This past year in AP Art has taught me a wide variety of different things. Before this year, I hadn't really had a chance to reach outside of my comfort zone. I had been used to the same art elements, and generally stuck with only using either digital art or basic prismacolor pencil art. This year I was able to explore different, fun mediums, including oil paints, watercolor, prismacolor marker and even one of my new favorites, gouache.
Since my concentration was so heavily based on portraits of people I knew, I was also able to improve on facial structures and anatomy as a whole. This is something I have always had my doubts about and struggled with. The more I was able to practice, the better my anatomy started to look. AP Art was the push I really needed to start feeling confident in my art and grasp a better understanding of different mediums and concepts. Mrs. Rossi knew she could help me improve with my artwork and helped me along the process. Without her help and the support from my amazing class, I wouldn't have been able to complete the entire 24 piece portfolio. Through all the ups and downs that this class has given me, I'm glad I chose to do it. I would have never been pushed out of my comfort zone if I hadn't. Final-Presentation
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I took inspiration for this piece directly from my friend Molly's Instagram. She has such a nice layout and aesthetic images throughout. So when I planned out my piece, I took my favorite photo of her and made a simple sketch on illustration board. From there, I made outlines using Prismacolor Pencil. Afterwards, I took layers of gouache to create skin, hair and scarf colors. Later on adjustments were adding using the pencils over top of the dried gouache.
I knew she loves pink, macrons, flowers and moon elements so I added those in, sort of as a collage styled piece. I then added flower petals and vines around to complete the look of the other elements. As I'm getting closer to the end of the 12 people I'm representing, It's getting harder and harder to choose people. For this piece, I'm recreating a photo I took of my friend Taylor. There were a wide variety of pictures to choose from, but I felt inclined to use a photo where she was standing by foliage and flowers. Ever since I've known her, she has always had a heart for plants and caring for them. They're important to her, so I felt it was important to show that in my piece.
While this was a more complex piece for me, I made sure to have confidence on each part before moving on to the next part of the piece. I started with the face and hair and moved downwards, once done with the body, I was able to focus on the foliage in the background and then the sky. Personally, this is one of my favorite pieces and I feel like it shows growth in my artwork. This piece was of my friend Megha. Between her crazy personality and love for pineapples, I knew this piece had to be wild to represent her. I thought of different ideas and designs for this piece, but I knew I had to incorporate the image of her with a binder on her head, since it shows how shes quirky. In the end I used multiple mediums and a pineapple pattern background to represent her.
I really liked the sketchy look of the original pencil sketch, so I redid it, slightly cleaning it up. From there I drew simple pineapples in the background using gouache. I took a pen and lined them, making sure not to be too neat and keep the cartoon vibe. Lastly, I took purples, blues and pinks and patted them onto the white areas in the back using a sponge This piece is of one of my more recent friends, Amaya. Her sense of style and makeup skills make her unique and stand out from the rest. I wanted to shine light on her because she makes my art classes fun and interesting. As a striving artist herself, I'm excited to see where the next years will take her and how much she will improve.
My 9th piece was a piece I wanted to experiment with. I created a bunch of pen sketches and chose my favorite one. From there I recreated the pen drawing on pink construction paper. I've added different colors of highlighter and gel pen to help bring the pen work to life. My favorite aspect of this piece is the eyes, I love the combination of pen, gel pen and highlighter, which makes the eyes stand out. I focused on my sister, Allison for this piece. While going through photos I had of her, I really thought of her nature as a person. I knew I had to choose this picture I had of her where she was posing goofy. I think it really captures her as a person in general. I was planning on going for a full body picture when painting, but changed my mind. I really liked the amount of details that were showing up in the face and really wanted to capture those.
Painting is not usually my favorite medium in terms of adding details. The more I was able to mess with different tones in the skins and work on textures, I really liked where the piece was headed. I'm usually more fond with oil paints just because I'm able to manipulate the paint better, but was able to achieve a similar effect using acrylic. I definitely had a few struggles when starting out, especially when choosing which medium I wanted to do. I wanted to keep the skin very smooth and include all of the varying tones within, but wanted to have fun with it as well. So I eventually decided to begin working on it with acrylics and instantly loved how it felt and was coming out. One of my closest friends, Olivia was my inspiration for this concentration piece. She has a strong passion for working with children and helping people in general. I had to make sure I've included aspects of her helping out children into this piece. I asked her for her favorite picture and she sent me this one, which has her with her favorite kid from YMCA. Her passion for helping children is so strong that she uses that as her favorite picture of her self.
I had the biggest struggle with getting her face just right. The angle of her face and her cheeks really messed me up when coming up with the sketches. After a few tries, I was able to come to a place where I'm more comfortable working with her face. I am planning on digitally painting this piece because I think I can really add elements in detail that will define her face the best way possible. This concentration piece was a portrait of one of my closest and oldest friends, Bette. From the first week of 6th grade, we instantly hit it off. We share similar interests with each other and the ability to easily relate to situations. To add elements to the piece that represent her, I went ahead and added video game elements. By adding stars, game pads and buttons in her hair/ around her, I brought aspects of gaming into the piece.
I used Prismacolor pencils to create this piece to allow more expression with color. For the blacks in the hair, I went for a green/blue mix. I wanted to bring colors that weren't visible, but would add to the piece and not take away from it. Then for the game pieces, I alternated between a few colors that would stand out from the others, but not look tacky. Difficulties were there, especially in this piece. After I worked on the face and started the hair, I lost all motivation to continue working on the piece as a whole. The hair became very tedious and I couldn't bring myself to work on it. To overcome this challenge, I started on the hoodie and eventually came back to the hair, and found a middle ground for motivation. For the background I am going to add pixels to keep with the theme, but have yet to decide on a color. My fifth concentration piece was my coworker Jillayne. Starting as just one of my coworkers, Jillayne is an important person in my life. I was going to go for more realistic colors for this one, but upon considering how she is as a person and her personality as a whole, I knew I had to make it more colorful.
This piece definitely took a few different ideas and turns over the time that I was focusing on it. I chose many different compositions at the start and narrowed them down. I also tested different mediums and decided that I wanted to use Prismacolor Markers for the piece. It was a bit of struggle and it was harder than I thought it would be to control the markets without them getting too strong. I did have issues with getting them to not be as strong as they are and I had to go back in with dull prismas to lessen the color. I will go back even more when I have time to even out the strong tones of the markers. From this piece, I learned that it's easy to go overboard with color when you're using a medium that doesn't hold back. I know I don't really like it the way it is now, but I know that I can always go back and make changes on the way it looks. The fourth piece I decided on was my friend carly. She has a strong passion for jumprope, so I made sure that it was able to shine through when I created my piece. I spent time looking through all the pictures I could use for her. While I was tempted to keep an up-close photo for detail, I thought it would be better for a picture with a pose. I finally decided on a picture of her during a competition. I felt like it really showed her as a person and although it was harder to accomplish the pose, It was worth it.
My biggest struggle when working on this piece was anatomy. The way the arm is positioned is something that is easy to mess up and a harder concept to grasp. I don't like how the forearm is squished and not as visible as it normally is. After practicing a few times, I was able to get the anatomy to a place where I wanted it. Although not perfect, I can definitely see improvement in my concept of body positions as a whole. Prismacolor was the best option to use for this piece. Because of how easy it is to manipulate the colors and get it in a place you want, it really helped me. When I'm working with paint, it can sometimes be difficult to get the lines exactly where I want them, which can made the anatomy look off. |
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March 2018
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