1. Define which techniques you tried and mastered? Struggled? The technique that I tried and mastered was shading. Especially shading the neck and collarbone area. I definitely struggled with drawing my hair as it was hard to add in the highlighted parts without making myself age like 50 years. 2. How did you draw inspiration from other artists techniques or aesthetics in your work? In what ways did you derive meaning or gain historical perspectives from their work? Why these artists? An artist that inspired me was Banksy. His artwork definitely focuses on spreading a message and through my portrait, I tried to convey the idea of being happy through my text. I drew inspiration from Banksy because his artwork has been my favorite ever since I heard about him. Especially the fact that he keeps himself anonymous, keeping the focus on his work and the messages that he conveys. 3. Describe the evolution of your piece. Decisions made. Compositional elements. In the beginning, I didn't come up with the text idea of happiness, but as I continued working on my portrait, I realized that happiness is something that I personally focus on. So I made the decision that I would add in the text saying "Just Be Happy". The design of the text, more specifically the direction it's going in gives the idea that there is movement in the background where the text is. As if the text is passing by behind me. I chose to write some of the text in black so that the audience who sees it can see my message more clearly. 4. If you could consider doing something over, explain why you would do this and what you would do next time? I would definitely just do my hair and eyes differently. Because of my hair, I feel like it distracts my focus on the message. Also my eyes could've looked more realistic if I added in more shading around it. 5. Elaborate on how this piece links with your other pieces? What is the common thread? I don't have many other pieces, only the still art. But this links to that because we focused on shading and making decisions. Adding shadows where it should be and adding highlights where it should be.
Lost
. Define which techniques you tried and mastered? Struggled? A technique that I tried and mastered was balancing out the colors. I had to choose aesthetically pleasing colors that corresponded with the galaxy. A technique that I struggled on in this art-piece was blending. I had a hard time blending the black with the lighter colors. 2. How did you draw inspiration from other artists techniques or aesthetics in your work? In what ways did you derive meaning or gain historical perspectives from their work? Why these artists? I didn't exactly draw inspiration from any specific artists, it kind of came from within. I read a short story called No Name Woman, and I guess my inspiration kind of came from there. The idea of a faceless person, who's identity is unknown really helped me develop certain theme. 3. Describe the evolution of your piece. Decisions made. Compositional elements. First things first, I drew the outline of the person and his/her face apart from the body. Showing the idea of detachment. The decision I made was to make them nude, to show a kind of exposure. I made the person the focal point so the audience can mainly focus on the light part rather than the dark. 4. If you could consider doing something over, explain why you would do this and what you would do next time? If I were to do something over, I would definitely blend more. I would have used Black a little less, considering it was difficult to blend in with the other few colors. At first I used white out to try to master the twinkling stars in the galaxy, but I transitioned to paint. It was easier to use paint because the white out was too thick. 5. Elaborate on how this piece links with your other pieces? What is the common thread? My theme will mainly focus on aesthetically pleasing pieces of work.. But I want my pieces to keep showing the idea of 'being lost' because we are at a time in our lives where we are faced with tough decisions and a whole lot of stress, but overtime, we soon find ourselves making decisions without hesitation.
Loading Society
Define which techniques you tried and mastered? Struggled? Well I combined a variety of photos to create a collage. I struggled with the spacing as to where I should put the little pieces of photos. But I think I mastered gathering the right photos to display the meaning behind this artwork. Drawing the hands was difficult and using a sharpie to outline it was a wrong move for me. 2. How did you draw inspiration from other artists techniques or aesthetics in your work? In what ways did you derive meaning or gain historical perspectives from their work? Why these artists? Banksy has always been my inspiration. His art mainly focuses on political and societal statements. My collage here is focusing on politics and the world in general. I like putting meaning into my artwork because the closer you look, the more the artwork makes sense. 3. Describe the evolution of your piece. Decisions made. Compositional elements. Firstly, I started off drawing the iphone and the hand with pencil. I then added the Earth and the loading sign below it stating, "50%". I then got a variety of magazines and books to tear out pages that connected to my theme and meaning. I glued them on as it became a collage. 4. If you could consider doing something over, explain why you would do this and what you would do next time? I would do the hand and the phone all over again. I personally feel like using the sharpie was a bad choice as it was too overpowering. The lines weren't straight and the hands did not look realistic at all. Excitement kind of rushed my capability. 5. Elaborate on how this piece links with your other pieces? What is the common thread? This links with my other pieces because my idea of "being lost". Our world is not perfect and it is almost "lost". Conquering world peace should be the goal but it seems like there is still so much progress left to be accomplished.
Save the Coral Reefs project
Define which techniques you tried and mastered? Struggled? I used pastels and techniques I tried was blending I mastered getting the colors to work together. The sunset looks beautiful as the sun reflects upon the water. I struggled on fully blending but also drawing reefs. 2. How did you draw inspiration from other artists techniques or aesthetics in your work? In what ways did you derive meaning or gain historical perspectives from their work? Why these artists? I drew inspiration from social media and it's aesthetics. Not from a single artist but from social media. Our generation is obsessed with aesthetically pleasing artwork and I wanted to fulfill that by creating a beautiful sunset as well as supporting the coral reef project. 3. Describe the evolution of your piece. Decisions made. Compositional elements. Firstly, I drew the sky and I made the decisions rather quickly because I already knew what colors to add. The colors were very nice compositional elements. As well as spacing. 4. If you could consider doing something over, explain why you would do this and what you would do next time? I would focus more on the actual coral reefs. I used thick pastels which was a mistake. I should have used pastel pencils so I could create finer lines within my piece. 5. Elaborate on how this piece links with your other pieces? What is the common thread? This relates to my theme of "being lost" because having to save the coral reefs show how our world is in a lost state and they are forgetting to preserve the life of sea creatures and the cleanliness of the ocean. Many of the coral reefs are dying and it relates back to the common thread of being "lost".
Gaining Consciousness
1. Define which techniques you tried and mastered? Struggled? Techniques that we tried included assembling and sculpting. We definitely struggled with sculpting/creating because it took a lot of time and patience. Making paper cranes includes a lot of work and making sure every move the paper goes is the right, precise way. 2. How did you draw inspiration from other artists techniques or aesthetics in your work? In what ways did you derive meaning or gain historical perspectives from their work? Why these artists? An Artist I took inspiration from was Michelangelo. It wasn't him that provoked the urge to start sculpting things. But on the internet today, many are obsessed with the idea of something being aesthetically pleasing. Michelangelo's sculptures were very aesthetically pleasing and our idea derived from that. We tried to make the idea of cranes flying around under stars a visually pleasing piece. 3. Describe the evolution of your piece. Decisions made. Compositional elements. Compositional elements that we used were shapes and colors. The sizes of the cranes differed every time and we tried to use a variety of different colors that all suited each other or complimented each other. First we began with making the paper cranes and we made about 50. Then I went on ahead and started to make 3D stars out of paper. After that, we hot glued these pieces onto metal wire that dangled from a piece of wood. We carefully thought this idea through and many of the decisions we made were clear and precise. 4. If you could consider doing something over, explain why you would do this and what you would do next time? If we were to do something, I would just add more cranes and make the whole piece look more full. Due to limited time, we ended up only putting on about half of the cranes and stars we made. The more full it looks, the better because there can be too much space not being occupied between the cranes and stars. 5. Elaborate on how this piece links with your other pieces? What is the common thread? This links to my other pieces because it also relates to the idea of my art being aesthetically pleasing. This piece relates to my piece called "Lost" because when you are lost, you take time for yourself and maybe look under the stars to try and regain your own sense. So I took a picture of Lana behind all the cranes and stars because she depicts the idea of someone being lost and searching for a way to close that gap in her life.
Headache
1. Define which techniques you tried and mastered? Struggled? A technique I tried that was mastered was finding random photos that created an illusion effect. I struggled with completely shading in the person but I also tried to take the attention away from him. 2. How did you draw inspiration from other artists techniques or aesthetics in your work? In what ways did you derive meaning or gain historical perspectives from their work? Why these artists? An artist that I took inspo from was Hanna Hoch. I liked how her artwork had a lot of collages. Her pieces included using different pieces of art to form it into one. 3. Describe the evolution of your piece. Decisions made. Compositional elements. I first created the college. I got many magazines and found very random pictures which I wanted to add to give it that random effect. I mainly focused on shapes and sizes. I chose to add in small picture details but also big ones. For example, the couple standing was a small detail and the photo of john lennon was a big one. 4. If you could consider doing something over, explain why you would do this and what you would do next time? If I could do something over, I would re-draw the by I drew. I would at least shade it in more so it can look balanced. 5. Elaborate on how this piece links with your other pieces? What is the common thread? But this links to my other pieces and has a common thread because I am deriving off of the whole idea of being lost. This artwork depicts that because surrounding the boy, many different things are present and a lot is happening. There is big contrast and the meaning is that this boy is lost within the random things that are happening.
The Four Sisters
1. Define which techniques you tried and mastered? Struggled? A technique I tried and master was trying to attempt symmetry. I had to have the sizes of the faces almost symmetrical so it could be appealing to the eye. I struggled with showing more emotion on the 4 faces. They are supposed to show different emotions. 2. How did you draw inspiration from other artists techniques or aesthetics in your work? In what ways did you derive meaning or gain historical perspectives from their work? Why these artists? An artist that I drew inspo from was Wassily Kandinsky. Mainly due to the idea of abstract art. I gained meaning from his work because abstract art can have clear meaning. 3. Describe the evolution of your piece. Decisions made. Compositional elements. I first started off with one face, then I proceeded to create the other faces, trying to make it as symmetrical as possible. Then I added in the four different emotions. A compositional element that I focused on was shape. As soon as you first see the picture, all you see are ovals and faces. 4. If you could consider doing something over, explain why you would do this and what you would do next time? If I were to do something over, I would make the emotions more noticeable. From my point of view, they look pretty understandable but from someone else's POV, it could possibly be a little more difficult to interpret. 5. Elaborate on how this piece links with your other pieces? What is the common thread? This links to my other pieces because this is depicting the emotions that I feel and that I have been feeling overtime. This relates to the idea of growing up and almost being lost within your emotions. The common thread is the feeling of being lost but in different ways.
Don't know myself
1. Define which techniques you tried and mastered? Struggled? This may not relate to art but a technique I tried was calligraphy in this art piece. I think I mastered it pretty well. A technique I still struggle with is blending in my pencil. 2. How did you draw inspiration from other artists techniques or aesthetics in your work? In what ways did you derive meaning or gain historical perspectives from their work? Why these artists? For this artwork, I did not draw any inspiration from any artist. I believe that this piece came from within and that drawing inspo from an artist is not necessary when it comes to drawing something as personal as my identity. 3. Describe the evolution of your piece. Decisions made. Compositional elements. Well I started off with one line down in the middle. I took a picture of myself and used that for reference to draw and map out my face onto the paper. A compositional element I used was contrast. The two sides of the art show contrasting sides of my life. 4. If you could consider doing something over, explain why you would do this and what you would do next time? If I were to do something over, I would definitely work on the pencil more and blend it in more. I would also add more color. 5. Elaborate on how this piece links with your other pieces? What is the common thread? This links to my other pieces because my theme is about being lost and self-identity comes with that. As we come of age, we feel many emotions and when you are born somewhere your parents are not from, it is a very emotional thing. One side depicts my Mongolian side and the other depicts my American side.