In the beginning of the semester, I didn't know anything about art criticism. Evaluating other peoples work based off of my limited knowledge was very difficult, especially since I didn't know what to pay attention to or comment on. Criticising my own work was even more difficult, because I didn't know how to improve and I thought that the first way I had done something was the only way I could do it. In one of my very first peices of art, I drew dumbo with butterfly wings instead of ears, but the work was poorly blended and different parts of the elefant would blen together. For example, it's difficult to distinguish between his trunk and the rest of his body. So, criticising art was a very uncomfortable and difficult thing for me to do. Throughout this class criticism began to make more sense to me. I started to look at individual elements of a work instead of the thing as a whole. For example, I began to look at the material used to make the peice and asked myself if I used the material correctly, and if I could use some other medium to add to the picture. Criticism helps me make important decisions when I'm making art, for example, I began to make small differences to my art, like the size of my paper, or the color selection I would use. I used criticism to make certain parts of my art a different color in order for them to be noticed by the viewer. For example, in the "Artists take a stand" unit, I make the text of the map a brightly colored background, while the rest of the world was black in order to add contrast and make the text stand out. In the beginning of the class, I wouldn't have thought to add that color to the text or to use water color to blend the colors smoothly to create a rainbow effect like I did when I made this piece. In Art 1, I learned many useful things, but a few are more important than the rest. For example, I've learned how to use various materials to make one piece of art, which is something that may seem simple, but before this class the idea of a multimedia piece never occurred to me. In this certain work I used water color, oil pastels, sharpie, and colored pencil to make each individual person, which is something I wouldn't have thought of doing before. I also learned how important color choices were and how they would add to the mood or feeling a piece creates, and how symbolising affects a piece. For example, in my visual journal I used a red flower to symbolise the love mentioned in the quote, and the orange and yellow colors to create a happy mood. Another thing I learned would be juxtaposition, which is shown by the closeness of the fully grown flower next to the flower beginning to blossom which symbolises growth in life. Another example of something I learned would be new techniques of doing things. For example, I learned different ways to use water color. The most useful thing I learned in this class was how to blend 5 different colors to make others. I used to know very little about how you could creat different colors, but now I'm aware of the fact that you can make a wide variety of colors simply by blending black, white, yellow, blue, and red, like I did in the activity below. In order to make this class a better learning experience, I would look at more examples of modern art that seems interesting but not that difficult. Modern art examples make coming up with ideas much easier, which helps out a lot seeing as it can be pretty difficult to come up with ideas sometimes and you might need just a little inspiration in order to create the best piece you possibly could. I would also change the criticism by peers. Since many of us don't know how to criticise properly, we would write down generic things that wouldn't really help the artist improve. I also think that more criticism on the flaws of your piece would help instead of only comments on the good, because if nobody ever tells you what you could improve on, how would you ever know what to change? Other than that, I enjoyed the freedom of choice in this class the most, since it creates individuality instead of a classroom of identical pieces.
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1. What topic did you choose for this unit and why did you pick it? I chose LGBTQ+ world rights. It's such a large topic that's very controversial, and I have a very strong opinion about it. I knew exactly what topic I would choose from the beginning because there was so much I could do with the subject of gay rights, and all the ideas I had for that subject were really interesting and seemed doable. 2. Why did you pick the images that you used in your art? I used text as the layer underneath the map, and I specifically chose certain articles and stories of assist to use. I sorted the stories of murder of LGBTQ+ victims by country and then glued them down so that when the map was paced over the text it would show through. I chose these specific articles because I wanted to provoke emotion, and I also know that people would look to the place that they're from so if they see an article about a story that happened near them, then I'd be more likely to make them fee sentimental or moved. 3. Did you have to work through any challenges during this project?
My topic was very heavy. Multiple times throughout the project I felt upset and had to stop and read or watch a movie because it was very emotional, since I had to sort through countless brutal and bloody death accounts and choose the most gruesome. I worked through it because I knew it would be worth it, and I was very determined to complete this project. 1. What new skills did you learn as part of this unit? This unit, I learned a wide variety of things, but I learned the most from making clay tiles. When I was making my tile, I spent a lot of time trying to make the texture of the waves perfect, I wanted to imitate how the waves roll and look, but I figured out and learned how to use different tools to take away levels in certain areas of the ocean, which made it look much more realistic. The tree was also difficult, because it took a lot of time to shape each branch and make it seem as if the tree was lopsided, and because the branches were so thin it was hard to make them stay in the position I wanted them to be, but I learned how to stick two peices of clay together by using the slip and score method. 2. What project from Unit 3 did you find to be the most successful? Why? I certainly found the clay tile project to be more successful. I was able to accurately create the image I had in my mind of what I wanted by using certain elements from the reference photo above, like how the tree curves and how it's places on a hill, and then combining them with my own, like how the sea and sky and moon are all different layers, and instead of the tree and hill being so curved I made it more level and extended the ocean so you could see it behind the tree, in order to give the tile a better perspective. It was also more successful because I learned the techniques that helped me the most, like slip and score, and how to use different sized tools to take away levels. 3. What media are you interested in using again and why?
I believe I would definitely enjoy using clay again, it was the most enjoyable out of all of the media I used. I believe that there are so many more things that you could do with clay than with drawing or painting, because it's not just on paper, it's an actual object. I think I'll attempt to take sculpting, I am very interested in the other possibilities for clay and things that aren't painted or made by drawing. 1. What are some different ways to interpret line? What did you learn by thinking of line in different ways? There are multiple ways to interpret line, for example you could think of a single straight line, or a bunch of lines put together to make a pattern. You don't need to use more than one line to make a drawing though, I learned that some artists draw and create things like faces by using a single continuous line for the whole drawing. I also learned that there are an insane amount of things that lines can create. For example in Zentangle drawings, artists create dozens of different patterns simply by making like connect and flow in different ways, and that seems amazing to me that a person could think of so many different ways to use a line. 2. How do you feel about your final artwork for this unit? What do you like or dislike about it?
I feel like I made the right decision in deciding to make a country, I enjoy learning about different cultures, and I took inspiration from that. I like how the colours symbolise how colourful African culture is. It creates the kind of mood I was hoping for it to create, which is bright, vibrant and happy. I dislike the fact that some of the lines are not symmetrical and how's few sections of different patterns turned out darker than I originally meant them to be. Other than that, I'm satisfied with how this peice looks. 1) What new skills did you learn or improve on during this unit? During this unit, I improved my colouring skills. I learned how to blend different colours to make one colour, and I also learned how to use different shades of the same colour, like I did with the butterfly wings using orange, in order to make a more realistic and colourful drawing. I also learned how to combine two different pictures that have different tones of the same colour into one drawing that brings both pictures together without making it look tacky, or like one of the pictures is out of place and coloured differently. 2) How has your thinking about what original art is changed? This final project changed my idea of original art because in order to create our final work, we had to have two other objects that already existed and combine them. Obviously, we didn't create the objects we combined, but the way different artists combined them made it unique. In order to be original you don't need to create every aspect, but you do need to be creative. 3) What challenges or successes did you have during this unit? Would you change anything if you did if you could go back and re-do it? I found it challenging to create the shape of the butterfly wings and attempt to make them identical like they were supposed to be, but art isn't about perfection. On the other hand, making dumbo proved to be very easy. by using a reference image I was able to fill in the colours like I wanted and make him look cute, like he's supposed to. I wouldn't go back and change anything, but I didn't find it easy to use coloured pencils and try to make the wings look even, most of the time the black on one side looked darker than the other, and it was difficult to find the right shade on both sides. 1. What new skills did you learn or what did you improve on during this unit?
This unit, I learned One-point perspective, which lead me to learn a few other things. For example, in this type of drawing I learned how to shade in order to make the sketch look realistic. I also had to improve my judgement skills, because the size of the windows have to be proportionate as they get further from the vantage point. 2. How has your thinking about what original art is changed? My thinking on original art has changed slightly, because I now believe that you don't have to create the thing you drew for your artwork to be original. For example, there are artists who paint still life, and they use different things to create a scene then paint it. Just because they paintedsomething that exists doesn't mean their artwork is unoriginal. I drew the New Reich Chancellery, the building that Hitler's office was in. Just because this building exists, doesn't mean my art is unoriginal. 3. What challenges or successes did you have during this unit? Would you change anything you did if you could go back and re-do it? One of the biggest challenges was the small details, like the steps by the pillar. I also found it extremely difficult to balance the shading and know when to make it darker or lighter. If I could go back and change anything, I would change the way the two vents on the right side of the building are shaded. After I understood what I was doing, I found that shading in the windows got easier and I became more successful in that. Victoria Lautman Victoria traveled to India in order to locate and map over 120 step wells across 7 states, with the hopes of documenting these marvelous pieces of architecture before they cave in or are taken over by the wilderness, and erased from Indian culture without being acknowledged. A step well is like a well in a certain sense, because of how they provided easy access to below the water table, which was very important for certain regions because of the overwhelming heat and dryness, but because of India's drop in the water table, many of the wells are now dry, making them essentially useless. This week, I have learned multiple things in art. My personal favourite was using one-point perspective, because I enjoyed using mathematics and symmetry to make my drawings and make them look realistic. Another artistic technique I enjoyed was using perspective to distort the proportion of multiple objects in a picture to create a sort of illusion, like how my hands were placed in the above photograph to make it seem like my group-mate's hands were being held by my fingers.
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Amany AmraA 15 year old student at Apex High School. ArchivesCategories |