Self portrait???

I chose this picture to use for my self portrait because I felt like it shows a lot of complicated details of the face, and the idea was very creative and my kind of style. 

I first practiced this on a regular piece of paper, planning my paint colors and getting used to how I'm going to approach this painting. I made the eye on the left open so I could use that detail and make it have more emotion.

[Picture will be inserted, once I get it]

At first I was really excited to do this painting, but I slowly started to hate it more and more. I started off painting my skin, a nice light color and, like my last painting, I had made it too dark. I keep painting over the skin trying to lighten it up, but then I would make it darker again to try to show contrast. My main problem with this painting was over-blending. Once I stopped with the skin, after two weeks, I started doing the hair. I gave myself purple hair because I thought it would be a good color contrast to the blue wall and my warm skin. I had never painted hair before with acrylic, so I gave myself a bowl cut by accident, and I had a hard time trying to lighten it up because once again, I over-blended. I took this project home over the weekend to finish it, and that's when everything went downhill. I couldn't get the eye color right and when I added eyelashes I knew this painting would be the worst thing I had ever done. I had made myself look like a drag queen and I didn't know how to fix it. I finished this painting off extremely rushed out of frustration and because of this painting I have realized that I am a drawer, not a painter. I feel like this painting has helped me learn what I should stay away from, even though it kind of hurt to know I made something so ugly.

Finger Painting

 I first made this painting by accident in my sketchbook, and ended up really liking how it turned out.At first I had poorly drawn a hand over the summer and gave up on it, then I got bored and played with some paint and fixed up the hand and ended up making this piece. I really liked the colors and how it ended up, so I decided to put it on canvas.

This is the final version on canvas, I like the original sketch better. I used acrylic paint and I still did not have a lot of practice with it. I feel like if I used a different technique and lighter colors then the background would look much better. I had a big problem with the hand. I would constantly make it darker and darker to add more contrast, but then the hand just turned completely grey and it started to be less of a focal point. I feel like if I stuck more to the original sketch and didn't change so many things about it, I would have liked this piece a bit more.I don't really have a favorite part of this piece, but I feel like this was good practice for me.

Artist Statement

I first started drawing when I was younger. My mom had always done arts and crafts at home and I would always want to join in to help. I never drew for myself when I was younger, I always drew for other people and would watch how they reacted. I feel like my art style today is based on that. I enjoy drawing creepy and outrageous things to see how my viewers react. To me, art is to make people think, make them wonder how and why the artist creates such things. I do art to make people think, I want to one day be that artist that can surprise people and cause them to have conflict on what is going on, but for now I will just be drawing disturbing and chilling art.

Interior Space

Here is the final product of my interior space piece. I used watercolors and pen. I really enjoyed painting and sketching this because it was a piece I've been wanting to do for a while. I like to draw creatures like this because I feel like it really defines what my art is about. During the process of making this, I had trouble drawing contour lines with pen. My favorite part of this piece is the whole mouth. With this part, I got to use a lot of different colors and really show my techniques. Watercolor is one of my favorite mediums because it makes really interesting patterns and colors depending upon how you use it.

pizzaaaaa

I'm not a fan of oil paints. I had a really hard time with the difference in the colors. I chose to paint pizza, because I thought painting food would be fun. I was wrong. This project was frustrating an rather upsetting due to the fact I couldn't get the cheese color right, and my dad thought the sauce was pepperoni. I feel like if I were more wise with my technique and a bit more patient, this piece would actually look like pizza. I don't like oil paints, I don't have enough patience with oil paints. 

Prismacolor

This is the original idea of my prismacolor reflection piece. I decided to take a photo like this because it shows my spine and ribcage. I find this photo really interesting and challenging to draw with colored pencils.

Here is the "finished" product of my prismacolor piece. I had many difficulties doing this, and while drawing I realized that prismacolor is not my cup of tea. At first I really enjoyed this project and had at lot of excitement doing it, but as I got farther within the drawing I had trouble with the paper ripping, causing me to rush. I wish I could have finished this drawing, but the more difficulties I had the less motivation I had to do it. I'll eventually finish this piece, but for now it will remain how it is. I enjoyed the colors I got to use with the prismacolors, in the skin I would use different shades of tans and greens and pinks to make myself look more sickly. My hair was my favorite part to draw, and since it was black, I could use whatever color I wanted to.

Oily Fruits

My first attempt at oils was with an orange. I really enjoyed using different colors for this and showing the texture of the orange. At first I had trouble trying to paint with oils because I either found it too thick or too watery, but once I got more comfortable with it I was able to paint a better orange.

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My next piece was painting an apple with a pallet knife. I had a hard time using a plastic pallet knife for this and I feel like if I worked on this more I would have made it look better and more realistic. 

Mixed Medias

Like always, this project was rushed, but I liked how it turned out. At first I was not excited at all to do this, I had no inspiration and nothing seemed to be working. After taking a day off (goofing around and not doing my work) I decided to use my strongest mediums and to go on from there. I really like the idea of fantasies and fairies, so I started off by drawing something I've drawn since I was 10. I added some buttons and flowers, put some cut outs in the hair and now I have this mess of random objects and horrible value. What took me the longest on this piece was the hair. I had to constantly draw lines and add value to show where the items were coming out of, and it made me confused a lot. I didn't like this project until the very end, when I said "screw it" and just slapped on a bunch of paint in a rainbow pattern 5 minutes before class ended. It was extremely rushed but it ended up being one of my favorite pieces. I think if I took my time on this it would have been my best piece so far.

Sticky Situation

This is my "Sticky Situation" painting. Like most of my artwork, it is rushed and somewhat incomplete. This painting was a learning process, but I learned that acrylic isn't that scary, and I'll definitely use it in the future. I really liked the concept of the drawing, its more me and it's something I've been wanting to do for a while. Due to so many little mistakes, I think I'll try to do this painting again later on when I'm more skilled in acrylic paints. My favorite part about this painting is my monster, I constantly draw weird creatures like this one and I'm happy I had the chance to put it into a project of mine. 

I don't like how I rushed this painting. Like most of my work, I get distracted and before I know it I have one day left to finish a painting. I like the feeling of being rushed but I hate how it ends up.

I learned a lot of new techniques while painting. I learned how to use value with paint and how to add textures. This project was really just a learning process and I can't wait to do more in the future.

Up Close and Personal

For this project I had to draw something "up close and person" with pencil, chalk, or oil pastels. My two choices were a worm on an apple, and a close up of a cats face. At first, I wanted to make the worm and the apple my final, but something inside me lead me to the cat's face.

For this drawing I decided on color pencil, trying to get the detail of the hairs with chalk or oil pastel seemed horrifying to me.

 I didn't want to use the regular colors of the cat, that would be too boring. I chose to use cooler colors and pinks, I thought that would allow me to use more detail with more color options.

Making everything symmetrical was difficult for me, I cheated and used tracing paper. I enjoyed using pencil for this, I'm happy I could make the eyes look so smooth and have plenty of contrast. I started working on the fur that is around the facial features first, to help me know which way the hair should go.

I had a difficult time with connecting the fur on the edges to the fur around the nose and eyes. The stripes looked a bit awkward at first too. 

When I was finally finished with the face I started to work on the body. At the end of my work, my cat started to have more human features, which made me have a hard time liking it. I wish I would've taken more time on this and used prisma colors instead (I forgot they existed for the first 2 days of sketching). 

Overall I'm not too happy with my work, I've done better, but now I know how to improve. 

Sweets and Diet Dr. Pepper

Lollipop ft. my feet. I enjoyed this sketch the most, my biggest difficulty was the wrapper. I had a hard time trying to show the creases. 

I don't like oil pastels. This is probably my worst work. I had a hard time with the shape of the can, and blending the colors together.

The candy was different, but fun. I prefer this over the can. I kept over-blending, and my edges weren't as bold as they should have been.

Scientific

When I first heard about this project I was pretty excited. Out of all of my ideas I chose "handmade human" and "The crazy scientist". For this project I wanted to challenge myself, I always draw the most common poses, so I decided to choose something that was a bit more difficult to draw.

 

For the handmade human idea, I wanted to create something disturbing yet beautiful. My main inspiration was Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I really liked the idea of having stitches on a human girl, and making it to look like shes been operated on plenty of times. I chose a few different positions, but I had a hard time choosing one.

I always thought of a crazy scientist as exaggerated and dirty, making bizarre creations and horrifying experiments. I wasn't really into the whole idea of drawing an old mad man, so I didn't care much for the "crazy scientist". 

I chose the handmade human. I've always been interesting to the more disturbing side of things. I chose to do this drawing in pen because I needed to get more practice with ink. The hair was spot on, but the shading in other places didn't blend well. I started to get messy and would constantly drawing lines in the wrong direction. The lessons we learned on contour lines really taught me how to control my lines and make a smooth blend. The proportions weren't quite right so I had a hard time with the hands and spine. 

For the final I was more patient. I took my time and created smoother lines. I changed the size of the head so it was more proportional, and the shape of the face. The lines are still a bit rough, but it looks a lot smoother and there's so much more value now. The only problem I had with this drawing is the back, it's not proportional and after attempting this pose, no arm could be that straight while slouching. I really like how this turned out though, I like the grotesque parts, such as the open spine and nudity. I didn't want this photo to end up cute and pretty, I wanted it to be dark and sickly, and I think I achieved that goal. The pen was difficult, but I would do this rather than pencil or charcoal, I find those to be too easy. I chose this "stringy" border because I think it matches the theme of my drawing. Overall this drawing is not my best work, but I'm very proud of myself for being able to make something so different from the others.