The independent project is such an exciting part of the year. Getting the freedom to create absolutely anything you desire for a month straight. As we were nearing the independent project, I knew immediately I wanted to be painting once again. Last year, my project consisted of 5 landscapes with many colours and movement. This year, I wanted to play off of that same kind of style, but have the subject being flowers.
I chose this subject because you can capture a lot of movement and colour in a flower. I also just think they look really nice. Using similar techniques as last year such as brush strokes and complimentary colours, I have started to piece together my somewhat realistic, yet playful interpretation of 6 different flowers. I started with a basic sketch on all 6 14x14 canvases, later realizing it wasn’t helping at all. I found it easier to just do the background, then freehand the shapes of the flowers with the paint which ended up being more efficient anyways. Regardless of the few days I spent sketching lost, I started the painting process with the background of the himalayan blue poppy. After working on it for about a week, I got frustrated and decided to start another painting to take a break from the one I would later take home and finish over the weekend. The next one was a yellow tiger lily that would have a pastel purple background. After finishing the background, I realized it was a bit too dark and clashed with the green from the stem, which led me to redo the whole background with a lighter purple. This one was taken home to finish over a weekend as well, which puts me at almost 50% though my project as I am near the ending of the painting I am currently working on, a magenta hibiscus flower over a turquoise background. The only thing I have left to do is finish the details of all the petals and stem, then touch up the background and edges. So far, I would say I am satisfied with the results I’ve been getting despite the fact that I have struggled with choosing the right colours and taking too much time on small details. I am enjoying this project a lot and find myself only a tiny bit behind as I take more time than expected on my most recent painting. As we pass the 50% point of the project, I will start on my next 2 flowers for the end of the project.
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12/17/2021 0 Comments Celebration of Learning SuccessThe celebration of learning was for the academies to show what they’ve done in the first half of the year. I feel like the art show went well for me as an individual because I presented art I was proud of. I chose to put out my collage painting, and two pictures I took in Rowley. Everyone else’s art was so unique and amazing. I especially liked some of the VAM 10’s photos and paintings. It was so cool seeing how much talent everyone has. I saw many students and parents touring the schools admiring all the art. I came to the art show at 6:30 PM and brought my mom and dad. They both liked my art a lot and thought everyone else’s was so cool. They especially liked my movie poster and subtractive charcoal drawing that was hanging in the hallway. I don't think I would change anything about the show and the art I put up because even though there were other drawings I did that I really liked, I was still happy to show my photography and painting. I also think the showing of the films and magazine towers went really well.
Finally! We just finished up the independent project after 7 hardworking weeks. I finished my fifth and final landscape painting to now be able to say it is complete. I ended up painting an ocean, plains, arctic tundra, forest, and desert. I can say I am very proud of what I was able to accomplish in these 7 weeks, however, I did face some struggles along the way.
Although it was very fun exploring my style and putting my own twist on the landscapes, I did have many struggles along the way. I specifically had trouble working fast enough. I found myself working on the same thing for hours when I should have been moving on. The last 3 paintings in particular were stressing me out. I think this is because near halfway through our 7 weeks I started to lose motivation and time, but I dealt with it by taking them home and putting in as much time as possible to get them done knowing that I would be satisfied in the end. After all the struggle and hard work I can now say that I have finished my whole art series and everything came out pretty good. My final series consists of 5 landscape paintings created with 16 x 20 canvases, brushes, and acrylic paint. The series is called Colours of the Earth and the landscapes paintings include an ocean, forest, desert, plains, and arctic tundra. Each piece is unified with the use of bright, attractive colors, and similar brush strokes. Overall It’s a relief to be done and through all of the struggling and lack of motivation, I really enjoyed creating this series of paintings and can't wait to show it. Through this whole experience I learned that creating an art series is pretty tough especially when given a strict time frame and having to work for hours a day. It was fun seeing my classmates' art come together as well as my own. This was a long, tiring, yet very enjoyable experience and I can't wait to make more art series in future. This year in VAM we get to spend 7 weeks working on an independent project. As explained in a previous blog, I am doing a series of 5 different landscape paintings on 16 x 20 canvases. The purpose of this idea is to show the diversity of the world using bright colours, unified brush strokes, and the same style throughout each painting bringing them all together. For my first painting, I did an ocean/beach painting using complementary colours blue and orange with hints of pink/red and yellow. I wanted to incorporate all the colours into the waves while still keeping them a true blue. My use of colour and brush strokes worked out well as I left the waves streaky but still very smooth and flowy. I started the process with an underpainting giving me an idea of where each colour and shape is going to go, but I ended up painting over it thicker and building up each layer until I got something that worked. With this painting in particular, I struggled with getting the waves to look like water and found myself trying to make it too realistic, however, soon I realised that my purpose was not to make it super realistic, but make it very colourful and flow together using brush strokes. I ended up going with my own style and just letting myself add what felt right. I finished this painting in about 2.5 weeks because I spent a week not knowing where to start or take it which puts me behind. As I get into the groove, I will speed up my work hopefully putting me back on schedule. For my second painting I am doing a plains landscape with large flat fields covered in hay bales. My colour scheme is complimentary colours yellow and purple with hints of green and orange. I am unifying this piece with my first by using the same brush strokes in my waves and hay bales, using a bright variety of colour, and adding different colours into the hay bales like I did with the waves on the first. I am still behind a bit but I plan to take this painting home to finish over spring break as well as starting on a new one which puts me on track for when I come back. An area of struggle on this one is in the ground. I am having a slightly difficult time deciding how to add texture and depth to the grass. This is something I will experiment with until I come to something that works well with my style. An area of strength is in the shading and overall colour of the hay bales. As I continue to work on it, I will make my colours more vibrant and less muddy. What comes next? I still have 3 more paintings to complete after I finish my second. I am going to do a forest for one, tundra/arctic landscape with northern lights for the other, and for my fifth one, I am going to decide whether I do a desert, savanna, or rocky mountain landscape after I see what the rest look like finished. I want to be sure I have enough diversity in colour and land before I pick the last one. As I move forward I will keep the same style, brush strokes, use of colour, and flow in every single piece to unite everything all together. 3/5/2021 0 Comments Goals: Semester 2In the last semester, I gave myself 2 goals to work toward over the course of 5 months. Those goals were to improve and practice drawing proper proportions of humans and objects every week, and improve my design skills. Although I have still improved, I never actually completed the goal or did what I planned to. I figured this was because I already had a lot to do, was very exhausted after school and on the weekends, and so I was not motivated to do them. I still plan to continue with this goal, but I would like to shift my main focus to another one. In VAM academy semester 2, I would still like to keep my previous goals, but I decided for a new one, I want to work on cleaning up my finished art pieces. I want to be able to have cleaner lines, better proportions, and overall cleaner technique. I chose this goal because I feel like my final art pieces are always a bit messier or different than I intend them to be. I can work on this in the art room at school and at home whenever I want to paint a picture. Although I struggled with my last goal, I know that I will be able to do this one because I will make it a bit easier for myself to achieve by taking into consideration everything else on my schedule and other commitments. With all of this in mind, I feel that the best plan for me to be more successful this time is to not have a set schedule or time that I need to paint or practice as long as I practice at least once a week. I will do this by being more patient and careful with my art when necessary and watching youtube videos on how to make cleaner more finished art. In semester 2, I am also setting a goal for English class. My new English goal is going to be to hand in all my work on time. I sometimes struggle with this because school work is very draining and I don’t have the motivation to do it if I don’t enjoy it, so it would be a huge improvement if I could be able to just sit down and power through an assignment or two without dragging it on just because I don’t enjoy it. Over semester 2, I plan to hand in every single assignment in on time or early because I think it would take a lot of weight off my shoulders. This will take place over the next 5 months from now until the end of June. I will be able to do this by keeping caught up and staying focused in class time. If I ever feel like I’ve fallen behind, I will take the time to work at home as much as I can. To stay motivated, I can try putting myself somewhere where I won’t get distracted such as the basement at the table instead of the living room where I’d be distracted by my family. This will all be my own responsibility to take care of at school and at home. In the end, I chose this goal because I know it will help me later in life if I learn how to manage my time and stay motivated even if I don’t like the work I have to do. Overall, my 2 personal goals for the next half of the school year will help me improve in both art and English. I think they are both achievable and reasonable to work towards in the second half of this school year and won't be too overwhelming or too easy. I am beyond excited to get started with working on these goals for the rest of my time in the VAM academy and English class. As the final half of the school year approaches, we are finally starting to begin our independent projects in VAM academy. The independent project is a series of unified art works that we get to come up with using any medium or theme. The project I decided on is to create 5 landscape paintings of 5 different biomes from around the world.
The theme behind my idea is to capture the beauty and diversity of the world inside of 5 vibrant detailed paintings. The different landscapes may consist of rainforest, ocean, arctic, savanna, mountains, etc. This series will be painted with acrylic paint on canvases using many bright colours and interesting strokes to enhance each painting. The materials required for this project are 5 16x20 canvases, acrylic paint, a variety of brushes, and reference photos. We were given 7 weeks to complete this project so I have created a timeline to help guide myself and stay on track. The goal is to spend one week on each painting giving me 2 weeks of flexibility in case I get behind. I will start with a basic sketch in pencil of the landscape before I begin to add a light wash of colour, I will then start adding the layers of paint, later finalizing with details. At the very end, we get to display our art and do a Covid-friendly art show. I am beyond excited to work on this project and be able to create a whole series of art everyday in school. As this project goes on, I will provide a progress update half way through and then at the end. This is something I really look forward to starting and will definitely be very enjoyable to work on everyday. 12/3/2020 0 Comments Copyright My initial thought on copyright is that it’s something important and useful to keep others from stealing and taking credit for your original work, but there is no question that over the years it has become very strict and intense. It seems as if it is solely about profit and not wanting other people to make money using something you have created. I believe that it is reasonable to an extent. With the intensity of copyright law nowadays, people’s creativity is being limited and there can be consequences for including even a small amount of someone else’s work.
Between copyright and copyleft, I would say I am more on the copyleft side. While I believe that it’s ok to want credit for your idea, I don’t think it should go as far as fines up to thousands of dollars and time in jail. Amazing things can be created by sharing ideas instead of locking them away because you’re worried about who’s making money or getting attention. As long as you give some sort of credit to the original creator and are using their ideas with good intentions, I believe sharing ideas is something that could benefit everyone. Media production is when content is produced by a person or organization. Media consumption is when an audience consumes some sort of media that has been produced. Producing media does not always mean it is meant to be consumed, however, all media that had been consumed, has been produced. In visual art, I feel as though an artist’s work should never be exactly copied. It’s great to be inspired by someone else’s art and get ideas from it as long as you are creating something that you came up with. In art such as photorealism, the whole point is to try to copy a photo exactly. In this case, you may need to use someone else’s photo and that should be ok as long as you give credit to the photographer and even better, ask permission to use it. In general, copying someone’s work is wrong, but getting inspired by their ideas and making something that you have personally created should be allowed. 10/21/2020 0 Comments My GoalsGoals can be great tools to help us achieve just what we want, but they can also be frustrating and quite difficult to keep up. However, when you complete a goal, it is one of the best feelings you can imagine, finally getting what you’ve been working for all along.
In VAM Academy this year, I will be setting many small goals for myself, but I will have one main goal that I work toward for about half of the year. The goal I chose to work on this year is improving my skills and technique in designing and creating art. This is important because I enjoy drawing and would love to better the quality and creativity of my art, making it more unique. The people involved are The VAM teacher, Mr. Gray, and I. He will do his part by teaching the lessons each day and helping me when I need it. I will do my part by sticking to my goal and remember not to give up no matter how frustrating it may become. I will be able to work on this goal at school during art in periods 1 and 2, as well as at home. It is a great time to start working on this goal while I’m in art academy because I have a teacher to help guide me and teach me what I don’t yet know, and I have all the supplies necessary to work on my goal. I can accomplish this by remembering to practice as often as possible and researching topics I would like to know about. I also need to keep in mind that I will make mistakes, and get frustrated, but that is all normal, what’s important is trying again because you learn from mistakes and they only make you better. To be more specific, I created a plan to follow for the rest of 2020 Starting as soon as possible, every odd-numbered Sunday at 3:00 pm-4:00 pm, I will practice drawing an object or human in a more dynamic, interesting pose with a different technique than I usually do. On every even-numbered Sunday at 3:00 pm-4:00 pm, I will watch a YouTube video or research about proportions of objects and practice on a page in my sketchbook. I plan to have improved greatly by January 1st, 2021. I believe that I can do this before the new year and that it is very attainable as long as I keep it up, which I know I can do. I will know my goal is accomplished when there is a noticeable difference in the quality and design choices of my art, as well as a positive change in technique and the final product. However, when I feel as though I have accomplished my goal, it will never be completely over and I will continue to better my art even after VAM. I will not stop trying to improve my art because there is always room for improvement, in anything you do. So keep working to better yourself even after you accomplish your goal, keep setting new ones, and pushing yourself to be better. Another goal I would like to achieve that is more personal outside of the VAM academy, is to not be so afraid to make mistakes and take risks. This goal is important because doing what I’m comfortable with is just playing it safe and I need to not worry about making mistakes so much because truly, mistakes are what help you get better, so in the end, making more mistakes would help improve my art as well. I am the main person involved because I will be the one to force myself to take risks and in the end, it is only up to me to keep up with working on my goal. This goal will take place at home, school, and honestly, everywhere I go because you can take risks and work on not being scared of mistakes anywhere you go. This is not measurable by a specific number necessarily, it’s something that I will just know when I accomplish it. To be more specific, I will know it's accomplished when I feel less uncomfortable and ashamed of making mistakes, and take more risks in not only just art but also everything in life. I can accomplish this goal by taking more risks every day such as asking more questions in class or trying a new art medium I don’t usually go to. I know this goal is realistic and attainable because it’s something I have to do by myself and that I know I can do by myself. I believe that any time is a good time for a goal like this and that it will really be worthwhile because it’s going to help me learn and get better instead of avoiding situations. The ideal timeline for this goal is to start now and not stop because this goal is something that can also keep being worked on over time and will never be completely perfect and complete. As of today, I can ask a question in class instead of keeping to myself or try drawing something more complicated in art. Remember, don’t be afraid to make mistakes or take risks as they are what will help you learn and grow into a better person. |