used for this drawing were color pencils. I had fun creating this drawing. 
    The final art piece that I created was the self-portrait. This was one of the longer and harder pieces. I really had to learn new techniques and work with materials that I had never used before to create this piece. For one, I had to use charcoal as one of the main materials and at first, it was very hard working with it but after I learned how to blend it to create a nice effect with it. I made the self-portrait by using a picture of myself as a guide. In pictures and everywhere else we have shadows, so one of my major struggles was creating these shadows in the portrait. I learned how to create shadows by using different pressures on my materials and learning to press harder or lighter when needing to create different lightnings. I also tried to use the theme of ombre again in this drawing and I decided to do it in my hair. I used black charcoal to make the ends of my hair much darker and then blending it out and making it lighter in the roots. In the end, I had an art piece that resembled me. I was very proud of completing it.  
    I had lots of fun in this class. It was a very joyful environment in which I felt like I could always work in and have focus in. All three of my art pieces were created with much work and inspiration. 

-Cristina-Valenzo 

Q1 - Art Portfolio

Posted by Lotus Shareef-Trudeau in Senior Art · Hull · A Band on
This quarter I wanted to focus on my shadows, and trying to shade in a way that will give my artwork a more realistic feel. For my ceiling tile I wanted to experiment with painting skin tones and playing with light. The fall wall hanging was a collage that was created out of mixed media. I used paint, markers, and colored pencil to make it, and in the same vein as the last, tried to figure out how to add undertones to skin with the painting and turned out making it very emphasized and exaggerated. For the charcoal portrait, I worked a lot on shadows and trying to understand how to manipulate charcoal on the page. Because I spent most of my time playing with shadows I didn’t have the time to make the features look extremely similar to my own so the portrait did not turn out to be a perfect rendition of my own. Lastly, the watercolor fruit bowl was more playing with the colors and experimenting with the paint.