Blog Feed

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In quarter one, I created a variety of things, those things being: Fall wall painting, Self portrait, and Ceiling tile. Many of these projects consisted of; paper, pencils, paints blank canvases, pictures from online, and the imagination. My process of making these pieces was much more than just following the instructions and using the right materials. It was about drawing something that related to me, and meant something to me, while still following the directions. In addition that, if a picture did not have meaning, it was then part of my job to find meaning in that picture, and make it meaningful. Which included editing, and re-drawing.

Each project out of four in total, I learned from. The ceiling tile taught me perspective. How even though you see one thing, not everyone is going to see the same thing you do, but instead something totally knew. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing or a good thing, itś something we do naturally. The fall wall painting taught me, to not let myself down. For the fall wall hanging, I took one of the easier ways out, and did a quick 2hr drawing, and submitted it. Which was fine, but didn´t get me the grade I could have gotten because I took the easy way out. I told myself not to take the easy way out, and to the drawing last minute, but I ended up doing exactly that. The self portrait taught me, appreciate myself more. When drawing my self portrait I had to pay close attention to details on my face and clothes. At first I didn't like it at all, but soon I like it. I realized the things that I would call my ïmperfections” aren't imperfect, they are parts of who I am and they are perfectly me.

I feel that art is more about the youself within then what you see on the paper. It's about the process that counts, when you look at the picture you can't see the process that was gone through, you only see the finished product. The behind the scenes process, including influences is what produces the meaning of your art piece. Art can teach you many things about the art itself but most importantly it can teach you about the world around you, it can even teach about you. However art means different things for different people, honestly art is what you make of it.

In Quarter 1 of Senior Art, I created four pieces that showcase my abilities with different levels of art. In the process, I developed a level of comfortability with: watercolor, hand painting on untraditional materials, sketching, coloring, and expressing myself through art. Some of my most important sources of ideas for art come from cartoons and animation. I love the multiple styles, incorporating my take on them is fun. My preference in materials are those I can make make mistakes on, I’m a visual learner and find myself best grasping information through experience. I spend my time in the studio creating pieces that satisfy myself in the moment and display my emotions at a specific time. This quarter, I gained confidence in my art and learned to accept that my version of perfect isn’t always necessary. I’m my biggest critic and a perfectionist, (with my creations) during this quarter I realized that when trying to make things better they can get worse. I would like people to know that tons of effort and time go into every piece of art I create. I work until I’m happy with the finished product and put all my energy into making something that myself along with others can appreciate.