Shazzam!

Hey Everyone,

Recently we were joined by Shazzam to create propaganda posters about school and the future. The major components we had to include were our own photographs, our own design and our own quote that sends a message. Below is my final poster.
I chose to focus on the creativity within a school. Many people see the outside of a school and assume things that may or may not be true. Often, it is assumed that teenagers are troublesome and do not reach their full potential. I think this poster contrasts that notion. Breaking the mold of being a teenager and going to school will unleash a wealth of creativity. It is my personal belief that without creativity a person cannot grow or change.

I purposely made the poster very simple and clean to create a greater impact. I really wanted to full force of the quote to be taken in and understood without too much visual competition. The image on the poster is very simple as well. It is a school breaking apart, allowing the creativity to burst free from its confines. It demonstrates how much potential lies within places people may not think to look.

I hope you liked this and feel free to comment.

~K

Personal Chair

Hey Everyone,

As I've mentioned a few times before, we have been working on creating our own chair designs. The two main things we had to do to create this chair were: make it exude our own personality and make it a functional piece of art. I believe I have reached these goals.

I wanted my chair to be simple yet elegant and interesting, which I think was achieved. I wanted these qualities to be a part of my chair because I think I am a pretty simplistic person. I enjoy nature and peace which is exactly why I knew I had to make my chair some sort of flower. Not only do I like flowers, but I think it also shows my femininity. The chairs curves and simple shape help make it all of these things. Most of all, it makes it a uniquely functional piece of art.

My chair is a very functional piece. It serves many purposes, but only the chair version was displayed in the model. Obviously the main function of this piece is a chair that has a recliner for your feet. I envisioned this piece to be made out of molded plastic, preferably recycled, to make the piece environmentally friendly. The seat would be cushioned out of upholstering materials. These two elements would make the piece more comfortable and a more usable piece of furniture. Another functional element to this chair is that the reclining part of the chair can be folding up allowed the chair to be flipped over. The opposite side could be used as a small table or stool, held up by beautiful flower petals. For me, I love to have multipurpose objects to fit my needs, so why not make my chair that way.

The chair's smooth sides contrast with the angular points of the petals. If this model were build out of plastic and upholstery these two materials would also contrast. My piece has many curved lines that create movement and rhythm. The clean, curved lines move your eyes up and down the the piece as the form of the base gently lifts your attention to the main focal point of the chair, the seat. I think it was important for this to be the focal point as the seat is the whole reason for a chair. Without a seat, how can you sit?

I believe my chair is a functional piece of art that exudes who I am. Comment below and tell me what you think!
~K

Romanticism

Hey Everyone,

Recently we studied the Romantic time period of art and were asked to create a piece of art consisting of what romanticism is. I chose to do my piece of art as a collage and to make it represent the sublime in nature. My idea was to show a couple having a picnic in a valley while a storm approached from beyond the mountains. This shows the powerful and unforgiving attributes nature holds as well as the beauty it shows.

My collage utilizes lights and darks to create a focal point and emphasize upon the lower half of the page. It was important to create this effect as it further contrasts the peaceful picnic with the approaching storm. I also used some colour contrast to help create a focal point. It was really important to me that the focus be on the couple and lower half of the page so I used colour contrast to make them stand out more. I used shades of red against the green valley grass to create contrast and made the people white in contrast to everything on the page. No no other element of the collage is white.

To create my composition, I used line to create movement that lead your eyes around in a triangular composition. Your eyes are first drawn to the bottom of the page to the point of the triangle and then you notice the storm clouds across the base of the triangle. I believe this was an effective composition because it brings you into the reality of the collage. Your eyes are first drawn to the serenity of the picnic like the people there would be, but then you notice the storm looming overhead much like the couple would eventually see.

To create more unity within the piece I used different shaped pieces of paper, roughly around the same size, to create every aspect of the scene. The different pieces of paper form cohesive shapes which makes the collage very unified. I also used values of colour to create gradation within the sky. That helped to create movement and once again bring the focus to the bottom half.

Technically, I had few problems , but I would not suggest someone with little patience to make a collage. The amount of time and repetition creating a collage takes can be really annoying, but yet somehow calming. I hope you liked this and feel free to leave a comment below!

~K

Viewfinders

Hey Everyone,
One assignment we had thus far in class was to create viewfinders and re-create the image using more vibrancy and colour. We had to create a pastel drawing, large painting and small painting, then show the best two on here. We each were allowed to chose a fragment of a larger pastel drawing as our viewfinder sample. The only criteria was that the composition had to be interesting. Here is my viewfinder below.



I chose this part of the larger pastel drawing to crop because of its interesting lines and movement. I thought it created a great diagonal composition that wasn't too boring or too crowded. I also LOVED the colours. In the pastel they were a bit dull, but I knew that if i chose this cropping the colours could be made so vibrant. The first thing we had to do with our cropping was to create a large pastel drawing of it. My drawing is below.



I believe that my pastel turned out pretty nice. From using chalk pastel before, I know that it is not my strongest medium, but I've learned a lot about how to use pastel effectively from this assignment. I learned how to enhance colours and create value with blending from doing this. I think I achieved this in green and blue swirls the most. I was effectively able to create a large scale copy of my cropping and boost the colours. Although I used chalk pastel, the colours look more vibrant than most pastels do. The two hardest things about using the pastel were making sure the pastels were not rough enough to cut the paper and keeping the paper from getting dirty. I noticed that even when I was doing gentle strokes the pastels made scratch lines on my paper. I did not understand this as I was not pressing hard at all. I examined my pastel piece and from that there were some sharp edged on the pastel creating these lines. From then on I rubbed the piece of pastel I was using on some scrap paper to remove this hazard. As for getting the paper dirty, pastel makes your hands soooo messy. It was difficult not to get darker coloured spots where you did not want them. Overall I liked my pastel and thought I did a good job.

The next part of the assignment was to create a large painting and then a small painting of our cropping. I personally did not enjoy the large painting and thought it turned out a bit messy. Therefore, my small painting is the second work I will be showing you all.

I really liked to paint the small version of my cropping. I really loved how much detail you could pour into it. I used three different sized brushes and acrylic paint to create it. The tricky part of this painting was getting the brush strokes just right. I tried to create a lot of texture and purposeful lines. I found that a bit difficult due to the curved lines and blended colours. I think I achieved what I wanted in the end. The colours came out perfectly and I think I achieved my goal of having layered colour as well. In the bottom half, the layered colours were used to create texture as well. I really enjoyed this painting and hope you all enjoy it as well!

~ K