Italian Renaissance

We are starting a new unit in art class about the Italian Renaissance, my art teacher is really excited to start this unit!  She says its some of the best art to have ever been created, I hope that I have the same enthusiasm about it:)

Last Wednesday, we watched 2 videos about the renaissance era, one about the early time, when it first began, and one when it was in it's prime.  We took lots of notes and were asked to answer a few questions and dive into the meaning of art behind this era!

The topic of this unit is very broad, so it gives me lots to work with, I will be expanding on a few of the questions we were asked to consider, and just basically be talking about development of art.

The Renaissance occurred after the dark times in Italian history, (the plague/the black death), so basically everyone was thriving with life and talent.  This was an awesome time for artists!

According to my research, the Renaissance is considered to have started in about 1350-1400's, in Florence, Italy. (The end of the Middle Ages) 

The major change that happened in the renaissance era was in the basic way people thought about things. This was a change from the previous years (middle ages) because in the middle ages people had a mind set that life was supposed to be hard, they were raised thinking that all they had to look forward to in life was hard work and war. 

Luckily, in the early 1300's people in Florence, Italy began to think about life in a whole new and exciting way!  The people of Florence studied the writings and works of the Greeks and the Romans and realized that the way they were living was not the only way, the earlier civilizations had lived much differently. 

The way of thinking that the people of Florence brought up was called Humanism. 

Many people called Francesco Petrarch the "Father of Humanism".  They called him this because he was a scholar and a poet who lived in Florence in the 1300s, right around the time the Renaissance began, also, he studied poets and philosophers from Ancient Rome such as Cicero and Virgil. Petrarch's ideas and poetry became an inspiration to many writers and poets throughout all of Europe as the Renaissance spread, throughout Italy.

Francesco Petrarch

Because of humanism, people were beginning to think that that life was more than just hard work and war, and that it could actually be enjoyable and they could have many comforts. 

They believed that it was important for people to be educated, and that it was necessary to study things like art, music, and science, and that this alone could make life better for everyone. 

Giotto was a painter in Florence. Giotto was actually the first known  painter to break away from the usual style painting of the Middle Ages and try something new. 

Giotto painted objects and people as they actually looked in nature. Before Giotto, many artist had only painted abstract paintings that didn't really look real. Giotto is said to have been one of the founding fathers of the Renaissance in the 'art department' with his new style of realistic painting. 

A few of Giotto's Painting's

When the Renaissance began, Italy was divided into many powerful cities/states.  Each city/state had its own government. One of the major states was Florence. The government that ran Florence was a republic. Which worked out well for the state of Florence because this meant that the citizens elected their own leaders, the were not chosen according to who had the most power. 

This also benefited Florence because they had a greater decision in what they wanted to do with their future, instead of being pushed into what was done in the past.

As the 1300's continued, Florence had become a rich flourishing city, housing wealthy merchants and businessmen that had the money to hire artisans and craftspeople.

This change inspired competitions among artists and thinkers, which further developed the Renaissance.  Art truly began to flourish and new thoughts began to emerge out of the people in Italy. 

The Medici Family was also a very powerful aspect to be considered in Florence during the Renaissance.

The Medici family came into power in Florence in the 1400's. They were a family of wealthy bankers and helped the art aspect of the renaissance along by sponsoring many artists, AND using their personal funds to further the humanist movement.  Thanks to them, the Renaissance got alot further along!

Medici Family Tree

There were other major contributors to the Renaissance aswell, for example. another major contributor was Dante Alighieri. Dante lived in Florence and wrote the 'Devine Comedy' in the early 1300s. The book that Dante wrote is considered by some to have been the greatest literary work ever written in the Italian language. 

The Renaissance era spread very quickly.  This new way of thinking (humanism) and style of art spread to many other wealthy Italian city/states such as Rome, Venice, and Milan, and these are just a few, there were so many more!  Italy became a wealthy, rich country through trade and their new ideas soon spread throughout all of Europe!

**I am planning on making another post later on in the week about actual art pieces in the Renaissance era!**

Painting!

So I finally took a picture of my painting! Here it is :)

I really like mixing common colours together, but making them more vibrant, to give my paintings a mystical sense.  I like the way this one looks better in person then it does right here, but I still like it. I like how the edges are darker and how I focused it in the middle, also I like the combination of orange and blue together, I wasn't sure how I would feel about that one, but I thought it turned out really good!

I've never been a big fan of outlining my paintings, so they always look kinda blurry per-say, theirs no real definition, they look kind of abstract but not enough that people can't understand them.

I feel like some improvements could be made to this painting, but I am a big fan of the strokes in the sky.

I would really like to explore different painting techniques throughout this year!!

Henna

First of all, in respond to my last post, I did paint something, but I don't have a pic of it, so I will post either tonight or tomorrow.

But the focus of this post is on the Henna tattoos I've been working on in class.

I love Henna tattoos because they give you a chance to explore art beyond the page, and be creative in decorating your body, and they last for a few days, so you get to wear your own artwork!

We did this for the first time back in gr. 9, but unfortunately were unable to find it last year, but now that we have it back this year I would like to experiment with it some more.

With Henna tattoos, you can do modern, or traditional designs, I do like both, but the traditional designs looks awesome!!

Here is the first one I did, Its pretty basic, and when peeled off didnt turn out really dark because I didnt let it set for long enough.

Here is the one I am wearing right now! I came up with the design all on my own and it's a bit more traditional.

If anyone has any ideas that I could try, please feel free to leave pictures or suggestions in the comment section below! :)

Painting Thoughts

I've been thinking of pulling out some old painting tools from my basement, and maybe trying to paint a little something tonight.  Usually I just choose a picture off my phone and go off that, but not having access to my phone is going to  make me widen my horizons.  Instead I am going to try painting something from memory, I am going to try and take in the colours of the sky and ground on my walk home today and I want to paint based on that.

I want to do a mountain picture with a sunset in the back round, and I want the colours to look nice together, so I will analyse the world around me in order to determine what colours really go together and what I like.

I have an idea in my head of the painting I want to do, but I'm not really sure where it came from, maybe its something I see everyday and don't recognise, or maybe it's something I saw a while ago and it's just kind of coming back to me now.

Either way, this will be a different kind of painting than just copying an image, it will really let my mind wander and hopefully I will be able to experiment with colours.

I'm assuming that the colours may be a bit more extravagant then those in real life because you see things in your head the way you want to see them, not the way they really are, but maybe it will turn out better in the end for this.

Photography

I think photography can be really awesome if the photos are properly taken and edited, I think it is a great skill to be able to ake nice pictures, and it is something I would love to learn a little bit about.


It is so beautiful this time of the year! And I usually find myself taking pictures on my phone and uploading them to instagram, but I figured this year I would try taking a few better quality pictures.

I'm really lucky, and I have lots of trees behind my house, so I always get to see the colours change, and I get to see how the trees look under different lighting at different points in the day.  While walking home today, I realised how nice it was, a little cloudy, but mostly sunny, and really warm.  So I went outside for a bit and took some picture.  I came inside, uploaded them to my computer and edited them.  I really like the outcome of them! I used http://www.befunky.com/ it's a really great site! It's actually the same app that I always use on my phone so I was familiar with it as well.  Anyways here are my edited pictures.

 I really love the look of the tops of trees with the sky as the background, it will become more clear as you scroll down because I have quite a few of these.

 Im really a big fan of a focus point, it makes one part look really clear and awesome! Also, I put an effect in the backround to make it look kind of mystical.

 I liked the look of this one, I blurred the backround on high, the middle ground on medium, and right in front of the front on low.  It really puts the focus at the front of the picture.

I edited this picture three different times because I wasn't sure which way I liked it best.  It looked really lame before I edited it because there was a fence right in front of the trees, after I edited it looked so much better! Kind of like a panorama I thought.

 I love how bright this one is in the front and how dark it is the back.  But there both different shades of green, awesome contrast!

Video Update

My class JUST finished the taping of our introduction video.  I taped all of the scenes.  It was hard to get a lot of my class to participate, but the ones who did, did an awesome job!

Here are a few 'sneak peak' videos, before any editing has touched them.

Here is a video our our Canadian flag, I decided to film this because our Canadian culture greatly effects our artwork.  Also, depending on what Olivia decides to do, there could be something like the anthem playing in the back round.  I think that would be pretty cool!

Here is our whole class saying Hi to Japan! I'm so glad that the class came together to film this, even though I know some people felt uncomfortable.  But it looks so much better with everyone in it.

Video Time!

Its video time today!  We are taping our video for Japan Art Miles today. I just taped a few outside scenes, we got lucky it was such a nice day! It will really be able to show Japan how and where we live.

After this post I am going to be taping my little individual clip, to be able to tell Japan how excited I am to be working with them!

Hopefully the video will be edited and posted to Youtube by the end of this week so I can post a link to my blog.  If not then the beginning of next week.

I'm not entirely sure if we get a return video from Japan, but it would be pretty awesome if we did!

I took quite a lot of shots outside, so Olivia (who is editing the video) will have lots of options while editing.  Can't wait to see the outcome and share it on here!

Japan Art Miles

On the project we are doing, we will first be shooting an introduction video.  In this video we are going to be taping our school and community, then our classroom, so the people we are working with can get a general idea of where we are from and where we work, then we will be taping students maybe saying a bit about our art, the way we live, or how we are looking forward to working with Japan co-operativly.

I will post a link to the video or the video itself on my blog once it is taped, which will hopefully be soon.

The sooner the better!

I've been thinking of some ideas about what the students being taped can say, I don't think it should be too lengthy, short and sweet is the way to go because we have many students in our class, unless of course, the students think of there own thing to say in the video, and if it is relevant to what we are talking about.

Some ideas I thought that the students could say include:
1. We are SO happy to be able to be a part of this, it is a once in a life time opportunity.
2. It will be really interesting to see what Japan's legacy is compare to ours.
3. It's rare to have opportunities like these considering we come from a small town.
4. Living in a small town is great! But it is awesome to know that there is more to the world, and through Japan Art Miles, we are able to experience it.
5.  I've done many co-operative art pieces before, but not with another country.
6.  I love trying new things, and this has given me the opportunity.

Those are just some broad statements as to what some student could say.

Also at the beginning of the video, when we are taping the school and art class room , I think that it would be good to include some quiet music in the backround, introduce more of our modern culture to theres!

Anyone else with ideas, please feel free to comment! :)

Pottery Update

My cup just came out of the kiln yesterday! I was really happy to discover that it didn't crack.  I wiped it down to get all the dust off it so I could start painting it.  Since my lines are so small I found that it was really hard to paint, and my art teacher told me that I should have 2-3 coats.. so I'm just trying to put on the paint really thick.

So far, I have painted probably about 1/10 of it and it took me 30mins.  This cup is defiantly going to test my patience.  I just hope it will be worth it in the end.

The stains are really weird colours because the true colours come out the next time it goes in the kiln.  So really I don't get to see what it looks like until the very end.  I cant wait! 

I will post a picture once I get some more stain on it:)

Co-operative Art Work with Japan

A few weeks ago my class talked about doing a co-operative artwork with Japan.  Just yesterday my art teacher brought it up again.  The 'idea'  or 'theme' of the art work is 'your legacy'.  The word legacy has many different meanings, and Ive personally never been a fan of it, but Japan picked it, so our school is just kinda going along with it because it is such an awesome opportunity.  But anyways, back to legacy.  We are supposed to be doing some quick sketches or/and jotting down some points as to what we think 'our legacy' is or should be represented by.

Before I start this, I would like to get a better idea as to what legacy is, so I've found a few definitions to help better my understanding.
1. Legacy: (an amount of money or property left to someone in a will.)
2: Legacy: (anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor)

I also looked at the synonyms and I thought that that was pretty helpful as well.
1. Legacy: (inheritance)

I think that it is really important to understand the word before I start thinking about what I would like to paint/draw to demonstrate it.

Basically, what I have gathered from my research, it the legacy is what change you make in the world.  Now that's a pretty broad statement because when working with Japan, we could be talking about Canadian legacy, Nipigon (small town) legacy, or your own legacy.  My idea of legacy would greatly vary depending on with path I/my class decided to take with this art piece.

Maybe I'll do a few sketches or points for each, if I can come up for good ideas for all of them.

Japan gets the art piece first, then they are sending it to us and we will be receiving it after Christmas Break in December.  Which leaves our class with a pretty small window to finish the art piece, considering we go into semester 2 about 3 weeks after Christmas Break.  But I think we can do it! :)

Working with Contrasting Colors

*This post was made on Wednesday but I was unable to post due to technical difficulties*

A few days ago I wanted to try painting a picture with just one colour, but different shades of the same colour.  I didn't really have an image I was trying to copy, I just started painting and kinda went from there.  But I wanted to see how far I could push one colour with dimension and depth.

Here is what it looks like, I used a deep blue acrylic paint.  On the sections that are really dark i mixed no water at all with my paint, but on the sections that are really light, its pretty much all water, like the sky, it is probably 90% water and 10% paint.  I really liked doing this painting because it tested my painting ability, being restricted to only one colour pushed my limits.

My next step would be to try adding some more colours to this painting and seeing if I prefer the original to the newer version.  I would like to take the same painting and maybe add some red to it and see what kind of dimension it gives the painting.

Also: I just found out my cup is going in be put in the kiln today, so I will post a picture once it comes out and I have had the chance to paint it.