Hawaiian Hallway - Interior Space - Project 3

For this project we had to pick an interior we wanted to create and the first thing my mind went to was a picture I took when I went on a trip with my best friend over the summer of an abandoned building.  The original picture I took looked like it was basically all black and white in the first place except it had a few brown tones in it, but I wanted to stick with blacks and whites for this piece because it seemed like a fun challenge.  I've always loved using charcoals, so I chose that as my medium, but drew on a black piece of paper rather than plain old white paper. 

This is an in progress picture of the piece when I was still figuring out what parts of the original photo I wanted to include since the paper was shaped differently.  I had a lot of fun creating this piece and got a lot of good feedback from others during class that watched me create this.  I got good tips on blending from my classmates and figured out a few good techniques to get the shading right.  

This picture is the final product.  I ended up adding the ceiling in the picture which I was hesitant to do because I didn't want it to take away from the focus on the door and the flooring, but I loved how it turned out.  While making this I learned how to blend the white and black charcoal to make different variations of grey's for the board that were leaning against the wall and for smaller details. I always ridicule the little details in my pieces so I tried my best at adding all the knots and spots where the paint was chipped in the door and I am very pleased with how it turned out.  The texture in the wood looks fantastic and I can't help but daydream about going back to this exact place. 

Practice With Oil Paints

In class this year one of our goals is to challenge ourselves and try out mediums we have never used to make a piece.  We never did much when it came to oil paints and I was ready to be adventurous, so our class decided to experiment and test out the paints before we started our new projects.  We painted pictures of fruits using both pallet knives and regular brushes and this is how mine came out.

The first picture I have here was made with regular brushes and I was extremely pleased with how it turned out.  I learned that you had to be careful and patient with the oil paints because they are thicker and don't dry quickly, but I eventually caught on and learned new techniques for blending and adding highlights. I wanted to keep the whole picture bright so I chose bright colors for the background as well to keep it light and happy.  I was afraid the bright green would mess up the leaves that are on top of the orange but I was able to make a lighter green for the back and loved how the leaves didn't get lost in the picture. 

I have come to love using oil paints with brushes but I had a lot of trouble using the pallet knives.  I didn't get a chance to finish the practice piece with a pallet knife so I can't say I learned a lot from the experience but hopefully I can try this again soon and maybe learn some new techniques.  All I know so far is that it was very hard to try to do highlights and shadows because I couldn't thin the paint out much and it became sort of messy looking.  I prefer using brushes at this point but pallet knives seem like they would be a lot more fun to use on a painting that's not this small.  

Gaston Vibes - Reflection - Project 2

I have struggled in the past with colored pencils because I am usually never satisfied with the blending and it's not always easy to get the right coloring. I had to learn how to blend more and layer the colors, and I'm pretty happy with how the final product turned out.  I had trouble blending the clouds but compared to the original picture I based this off of the highlights and colors are very similar.  I definitely gained a lot of skill using prisma colored pencils and I've definitely come a long way compared to old projects I tried doing using this medium.  When adding details and shadows became challenging I had to just take a step back and decide what I had to add or fix that was necessary, and what wasn't worth obsessing over.  I'm glad I used that strategy or I would have spent a lot more time than I did drawing and redrawing bits and pieces that were already good.  It was a bit of a stressful process but the textures in the water and the trees in the back look great and I love how the "reflections" and the shadow of me in the kayak turned turned out in the water.

Chaco Livin - Object - Project 1

I have never used oil paints before this project except for a small practice painting of an orange.  I originally planned to use pastels to create this project but I decided to step out of my comfort zone and it took awhile but I finally figured out how to handle the paint since it takes a lot longer to dry than acrylics. I started to have second thoughts about working on this because it took forever to get the right textures and adjust the lighting but I kept at it and I'm happy with how the shoes came out and how the light reflecting off the background looks.  This picture was a lot more intricate and required a lot more attention when it came to adding value but I still enjoyed the learning process that came with the project.  I struggle with obsessing over little details sometimes so I had to take a step back and decide if certain parts were really worth stressing over.  I asked a few people for their opinions and they all said it looked great but if I get the chance I'd like to possibly edit part of the molding but other than that minor bit, I wouldn't change a thing about this piece.  I was asked a lot in class why I decided to paint Chacos and the best answer I could give people was that my sister and I live in them 24/7 and she gave me a pair for my birthday one year and it was probably one of the best presents I've ever gotten. Chacos describe my sister and I's personalities perfectly so I wanted to depict that in this by using the bright colors and making it an overall happy painting.