11: Architecture Photography (choice)

  

 






For my last choice project I chose to do photography and went downtown and took pictures of the old house near the community center.  I went just as the sun was setting so the lighting was phenomenal and I loved how only the top half of the house was light up.  I took a ton of pictures all at different angles and then narrowed them down to my top 12.  At that point it was hard to pick my favorites, but I managed to pick a few that I favored more and didn't use others that were at a similar angle or didn't have quite of good lighting.  After I got them on my computer, I put some filters on the photos to enhance the bright yellows and oranges in the house which really helped that sunset look that I was looking for. I don't know exactly what kind of architecture I am going to photograph for my concentration but I am really excited to have this as my first piece and I can't wait to start photographing more interesting and unique architecture.

10: Pet Protrait

For my pet portrait I decided to use photography and took several pictures of my dogs and of my grandma's dogs. This photo is of Fergie (not one of my dogs) who gets excited when there is a spot of light or reflection on the floor and tries to get it. When I was taking photos of her, she kept going back and forth with trying to get the spot on the ground and looking up when I called her. To me this photo really represents her personality because I can see a glint of mischief in her eyes. I also chose this photo because of the great contrast there was between the darkness of her fur and the light tree branches overlapping her face. The background was also pretty blurred out which helped make Fergie's eyes stand out despite being in the dark part of her face.

9: Parisian Street (choice)

For this choice project, I went back through my previous photos looking for an image that represented Paris to me and was a part of the actual city and not a monument or a tourist attraction. I chose this photo because it focused on the hotel sign and then I added a blurred filter around the edges to enhance the sign even more so. I really liked how you can see the cafe on the left and the man going about his regular business because you don't get the impression that just one street over are thousands of tourists and big fancy hotels. This scene wasn't created for the purpose of attraction but simply for a comfortable street that locals can enjoy.

8: Bows

 Our class participated in a Colored Pencil Magazine contest where they provided us a picture of these bows and then we had to draw them. We were allowed to alter them, crop the picture, or change the colors. I opted to draw the photo as is with the same colors just because I like all the colors looked reflecting off each other. I have always loved working with prismacolors because of how well they bland and stand out. Reflections have also appealed to me because I like using the whites to make a bright spot pop and putting colors in that you wouldn't normally guess to be in the reflection but make it look complete. My favorite bows are the gold and silver ones because they have red, green, and blue reflections throughout. This project took me a while to complete but I loved the final piece.

7: Stonehenge

For my landscape project, I chose to do the Stonehenge in ink. I had never used India ink before so I knew I wanted to use that so that I could learn to work with a new medium.  Working with watercolor on a previous project had been good practice because the ink was very similar only much darker. I decided to do a light wash of brown watercolor with splatters and splotches for the background.  I then did a light layer of the india ink for the stones.  I stippled with black ink pens overtop to darken up my values and to enhance my details.  When I was done with the inks, I went back in with the brown watercolor to put in some faint shadows under the stones to make them more 3 dimensional which really helped make the piece look more complete. While this project took me a while to complete since stippling is slow-going, I am really happy with the completed project.

6: Mechanical Passion Vine

For my mechanical project I immediately thought of a passion vine because of how intricate and weirdly shaped they are. I did my project in pencil so that I could capture all the reflections of metal and show the contrast between the shadows and the light spots.  I used pictures of pipes, screw, nails, and metal plating as references so that I could really make the flower look like something you could physically hold. I also made sure to keep my light source toward the top right corner and had everything reflective point in that direction. The center of the flower has several different pieces that all look unique and so different from other flowers and I made sure to reflect that with the various different mechanical pieces I used. When I was shading, I would put a light layer of pencil down first to distinguish where I wanted the shadows and the gray areas. I then went back in with a darker pencil and greatly darkened the shadows so that they would really look like there was no light hitting that spot. After I put in the shadows, I go back in with a Knead- it eraser and take away some of the pencils so that my reflections are white and contrast with the other values. Throughout all my art classes, when I have drawn reflections, I have learned that they are the key to making metals or glass look realistic. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do in the background because it was too much empty space but at the same time I didn't want to take the focus away from the flower. I ended up putting in some cable cords that are the same as the ones that were a part of the flower which filled the space while complimenting the flower.

5: Self- Portrait

For my self- portrait I chose to draw myself from when I was little and found this picture of me in a swing. I really liked the composition and the colors throughout the image. I decided to draw this in Prismacolors so that I could capture all of the bright colors and textures. My favorite part of the drawing is the jacket because I really enjoyed drawing all the folds in the fabric and using the different pinks and purples for the various values. One section that was hard for me was the bark in the background because of the many lights and darks. The fact that it was slightly blurred also made it hard because I was trying to capture all the colors without taking away from me in the swing. The shoes were also difficult because the only values present were white and gray, it was hard to really make it look like shoes with only two values. The face was my hardest section to draw because I don't really like drawing facial features and it was hard to get all the proportions correct. Eventually I got the face sized right and now I really like it because it actually looks accurate to the picture. I also really enjoyed putting in all the highlights on the face, legs, shoes, and the jacket. I always love how simple splashes of white that represent the areas being light up by the sun make the drawing look so much more realistic.