Amany's Art Blog

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.