Clay Sculpture (its a turtle!)

Master Oogway is so awesome!

Like a stereotypical turtle, my sister is 
very smart, but slow at some things.  
She takes her time, for better or worse.

For the clay sculpture, I will make my sister, as a turtle in a bookstore.  Her favorite animal has always been a turtle, which is funny because she turns out to share similar traits.  She has always wanted a turtle for a pet, but our parents won't allow it because they would deal with that thing until they die (they want to deal with Caroline until they die, just not a pet.  It's a lot of work).  The common perception of turtles is that they are wise and/or smart, slow, patient, and bookish.  Caroline is all of those things (although she sometimes isn't exactly Master Oogway, the wise turtle from Kung Fu Panda), especially bookish.  If she had it her way, she would spend her entire life on the couch reading a book (we joke that while it takes the place of work sometimes, it is better than tv or video games).   I think I will make the turtle in a library, browsing through books like she is grocery shopping.  It isn't too far off from the truth,

Symbolic Portrait: For real this time!

Because I have been sitting in front of my sketchbook without finding any ideas for the past three work days, I have decided to change my topic.  I can't think of enough things about Cameron to make the portrait interesting (not that he isn't an interesting person), so I am thinking of doing Stephen Colbert, my favorite comedian.  He is basically a self-centered character that parodies of Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, etc.  Because he airs at 11:30, my family Tivos it (or whatever recording thing Dad has.  Not sure), and watches it every night.  One of the things I like best about him is that he plays a character, and can therefore be the most "out there" because he won't get criticized for it.  Because of this, there will be all sorts of symbols/objects I can use for him:  There two sides of him to describe (character and real life), along with all of the times he has eaten dog food, or tried out for the Nicks, or "joined" the army.  This way, the easy part will be coming up with ideas (usually the hardest part for me), and the hard part will be arranging them in a way that is interesting.

Symbolic Portrait

When I do my abstract/symbolic portrait, I will make mine represent my first friend, Cameron.  We aren't friends anymore, but we don't hate each other (we're just different people).  One of the things that stood out about Cameron was that he was unnaturally (beyond his age, anyways) generous and kind.  He would share with everyone (this was 1st grade, by the way), and never got mad even if we messed up.  I think I will use a hand of some sort to represent generosity, and an ornament he made me to apologize for a certain incident that will not be referenced in my portrait.  I hope you're okay with a hand, even though we aren't supposed to use anything that resembles him.  Maybe I'll color it bright yellow...  The other thing that I remember about Cameron was that he had a habit of "improving" the truth.  He didn't mean any harm; he just liked to tell stories.  However, this habit led to taking things (nothing big), so it had to be stopped.  As a symbol for telling stories, I haven't decided what I will do, but I will think about it over the weekend.  I think I will do it in black in white to show that he is multidimensional (aren't we all?), and also because black and white drawings are really cool looking if done well (no guarantees ;).

Visiting Artist: Hamlett Dobbins

It looks kind of like this...

My favorite piece of Hamlett's is one of the twenty or so untitled paintings in the section "the river beneath us." I like this one because I have always liked to work with lots of colors in some sort of design (like a gradient, I think.  That's what they call my favorite tool on Photoshop...).  This is the kind of thing I could stare at for hours.  I am not exactly an art collector or anything, so I find a lot of those super-involved still lifes (lives?) fun to make but boring to look at, even if they are really famous or something (no offense if you like/make those.  I'm a kid).  I think this piece fits right in with Hamlett's work because he seems to like abstract art (judging by his other paintings), and if you asked me what this painting was of, it might take a while to answer.  In a lot of his paintings, he has a design in the center/emphasis, with some sort of colorful background, and this seems to fit in with his style.  Maybe our mural group can get help from him with making our background and mural...

Questions:

What inspires you to make these paintings?  This isn't the kind of thing you walk down the street and see everyday (unless you live in an art store).

How long does it take you to make these?

How can you draw straight lines?  I can't seem to do that even if I have a ruler, darn it!

Reflecting on group work (this one has the mural picture!)

This week you have been working with a group to develop a concept for a collaborative mural project. In a post on your blog describe how making art with other people has been different than making art on your own. In your description be sure to mention challenging AND positive aspects of this work. 

Whenever we do group work in school, there are always upsides and downsides to me.  In my opinion, one of the big positive things about working in a group is that I am exposed to more ideas than I usually would have come up with working alone.  That way, we can talk through each one and possibly come up with a better concept for our work.  The downside to me is that part about deciding on one idea.  While four people means four times the creativity, it also means four times the opinions.  In most cases, one or two of us will like one idea while the other two are strongly against it, so we will have to move on to other ideas.  Now that my group has finally chosen one of the ideas for our mural, I am optimistic (as much as I can be, anyways) on how this project will turn out.

Rocky

I'm going to call this "Rocky."  I don't particularly think a title will add much here...

End of Term One Reflection

     At the beginning of the term, I had my doubts about going to "another art class."  However, looking back on it, I really enjoyed it and learned a lot, regardless of what I had thought at the time.  One thing I learned was that it is very helpful to plan out pieces of artwork before you make them.  Before this class, I thought that schoolwork required planning, while art was entirely spontaneous (and therefore planning was useless).  After days of stressing out about what to do for one of our projects, my opinion changed (needless to say).  I was able to finish projects much faster with a plan, and I was happier with the result.  Next term, I will try to plan out all of my projects before I start working (unless I am told otherwise).

    I think that one of my biggest challenges this term was that I am self conscious of my work.  This is not exclusive to art, but I also don't like sharing my writing, and I definitely am not a confident public speaker (one of the many reasons I came to this school).  You may or may not have noticed, but I don't even like my art to be on top of the "stack," or hung up on a wall.  This is not something you should stop doing, rather, it is something I need to work on.  As you talked about earlier this year, self consciousness is one of the last things I need in art class.  This is one of my many goals in the years/terms to come.

     In my opinion, the best thing for me that came from this class is that I am now more comfortable trying new things.  I used to be an extremely reserved person, and I still am in some respects.  For example, I would never have been willing to draw people for example.  I would have dreaded those "drop everything and draw" Tuesdays because I never know what will happen in advance.  However, I am surprised to find myself looking forward to those.  This term, I have worked on trying new projects and being comfortable with them.  I have noticed that I stick mostly to oil pastels, pencils, and charcoal pencils.  I think I will try some painting next term so that I branch out, but I am still proud of my improvements, progress, and growth this term.