Project 1: Prismacolor Final

I'd never really thought about using colored pencils before doing this piece, and when we started the project I was honestly a little bit intimidated by the prospect. After making several practice sketches and blocking out the colors, I felt pretty confident in beginning. I started with the reflection of the chair and the bear in the pendulum, using lots of golds and oranges and yellows to give it a warm look (while leaving room for the chains in the background). The next step was to add in the chains. During previous sketches I had had difficulty in making the chains pop out from the paper and the background. Mrs. Rossi suggested using a blue to emphasize the shadows. I really liked how the blue not only made the chains pop from the warm yellowy-orange background, but also tied in the blue that was in the rocking chair to the rest of the picture. The chains were easily the most time consuming part and I did get a little bit frustrated with them, especially the smaller two chains on the left, but I am really happy with how they turned out. After I completed the chains, I put in dark values for the foreground and the wall in the background, mostly dark browns with little bits of whites and greens to add variation.

I had a great time with this project and definitely look forward to using colored pencils again. I really like the bold colors you can achieve with the Prismas and the great variations in texture that are possible as well. Another aspect of the Prismas that I really like is their ability to be layered. Not only does this enable you to achieve very rich and varied colors, but by layering the same or similar colors on top of each other throughout a piece,  you can really create a color scheme that ties the whole piece together.

Practice with oils

This was the first time I had ever used oils before. I really like acrylic paint and I have been wanting to try oils for a while but never had the opportunity. The first thing I noticed was how easy it is to make mud out of them - being used to acrylics, I am accustomed to the ability to paint one color on and then if I don't like how it looks, go back ten minutes later and change it to a color I like better. The slow-drying nature of oil paints doesn't allow for this, so I quickly realized I would have to be more strategic about my color placement and which order I painted the colors on in order to have bright and vibrant colors. The apple I painted second and solely with a palette knife. At first it felt really awkward, but I got used to it and I really like how the palette knife enables me to make very expressive strokes, which is easily my favorite quality about oil paints.

Representational Reflection Drawing Progress

As of the beginning of this week, this is my progress. I'm currently working on adding in the two additional chains on the far left of the picture and also their reflections in the pendulum. Then I plan on going back and working more dark colors into the background on the left hand side.

Representational Drawing Progress

Practice

Artist Statement

Art is so powerful because of its unique ability to alter the viewpoint from which one observes the world. I feel an artist is most successful when he/she communicates their view of the world so successfully that it causes others to take a step back and reevaluate their own.

The reason I find art so interesting is its ability to portray the world that we are all experiencing together through the special lenses that the artist uses to view the world, almost a behind-the-scenes of sorts. In my art, I endeavor to portray the world as I perceive it and to bring attention to the everyday occurrences that I find captivating. By focusing on what I found important per my view of the world I incorporate my likes and dislikes, preferences in composition and scenery, and in mood and atmosphere.  A "good" work of art is one that causes the viewer to reflect on the purpose of the artist's work or better yet reflect on how the artists interpretation of the subject matter compares with their own.