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The last couple of months I have been taking photographs around the city. I have been walking around with my camera and capturing anything I see that I think is interesting to the eye.

This quarter I was able to get more practice in shading. There were some drawings that required a lot of patience and I think these were the hardest ones for me. The lessons helped increase my confidence with drawing pencils so I attempted some portraits. Overall I enjoyed practicing drawing in detail

This quarter, I drew things from both Drawspace lessons and did some other drawings as well. I like to focus more on realistic drawing, and I always need improvement. Enjoy!

This quarter, with Ms. Hull's consent, I strayed away from the normal 2-day a week curriculum. Instead, I focused on my individual skill when it came to drawing portraits. Portrait drawing has always been a struggle for me, so I thought that I should face my biggest struggle head on. Overall, although their was very few pieces, total, I spent 21 hours doing these drawings. 8 for the first drawing, 8 for the second, and 5 for the last. My biggest goal was to simply improve with each drawing that I did, which I do believe that I did. Enjoy!

This quarter I tried to focus on a little bit more physical art as opposed to design. I started off the quarter by spending a few weeks on a ceiling tile inspired by my previous sticker art squids and marine life. For christmas I got a NeoLucida as a gift (click link to learn more) A NeoLucida is a prism that you look through and it projects an object sitting in from of you onto your paper (sort-of). I've spent a lot of time futzing with the NeoLucida and don't have a lot to show for it, but once I figure out how to make things do right side up, I'm excited to do some more serious drawing with it. I've also been casually challenged with designing a chicken coop for small backyards in Philly (drawings above). And on a more serious note, designing a scarf that will be sold and put into production in the spring. I haven't stopped designing either, this quarter I designed Ms. Ramis Website (meenoorami.org)  and designed and layed out an entire 50 page magazine among re-designing my logo (for the first time since 5th grade) and my website. 

I really got into water colors this year, I am still trying my best the learn how to use them well, but this is what I did for Q2. I also made a tile of Louise from the FOX show bob's burgers, I feel like there is a little Louise in everyone that goes to SLA. She's a little edgy and speaks her mind, but is still I kid. As i was painting Louise I looked back to when I was younger I loved NICK, and really who didn't. Fairly Oddparent's was one of my favorite shows growing up, so I drew Cosmo from the show, the guy with the green hair. I remember when I was little I tried my little heart out trying to draw Sqiudward, from Sponge Bob. I was never real a fan of the show, I thought it was very dumb and had no morals to it at all. But I remember trying to draw him free hand it it was a mess, so now that I am sixteen I tried again free hand, no website helping me just drawing and I did it.       

This quarter what the most challenging. I can not shade well,so all of my pictures looked like shadows. i plan to work on my shading skills that next quartrer

This quarter we did a series of art activities and drawings. We learned new skills but we also used our old skill from the last quarter to enhance our drawings. These drawings range from crosshatching, shading to perspective as well. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1riqj_oPayD2hFeVrEGVKCzCu9obiADlX4vv_XPPlRqY/edit?usp=sharing

I didn't find this photo to be too challenging. For the most part, all I had to do was make sure everything blended together properly. Although this assignment wasn't much of a challenge, I really enjoyed it. 

I actually like drawing cats for some reason. They're my thing I suppose. To be honest I think I didn't do too bad on this one though I wish it was a bit more cartoonish. This didn't really take that long to draw.

I don't do great with dogs. They're the opposite of my cat thing. (lol) I don't like the detail i did at all and I couldn't get it right after a few tries so I kind of just let it flow out. This was the best I could do at the moment. I'm trying to see it in a better light, but I don't the light is helping at all.

This was an interesting nose thing. It didn't really have a face and it wasn't difficult to do as well. I was expecting it to be more relaxed then to be a GIANT nose. xD I guess we live and we learn.

This ball face thing wasn't hard either. Sometimes i think I get a little cocky with art and when the going gets tough, well I get going. I need to work on not to get intimidated as quickly as I do.

 It was a face symmetry! WOOT. More or less I think I have the hang of faces. Symmetry can still be a bit tricky but I can get past it. It was sort of cartoonish so it wasn't that hard to nail it. 

Hands, where it all started with me. Hands are MY THING. I'm a MASTER at hands. I drew them too much as a beginner. All I need is a real life picture or someone posing and it's done. Half the time I can just picture it in my brain, but that only works with some things.

 EYES! I love drawing eyes. You can make them into anything you want. They're the easy part of a face on anything. I've learned that from experience.

 Kim was a bit… stereotypical but yea. She wasn't difficult to draw at all. Just some circles in a way. I felt a bit uncomfortable drawing this but what's done is done. 

This dog… it was easier I guess than the other one. I still had some trouble with it. I think I need to practice more with dogs and their fur because those can be tiresome. 

The baby face. I didn't like drawing it at all. I think all my baby faces look demonic and scary. I'm not the best with people let alone a baby! >.< I was a bit sad that all the baby faces came out ugly.

THE OTHER BABY FACE. This one was uglier than the last. I can't draw babies. They aren't my thing. I don't think they ever will be. Give me an anime baby and I can put in some work. Give me a real baby, and you'll never talk to me again. 

 I don't agree with spiders, but this was pretty cool. I liked the shading part. Doing the highlights were also pretty neat-to. Gold star for a pretty awesome spider. 

This. I don't like blending in pencil so I can erase the outline of the real shape or drawing. Mines always look dumb and I just don't know why. I don't know what I need it for yet, but I got a feeling it's going to be a round for a minute. 

Just some different shades of pencils I guess. Darkest to lightest type. I don't really like doing this because it's boring. It also takes some time to get it the right shade. :/ Guess I should practice doing this more too. 

This dog nose was awesome! I can draw the nose, but the actual dog will never do. I don't get it. To each their own I suppose. 

This cartoon doggy was worth it. It was cute. Also it was simple and fast to draw. :3 Simple is the key, but it's not always the answer. 

THE LAST BABY FACE! This one was the worst of the worst. I really don't want to put this one up, but it has to be put up. I really don't enjoy this one but I guess I should study more with the whole structure of a baby… and it's face.

 I really need one of these model dolls. These are cool and they are so handy. They cost a bit though. This wasn't hard to do at all. It reminded me of anime for some reason. 

This lip was pretty cool as well. Though I don't think I did the shading right, I like the effort I put into it. I think this was the best lip I ever drew close to a real person's lip. 

The same thing with the dog eye as I said with the dog nose. I can draw the facial of a dog right but i can't draw the dog. Tis sad. I thought the eye looked nice. I honestly have a thing for drawing eyes.

 Now this took some time. This is one of my best realistic eyes I've ever done. I couldn't believe I drew it after I was done and I looked at it fully. I was proud of myself for achieving something so great!

This creature looked weird. I didn't really know what it was but it reminded my of thing from the Adams Family. I mean it's not like I hated drawing this, it was quite easy. I guess I was sort of bored drawing this in the end. 

Drawing detailed fur is pretty hard. You have to do a lot of unknown shading to make it look "live". I thought it was interesting for them to give me a spotted fur but I tried to work with it. I thought this was pretty intermediate for the most part to get the hang of. 

Another fur drawing. I'm not amazing with them but I try to do the best I can with them. Zebra stripes were the next step and I would give myself a 75 if it was a grade. It's something about fur I can't really grasp for some reason. It's only real life fur too. 

Feathers are so elegant and TIME CONSUMING! They look easy and simple, but a lot of work has to go into each and every single feather. I like the look of them, but drawing them is a lot of work. I wish it was a quicker way to draw them, but you just gotta force your way through it with feathers/wings.

BA-ba black sheep have you any wool? xD It was a sheep I had to draw and it wasn't hard. They brought back some lesson that were learned earlier in the first few lessons of a-f. I had to do the squirkles if I'm not mistaken which is always quick and easy to do. It also gives off this cool feel when you do it right. 

"I'm a snake!" Drawing a cartoon snake. Not bad if I do say so myself. It was really easy; cartoons are always easy. All I had to do was add some hatching lines to give it a shadow and bam! The snake was complete. No harm, no foul. 

SHADING! Blending isn't my favorite thing to do nor is it the easiest when it comes to big pictures but I tried to work with this to the best of my abilities. You have to make all the shading stuff and then blend it in and at times it gets messy if you don't have the right type of material. It came out pretty well but I'm not that happy with it.

 It was a pot. Or maybe it was a vase? Whatever it was, I drew it with ease and I had no trouble with it what so ever. It was simple and plane. I was actually expecting something more difficult.

A lady's face. Not the whole face but part of it. This was a bit easy because I drew it like a cartoon and it wasn't that deep. I think I messed up with the detailed hatching for it. Though I think this, I also think it looks cool like this instead of the real thing. 

The bird wasn't hard at all. I liked this one it was relaxing and it was cute. Little animals are always nice to draw. I don't know how I really felt about this but it was nice to draw. It had no shading to really do so that was a plus for me. 

Remember when I said I was expecting something more difficult? Well here it is. This cat took about half and hour to an hour and I am satisfied with my work. For once, this cat looks as real as day! Though compared to online, mines doesn't look like a photo. I'm surprised myself I could pull of something like this and I'm proud of myself a bit to be honest. 

POINT OF VIEW! I love doing boxes in different points of views. They are the easiest to do and they are quick and simple! :3 They actually are the building block for drawing. It's always nice to go back and remember where things all started.

Another point of view but this time for a 3-D type of point of view. I thought it as boring. It was just an eclipse to be honest which took 15 seconds to even do. Sometimes I do like to draw more than just a circle. 

 A cylinder. We're getting there. (lol) It's better than an eclipse I guess. Still not that exciting to do but what are you going to do about it? I didn't really feel anything towards this, I just drew it to finish it.

A 3-D box with hatching to let you know what side the light is coming in at. Pretty relevant for a lot of reason to me.  Lighting is always a problem and at time I don't know where to put the shading and how much. So, this kinda helped me gather my confusion. 

Boxes again from 2 separate sides of the the paper. Meaning in short, two different view points. Nothing really big, you just need to know where things are coming from and how they are suppose to look when coming from that direction. 

HATCHING/SHADING. This was calming. Took some time though but it wasn't that bad. Going from light to dark I always worry I won't have to same shading the one online has. Though in the long run they never really turn out that bad so I'm content with this shading. 

Some more hatching. I have to apply my skills to different shading to make the picture look like an object. Kind of difficult for the most part but I got through it. It wasn't the funnest, but it wash;t that bad either. 

Different shades of hatching in 10 different boxes. Not that bad, though the box process surprisingly was a bit time consuming. Sounds strange for that to be the case but again, nothing too bad or out of my reach. 

A fur leg. I didn't do as well I wanted to which kind of made me feel a bit disappointed in myself. But I just have to pick myself up and try again. One day things will work out and I won't have as many problems as I do now. 

Remember when I said feathers were time consuming? WELL TRY DRAWING A WHOLE WING! Now that was my life. In the end I like the finish product but getting there had to be about an hour. That's not cool. When I start to draw, I have to finish it that day or it'll may look messed up in one way or another. 

This duck. (lol) It's not a duck. It was a swan and for the first few minutes, I was calling it a duck. xD Drawing the swan wasn't hard and adding the detail wasn't either. Though I say it wasn't hard, it does't mean it didn't take some time. Swans are deceiving in a way. xD I learned the hard way.

BLOG:My name is Julian Makarechi, and I am a junior at Science Leadership Academy. This quarter I have decided to further my art knowledge by taking Ms. Hull's advanced art class for the second year in a row. In her class I am given the freedom to chose all my projects. So, I decided to create three major pieces. Each piece of art has multiple steps. The first piece I did was too create four collages. My first piece consisted of four artistic and unique collages made on keynote. The second piece I did was four different sketches of a character. I decided to use Stewie from Family Guy. First I sketched him out with pencil, then with a sharpie, then with colored pencils and finally with both sharpies and colored pencils. For my third I decided to recreate another character because it was so much fun. I did the same process for Stewie, but just with Hello Kitty.

Here is the link to all my pieces of art:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/108049564@N05/sets/72157640266071245/

Ingrediants:

 

• Oil
• Sofrito (Homemade Spanish Seasoning)
• Sazon
• Tomato Sauce
• Adobo
• Chicken Bouillon
• Gondules (Pigeon Peas)
• Rice

 

Steps:

1. Add oil to rice pot
2. Add sofrito and tomato sauce
3. Add adobo, saxon and Chicken Bouillion
4. Add gondules
5. Add 2 & 1/2 cups of hot water to rice pot
6. Bring to a boil
7. Put rice in water for about 5 minutes in separate bowl
8. Add rice to boiling water
9. Leave uncovered until rice absorbs the water
10. Then stir rice making it into a small hill
11. Lower fire to medium let cook stirring every half hour
12. Should be done within 45 minutes :)

 

Analysis: 

Estimated there isn't a lot of calories that go on in this type of meal. it is a even amount that is good for the human but is also healthy in some ways because the ingredients are made naturally not so much with chemical machines. The body will deal with it in a well way. Becoming full quickly but still enjoying the delicious taste that it consists of. Some possible things that might occur is like blood pressure or even diabetes. 

The ingredients come from a urban country in which the spanish heritage takes place at the most. Such as puerto rico, mexico & Dominican republic. The farthest one that traveled was probably the one that came from the islands because of the fact they go over seas and with ships. It is originally grown from like crops and stuff and even some of the ingredients consist of it being made at home, not so much in the stores. 

This meal doesn't cost fairly much to make once the materials are found and priced. It is a little cheaper but not as cheap as fast food. Healthier of course than fast food. Some businesses that are involved is GOYA in which they are able to provide spices and tastes from the islands and urban areas in order to give the costumers the power to make a food with a delicious spice or flavor.

Reflection:

I learned about certain things that i knew a little bit about but i was able to extend my knowledge on it. I learned a lot bout the body functions and how the body develops during the beginning stages compared to the adulthood. In the beginning stages the child is able to have all of these neurons that help it engage in different things to learn and keep in mind. It is said to be that you tend to learn more when you are in the younger stages of life compared to when you get older.

Aside from the body and the evolution of the human race we learned a lot from the foods and how it is made and what it consists of. In the United States we tend to buy a lot of corn that is why most of our ingredients in our food and materials consist of. I also learned that just because you have a higher paying job does not mean you are the one with the better health. I always thought that if you had a high paying job and money to eat the healthy things you were healthier than the ones with low income. I was proven wrong because that is not entirely true.

In our food system i see me as a human which means that i am able to eat things but not all things. Corn will be a prime example of it because we are unable to digest it. If we was able to change the fact that we can eat corn then it would mean that we might be able to get the vitamins and minerals that we need in order to be healthier than what we are now. If i was able to make changes then i probably will. I think it would be cool to see if we were able to have the certain aspects and things that we don’t normally have.

This quarter there was a new option added which was 101 Sketchbook Ideas

This quarter I decided to make paintings.