AR-135 Artsy Drawings & Journals

#11 Journal/Reflection Relief Printmaking

The assignment was for us to create a print through a Lino block where we were to carve whatever image we desired, but specifically no words were to be on the block. I decided to do an outline of a cross with rosary beads around it. I began to trace the image that I got an idea the design through the internet. After I completed drawing my cross image onto the tracing paper, I had to then trace it onto the Lino block with my charcoal paper right under the tracing paper, that way the image will trace on the block with the charcoal.

            I began to carve with my Speed ball Lino Cutter. With all the lines, I usually just stuck to the number one cutter which was the smallest one. I continued to carve but I honestly got confused with the white and black spaces. With the help from Mr. Wonenberg, I got a better understanding of which one to cut and which ones to leave alone. I focused on the outline of the cross and continued to charge the rosary beads. I did a black and white type, so there were some beads that I cut and some was untouched. It was actually different to cut the rosary beads because they were quite small. But I tried to complete it as good as I could.

Carving my Lino block was my most difficult part to this assignment. The easy part was adding on my black print ink to the wood and also being able to make the image show onto our sketch pad paper. With the print that came out to be my artist proof print, the ink was not enough so the image was not so bold. Over and over, I pressed and printed and finally the image of my cross began to appear. I think I have over 10 prints before I was satisfied with my final one. Overall, I really enjoy printing. If I could go back, I think I would have changed my image into someone more detailed.

#10 Journal/Reflection Relief Sculpture Features of the Face
With my mask, I tried to make sure that I documented the changes of expressions every time I worked on the surface. I did not really change up my mask. I just added on a swirl of lines under the other part of the eye. I decided just to add on some stuff a little later because I wasn’t too sure if I was able to find materials according to one drawing that I really liked in the blue print that I knew of my masks and its different styles. I am honestly not quite done yet with my mask but here is my working process with its blue print from the picture above. I added on the eye balls as well. I was actually thinking about using mar balls for the eyes but I could not find any lying around my house. In class, we were taught to shape our masks a lot better. With the back portions a lot more shaved in order for us to add on the two parts that will be able to help hang on masks with the strings attached. My nose was not so big, so it I did really have to shade the nose area. But around the outer areas, Mr. Wonenberg taught us how to keep it not so thick. We have to add more things to our masks before the firing process. I have yet to see whether I want to keep my masks simple or add more detail to it.

#9 Mask Texture Journal/Reflection Documentation

For my mask, I am most likely to be going to use a variety of different designs that do fall under the organic or geometric textures. From the picture above, these are some examples of the textures that are of organic and geometric textures. I used different types of things at home. I used the rope from a beaded necklace, shells from the beach, a picture frame stand, the outside of a jewelry cover, the stones from a shell necklace, a Mardi gras necklace, as well as some of the modeling tools that were from the class.

            The 2 sculpting processes are either subtractive (material is removed or carved out) or additive (material is added). One sculpture is modeling. Modeled sculptures are created when a soft or malleable material (such as clay) is built up and shaped to create a form. Modeling is an additive process. Another sculpting process is assembling. Sculptors gather and join different materials to create an assembled sculpture. Assembling is an additive process.

Neutral Ground Blue Figures

This assignment focused on the positive shades instead of the negative shades. The white portion was shaded in with chalk and the darker areas was done with the cross-hatching drawing technique.

Cityscape Drawing Assignment

This assignment focused on different point perspective. We had to create a Cityscape of anything we wanted just as long as it had the listed things that is written in our journals online of what we had to present in our drawing.

#8 Journal/Reflection Contour line texture drawing (2 people)

            In my drawing of two people playing basketball, I used contour lines around the body to show how both are interacting with one another. I made bold contour lines tracing out the basketball jerseys of both players, to indicate that both players have the passion to play ball. I did not really draw any detail onto the jerseys but just the outline of the school and number they were representing. I continued to draw the other body parts and the shoes. For the shoes, I just drew different lines to indicate the laces. Then I continued to draw the upper portion of the body and the face. Like I did in the beginning, I did not draw a lot of detail, just lines to indicate the two boys’ outer appearance. I left the background blank because the assignment was to just focus on two people somewhat interacting. The lines with this drawing do indicate the boldness of what I was trying to portray. Like how I used bold lines for the basketball jerseys and light lines to outline the two bodies.

            The next part that we had to do was focus on texture. Different kinds of texture, it really didn’t matter because it was up to us as the artist to choose. We had to fill in the background with different textures, as well as fill in the two people. What I did, was I tried to give this drawing some kind of feel to it where it could portray it really being at a basketball game. I added different textures such as coin heads for the background audience. The used the back of small tiles to indicate the ground floor. I used the back of a dining mat for the floor as well but to show detail that one of the players were about to shoot into the ring. The side podiums, I used the sides of picture frames. To kind of give it a home sense, I used shell textures for the left side of the drawing. The net for the basketball ring, I used a fish scale class vase. For the basketball, I used the outside surface of the clothes hamper. For the basketball I used the screen of one of my windows. For the shoes, I used the outside of my jewelry box. For the skin of the two boys, I used the outside part of my belt. For their hair, I used a cup mat. For the basketball jerseys I used the floor of my room and lastly for the overall background, I used the rough and smooth areas of my bedroom wall. This drawing took a lot of time and work. It was interesting to look all over my house for different textures. I tried my best to make the textures stand out, but some of them did not really work well with me. But it was a fun experience.

My Best 5 Gesture Drawings

 

This assignment is focused on the use of charcoal sticks where we are to draw in various positions in a bubble technique of different areas of the body from the dancers presented in class.

#7 Journal/Reflection Neutral Ground Still Life

 

The concept of Neutral Ground is basically focusing on the value or lack thereof, within our composition. Neutral being not of the white or black color, but a color between the black and white values. The beginning of this assignment involved having to rub pencil shavings on my sheet of paper. Then we had to use our kneadable eraser to create images from the lighter shade of the drawing. I started by erasing away to create the cylindrical shape of the roll of tissue. It was so hard to focus on making sure I didn’t take off too much because I knew that it meant I would have to add value back onto my sheet. I guess the objectives of this assignment was to enhance our ability to focus on the value of the lighter shade within our composition, keeping in mind of the all the shadows created by the light.  My kneadable was not working with me. It was already really hard but I just tried to use it the best way I could so I broke the eraser into pieces to be able to erase better. I have to say that the kneadable eraser is not my favorite tool.  

Mr. Wonenberg came over and showed me how to add the crosshatching to the different parts to create shade. I also took a picture of that cross hatch lady figure as a tool to help me better understand the lighter shades in detail. I wasn’t sure I was going to succeed at using the chalk to add light values, but it wasn’t that bad after all. The chalk really helped to add very light value to the areas in which the eraser just didn’t seem to do the job. I continued to add on more to my drawing with the different shading together with cross hatching the figures. Towards the ending of my drawing, I used to chalk to add some finishing touches to the lighter shade value. As well as adding a little cross hatching details to the vase and man figure. Overall, this drawing was one of the more difficult drawings for me. But I still tried to have fun with it and not stress too much.

#6 Journal/Reflection Black Paper White Chalk "Honest Abe"

The concept of value is basically the artistic term for light and dark. The use of value in a work of art is shading. An area’s value is its relative lightness and darkness in a given context. We can only see the value through the changes of light and dark. For example, light reveals forms; in a dark room at night we see nothing. One way to create value in a composition would be value pattern which is the arrangement and the amount of variation in light and dark, independent of the colors used.

 Another way to create value in a composition is value emphasis. A valuable use of dark and light contrast is to create a focal point or center of attention in a design. An important character or feature can be visually emphasized by value contrast. Another way to create value in a composition is using gradations of dark and light to suggest volume and space. Chiaroscuro describes the artistic device of using light and dark on a flat surface, to impact a three dimensional quality to shapes. Areas of contrast sit alongside subtle shifts in value from predominantly light ground to the darkest values in shadow. Some techniques in gradual transitions are cross-hatching, wash drawing and media-mixed as well as visual grays.

#5 Journal/Reflection Value Study Crosshatch line seated boy

 Carefully creating a light grid on my sheet, I began drawing my outline of The Seated Boy. I tried to portion the figure of the boy right according to the grid and how the picture of the seated boy looked. Mr. Wonenberg mentioned that we would have to use crosshatching. I was nervous about whether or not I was going to be able to create the different types of value transitions. In class, we discussed how abrupt transitions make identifying where actual lines go easier. On the other hand, gradual transitions create a more subtle line, sometimes turning what once was an actual line into an implied line. He talked more into the crosshatching technique which allows us to lighten and darken the value of certain areas of the composition, giving parts of the work a three-dimensional feel to it because that cannot be created with the use of a single line.

I was somewhat confused on what cross hatching was at first but with the help from Mr. Wonenberg, he definitely made me see cross hatching a lot differently. It was not so much of the different shading but it was more as having to be able to see the different line texture when you cross hatch. Layer upon layer, I stacked lines in various areas. Some areas had just a couple of layers of cross hatching, other areas needed a lot more. I needed to really indicate the dark and light values on the drawing, so what I did was that I made the lines a lot bigger for the dark areas and smaller ones for the lighter areas. The boy’s pants were more of a darker value, so I made the lines a lot bigger. At first, I was very nervous by the example shown to us, but once again, this turned out to be a little easier than I thought. The hardest part for me was trying to eliminate the contour lines. The drawing was more focused on cross hatching rather than the contour lines. I think this assignment was a bit challenging, only because I personally feel that I am not so good with cross hatching. Overall though, it was another great experience to work with different drawing techniques rather than just simply using lines to draw an image.

#4 Journal/Reflection Contour line texture drawing (2 people)

            In my drawing of two people playing basketball, I used contour lines around the body to show how both are interacting with one another. I made bold contour lines tracing out the basketball jerseys of both players, to indicate that both players have the passion to play ball. I did not really draw any detail onto the jerseys but just the outline of the school and number they were representing. I continued to draw the other body parts and the shoes. For the shoes, I just drew different lines to indicate the laces. Then I continued to draw the upper portion of the body and the face. Like I did in the beginning, I did not draw a lot of detail, just lines to indicate the two boys’ outer appearance. I left the background blank because the assignment was to just focus on two people somewhat interacting. The lines with this drawing do indicate the boldness of what I was trying to portray. Like how I used bold lines for the basketball jerseys and light lines to outline the two bodies.

            The next part that we had to do was focus on texture. Different kinds of texture, it really didn’t matter because it was up to us as the artist to choose. We had to fill in the background with different textures, as well as fill in the two people. What I did, was I tried to give this drawing some kind of feel to it where it could portray it really being at a basketball game. I added different textures such as coin heads for the background audience. The used the back of small tiles to indicate the ground floor. I used the back of a dining mat for the floor as well but to show detail that one of the players were about to shoot into the ring. The side podiums, I used the sides of picture frames. To kind of give it a home sense, I used shell textures for the left side of the drawing. The net for the basketball ring, I used a fish scale class vase. For the basketball, I used the outside surface of the clothes hamper. For the basketball I used the screen of one of my windows. For the shoes, I used the outside of my jewelry box. For the skin of the two boys, I used the outside part of my belt. For their hair, I used a cup mat. For the basketball jerseys I used the floor of my room and lastly for the overall background, I used the rough and smooth areas of my bedroom wall. This drawing took a lot of time and work. It was interesting to look all over my house for different textures. I tried my best to make the textures stand out, but some of them did not really work well with me. But it was a fun experience.

Journal #3 Positive/Negative (Bird)

The assignment we did in class today was to help us know the difference between the positives and negatives in art. In class we discussed how to look at different pictures that had black and white figures. The white part being the positive part of the picture.  We had to focus on drawing a bird and a sun on a sheet of paper but the tricky thing was that we had to focus more on the negative part which was quite simple to me. I drew the outline of the bird, while Mr. Wonenberg explained how for example; the bottom wing looked like some kind of “shark fin”. I honestly did not see those types of figures at first, but with the help of Mr. Wonenberg’s explanation between the negatives and positives, it gave me a whole new and different perspective. I continued to draw the outline of my bird and then the sun with the help of the line grid of course! Then came the part of filling in the background of my drawing where we had a choice of different dark shapes to add on, in order to make the bird and sun stand out.

I drew different types of patterns. The left side of the drawing consisted of a cloud under the sun, with trees right under the cloud. I tried to make it look like a cold and snowy scenery. Then I added light rays coming out of the sun, almost like a fire flame look to it. The patterns under the bird was somewhat inspired by a tree trunk I saw outside of my window at home. The right side of the bird was inspired by a Koi fish scales that my brother had a picture of so I just decided to add that on to the drawing. The upper part of the birds head, I just decided to add triangle looking stripes as well as a little part of a tribal tattoo. Overall, I would say that this drawing was fun to do, coming up with different designs to make it your own without having to show that there really is a ‘bird’ figure.

Journal #2 “Contour Upside down Picasso Drawing”

The upside down Picasso drawing was introduced to us. It was basically an old man sitting with a weird looking face to it. He revealed different pictures of the same drawing that children drew themselves and each one had their own individuality to it. There was a challenge to drawing it where we had to draw it upside down. I thought to myself that this was going to be a difficult task because usually I tend to draw pictures from the top to bottom perspective. But I guess this was a way of letting us shift our brain modes from left to right. The left part of our brains is used more as for language and is more detail oriented. While the right side focuses more on spatial perception and object function as it was discussed in class. In order to properly make sure that our drawing was on the right area, a grid of lines were given to us to help us better adjust to our drawing. So I folded my paper into portions of squares and started sketching the man’s wrinkled pants. I thought it was going to be difficult because we had to start drawing from the biggest part of the drawing.

 The top portion of the drawing was just the face, but it was easier to start from the bottom because it had bold lines. As I continued to draw, I encountered one of the difficult parts of the drawing, which were the hands. The intertwining of the hands made it almost impossible to perfectly draw the hands. The curved lines did not allow me to visualize the hands as it was which made it confusing for me.  Another challenging part of this drawing was the structure of the face. The detailed portion of the face somewhat threw me off but I was able to finish it up. Overall, this lesson was really fun to do. I like how it taught me a different way to look at pictures and actually draw them just like Picasso had. This assignment even allowed me to use my imagination and to think outside of the box. The outcome of my drawing was a lot better than I expected it to look.

Journal #1 Keith Haring Drawing Assignment

Controversial Issue: "Abortion"

The mother figures are bigger compared to the other people figures on the bottom. The different hands on the bottom of the drawing have a variety of colors. There are angel figures to the left and right sides of the paper. The lines from the angels indicate that they are flying upward. There is a radiance of color in the middle mother figure and it stands out a lot on the drawing. From what I decided to portray on my drawing with having the ‘abortion’ controversial issue, I made two women figures who are carrying babies in their stomach to represent that they are mother connected to each other in a heart shape form.

The middle mother figure stands out a lot in this drawing. She is holding an infant in the middle with a radiance of light beaming around it. There are angels on both the top and bottom of the photo while one set of angels represent death and the other life. The moral of this drawing is to represent how women today can decide whether to hold on to their child, more like a pro-life saying to it. Overall, the love of the mothers over ride where the people at the bottom of the drawing show that they are for abortion. But with the Catholic faith being against abortion, I have people in the middle of the heart showing their hands where they are somewhat praising the mother and baby in the middle.

Week Seven: March 15-21 (Rubistar)

We are preparing for the video project we have for the next week. We use FlipCams for the assignment which are pretty portable camcorders that may seem generic but actually takes really good quality videos. Bonny and Loremel were my partners. It was so funny to make the movie with them because we came up with really silly ideas.

We also created a rubric using Rubistar. Rubistar is not a bad website. It's just that Rubistar does not let us store our rubrics in archives or some sort of storage file, which could work to our disadvantage because editting our work means we have to do the whole rubric again. The site was very helpful. My experience with Rubistar made it easier to create a rubic. So we just stayed in class to finish that up. I would rate this as a 5. Overall, it was a good way to make grading better. It was very user-friendly. I would not mind using this in my future classroom.

Week Eight: March 8-14 (QuizYourFriends)

The assignment we did today in class was first to..

1. Get in a group of 3.  
2. Your group will be responsible to come up with a creative commercial advertising a new invention of educational technology.  You may come up with your own props, script etc...  
3. For the first 20 minutes, brainstorm your ideas 
4. You will also come up with your own rubric of how you wish the assignment to be graded, provided that you have at least 5 criteria on a 1-4 scale rubric using Rubistar.com
5. Video should be 2-3 minutes long only.

We also did a quiz from the site of QuizYourFriends.com, where we had to create quizzes for our classmates to take. I choose mine on the facts about Cats. It was really interesting to know all these different facts on cats, and there are some that I really did not know.

If I was to rate this site, I would rate it as a 6. It was a fun site and assignment to do. I would not do anything differently. It was very user-friendly. My experience with the site was very good, I would not mind using this in my future classroom.

Week Six: March 1-7 (Pixton)

Today we will finish up with any additional web-quests that need presenting and then we will answer questions for the blog as well as posting pictures and screen-shots on your blog site.
We also took a look at a fun comic-creation website and gave some experience with story-boarding and heard ideas of how the site can be used in connection with a lesson.  


First we had to..1) Log onto www.pixton.com and sign up for "fun" account (not school).
2) Create a 3-6 frame comic that would promote technological literacy to students.
3) Use as many characters and editing tools as possible.
4) Share with the rest of the class and explain also how you might use this site as a learning tool for your future classroom.  How will you connect it to a lesson? Explain your ideas!

We were given the option to work by ourselves or with 1 (ONE only) partner.

On a scale of 1-10, I would rate the assignment as an 8. I would do the assignment again. I would not do the assignment differently. Just wished we had more time to work on it because I know the comic would be a lot more animated. My experience with using the software was good, it was very user friendly and the challenges at first was it was complicated to get the cartoon to what we want them to look like. Overall, I would use this site in my future classroom.

Week Five: February 16-22 (Webquest)

Today in class, we worked on our webquest sites. I partnered up with Loremel and we came up with the cutest idea have our topic be about "The Teenage Life of an American Butterfly". Our original idea was the life cycle of a butterfly. We logged on to Zunal.com. We worked on the site and tried to complete it. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate the site as being an 8. I actually enjoyed working on this site. It was really interesting to include videos and what not. If I had to do things differently, I would not. I like how the site was. It was really easy to use. My experience with the software turned out great. I can picture myself using this site in my future classroom. It was very user-friendly. I would use this site again. There really wasn't any challenges upon completing this assignment. I would use this site in my classroom is create lesson plans for the students with different topics to choose from. Once the students have understood the concept of the lesson, I would not mind having the students create their own lesson plans just like how we did in class. Overall, this was a great assignment to use!

Week Sixteen: April 26- May 2 (Final Week of Classes)

Learning Language in the Digital Era on Prezi

The video above is a presentation of our teach back in the using technology to assist language learning. Feel free to watch and scroll around to learn more about language learning in the Digital Era. This site Prezi, would be helpful to me as a future teacher because of using a paper copy lesson plan, you can do it online. There are many features to choose from to make learning fun and educational. Some of the assignment ideas for using this site is being able to create a lesson plan. Have online assignment for the students etc. I would rate this software as a 10 because it was very convenient. It would be great to have fast internet access to be on the site. If I had to do it again, I don't think I would have done my presentation slide any differently. I like the way it turned out. But one thing I would like better is to be able to show the videos from the presentation. The given software was very user-friendly. I would use it again. Some of the challenges that I was facing was how the site was made. It gave me a headache because it would be moving around a lot. But overall, this was a great site to use and I would use this as a future reference or activity in my future classroom.

Week Twelve: April 19-25 (Prezi)

Today in class, we discussed our final exam teach back presentation. We went through the presentation rubric and other points that are needed to be in our Teach back. The two sites that we are to choose from Prezi and Slideshare. The website that we decided to use is Prezi. It's a more up to date site where you can down load videos. Our topic is: Leaning Language in the Digital Era. So right now we're just putting together our ideas and brainstorming on what to lay down for our teach back. Since we're working on our teach back as our final exam, it's helpful to me as a future teacher to make lesson plans more easier to understand and be able to implement them in the classroom. We're looking at videos on YouTube to help put into our presentation. So far, we're just gathering ideas. I would rate it as being an 8 for now.