Final Blog Update

I learned a lot about myself this year. I have finally started appreciating direct observation and the reference it provides in future art pieces. Plus, I now know that I can work decently well within a deadline. True, I still had several pieces to complete the weekend before the concentration was due, but it was only a couple instead of the possible six or seven. My favorite piece was the very first one that I worked on; Bob the bird. I think that I featured it in my first blog update, too, so I'm ending it where it all began.
I'm attending DigiPen in the fall (I need to get started on their summer art homework now). Campus is basically a single building and a parking lot, but it's going to be great. From there I plan on working for Nintendo as a concept artist/character designer and in ten years I will hopefully be working for them in Japan. (random, I know). I guess that one of the best pieces of advice I can give for art students is to not procrastinate at all. You might think that you have a bunch of time to work on a few pieces, but it goes by really quickly. Also, don't be afraid to ask your classmates for advice and critiques. That one used to be really hard for me to do, but they have helped a lot over the year.

And you can't have AP art without fun stuff!!! The Barbeque and Lumberjack day were by far my favorite events of the year. The food was really good and it was great to just take a break from all the work and just hang around with your friends.

As for the thoughtful quote or poem, how about a thoughtful thought instead? Don't be afraid of the unknown. You won't live if you don't take risks and try new things in every aspect of your life. And if things just turn out to be worse, it makes it that much easier for the next adventure to make things better - you just have to have the courage to take that leap of faith. (I know that sounds horribly cliche' but that's what I'm feeling right now).

Anyhow, I guess this is it. Thanks again for a great year and for plowing through all that text above. =]

Glass

Stained glass is one of my favorite mediums, but I've never actually used it before. I found this artist, Robert Oddy, and really liked his works.

He has tons more on his website: so many I love that I can't post them all here. :)
http://www.robertoddy.com/Level0/Gallery.html

Woot!

I can't believe that we're done with our concentration pieces! It feels great! My parents came to the AP art show and my dad was so intrigued with the encausted pieces that when I came out to the computer room today he was looking online at videos of how to encausting pieces. He's even considering (with little supportive nudges from me) to buy the materials needed to try it out. I'm so stoked.
As soon as I finish a couple more breadth pieces I'm going to be able to start on my dragons and random things again. Yet again, I can't wait.
I'm in a random mood right now, so here's a pretty nifty video of an elephant painting a picture of an elephant holding a flower. I'm amazed the trainers could teach it that well, actually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7Ge7Sogrk&feature=fvw

Feather Painting

I recently attempted to paint on a feather, but it didn't work out so well. The sections on the vanes (I think that's what they are called) separated out and it got really disjointed. Plus the paint wouldn't stay on the feather well. Sometime down the road I will probably attempt this again. I'll just have to experiment a bit more. Here are some paintings that are pretty darn cool. The last picture's pieces are done by Julie Thompson, who lives in the Pacific Northwest. The video on the website gives a nice slideshow of some more feathers.
http://www.featherlady.net/

Pieces in the works...

I am currently working on two pieces. This first one is just a sketch of what I plan to do. I'm going to first collage pages of a book together and then draw this in charcoal or graphite over it. It is supposed to represent what people sometimes turn to when in solitude. The novel pieces will show how people (like Thoreau) utilized writing, while the bottle shows alcohol and the spilled liquor drops show religion. There are religious symbols in the drops. (a cross, the star of david, the islamic moon/star and I'll also put in the Taoism symbol).


The next two is a sketch followed by the piece in progress. It probably isn't difficult to figure out what this one means. I'm doing the final version on black paper with prismacolor pencils, so it should be vivid and deep at the same time. So far I only have most of the wings done. I'd like to apologize in advance for the bad resolution.



On a side note, I was walking by the television and paused to watch a nature documentary my dad had on and it showed this short clip of a snake that can leap from the top of the forest canopy and land THREE HUNDRED FEET AWAY. o.O I definitely don't want to meet one of those things.

March Concentration

I'm planning on pushing the darks a little bit more on this piece.

3-D Chalk Art

Quick side note before you start the actual blog, if you have ANY ideas as far as concentration ideas (mine is the effect of solitude) they would be most appreciated. I'm having some difficulties at the moment.

Anyhow...

The first time I actually saw a chalk artist in person was when I was helping out at the Tualatin Art Splash. His art wasn't as optical illusiony as these; he did batman with a small child. Anyhow, these are awesome. This stuff must take so much time going back and forth making sure that the effect works when standing back. I'm not too sure if the coca-cola one is legit. If it is, then kudos to the artist. It just looks so darn real. Enjoy!!!

Hand Painting

I'm sure we've all drawn on ourselves many times. (bored in class, much?) This hand painting, though, is ridiculous! These particular ones are by Guido Daniele. He not only paints people for shows and events, but he also does hand animals.

I think that he had a contract with AT&T for a while because he has a lot of designs holding phones.

He has many more nifty designs on his website
http://www.guidodaniele.com/mani01.htm . I would recommend seeing the second page of his hand gallery.

On another note, I'm in the process of completing my fourth concentration piece. It demonstrates the idea that one becomes an entirely different person when they are in solitude. I'll post pictures when it's finished.

Concentration #3

I have completed my third piece! Huzzah! Sorry the image is so bad - I took the picture with my the camera on my phone, so it's really bad. Just as a refresher, my theme is the effects of solitude. This piece shows how when one is alone, they can go into their happy place. This isn't mine (I don't fish). It is supposed to have an 'edge of the world' sort of feel to it. I don't know why I stuck that in. I guess I just felt like it. (probably the same reason I stuck in the umbrella).

Please critique me! I haven't done an oil painting in a RIDICULOUSLY LONG time. Any advice or suggestions would be most appreciated. :)

Digital Artist

One of my friends just gave this link to Carolyn Gan's webpage. She is working with a lot of digital art now.
http://wratbox.com/index.htm
As always I'm a huge sucker for the dragons. She mentions that she uses photoshop cs3, corel painter 9, and manga studio ex to color her works. All of which, unfortunately, add up to hundreds of dollars worth of software. I'll probably wind up getting something similar a few years down the road when they have an even better version out and I've saved up a heck of a lot of money.

While I do know that it takes tremendous skill to paint something digitally, I've always valued those who can create this sort of thing with pencils and paints a little bit more... But that's just me. Her work is inspiring, especially because I am going into character design myself. (or another part of the game process, whichever strikes my fancy once I've tried them all out). Her detail astounds me, in the scales of the dragon to the whole environment in the picture below.
Here's another one I especially liked. It's so nice and warm! And you cannot help but love the GIGANTIC fish. The one below reminds me a lot of the game Persona 3. I'm not sure if you've seen/played it (i've only played part, so no spoilers!), but part of the introduction video has the protagonist on a train and when it hits midnight everything goes a ghoulish green and weird stuff happens.

Sleeeep

So I was so proud of myself for almost finishing my second concentration piece over the weekend. I was just letting it dry (it is an oil painting) so that I could add the finishing touches, but my dad just informed me that it probably won't be dry enough by Wednesday. SAD. DAY.

And so, in the next two nights I will be creating ANOTHER piece. I'm planning on having it represent how solitude can create the feeling of "what's wrong with me?" Depressing, that's for sure, but you can't be alone more than making art in your room at 1 in the morning. I'll just need tea. lots of tea.

I guess this is kind of a heads up if you see me passed out in the halls. ;) You'll be one of the few that knows why.

Concentration

My concentration is the effect of solitude on people and creatures. Solitude can be a bliss that allows a person to be at peace. Other times it destroys the person, causing them to look upon themselves, others, and life in general with anger. Solitude, while it can be desired, can also be inflicted upon a person or animal until it only has its reflection to recall the pleasure of company.

I currently have only one concentration piece completed, but I'm planning on bumping that number up to two or three by the end of the weekend. This picture was taken before I finished the inside of the mirror. Like in much of my art, I tried to make Bob as realistic as possible. I'm really happy how this has turned out; I haven't used watercolors much, so I'm pleased that it actually looks like a bird. I tried to have the bars of the cage fade into the vast space in order to emphasize how small and alone Bob is. I also attempted to paint the feathers on her chest by sort of...jabbing, the brush. I think it give it a ruffled sort of look that resembles feathers. Maybe, maybe not. For me the perch and the bars of the cage not only conjoin to focus on Bob but also drags my eye into the picture.

This weekend I'm going to be starting/completing another piece. It is going to reflect the happier side of solitude; the creation of your own personal world when you're alone. Everyone's happy place is different. The one I'm going to paint won't be mine, but it might wind up reflecting someone else's.

Winter at its finest

Every year in Japan there is a snow festival in Sapporo (located on the northern island of Hokkaido), during which teams will create a ice/snow sculpture. They only have about 20 hours to complete the whole project. This sculpture -> is the royal palace of Baekje. Baekje was a kingdom in Korea. Unfortunately the palace was destroyed in a fire, but has since been rebuilt. I'm not quite sure how tall this sculpture is, but the details on the building are darn impressive.

This sculpture <- is the Iolani palace. According to the site this palace is the only royal palace in the U.S. And it's in Hawaii, so it's not like we can just drive to it on a short vacation. :( I especially like this sculpture because of the color. True, the snow one was cool, but the colored lights behind it make this one even better.

On a side note (and I mean a VERY side note) my electric teakettle is broken. Sad day. I boiled some water on the stove and tried to pour it straight from the pot into the cup. It didn't go so well; boiling water got everywhere (except in the mug). So no more tea until we get a new one. :( It's going to be an interesting week.

http://www.snowfes.com/english/place/oodori/index.html (this is the site where I found the sculpture pictures. There are a lot more on there if you want to check it out)

We Don't Make Mistakes; We Have Happy Accidents

The fuzzy-haired Bob Ross. I'll freely admit that his show is one of my favorite things to watch if i have some spare time. Anyhow, the reason I brought this up is because I am planning on doing an oil painting for one of my concentration pieces and will be using his techniques.

It's kind of ridiculous how quickly and effortlessly he can make a gorgeous painting. I absolutely failed the first time I tried his trick for making mountains. practice, practice
As for the piece. I'm in the process of covering the canvas and a practice sheet of paper in black gesso and will be working on it here at home. Fingers crossed, all goes well. I'll just add in some happy clouds ... and let's say a tree lives here.. and we're all good. :)

Here a just a few paintings that I like. These seem to be some of his earlier ones...

Always wanted to try this

I remember seeing this commercial a while ago (I think it was for Allstate or Geico) and it had this woman shaping things over and over again in sand on a lightbox. So I looked up some videos on youtube and found Ilana Yahav and her art

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbm7hbhVFHY&feature=response_watch

This is one of her many videos. Apparently, she does live performances where the camera focused on the light table displays it on a huge screen behind her for the crowd to see. I don't know how she can stand to keep forming and reforming. I would at least need to stop and observe the work for a bit before I moved onto the next step.

I've been tempted to throw together a make-shift light box specifically for this, but i doubt that my parents would appreciate

• me having sand in my room
• yet another thing crammed on my art desk
• the cats utilizing the box when no one is home

But we'll see. Maybe during some spare time up in Redmond. . . where there are no cats.