Stuck Together Like Glue (Still Life Project)

Shine On (Windows and Doors Project)

Don't Look Back (Hero's Project)

What if Oil Spills existed in Every Body of Water?

End of Term Reflection

PART 2:

1. How has this term gone for you?

• This term has been a long bumpy road for me. I started this term as one of the least experienced artists in the classroom and feeling frustrated after every piece of art I finished. It was similar to having road rage on a highway with heavy traffic and moving at a slow pace. However, after time progressed, the road I was traveling on got smoother and the traffic began to flow better. My road rage disappeared and I kept moving forward. All through this term I kept on moving forward and did not stop moving!

2. What have you learned?

• As an individual and as an artist, I learned key lessons not only that I could use in the art room, but also in the outside world. Patience. One of the important messages of life is to always have patience in any situation you are in. I remember one time in art class, we were standing up and had to draw our classmates in the type of posture they were in and count how many pencil lengths they were. After the first one, I looked around the room and compared my piece of art to my classmates. Anxiety took over my mind and I was completely stressed out over what I just created. This often happened a lot when I was assigned a project; like when thinking about a topic I wanted to draw or making a mistake and not being able to fix it. I never realized how much patience art includes, but I was lucky enough to utilize it in a relaxed environment.

3. How have you grown as an artist?

• As an artist, I have grown a tremendous a lot. Even though, I did have the opportunity to take an art class last year, I did not have the same amount of challenge as I did this year. I now understand the rational behind time management and how important it is for an artist. When an artist is assigned a group of projects at once, it is important to make a schedule in your mind to know a certain amount of time you need to finish each project before the due date. Also, I have now become a more detailed artist. Before, when I created my own projects some of my artworks were very simple and unoriginal. However, now I am able to collaborate different pictures together and make it my own art piece, and incorporate previous lessons that we have learned in the past.

4. What do you think your biggest successes have been so far?

• My biggest successes so far in Intermediate Drawing and Painting is my last project, the heros project. I was able to include a hero that I learned this year in my English class, Harriet Jacobs (a fugitive slave). In this particular project, I was able to include most of every thing that I have learned in my past art classes. Some of these incorporate, different types of shading, proportion, and emphasis. Even though I did use shading in this project, I also used it a lot in many of my other projects. Every time I used shading I improved more and more, and eventually was able to show specific detail within each of my shades.

5. What have been your biggest challenges?

• After looking back at my art term, I would have to say my biggest challenges this term was any project or assignment that dealt with paint. I started off having a difficult time on how to hold the brush correctly in order to have fluent brush strokes. Whenever I put my brush on the paper, the paint would come off very dry and coarse, which would lead me to constantly having to soak my brush and get more paint. However, I eventually learned that you should always hold the tip of your brush and also if you use more water the paint will come out smoother. In addition, when painting I had a hard time mixing the correct colors in order find the exact color I was searching for. I need to be more careful when combining certain colors together, depending on if it is a light or dark color I am looking to make.

6. If you could, what advice would you give to yourself about the class at the start of the term?

• If I could give myself any advice about the class at the start of the term is that frustration and agitation will get you no where. In my previous experiences (like I said before), I got frustrated very easily over my drawings which I thought did not exceed my expectations. The more a student gets a filled with anxiety, the worse they will succeed in the class. Like me, I may not have been the best artist in the class, but my lack of artistic skills did not get the best of me. I was not scared to question Mrs. Roberts of any advice or criticism that she had on my portraits and I carefully listened to the critical feedback she supplied for me.

7. Looking ahead, what do you need to consider and/or work on to continue to grow as an artist?

• As an artist, I think I just need to keep on practicing in order to grow as an artist. Now since this term has ended I realized that I made a drastic improvement from the beginning of the term to the end and I do not want to lose that focus and determination. I want to thrive as an artist and not turn into the same person as I started as the beginning of the term. Whenever I have a chance now, I will grab a blank sheet of paper and just draw what I see and add some of the previous skills I learned this term in art class!

PART 3:

As a student in Intermediate Drawing and Painting, I am honored I had the opportunity to be put in an environment that made art exciting every day in the classroom. One word that wraps up my journey all through the beginning to the end of the term is challenge. I got put into a classroom with other students who had way more artistic skill than me and I did not even know it. However, I was no where near considered the "outcast" of the group; I was considered the "backbone" of the group. These students were able to push me and give me the drive I never thought I had in me. They may never thought they pushed me like they did, but when I looked around the classroom at all the amazing portraits, I thought to myself, "Why can't I do that?" I was never afraid to hear the superb advice or criticism Mrs. Roberts offered to give me and I never rejected her ideas. Nevertheless, that one question I asked to myself was answered one day. On the heros project, I incorporated different aspects of shading, proportion, and emphasis in my drawing. When I finished the assignment, I lifted my paper up and never felt so proud of myself in an art class before.

Heroism Project

For my Heroes Project, I am going to draw Harriet Jacobs, a person who was able to successfully escape slavery. The concept behind my drawing is going to be able to try to prove to people of why and how Jacobs is a hero. The way I am going to do this is that I am going to draw a person (in particular Harriet Jacobs) running down a long pathway, in order to symbolize the long journey she had to overcome. While running, Jacobs face will be turned over her shoulder, with a blank expression to show how dramatic her experience was. Behind her will be a long, broken chain to represent that she was able to escape the horrible nightmare of slavery. Lastly, in front of the long road will be two roads that diverge into two different pathways, and on one of the roads there will be an exit sign that will say "Exit Freedom". Beyond the exit sign will be New York (which was one of the city's back then that was considered a Free State). The landscape on the side of the road will change from a rural scenery to a urban environment.

Still Life Project Blog Post

In my Still Life, I will be using four objects that will relate to my family. The objects are duck tape, a glue stick, an eraser, and a pencil. Even though these objects do seem very simple, they do have a lot of meaning to them. The duck tape will connect to my father, who is the person in my family who we can trust that will never let us down and who we can always rely on. When using tape in other circumstances, people always trust that it is the source that can hold other things together, and that is exactly what my father has the ability to do. In addition, the glue stick that I will be using in the project associates with my mother. The meaning between the tape and the glue stick is pretty similar but also kind of different. My mother is the individual in the family who "sticks" us back together when we are having insane arguments or if one another is angry at each other. When using a glue stick, people tend to use it when something falls apart and its suppose to stick it back together. That is exactly what my mother does and she does it very successfully. Next, the eraser represents my sister. When ever I make a mistake, my sister is always the one to fix my fault. An eraser is meant to fix some ones faults on paper and they eventually go away. When ever my sister fixes my faults, I learn from my mistakes and am fortunate I am able to have her as my "eraser." Lastly, I am suppose to symbolize the pencil. Due to the fact I am taller than every other object in the Still Life, it represents attention which I enjoy very much in my family.

Windows and Doors

My concept of this project is having a girl in the corner of an empty dark room, but with a window in the other corner portraying a little bit of lights. This particular drawing is suppose to portray the meaning of loneliness and hope. The girl sitting in the corner of a dark, scary room with the blank walls surrounding here, describes the girls loneliness. However, the addition with he window in the opposite corner, along with the small amount of light coming into the dark room, describes that there is still hope for the girl and presents a message for other people as well.

Hamlett Dobbins

After looking at Hamlett Dobbins artwork, this piece of artwork caught my eye immediately. You could tell Dobbins used very tiny brush strokes, in order to make a circular figure, as if it goes on forever. This particular painting amazes me because it reminded me of a spinning wheel that does not stop. However I was very confused of the two larger images on the painting and what he was trying to portray. This artwork looks completely real and I now notice the time and effort it takes to be an artist.

I have two questions for Hamlett Dobbins:

1. In this specific painting, what is the significance of the two large images in the center of the painting?
2. When I was looking at your collaborative work, I noticed a lot of swear words on many of the pieces. What did they represent or why were they included in many pieces of your work?

Blindfold Drawings

While I was using the blindfold when I was drawing, I felt very lost. I never had the experience of drawing a piece of artwork, without even seeing it. When my pencil first touched the paper, I did not know where I was and even what I was drawing. Even though the blindfold was affecting me of seeing the paper, it also was making it difficult me to express my thoughts onto the paper. It was difficult for me not seeing the image of what I was drawing, and only imagining the picture in my head. However, the blindfold did help me lessen the stress of when I draw. Usually when I draw reguarly, I am too worried about perfecting my work and making sure each little object is exactly how I want it. Yet, with the blindfold I was able to just draw, without having anxiety of the placement or how good each image looked on the paper. When I took the blindfold off, I knew the outcome was not going to be very good, with many scribbles all over the page and disfunctional objects. I had the opportunity to fix my drawing and improve my work of art of what I wanted it to be in the first place.