Continuing Painting

          This first oil painting I've made was originally was going to be nice and clean, and eventually I gave in to my fear of messing up and messed up all over it. I just barfed my creative process over the canvas. Whenever I worried about if I'd mess something up, I'd do that exact save things that I was worried about. I am also painting over some parts of my painting Ophelia. I am not satisfied with my lily pads and there was too much empty space so I started painting more hair. Going to put more detail with the flowers. Also, made the eyes and eyelashes more realistic. I have to figure out how to make the depth perception better.

Planning Second and Third Paintings

        Here are a few sketches of what I am planning on doing. The first sketch is going to be my third painting. It will be based off of a combination of the two themes Identity and Surrealism. The painting will be a human body with no connected head. And where the head would be will be a galaxy. The galaxy symbolizing that we are all as complicated as the things that make up our universe. I plan on using acrylic with this one. 

        

        This second sketch will be based on journey. A lot of people help you through your journey through life. Friends, and family, etc. The symbolism is simple and overused, but I feel like I need to make something like this. Something that bring my appreciation of my friends and family to light. This is also the painting that I plan on using watercolor with. I'm thinking that I will not be able to make the hands as detailed as I would like, but enough that it helped the viewer get the point. 

        Maybe I should switch the mediums of the paintings. I'm not entirely sure which medium I should use for which. The watercolor would help with the flow of making a galaxy, but I feel like ........... again, like I said in my last post, I should just dive into the deep end. I don't know what I'm doing and that's okay. Just go with my gut.

Finishing Ophelia

This is the final painting for Ophelia. It was difficult trying to figure out how to make the hair look like it was floating in water, and making the water was much harder. I first attempted to create the illusion of the hair floating in the water by making the background, the dark water, first and then painted the hair on top of it. I did leave white space for the hair so it wouldn't be so dark. The NOSE was incredibly difficult, but fun to make. It was satisfying to realize when I had finished making it that it looked better than I had originally planned. The running mascara was not planned but welcome nonetheless. I suppose that is a example of the paint will do what it wants to do, regardless of what the artist wants. Paint has a mind of its own. 

        I suppose that it why I'm sort of cautious going into painting. I'm used to having a certain amount of control when making art. I guess I just need to dive feet first into it. Plus, my next painting is going to be watercolor. So, I'm going to have to give up a lot of control whether I like it or not. I'm going to continue bettering this painting through making the lily pads more realistic and making the water look more realistic as well. Maybe I'll add in water droplets on her face and more of a remnant of a body under the water. Make her lips more realistic too.

Ophelia

        I am beginning my fist free painting, based on the theme of Humans and The Environment. I at first wanted to based the base the painting off of the tale of Icarus, but I decided against it because my idea was basically throwing myself in the deep end. So I decided on painting Ophelia from Macbeth. She is an example of how her environment effected and killed her. You could also see it as herself drowning in a pond and seeing the environment in the way of nature. I've made a "sketch" of what I want it to look like. I put quotations around sketch because its more of a full fledged illustration. I have begun painting a color study of how I want the colors to look. Of which I have included below.

        

        Since I have gotten a computer that I can draw on, I have been doing traditional art much less. I need to get back into that mindset of holding an actual pencil. I don't have much experience in painting so I hope this class will help with that. I'm excited to eventually try out oils. Acrylic drys out very quickly, and watercolor is unpredictable (though I am excited to start water color as soon as possible). I've been watching a lot of oil painting videos, and I'm excited to start. I'll include my "sketch" that I've made on my tablet. 

Starting To Paint

      I have started a new class. Its painting!! I'm excited for this  new class because I get to use a lot of colors. I do not have much experience with colors so I am ready to learn as much as I can. I have already made some abstract paintings based on the seasons. I personally had fun making summer and winter. The colors I put into summer were the colors of the sea and the color of my sunburned skin. We put those in mattes and they out on display. I read chapter two and three in the book Colors and made some color wheels. These color wheels I will use for future reference when painting. After I finished the wheels, I continued on to a project in chapter nine. The pattern I am going to use is the paper in the picture with mushrooms. You cut a chunk of the paper put then glue it on to an illustration board. Then you match the colors with paint. And then you paint the opposite intensity, color and tone, which is interesting to me. Like I said before, I do not have much experience with co,or so I am excited to continue to learn more about it!

Monoprints

        I decided to make a series of faces on my mono prints. To make a mono print you have to have a jelly plates. It's like jello but it holds together more. I decided to use the subtractive method. To do this you roll ink on to the jelly plate and use a material like baby wipes to wipe off the ink to make the shapes you want. I decided to make faces. They have been called creepy, but I think they are pretty cool.

        

       My favorite is the old man on the right hand side, but I also had a lot of fun doing the one on the left hand side. I spent the most time on that one. It has a lot of faces and I got to experiment with different tools to use. 

       This class has been pretty fun. I would definitely take this again. I liked the linocut and wood block. The reduction print was probably my favorite though. I put a lot of fun into the rabbit. I like making prints of animals. The woodblock of my deer turned out better than I thought it would. I should have done more details in the background. I supposed that would have taken away from the main event. Or maybe the deer design would have turned out better as a linocut. I would enjoy doing another safety cut. Maybe make my hand holding the plant cleaner. Either way, what is done is done and I am happy with what I have.  

Colograph Print

 
        This is my collograph print. I have tried to imitate the image of a branch looming over a lake or pond. I think it will be interesting with the texture of the cardboard lines in the background of the pond. I was also stuck on what material I should have used for the branch over the pond. I then found this boxy like material floating around in the bins in the back room. I picked it apart and glued it together over the cardboard. I then cut out ovals in the cardboard to make it look like there was ripples in the pond coming from the branch. I was also thinking about putting some interesting texture in the background.