For my third quarter benchmark I choose to pick an artist and do a research paper based upon that person.  The artist that I choose is Andy Warhol. I picked this artist is because his artwork is bright with different colors and he combines more then one image within this drawings. Another style is that he will do a single color but make certain elements pop out using a different brighter color. I like his artwork because it so abstract and it seems as though he likes to captures younger audiences.

The history behind Andy Warhol is that he was an American painter, printmaker and filmmaker. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 6, 1928. Andy has four siblings and is the youngest of them all. His parents are from Slovakia and immigrated here after the death of Andy grandparents. When Andy was in third grade he was diagnosed with Chorea, which is a nervous system disease that makes his body twitch uncontrollable and also caused skin pigmentation blotchiness.

Andy was always bed-ridden which caused him to develop a fear of hospitals and doctors. He was an outcast at school so Andy always loved to be with this mother at her side. When he was confined to bed he would draw and collecting pictures of movie stars. This period in time was told to be the period where Andy developed his personality and his skill set.

A little information on his personal life, Andy is thought to be a homosexual and that influenced a lot of this work and shaped his relationship to the art world. Many of his movies were displayed in gay porn theaters drawing from gay underground cultures and openly expressing sexual desires. One of the first artwork he tried to submit to a gallery was a drawing of nude men but it was rejected because of it being “too gay”.

            Andy religious belief was that he was Catholic. He often volunteers in helping at homeless shelters. He likes to do it during the busier time of the years because he thought of himself as a religious person. While volunteering he start to develop more picture of religious theme. He would attend mass but did not do confession or take part in communion because the fear of being recognized. He was self-conscious of being seen in a Latin Rite church but always because he thought that it was a private thing that people did not need to be aware of to the community.

The Last Supper cycle (1986)

 

            In 1949, Andy was admitted into Carnegie Institute of Technology now it is known as Carnegie Mellow University. He studied commercial art at the School of Fine Arts. Then he moved to New York City and worked in magazine illustration and advertising.

 

Diamond dust shoes, 1980

Since, then he has traveled around the states and made different pop art drawing form different museums. In 1968, one of Andy Warhol was shoot by Valerie Solanas who was a screenplay write from some of the films that Andy was directing. The reason for her shooting is because she wanted to a script of her returned but Andy said he misplaced it. Andy suffers majorly from this attack because a lot of physical effects that he would for the rest of his life.

"Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there – I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. People sometimes say that the way things happen in movies is unreal, but actually it's the way things happen in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's like watching television – you don't feel anything. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it's all television."  -  Said after the shooting.

 

            Andy died a year later in 1987 on February 22 at 6:32 in the morning because of post-operative cardiac arrhythmia. His parents sued the hospital because they claim that improper care and water intoxication caused the death of Andy. His body was taken back to Pittsburgh for burial. He was buried next to his mother and father. 

self-portrait 1978

Andy Warhol’s drawings are not only different because of the abstract color scheme but because he captures them with a bold statement.  I like his painting because it takes a simple portrait of someone and makes it bold by adding a bold primary color like red or yellow. I feel like that he takes what he has been through and turns it into something inspiring that involves his religion, sexuality, experience and his life.

Overall Andy Warhol is not only a painter but a film maker and founder of The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts it was something that he put in his will that he wanted to accomplished for those who have a visual art skill and wanted to continue to achieve it.

A cool fact is that Andy Warhol painting Eight Elvises sold for $100 million in 1968. The highest to ever be priced.

When I first heard that we had assigned assignments for art I was a bit sad. I enjoyed figuring out what I wanted to do for the quarter because it always had meaning to me or my life. However, when I started these assignments, I found them pretty challenging. Partly because I feel as though I'm not that good of an artist but also because I was a bit intimidated by the people in my class who were doing the same artwork but with better skill.

Even still, I tried my best and completed the tasks at hand. The first one we started off with was the hand drawings. I don't know why but I really liked the outcome of my hands. I found them not really easy but enjoyable to do. The hardest part about them though was making sure the dimensions of the gaps between my fingers were right and also the length of my fingers as well.

Then we did our self portraits and I must say that I have mixed feelings about this one. I mean, I guess you could say that I like the outcome of my drawing but I just feel as though I look old. I found it really fun to do but it was really hard to hold a mirror and look at myself, and draw what I saw at the same time. Also, I ultimately hate drawing lips. I can't draw them at all so I was upset with that. 

The next thing we were supposed to do was draw a full life figure and I was that figure. My sister is in the Navy and they have to learn how to stand for long periods of time so she taught me the secret behind it...Secret haha...but I was happy that I could help people draw without moving...it didn't really hurt for standing that long or anything. I didn't even feel self conscience...it was just blank. 

Then we did a drawing of a still life drawing which was a landscape made up of a sheet, stands, vases, fruit, bottles, and even skulls. I found this drawing to be the hardest yet I don't really know why. Maybe because I had to draw it from the perspective of someone sitting in front of it rather than looking over top of it. This was weird to me because the lines of the table that the items were on weren't straight...they were curved and it was just alot to it. The hardest thing to draw would be between the sheet and the skull. since the skull had such a distinct shape to it, I didn't know how to make it look as though there was a "back" to it. The sheet was hard because it just had so many creases and curves in it. I don't know, I don't really like how mine came out, but I guess it's alright.  

Then after that we did drawings of things that were transparent like glasses, or a bottle, or a picture frame. I did a bottle which I thought was pretty easy to do. The shading was the tricky part because I didn't really know how to go about putting the detail into the specific areas. I also didn't like how my bottle came out a  bit crooked. 

I love charcoal drawings though because I feel as though it's bold and free. You can do anything with it and with a mark and a smudge, you can make things come to life. 

These are pictures of Spring. The first picture is a picture of an artist named Henry Serra, I believe that is how you spell his name. The reason I say that this picture is spring is because you just grab the feel from it. You see people sitting lake/river side just relaxing. Some in the shade others in the sun. I mean you can just feel the spring peace from it. The picture that I got are also Spring related. Like the first of my Grandmother's flower you can see it budding and trying to come out. The second is of her yellow flower bushes which are sprouting into season, just like the sun would after a long winter. The third is from the side of the school on Arch st. The cherry blossom trees I think, but you can see that they are blossoming. Just looking beautiful, these are what i think help represent this pic from Henry Serra.

This is a picture of my final product. I feel as though it could have been better but because I'm still getting use to the shading and the transparency of the vase i tried my best. I like that i added color to it so that people could tell what it was. I think i could have made my drawing more even with the shape of the vase. I did like this assignment because I was tried of drawing people and drawing items they never change verse drawing a person who can shift and change daily.
Overall I like this picture I drew,i think its one of my best.

Like many of the other projects done in my senior art class, this was my first time ever drawling a full body. The process was actually kind of fun. Everyone in the class drew her body from a different angle.

Considering I haven't established my own unique style, I approach this drawling by putting down in a way I think depicts reality normally. Drawling big seemed to be something I am better at doing. Especially when working with charcoal, getting to work with a big space seemed to be better for a beginner in art. Even more, outlining Kim's body was pretty easy. Drawling her face and creating the visual of the material of her clothes however, was not that easy. Again I practice "pushing and pulling" in this process.

All in all, it was a great experience to have taken part in. Practicing with a real life model is definitely something I would consider doing again.
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The still life drawings were just like the others just having to keep looking at the object. Then draw what you see not with your memory. But I didn't get why we had to draw see through still life's. They were easy to do the I think I did pretty okay. Then Alexis helped me with giving the drawing definitions to make mt last drawing look more defined.