Self Portrait

We all to create a blind contour self portrait. We were given a mirror and we could only look in the mirror when we drew our face. We were not able to look down at the paper when we were drawing or pick up the pencil. The whole picture had to be only one line. It was hard not to look down at the paper when I was drawing. After I was done my drawing, I had to include facts about me all around my portrait. Even though my portrait looks nothing like me, it tells who I am. After I wrote about me, I added color to the paper. I enjoyed making this portrait. It was something different. I never did something like this before.

                           

Bowls

This is my second year making bowls in art. I love making and glazing bowls. You can pick the shape, style, design, and colors of the bowl. I love how the glaze turns out after it is fired. The bowls that we are making are going to a dinner and the proceeds made will go to The Foodbank of South Jersey. These bowls are special and are important because they are going to a good cause. There are so many people across the country that are hungry. We are able to help those that are not able to afford their own food. This money from the dinner will be donated and will help those that really need it. We might not think of what it is like to be in the position of those that are in need. If we were in their position and have no food, we would have to rely on others for help.

Lanterns

In art class we had to create paper lanterns. We had to pick a season to make a topic for our lanterns. I chose the season winter. I love winter so much, but I didn't know what to do with my lantern at first. After I thought about it, I decided to make a winter outdoors scene. I cut out stars in the sky, added a few snow flakes, three Christmas trees, and a star on top of each tree. Each Christmas tree is different. The tall tree on the far left does not have any decorations on it, the tree in the middle is the smallest with decorations, and the tree on the right is tall and has decorations. I like how my lantern is an oval shape. It's unique that way because I saw that other lanterns are not that shape. I really enjoyed making my lantern and its outcome in the end.

   

Claude Monet

Claude Monet was born on November 14, 1940 in Paris. He loved art his whole life. As a young boy he would draw his teachers in school and outside of school he liked to draw people in his town. His mother supported his love for art, but his father wanted him to be a business man when he was older. Monet met a local artist named Eugene Boudin. Eugene painted landscapes in all of his paintings. Eugene showed Monet how great the outdoors were to paint. Monet was inspired by Eugene's work, so Monet wanted to also paint landscapes as well. In 1859, Monet enrolled in the Academie Suisse. Academie Suisse was an art school in Paris. Some of Monet's most famous paintings are Water- Lily Pond, Impression Sunrise, and Water Lilies Evening Effect. Monet's art had made him one of the most famous artists in history.
     I like Claude Monet because I love his paintings. I love how he paints outdoors scenes. I think his paintings are beautiful and I like how all the colors in his paintings go perfectly together and compliment each other. I also decided to research Monet because he paints a lot of water scenes. I love oceans, lakes, and any type of water scene. I think all of his paintings are very calming and are not crazy to look at. 

Water Lily Pond

Cliff Walk

     I love all of Claude Monet's paintings, so it was hard to decide which ones I wanted to talk about. The first painting I like of his is called Water Lily Pond. In Water Lily Pond, I love his use of color. The different colors of the plant around the pond are all unique and colorful. The next two paintings are water scenes. These paintings are called Cliff Walk and Storm Off The Belle-lle Coast. Both of these pictures shows the beauty of the water. It also shows all of the wonderful colors in the water as well as the colors in the sky and the colors in the grass in the painting Cliff Walk. All of his paintings are beautiful and unique. His paintings show nature, and how beautiful nature really is.

Storm Off The Belle-lle Coast

Reflection on the Marking Period

Over this first marking period in art, I feel like I have gained skills and have become better in art. I think I have become better at shading when I drew my shoe drawing. I remember last year I wasn't sure how to shade properly, but now I feel like I have a better sense of how to do it. I feel like I can shade better going from lighter to darker. I remember last year in the beginning of the school year, we had to shade apples. I remember I didn't know how to add dimension, shine, or texture to my drawing. All of this can be done with different shading techniques and the right drawing pencil. This year I feel like I have a better idea of what I am doing and how to do different techniques, such as shading. I am ready to learn more skills in art this year.

Next President Collage

For the next president election, I decided to do my collage on civil rights. Civil rights are very important to all humans, they protect us. When I first started cutting out pictures out of magazines for my collage, I didn't really know what I was looking for. I had an idea on what I wanted to do, but I couldn't really make up my mind on what I would do. It was hard to decide on what I would use in my collage and what I wouldn't. I like using tissue paper in my collages. At first, I put different colors of tissue paper on top of my white paper when I first started so I could have a surface to work on. After I would glue pictures down on top of the tissue paper, I would put more tissue paper on top of that and add some paint in various spots. On my collage I painted a peace sign, a heart, and the word respect. I believe that all three of those things are the key for protecting civil rights. From magazines I cut out the words fight back, less spying more transparency, voice, your world, love, and never underestimate the power. I liked how my collage turned out in the end. When I was starting my collage, I didn't like it at all. But I realized from many times in art that a lot of times when you don't like a piece of art that you are working on at first, you really like it in the end.

Shoe Drawing

I had a lot of fun drawing the different shoes. When I first started drawing, I didn't know which direction to turn to. I wasn't sure at which angle to draw the shoes to make them look the most interesting. I first started drawing the Converse shoe on the right and then I worked my way over to the left side of the page where the sneaker is. I really like shading in where shadows are and going from light to dark with shading. With shading you can add your own dimension to your drawing and can be as creative as you want to. The hardest thing about drawing the shoes for me was drawing the shoe laces as best as I could. It was hard because the middle shoe had the laces in a knot and and the shoe on the right had the laces going down into the shoe. It was challenging trying to draw the shoes to make them look like how they would look in person. Overall, I am proud of my drawing. I think I did a great job drawing them and shading them right.