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Over the course of quarter two we were assigned to create a variety of different drawings and photos, being: Blind contour drawings, colored blind contour drawings, choice painting, recreation of an art piece, Illustration of a writing, and Photo editing.

Our first assignment was blind contour drawings, we had to pick ten subjects we wanted to draw and then gather ten sheets of printer paper and draw each subject. Contour drawings are drawn from a starting point and without looking down at the paper. You figure out where your starting point is going to be, pull up the image or look at your subject and draw it to the best of your ability without taking your drawing utensil off the paper until you're completely done. For the first assignment I decided to draw items I saw around the art room.  

Second, the colored contour drawings were done off our previous contour drawings, more specifically we had to take our contour drawings we had drawn for our first assignment and color them. I colored my country drawings with multiple colors, and gave some contour drawings a background. I specifically did that, to make the drawings more appealing to the eye. One thing I took away from these two contour drawings, was that not everything is going to turn out exactly how you want it to turn out the first or even the second time. Although, you may want to change your idea or subject your, sometimes it’s best to stick on the same path (as said in the direction about keeping you pencil on the paper at all times) and find a better way.

Third, was the choice painting, you were required to choose an art piece of interest, and paint it on a medium sized canvas, which is by far larger than 2 pieces of printer paper put together. I chose to paint a monster from the Tv show called “The Mist” because it seemed very cool and interesting, also the monster was the main part of the Tv show, and due to my strong interest in “The Mist”, I wanted to find something that would respable the whole Tv show. One thing I took away from this, is being able to go deeper into detail with whatever you may be analysing or drawing. For instance, I didn't just draw the base or an outline of the monster. I drew the outside fog, and I painted the fog with a mix of black, gray, yellow, and white paint, to give my painting a more supernatural feel. Overall I put as much detail as I could, to show and give you the feeling of what was happening in the moment when this monster appeared in the Tv show.

Fourth, we had to recreate a piece of art, this piece of art can be anything from a drawing you found online to a drawing or painting you or someone else did last year.  I recreated a painting from a famous artist. This was a painting of a complex multi- colored forest with deer throughout the painting. Instead of painting the original painting i decided to draw it with colored pencils, because it was easier. After doing this drawing, I realize that even the most complex art pieces can be done just as well with the simplest materials.

The fifth assignment consisted of illustrating a piece of writing. Meaning you have to find a piece of writing whether that's in a book or online, and illustrated in anyway you prefer to illustrate the writing. For this assignment I chose to illustrate the quote “Be sure to taste your words before you spit them out”. I illustrated this out in the form of a drawing, because while words get a point r message across well, I think portraying a message/point through a picture makes the message even more powerful than it originally was. Something I took away was the ability to better portray a message through a detailed drawing.  

In conclusion quarter two brought a lot of new perspectives into me life. Last year quarter I learned about time management and being precise. Whereas, this quarter I learned about not being perfect but doing the best you can do, drawing/creating exactly what is asked to be created, making due with the materials you have to make your art pieces, etc. Most significantly I learned how to tell a story and a meaning throughout the simplest and the most complex pieces of art.

For week one we did blind contour  drawings and it was kind of hard for me because I was so used to looking at the paper when I was drawing. Then I didn’t really understand that it was supposed to look messed up so I was throwing a lot of the really bad ones in the trash and starting over. For week three we had to color in our contour drawings and I forgot to submit my work so I was walking around with a zero for it but once I realized it I quickly submitted it.

On week 4 I had to paint, I chose to do perry the platypus  because he is my favorite character from a tv show that I watched when I was a kid, I had a lot of fun working on it because I had to mix the colors together to create the colors that I really wanted. Week 5 and 6 was my worst week this quarter because I tried to recreate the American flag but then I left my flag in my locker and since we had a lot of snow days I was not able to really work on it so I didn’t get a good grade on it, but I choose to do the American flag because it is a symbol itself but within it there are multiple symbols, I just find that to be really cool.

The assignment for week 7 and 8 turned out to be the best artwork I’ve done probably in my whole life, I chose to do Chief Keef who is one of my favorite rappers that are from Chicago. I feel like I did it perfectly. I got points off because for some reason it was turned sideways on the pdf but not on the normal google doc. Week 9 we had to edit a photo and add depth of field to it. To me it was a good way to end off the marking period. I chose to focus on a picture that said “Neither God” and it didn’t take my long to do that but the picture had to be 2 hours of work so I spent the rest of the time add special effects to it.

I would also like people to know that I don’t consider myself to be an artist but I honestly do feel way more confident about drawing since I joined Ms.Hull’s art class, I make sure just to try and have fun with it. For every single one of my pieces of art I never once said I couldn’t do it and I just tried my best.

In the second  quarter of my art class, we were giving 5 major assignments and these art pieces resulted in the finishing of blind finished contour drawings, creating my own art piece, remaking of a famous piece of art, illustrating from a piece of writing, and photo editing . During the process of this task to complete, my creativity was unleashed. From these assignments, I was able to truly have faith in myself as an artist and test my resourceful talent that has been hidden for so long.

My artwork is about the excitement of exploring with your eyes, mind and spirit the unique and the mysterious. The work that I create in Mrs. Hull’s room is created to have immediate impact and long lasting power, personally for me, atleast. My art pieces are very meaning for to me because its about  doing what I never thought I could do that I never thought I would actually had the time to do before. And from the process I completed in every class period, the paintings and art pieces had  engaged me  by their power of color, motion and imagery and  eventually moved me  into a sense of wondering and curiosity. Right then and there, I was beginning to be pulled in--to be involved in the process of discovering all the variety of shapes, the dark and light spaces in between them, how they're connected, float or seem to move fast across the paper. And to my surprise, I would return the next class period  to the painting and find new insights and associations with the imagery that I would then add to me  overall sense of experiencing the original beauty of the creative process. When completing I knew once placed in my room, that they would  energize it and me as well.

Looking past the obvious, close observation and engagement is major key during the process to making art work.  The challenge is to see beyond the distraction of  self- doubt and to just go with flow. Capture the  uniqueness within yourself and your work. The advice I have for others is enjoy your experience and don’t deprive yourself from greatness. Even if your spend an entire class period just pondering multiple ideas of what you want to create in your assignment, that's fine.  It may not seem like its progress, but let me tell you it is. The process of creation is in a constant state of decay and renewal. I say this because you won’t have anything unless you bring your artist side to life. Set it free to explore and be open minded to trying new things. Even if it may seem unusual.  My goal is to inspire those who to discover beauty in unusual places.

For this quarter I created from recreating a piece of artwork to photo editing. I recreated two types of flower, cherry blossom and a read morning glory flower. In the photo editing I used photos when I went to Venezuela. I got pictures of myself with the background with the sky on top of The Avila mountain in Caracas. I also have a picture of my uncles because they perform for the people, and tourist that go there. The important source is being observant of what you are trying to do because you can’t just do whatever. Well for my experience I need to be observant to recreate something or take a good picture. I used snapseed to edit my pictures, and it’s a very useful app because you can select points in the picture to make it better in that point you picked. Also my phone was a good tool because it has cropping pictures and adjusting brightness.

My preferences is editing pictures to submit a work if you need to take a picture because you can edit the brightness, contraction or anything else. The material I prefer is color pencils and markers because markers are great to mark lines and coloring in with color pencils. I did learn a new technique, using the projector to copy a drawing. It’s the best thing ever because you can be a skilled drawer or not and still us it  it’s so helpful. I didn’t use special tools this quarter but I learn about a eraser that is used to decrease or blend a drawing. The studio time was spent productive even if it wasn’t art, I would be doing work from another class after I was done my artwork.

My important thing happen was communicating with the teacher because if I was communicated with her I wouldn’t been marked late. I try my art pieces  to connect with me some way, the photo editing was about me and my country Venezuela and my uncles that have been there for me and trust. The artwork is from an anime I used to watch and my uncle has a cherry blossom flower tattooed on him so that inspired me. When I chose my own painting I wanted to do something from my childhood so I did Mickey Mouse and the gang when they were babies.

The unofficial but official board game known as “To the Death” is based on Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. There are a lot of references to the play as well as third-party references that aren’t.There are four playable characters in the play, them being Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, King Duncan, and Banquo. They all die in the end, but the objective of the game is to be the last one standing. All four characters have their own unique path to take around the game board, and the game will be finished by the first two players to enter the center of the board (the other two are just out). While in the Battle Zone, the two players fight with different kinds of cards they collected on their way to the center.

In our board game, there are three (motif) kinds of cards to select, the first type being the attack cards. They will be used once two players enter the Battle Zone, which is in the middle of the field. Every attack card represents a weapon, and weapons include Swords, Axes, Bows/Arrows, and Spears, which were all used in the 1500s, if not specifically in the Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. There are two one of a kind cards, one that says ‘Skin them from the Nave to the Chops’, which is a reference to Act 1, Scene 2 of the play. The other card is like the opposite, and it says ‘SUICIDE’ in big letters. This is a reference to Lady Macbeth’s demise in Act 5. It is exactly what it sounds like; whoever picks up the card has to use it right away, and once they do, they’re out the game.  

There are also some health cards in the game that increase players’ defense. Health cards include (but aren’t limited to) horses, wine, and Chain Armor. Chain Armor was worn by Macbeth and Malcolm during the final few scenes of the play, because of the war between Scotland and England. Horses were occasionally ridden in the film. There is no direct reference to wine in the play, but it’s been around since 1500 BC and has some health benefits to it as well. The last type of cards are called movement cards, which are used before two players enter the Battle Zone. The cards don’t just say ‘move x spaces forward’ or ‘move y spaces back’. There are references to major or minor situations from the actual play, like how Macbeth became mentally unstable etc. The cards also include certain motifs from the play like death and sleep.

Instructions:

Winning the Game

The winner will be whoever beats their opponent in the Battle Zone, after the first two players get there.  

Losing the game

There is more than one way to lose. The first way is picking up the SUICIDE card in the health card deck. You’ll have to use it instantly.

The second way is when someone uses the ‘Skin Them From the Nave to the Chops’ card on you in the Battle Zone. That card causes instant death on the one it was used on.

The third way is to lose the race to the Battle Zone, finishing in third or fourth. You then won’t play anymore.

Playing the game

1. Race to the Battle Zone

The game starts with all four players at the beginning of their labeled paths to the Battle Zone. Every character has their own path to follow, and they’re all designed differently. The players take turns picking up movement cards from the deck, following whatever the card says, and picking up attack and health cards on the way.  If you’ve picked up a card that says to move back when you’re at the start, then just put it at the bottom of the deck and pick up another one. The first player to enter the Battle Zone will have to wait for the second player, and the game will continue with those two players.

2. Battle in the Battle Zone

   The two remaining players use the attack and health cards they have collected to fight each other (if you have somehow managed not to take any card at all, just take five of both kinds of cards). Both start with 30 health, and every card says weather it reduces or increases it. Attack cards reduce your opponents health, while health cards increase your own, and also have a ‘tag’ in the corner that says ‘health’ so you’ll know which  ones are which. You can only choose one card to put down every turn, so choose wisely. If the card allows more than one use (it will say so in the bottom right corner if it does), then you can take it back after you put it down and it goes into effect. The game ends once someone’s health goes down to 0.  

Our Macbeth Creative Project was a playbill. Jakob and I decided on a playbill because we felt that we could operate most effectively with a project that had writing and visual aspects. We knew we wanted to have the most significant image in the play be our cover art, so we chose the crown. We also wanted to signify the violence in the play so we added a sword going through the crown with blood dripping off of it. We decided to create our own cover art because we wanted to have an original project.

An important part of our playbill is the color scheme. We decided to make the background red because of the bloody themes that are in Macbeth. The red also matches our cover art. We also thought that the linear style of coloring the background was very appealing and added a little variety.We also decided to do an act-by-act summary to inform the audience about the play they are about to watch.

We chose Kevin Hart to act Macbeth because we thought that he would be good actor for the hallucination scenes and would be somebody funny to watch when sad and going crazy. Chris Rock in our version is the Porter. This decision was made because the porter's role in the play is for comic relief. After a heavy death scene, Chris Rock is a funny person that could bring the audience back to relief with his funny humor and personality.