Painting People with the Idea of #YouCanLearnAnything

Today in class we earned about the idea of not being naturally good at something, or having a bit of talent, but working and practicing at it to become better.  This can really relate to anything in life, classes of all types, jobs, the list goes on and on.

I decided to relate this idea to something I've been working on lately.

I'm not really good at art like some people are, I think that I'm decent and that I have potential, but I do have to work harder at it. I've been interested in drawing and/or painting people lately.  I want to get better at this.  So I took what I knew, and researched different ways to display proportions, and different techniques to draw people.  I then took this research and tried a few basic sketches.

Here is what I came up with.

(About 1-2 months ago)

I then began working with pencils because I realized that it is very easy to make a mistake when drawing people and I wanted to keep the option of erasing open. I also by this point found a technique that I liked to work with.

Here is my pencil drawings, and the ones I did just before.

(From first to last)

I wanted to try painting people this time, I found a picture online that I liked, and I worked on it for a few days.  I worked on the shading a lot, and I tried to get the body shapes right.  It took me a few days to complete it.  I did it on a very small scale, so it was kind of tricky to do certain parts, I want to try doing the same painting on a bigger canvas later.

Here is what I have so far.

As you can see I don't have any faces, I tried with one but it was to small to make them look good, which is actually the main reason I want to try it on a bigger scale next time.

But in the mean time, I have decided to try working on face so I can be come more familiar with them.

Here is what I have so far.

Anyways, relating this back to what we learned today, I defiantly think that if someone keeps working at something it can help expand that persons knowledge, understanding, and skill of the thing they want to learn more about.

This is just one example of it, I know there are many more in my life and in everyone's lives actually.

If I would've just stuck with my original skill level, I never would have gotten any better, you do have to learn from your mistakes to make neurological connections and improve the outcome of your work.

If you find yourself stuck in a fixed mindset, you have to find some way to break free of it.  Whether you try really hard to push yourself out or it by believing you can do better, or by finding something that your really passionate about to help you escape mindset you've become accustomed to.

Good things come to people who work with what they have, people who don't take take there abilities for granted, and people who try and improve upon there skills.  All in all, by doing this they will they will be helping themselves out in life.  These videos really show that anyone can do anything, some might have to work harder than others at it, but the ones who work harder are the ones who benefit more in the end.

I would consider myself to have a growth mindset, so I can't really say much for people who don't.  Whenever I struggle, I push through it and try to understand everything to the best of my ability. It's been working out for me pretty good, and I think it can work for everyone, as long as people do not allow there failures to break them, but make them stronger. This will result in a new way of thinking, that will let everyone have a growth mindset.

Final Product of Cross Curricular Art Project

I was able to work on my cross curricular art project over this weekend, and finish it.  I decided to go with this picture, because I though that it would be fun to paint in watercolors.

I haven't used watercolors in a while, and I got some new watercolor paper, so I thought that it would be fun to experiment with, while painting this fun colorful picture!

The paper I used was relatively thin, so it was kind of tricky because if you went over it more than once it got soggy and looked sloppy.  Also I obviously could not put as much detail in because of my choice of materials, and that it would take me forever to make something look that good.  But, I am however still happy with the outcome.

To do this piece, I started off by drawing a simple outline of this picture in black pen on the watercolor paper that I wanted to follow.  After that I painted in the lines similar colors to what they are in the picture.  I wanted it to be really bright because that is what stood out to me about this particular picture and made me choose to do it in the first place.

Here is the final outcome of what I did :)

I really like the contrast in this painting, and the different tones of blue.  However, I wish my colors turned out to be a little brighter.

Cross Curricular Art Project

We were given a new task in my art class this week.  A cross curricular art project.  A cross curricular art project is meant to relate art class to one of your other classes.  We can also relate it to something that we really like to do if we can't think of anything school based.  This project is also meant to change the way we do art, so we can see if we can be creative enough to think of something unique.

I've had a bit of time to think about this project since it was given to us, and I talked to my art teacher about possible ideas.  It was hard for me because my classes are chemistry, physics, and functions.  But my teacher actually suggested the idea to do something under a microscope. I've looked under microscope before so I know how interesting things can look from under them.


I have decided that I will do this, but I still have yet to decide what I will do, and what I will do it with.

Here are a few ideas that I found on Pinterest.

I like both of these because the are really colorful and interesting.  I don't know which one I like better though. 

Learning about Japan

Last week, Kyoko came into our classroom and taught us a little bit about Japan culture.  Kyoko originally came from Japan, so she knows a bit about it.

It was actually pretty cool to get to know a little bit more about the place that we are going to be trading art with.

Kyoko taught us lots of interesting and interactive things!

We began the day by looking at some of her origami, and then she taught us how to make a simple origami ball, the whole class participated and succeeded.  I didn't find that one too hard, but I can see how some of the complicated ones would be really difficult, and take a lot of determination to complete. Here is a picture of mine!

After this, Kyoko showed us how to use chopsticks, and she brought a pair for each of us to have.  She also brought in some Japanese snacks, and candies for us to try using.  It was really neat, even though I couldn't hold the chop sticks right.

She then made us traditional loose leaf green tea. It was really good actually, I usually don't like green tea.  She told us if you get a stem floating up straight that means you have good luck.  And I did get one! So that was pretty cool.

Before she left, she showed us some different kinds of traditional Japanese writing, she wrote, Summer, Spring, Autumn, and Winter.  It looked beautiful!  Also, she wrote a few students names.

And, sometime in between all of this going on, she showed us traditional sculptures, and books.  It was a really fun and educational day!

The Last Supper

I've mentioned 'The Last Supper' in one of my previous posts, but I have chosen to focus on this on for my renaissance artwork.

This is the original art work by Leonardo DaVinci. There are many conspiracy theory's about "The Last Supper", there have even been movies made about it, (The DaVinci Code).  This is why I have chosen to focus in this painting for my art piece that we will be making a postcard out of.

I have decided to try and replicate this painting for my postcard, But, like I said in my previous post about changing something about it, I have decided to 'vamp' up the colors a bit, make them a bit brighter then they are in the original.  Also, I wanted to focus on the part of the painting that was the cause of many conspiracy theory's. That would be the part that focuses on Jesus and John. Or at least it is said to be John, many people believe that it is actually Mary Magdalene.  Which doesn't make sense because she was not one of the 12 disciples.  But if you look at the persons features, they look very feminine. 

Also, the triangle shape between Jesus and John/Mary, is said to represent either a wine glass or a womb, symbolizing that Mary may have been pregnant with Jesus' child.  This is all a theory, but I find it kind of interesting.  

These are the reasons I choose to do this painting on my postcard.

Here is what my post card looks like.

I used acrylic paint to make my  postcard, I hope everyone likes it:)

We were also asked to write a small message on one half of the back side to the people we are sending it to and let them know what we are working on in our art class, on the other half we were asked to gave a brief explanation of why we choose to paint what we did.  Here is what I wrote.

I'm pretty sure that were sending out the post cards soon, I hope whoever gets mine likes it!!

Renaissance Art Work

At first my class was told that we were just going to do an art piece based on the Renaissance era, and although this still applies, we were offered another similar option, that most of us choose to do.

We can now do a postcard, based on the Renaissance ear, that we will be trading with North Carolina!  This is cool because then we get something back too.  Plus, post cards are small, so we get to spend more time working on something that is smaller.

I haven't decided exactly what I am going to do on my post card, I think that I will probably paint it.  I like working with paint.  I am planning on basing my painting on a specific painting of the renaissance (I have yet to choose  what that painting is)  but I want to change it somehow.  Whether I change the color scheme, or the perspective of the painting, or I could even change the setting.  It would just be like putting my own personal touch on the Renaissance era.

I will do another blog post once I have a better idea about what I want to do with my post card:)

Japan Video Finished!

Here is the welcome video to Japan that I promised to post, I think that it turned out pretty well.  Cant wait till we get the mural after Christmas break!!