Art Whatever No. 7

Hope everyone had a Happy Christmas today. It was pretty awesome for me. All I needed was to see the movie Love Actually. Best movie to watch for Christmas. Not much art stuff today besides having the honor of celebrating and admiring God's best piece of art that is Jesus Christ and His birth. I know that sounded wrong but tried to make art fit in with today's Christmas thing. Anyways, I got my camera back so I will be putting up some pics either tonight or tomorrow. Have to go now. Joyeux Noel!

Art Whatever No. 6

Uber sorry that I have not posted lately. I have been kept busy with school as exams are this week. Actually today is my Math exam and I'm at school on blog. That's life. Anyways, let's get caught up. I did go to the art show. It was quite a hassle though. Fortunately I was not the only one at the door handing out the show programs. Either way the show was a bit bootleg, as I expected. I finished my portrait but I have not been able to post them because I have retrieved my camera to take the pics. Yesterday I took the Art exam and it was friggin sweet. Everyone was nervous but I was just thinking "Whatever". Anyways I annihilated it with a nice surrealist oil pastel piece and included all the elements necessary for the exam. I was very proud because I finished it in the appropriate time with a minute or two to spare. The Digital Phot exam was not as pleasing as I thought it would be. I almost bombed the Camera part of it and I got an 81 on the online part. The online part ticked me off because I knew the stuff but panicked. Anyways thats all the art highlights so far. For the Winter Break I plan on doing some more oil pastel and maybe a painting or two. Will post more tomorrow.

Art Whatever No. 5

Sorry I have not posted in a while. I've been sick for almost a week now, but today I feel better. Let's see. Art stuff. Hmmm....OH! Tomorrow is the Spain Park High Winter Art Show. Anyone reading this from SP should come out and support the art and the artists. Also, there will be a lot of cookies present and cookies are always good to have. I do not believe that I placed this year, sadly :'( , but I will still go for a bit to get the grade and help out a bit. I will be at the door handing out programs (hopefully not by myself). Then I have to work. The show should be good though. Perhaps not like years in the past but still good. As for my projects now, I have a completed oil painting of a Venetian building thing. Quite nice in my opinion. My portrait is close to being finished. I might just stay up tonight to finish it for tomorrow's show. Unfortunately, I cannot post picture because I don't have my camera to take any. After these two projects, I am heading towards a metamorphasis project that will be done over my winter break. Also, I am thinking about doing another oil painting but I have no idea what to paint. Whatever it may be, it will probably be finger painting. Finger painting will be an experiment for my next painting project. Yup. I think that's all so good night.

Art Whatever No. 4

I'm going to try to make this one fast and juicy as the last two posts have been quite long. Let's see. Today, I went to school early to get some stuff done. I happened to go in the library and started checking out the new work for the winter art show when I noticed my still life drawing was not up there. A bit disappointed I must admit but I at least lost first and second place opportunities to the two I knew were my competition for that category. After school, I went to help put finishing touches to the show til five. It was pretty cool but I was disappointed to see a small number of people at the meeting, especially with this show being a very frantic one with all the new changes and what not. Oh well. I'll try to put up a new post of my current project in a few minutes. Till tomorrow.

Art Whatever No.3

So, HA! It is currently 11:43 and I am typing the post for today. I actually did a new post the next day and not the next year. By the way, what is up with Blogger time? It is way off. Maybe I need to do some kind of adjusting. Anyways, did not get to stay after school today to help with the art show but tomorrow seems like a swell day to stay after. In art today, I was filled with a sense of something today. My experiments were crappy failures but what I was informed of was better. The Scholastic Art Competition is in a sense, underway, in our class. Though only two or three will only participate, I believe it would be awesome to put my work in there. I need to check it out more but I am definitely going to give it a shot. I'm not sure about deadlines but from what I was told by my art teacher, it seems that I have months to prepare. I will most likely put in a whole ishload of stuff, that is if I can. Tomorrow I have Digital Photo as my first class and I am unsure about it. We have a second quarter exam that I need to be studying for tomorrow but somehow I ended up here. Also, I am creating an event poster on Photoshop that is weak right now but. if I implement a new idea for it, could turn into a beastly thing. So I'll be going now to study like half a minute for the exam. Oh, and please check out a problem that I need solved. It is in Art Whatever No. 2 and respond. Je demande une response. I don't even think that is correct French.

Art Whatever No. 2

Hello. Sorry I haven't been on in a while but I've been totally swamped with school and work so I haven't had much time to post. Right now I'm working on a project that I am trying to bring back, as I haven't had the opportunity. I'll see if I can post a separate post so anyone can help me with it by critiqueing it. It is a self-portrait of myself using oil pastels. This has to be my favorite self-portrait ever and one of my favorite pieces. I'm kind of at a bump in the road with it because I'm not entirely sure about what I should do for my background but I haven't given up. Speaking of, I would like to ask anyone who uses color pencils as a medium for advice. A classmate of mine decided to use color pencils as her medium for her portrait. It looks way awesome and I have to give her a lot of credit, as I practically suck in that medium. Anyways, she has been uber frustrated lately (so much that it shows and being the great artist that she is, is surprising) because the paper that she used doesn't have enought tooth or something so she can't add more color to her piece. Too much waxy build up I believe. Our teacher helped her today but she doesn't look to optimistic. Anyways, all I ask for is advice for her so that she may work with that or around it or any methods to use. The Spain Park Winter Art Show is next week so it would be nice for her to be finished by then and better for me because I'll have some competition. Hopefully, I'll be able to go help out at the MANDATORY meeting and take a sneek peek at the scores on my pieces. For now, I have to get back to my current piece so til tomorrow night....Wait, scrap that. I can't even go to the meeting now that I think about it. Work. But I will post.

Be Advised, This is The First Art Whatever for My Blob

So now that I have, for the most part, set up my blog, I will move forward and make an attempt to put in some kind of art news/chat/pics/whatever. For today's art whatever, I would like to mention to anyone living in the San Francisco Area, more specifically Lincoln Park (no not the band), to visit the Theaters of Men: Art and the Holocaust exhibit that opened on the ninth of this month at the Jewish Museum. According to what else I read on FineArtPublicity.com, it is running until February of next year. So even though the economy is crap right now and we're not going out as much, I highly recommend you to go for a visit. This exhibit is the first one I've heard of this year, Holocaust wise. Any Holocaust exhibit is sure to be a good one. Not that I've been to one, but just being apart of that would be great. Better if you're an artist(sort of) because artists are always getting their chops busted(I think that's the line) on Holocaust art so we should represent. But remember to also respect, please. So for tonight I bid you good night and until tomorrow so I might gain more might. (Bit Shakespearish if I do say so myself.)

My Completed Nature Still Life that, when compared to the other girl's pieces, is obviously something a guy drew and totally beats all but two.

So this is my completed Nature Still Life from, of course, October 2008 and completed during my studies in Art IV. It is soft pastel on paper, measuring 18x24. Not much can be said of this, probably and depending on how long this post ends up being. It is the first drawing in where I have started to loosen up and be more abstract and expressionists with my lines. Before, I would be OCD about the whole piece needing to be blended and would spend hours on blending all the other different parts. Although it may not look like it because of the picture, it is more apparent in the contrast with, would you believe it, more use of just blacks and whites and not grays. This piece was also a challenger in that it was my first time drawing most of the items, especially the water bottle and pine cone. I had always wanted to draw something that had glass like qualities but had never come upon an assignment with glass in it until now, even if it is plastic. Also my first time to actually put words in my piece. Despite my enthusiasm towards this piece, I know there is more work to be done, especially with the glove. Also, the pine cone looks as if it is just floating. Should I put something under it? Appreciate hard core criticism.

Liberty...or some other title that fits this painting like Azteca Dos

Ok so this is my oil and acrylic on masonite piece (18x24) from May 2008, when I was an Art III. It got second place in the Spring Art Show (not meaning to brag but I need to put as much info of this piece on my blog). This piece is a continuance, if you will, of my Azteca piece (see below). It has a social commentary and personal message behind it, with major focus on my Mexican culture and on American culture, and huge inspiration from Frida Kahlo and the 19th century Impressionists. I like the way the Aztec temple in the background changes value and the way some of the taxis, along with the moon, look three-dimensional. However, this contrasts with the way some of the other things look flat. The use of line is also something I wanted to emphasize. The color is something I especially like in this piece. If anything worries me, it is the blue background. Although it provides definite contrast with the whole painting, I'm still not sure about it. Also, the person, which is supposed to be the Statue of Liberty, is bothering me due to its flatness. There are other things that seem off that I'm not sure about but if you have any comments please post. :)

Nature Still Life (what a guy SHOULD draw in a class full of "girly girls")

This soft chalk drawing of a self made nature still life is a work in progress this year in 11th grade Art IV. It is a drawing of a work glove reaching out to a set of leaves resting on crumpled newspaper, surrounded by a pine cone and a smashed up water bottle. Some insight and comments would be helpful on this one. Not quite sure about the composition.

Triptych

This oil on canvas is actually my first. It was intro to oil painting in 10th grade Art III. This is a sea landscape (or seascape) with a focus on texture using value. All of them have in common the rocky surface and crashing waves, along with the greenish-blue color of the water. The top one of the triptych needs a bit of work. The rock could use a bit more of something. It doesn't quite look like a rock formation. The waves need a bit of work, as does the sky. The middle one is the one I enjoy the most. Could use a bit more work in the rocks and the water too. The last one is tricky too. It needs more work in the rocks but the water needs the most work. The sky in this one is neat.

Stringed Bass

This is a soft chalk still life drawing of a stringed bass with drapery from tenth grade Art III. The overall piece has a good composition and use of value/contrast in my opinion. The drapery has use of sharp contrast and smooth value changes too. The only part I'm not too fond of is the left side of the piece, in particular, the bottom where the drapery is at. There is not enough contrast in that part to make it look like drapery but I didn't know how to make it look like drapery while at the same time adding a bit of darkness to it. My favorite part would have to be the big curve in the drapery.

Azteca

This one is my first official collage from 9th grade Art II. I definitely like this one. With this one, I obviously used my Mexican culture and background as a center of focus and influence. It is an acrylic on masonite board. It is an Aztec temple surrounded by mountains in the background and taxi cabs in the front. I see that it needs a bit more work as well. The mountainous range in the back could use a more definite contrast. The top of the temple needs more color and value. I like how the repetition of the gray cutouts of an old building help to make the overall temple have some sort of value. The taxi cabs look cool in contrast to the gray behind them. The bottom was supposed to be grass but there are parts where the grass doesn't have enough contrast to make it look like grass. It looks flatter than it should be and seems to be under the whole piece.

Peaches

This one is the earliest I have from 9th grade Art II. It is an acrylic on canvas of peaches in a bowl. This one I would like to continue to work on because I know there are lots of things wrong with it. Composition wise, I think it is ok. The colors are good too. The value definitely needs a bit more work, especially at the bottom. I definitely like the background and foreground in this piece. The simple brownish color of the background is essential for the values of the foreground.

Okay so here is some of my artwork. These pieces range from the fields of drawing, painting, and mixed and as few as there may be, are some of my best projects. Also, they are chronologically listed from grade to grade, with the top being ninth grade and the bottom being the most recent, eleventh grade. I apologize in advance if the pictures aren't clear enough. :)

On the first day,...

I created this blog. Just a simple art blog so others can stop in and hopefully do some intense critiques of my work, helping me in setting up an awesome portfolio for next year. Will post pics soon. Thanks for visiting.