Final Project

    For my final project, I wasn't sure what to do since there was no prompt. I decided to use the Photoshop knowledge I gained from my last semester project. Last semester I created circle pixels for my Cinnamon drawing and I decided to use the same process this time. The one difference for this project is that I used pictures instead of circles. The image of the earth is made up of pictures of my friends that I took last week. I created a square with all of the pictures and defined it as as a pattern. I then filled the image of the earth with the new pattern to create the effect.
    I wanted my piece to reflect diversity since the world we live in is extremely diverse. The idea of diversity is what lead me to used the pictures I did. I took all of the pictures except for the one of the earth, which is royalty free. I also decided to add a quote to the image to sum everything up. Overall, I am very satisfied with my project and am glad that I got to improve my Photoshop skills.

Final Pulp Covers

I am finally done with my Pulp Covers. I used Pixlr and Photoshop to add color to the sketches I posted last week. I have my two final product below. Usually Pulp Magazine covers are realistic paintings, but I wanted to put my own spin on it. I enjoy using editing software, so I didn't want to make realistic faces and bodies that would need minimal editing. Instead I tries to sketch vector images that I could scan in and edit.

My first piece depicts shush-kabobs with faces roasting a man over a fire. There is also a lady who is holding a fork (when scanning the in the image, the fork became blurry) that she intends to use as a weapon against the kabobs who are attacking her. I used different select tools to add color to the images and then I adjusted brightness and contrast. I tried to make the fire appear bright and the setting look like nighttime.

 This is the first step I took from the sketches I posted last week. All I did in this image is add color and numbers.

In the next step, I added a vignette and focused the light of the image on the middle. I added a slight blur in order to blend some of the lines and make the image look a little better. I also added the title in the bottom corner where it wouldn't detract from the image. I wanted the main focus to be the man in the middle and is shadow and then the title and details.

Lastly, I changed the some of the colors to create a darker and creepier effect. I did not add the effect to the title to keep it separate from the image.

Overall, I am pretty satisfied with my Pulp covers. If I had more time, I would probably fix some to the sketch lines on the image. Despite that, I think that my final products look better than I expected and am excited to share them.

Art Start

The experimental test of whether

this art is great or good, or minor 

or abysmal, is the effect it has on 

your own sense of the world and of 

yourself.

Great art changes you.

-Sister Wendy Beckett

    I believe that Sister Beckett is trying to convey that the only opinion that matters when judging a piece of art is your own. Art can have a profound effect on both the viewer and the artist, and the measure of the effect is what is used in determining whether the art is "abysmal" or "great."

Pulp Covers

I haven't been able to get much of my covers done this week because I have been sick and didn't have access to Photoshop. Although, I have been able to draw the covers that I can edit on Photoshop when I get to class next week. So far, I have drawn the images on paper and will add color graphically. The first image is supposed to be a man at a crime scene who is being attacked by a shadow.

My second cover depicts a man who is being roasted over a fire and a woman who is trying to save him. The figures on the sides are supposed to be shush-kabobs that are attacking the woman and roasting the man over the fire. I am going to use Photoshop to add color to the images and make them graphic next week. I will probably finish the covers by the end of next week.

Pop Art Project: Background

For the next part of my pop art project, I had to figure out how to piece together all of the separate images i made of the Rat Pack. Since I have 5 pictures, I decided to make the background a 5 point star. To do so, I cut 10 strips of red paper and glued them into a star. I then backed it with white paper and cut off the excess around the sides. I am planning to paint the white inside the star sometime this week and attach the individual pop art images.

Pulp Magazine Cover

This week I have started my sketches on the Pulp magazine covers. For my first cover I have drawn a man in a suit who is hancuffed to a briefcase. A common theme in Pulp covers is people in action, so I wanted my cover to reflect that. I plan on drawing the man's shadow attacking him next to add more suspense. After I finish this cover I am going to get started on the next one. I hope to be finished with the sketches by the beginning of next week.

Pop Art Project

This week I continued working on my pop art project. I completed the graphic pop art illustration on the other three members of the Rat Pack, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford. I used Photoshop to edit the pictures with different color schemes to make the images more vibrant. I also used black paper to frame the pictures in order to add contrast between the bright colors and the black. I am pretty satisfied so far with my project and look forward to continuing it!

Larger Anachronism Picture

This is the larger version of the Anachronism piece I posted a week ago.

Anachronism Project: Swipe Right for King Henry VIII

Anachronism is the idea of taking something from one point in time and combining it with something from another point in time, such as Abraham Lincoln in a Starbucks or an iPhone on a cave painting. I decided to take a humorous approach to my piece by creating a Tinder profile for King Henry VIII of England. Henry VIII is infamous for his six wives, two of whom he executed in order to marry other women. Tinder is a common dating app that was released in 2012 and gained popularity in 2014.

To create my piece, I first drew and painted a portrait of Henry. I had to repeat those steps a few times because I wasn't satisfied with my first images. I finally had to settle on the one I used above since I didn't want to waste anymore time. I then uploaded the image onto Photoshop and add a few effects and filters to make the portrait look impressionistic. Lastly, I used Adobe Illustrator and a reference Tinder profile from the internet to make the profile page. I added a section describing Henry in the very end to give the image some humor. Overall, I am very satisfied with this piece as a whole, but I feel that if I had more time I would be able to improve the portrait of Henry to make it resemble him more.

Also, the image above is one that I had to email to myself, so the size of the picture got smaller. When I get to school Monday I will replace the image above with the original and larger version.

Pop Art Project

This past week in my art class I was tasked with creating a pop art piece. I decided that I wanted to use photoshop and create the pop art graphically. I used the members of the Rat Pack as the celebrities for each of my pieces. To make them, I duplicated the photo and then used the pen tool to select areas. I then changed the colors to create a pop art effect. I have two of the pieces I made pictured here. One is of Frank Sinatra and the other is Sammy Davis Jr. I will make the pop art images of the other three members next.

Art Start Quote

"Artists who seek

perfection in everything

are those who cannot

attain it in anything."

-Eugene Delacroix

I believe that Delacroix is trying to say that when an artist seeks perfection, it it hard to get that perfection in the art because nothing can be perfect. Nothing is ever perfect because perfection depends on the person who sees it. Each person has a different perspective of art, so what one might see as perfect could be completely hideous to another.

Art Start Quote

"All of us must eventually do

what the matador does: go out

and face not only the bull, but

the crowd. It does the matador

little good, provides him little

satisfaction to make beautiful

passes alone in a moonlit pasture."

-Chuck Jones

In this quote, Jones is referring to the satisfaction someone gets when they are performing in front of a crowd. Since people depend and act on the opinions of others, performers need to have a crowd to show off their accomplishments and get feedback from the crowd in order to gain self-confidence. Also, if a performer were to perform by himself without a crowd, he/she would not get paid which would make his/her efforts pointless.

Jelly Bean Paintings

 

This is a recreation of Van Gogh's Starry Night. The twist with this piece is that it is made of Jelly Beans. I thought that it is really cool how someone was able to recreate the painting using pieces of candy and still keep the details. The image underneath is another recreation using Jelly Beans. It is a recreation of Jan Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring. The detail on the girl is incredible and I really appreciate how the artist accounted for the shading.

1001 Nights Fairy Tale

For the past two weeks I was tasked with creating an image based on a fairy tale. The image is also supposed to be inspired by the artist Camille Garcia Rose, who recreates fairy tales with a dark twist. The fairy tale I chose was 1001 Nights because I remember it being one of my favorite fairy tales when I was a child. I also remembered a Looney Tunes movie based on the fairy tale called 1001 Bunny Tales that I really liked and which helped me to decide on 1001 Nights. 1001 Nights is about a king who orders his assistant to find him a new wife and out of the fear that the wife may cheat on him, kills her the next day. This goes on for a few months until finally the assistant runs out of women. The assistant's daughter offers to be the next wife and on the wedding night she tells the king a story but leaves it on a cliff hanger. The king is too interested in how the story ends, so he does not kill her and waits the next night to hear the end of the story. The assistant's daughter finishes the story and starts a new one, but again she leaves it on cliff hanger. This continues for the next 1001 nights until finally the king accepts her as his new wife and they all live happily ever after.

I created my image by drawing with pencil first and then coloring with color pencil. I drew a genie lamp, a book, a knife, and an Arabic man since those are main elements of the story. I wanted to use cool colors in the background and then add red to contrast, which is something I noticed Rose did in her artwork and I liked. The red diamonds are not as bright as I wanted them, but I still liked the effect it gave the image. I added the names of the most famous stories told in 1001 Nights on the left and right sides (Ali Baba, Sinbad, and Aladdin). After making the piece, I took a photo of it and uploaded to Photoshop. I had to adjust the brightness and contrast so all of the details could be seen. I also had to fix the glare that appeared on the middle of the image because of the camera and lighting. Finally, I adjusted the colors to make them brighter and cropped/resized the image.

Art Start

"Clock strikes 12.

You have to hurry before everything changes. 

What do you leave behind?"

This quote is obviously inspired by the story Cinderella where the titular character, Cinderella, leaves behind her shoe in order to allow for her true love to find her again. If I were in a similar situation, I would most likely leave behind the bill because I am running since I am late. Also, I am in high school so I don't think I would have a so called "true love" and if my situation is the exact same as Cinderella's, I think I am smart enough not to fall in love with someone I just met an hour or two ago. Leaving the bill (a food bill or a valet charge) would be beneficial to me because I'd be saving money and if I really wanted to find him, I could by asking who payed the bill. On the other hand, if the guy is a prince I would probably stay because no matter what may happen at 12, I would probably become pretty rich by sticking around and that would be a win-win for both me and the guy.

Finished Assemblage Project

I have finally finished the assemblage piece that I have been working on for the past few weeks. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I wanted to create an image of the earth using recycled materials and I have done so by using plastic bags, magazines, and cardboard. After I "assembled" all of the recycled materials, I decided to add a quote to the ribbon part.

 The Assemblage project is supposed to reflect the idea of diversity, which is why I chose to depict the earth. I wanted the quote I put on the piece to reflect diversity also, which is why I chose a quote by Gandhi. The quote is "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Overall I am proud of this piece and am excited that I got the chance to learn a new art method.

Art Start Quote

"Imagination is the only

weapon in the war against

reality."

-Lewis Carroll

This is a quote from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I think that the quote, other than the obvious metaphor, is very literal. With the use of the metaphor, Carroll is trying to convey that imagination is necessary in order to deal with the harsh realities of life. He refers to imagination as the weapon and reality the war in order to express the idea that they are opposing ideas that struggle to coexist.

Assemblage Project

This is the next step in my assemblage piece. After gluing the newspaper for the continents, I painted them green. I thought the piece looked too plain and unfinished after that, so I decided to add the oceans. Since I had to use recycled materials for this project, I decided on using plastic grocery bags for the water. I also thought that the thin plastic would add texture to the piece that may mimic water. I tore pieces of the plastic and glued it on to the cardboard. Next, I began painting the plastic bag blue which I will try to finish soon.

Art Start Fairy Tales

"If you want your children to be intelligent,

read them fairy tales."

-Albert Einstein

     I think Einstein means to say that imagination is key to intelligence. Fairy tales are known to inspire imagination and creativity in children, and Einstein believes those characteristics are important in developing intelligence; thus, fairy tales should be read to children in order to increase their intelligence.

    

Valentines Day Cards

For this project, I made 8 Valentines Day cards. My cards either have puns or are pop culture references because I have always found those kinds of cards the most interesting and fun to receive. I didn't resize the images yet because I wanted to have a closer look at each card when editing them and when posting/viewing them on this blog.

Since I didn't have much time to make these cards, I recycled one of the pictures I made earlier in the year. I reused the bird in this card and added a pun.

When I was watching The Breakfast Club over the weekend, I got inspired for this card. I took a screenshot of the last scene where the song "Don't You Forget About Me" plays and made a reference to the song in the punchline.

For this card, I found a font similar to the Puma logo and then used the pen tool on Photoshop to trace the puma. I then added the pun to card.

I also recycled an old image for this card. I used a tree from the Invention illustration and added leaves to it. I also darkened the color of the tree and added the pun.

For this card, I used Photoshop to create the wifi symbol and then I added a pun. I also used the gradient feature to add the fading pink background.

 This card was one of the simplest ones I made. I drew an image of toilet paper and then traced it on Photoshop. I then added a background and text.

Queen is one of my favorite bands and I used lyrics from their famous song "Bohemian Rhapsody" for this card. I drew and painted an image of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, and then scanned the image onto my computer. I then added the text.

This is the last Valentines Card I made. I used Photoshop to make the shapes to create the periodic table. This image was somewhat time consuming because it was difficult to arrange the rectangles and fill in each one with separate text box.

Art Start Song

"It's a world of laughter, a world of tears

It's a world of hopes and a world of fears

There's so much that we share that it's time we're aware

It's a small world after all"

-from the Disney song "It's a Small World"

       This song is from the popular Disney ride It's a Small World, which is where it gets its name. The lyrics I have above express the idea that everyone is connected by everything we have in common, such as the emotions we experience.

Art Start Quote

"Sometimes I'm terrified of my heart; 

of its constant hunger for whatever it is it wants. 

The way it stops and starts."

-Edgar Allen Poe

       When I look at this quote literally, I don't understand how a heart can stop and start without the person dying, but I think that may play in to the metaphoric meaning of the quote. I think Poe is referring to his emotions and how they cannot be controlled. The uncontrollable emotions can make someone feel as if he/she is dying, and death also brings fear which is mentioned in the first line.

Art Start Quote

"Love of

Beauty is

Taste

The Creation

of Beauty

is Art"

-Ralph Waldo Emerson 

           To me, this quote is pretty straightforward. I think Emerson is saying that you have taste if you like pretty things, and when you make those pretty things, you make art. Of course, each person has their own idea of beauty, so the quote is general and applies to everyone.

Assemblage Project

In my art class this past week, I have been working on an assemblage project. Assemblage is the putting together of random objects to create art. In this piece, I am going to use recycled materials to create a picture of the world since the theme has to be diversity.

 

To make this piece, I first drew the continents and ribbon on a piece of cardboard and then cut it out. I then tore pieces of magazine paper to form the countries. Next, I painted the ribbon red. When I work on this project again, I plan on painting the continents green, but I am not sure what to do after that. I will post another picture of my piece next week when I have completed another portion of it.

Art Start Quote

"Love All,

Trust a Few,

Do Wrong to None."

-Shakespeare

To me, this quote by Shakespeare is meant to convey his idea of how relationships should be. By "Love All" I think he means that you shouldn't hate anyone despite what they might have done. By "Trust a Few," Shakespeare meant that you should reserve your trust for those who deserve it and the last line, "Do
Wrong to None," I think he meant to reiterate the first line by emphasizing that you should not act on hatred.

Sandman Cover

During the past few weeks, I was tasked with creating my own rendition of a cover for the popular comic book series Sandman by Neil Gaiman. I looked through some of the previous covers and found that all of them had a mysterious and dark theme, so I also wanted to depict that theme in my cover.

 

 I drew most of the smaller pictures on the cover and then edited them using Photoshop. I looked at online tutorials to learn how to do some Photoshop effects such as a page curl and old photo. After I uploaded all of the images and combined them, I thought that the cover looked too plain, so I added a kaleidoscope effect. In the end I also added a vignette effect to convey a darker mood.

Art Start

Today's art start is a street art piece by the artist Banksy. In the image the words "Follow your dreams" are crossed out in red by the words "cancelled." To me this image represents all of the dreams and ambitions of people that they did not achieve or were prevented from achieving. I think this piece is really meaningful and I really like it.

Art Start Quote

"Dreaming after all, is a form of planning"

-Gloria Steinem

To me this quote is another way of saying "follow your dreams." I think Steinem wanted to convey the idea that dreams can actually be achieved and that dreaming is a way of making that dream a reality.

Four Zentangles

A few months ago I posted a picture of a zentangle I made. These are four other zentangles I made last year as part of my art class. Zentangles are basically shapes that are filled in with random patterns. I used pencil, sharpies, and pen to make the zentangles above. I found that I like using a combination of sharpie and pencil over just pen. The zentangle on the left is made using only pen and the other three were made using pencil and sharpie.

Interesting Painting

 

 I came across this picture and immediately loved it. I think it is super cool how the person and the hand blend together and I appreciate how realistic the whole piece looks.

Nefarious Drawing

As I mentioned in last week's post, I have been working on illustrations to submit to a blog called Illustration Friday. This week's topic on the blog is Nefarious, which means evil. This is a drawing of mine that I edited on Photoshop and am going to submit to Illustration Friday.

Pen Art

 

 These two pieces were made using ballpoint pen. I thought that they were really amazing and realistic. I appreciate all the time and patience that went into creating both of these pieces.

 

Invention

Every week the website Illustration Friday posts a topic for the week and hundreds of artists come together to share their interpretation. Last week's theme was Invention and it immediately had me thinking of inventions of the past. I thought it would be fun to illustrate a caveman imagining toilet paper, so I started drawing a caveman and toilet paper. I made the tree on Illustrator and brought all of the images together on Photoshop. I usually touch up all of my drawings to make them look digital, but I did not have time to do so this week. I hope I will have more time to complete next week's piece!