Reflection

(upside down)

How do I feel about the outcome?
I feel that this was one of my best projects. I got to experiment a lot with coloring here. as you can see on the leaves, I used white and silver. combining these colors and creating a smooth transition made it look like the leaves had a bit of shine to them.

Reflection

process:
First, I took apart a mini disco globe whose parts would be the key elements in the turtle shell. Next, I needed a base to glue things onto. I chose mesh, since hot glue will connect it to almost anything. I stuffed the form with paper to hold it up. Then I found all different types of objects and glued them onto the mesh. I have not finished this project.

who and how this sculpture represents.
This sculpture represents my grandmother. She's slow, but she's very inspiring and creative. I was going to display that through a colorful turtle shell.

Reflection

What decisions did I make to help describe my family?:
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish this portrait. But I was going to have my brother's piece close to my mom's because they are really close and connected. My Dad's piece would be a little farther away: closer to my mom than my brother. Finally, I would be much farther away. Closer to my dad, then my mom, and finally my brother. Him and I would be on opposite sides of the board.

What is the biggest strength of this portrait?:
At this point, I think the colors in the center of the board are the strongest. The variety of them subtly illustrate the differences between the people in my family.

Reflection

What is the story?:
The story that I am trying to tell is how two kids can develop a friendship so quickly. These two kids wander off from their families to play together. Soon, the parents realize that their children are missing and search for them. Eventually, the dog finds the kids and brings them back. The parents, overwhelmed by their disappearance, no longer let them out of their sight. And so the two kids never see each other again. "Short" in Short Friendship basically means "Short-Lived"

What did I have to do?
I had to do a lot of cutting in this project. Separating one of the child from the mother was a challenge because the mother was photographed hugging the child. To convey the emotions, I used paint in the backgrounds. Also, I used objects in the pictures to create entirely different objects. For example, the columns became trees.

How do the principles of Design help me tell the story?:
In the first picture, there are repeating trees. The repetition sends the lookers eyes to the right. This does two things: Show that the dog is watching the kids, and show which direction the kids were heading off. In the second picture, I have a radial balance to show the passage of time on the face of a clock.

Reflection on Self Portrait

The two aspects:

I wanted to create two of my personalities which had the most contrast. For one side, I chose hot colors to illustrate a fiery side of me. This probably also includes adventurous, fun. It could also be percieved as devious or plotting. The other side has mellow, cool tones to express adjectives like "good" and "honest". For both sides, my background consists of the opposite colors. I did this for contrast, but also to show that I have some kindness in my fiery side, and fire in my kind side.

Challenges:

One of the biggest challenges for me was the value. I knew that choosing "hot" and "cool" colors instead of just one color for each side would be a challenge, because there was still the aspect of value. As you can see, I managed to add value in my nice side. With the devious side, I experimented more with color so my touch with value faded a bit. Another challenge was hiding the grid lines by the paint. I needed enough water in the paint to spread it, but I couldnt use too much or the lines would show.

Next time:

If I chose to do this painting again, I would choose one color for each side so I could improve and experiment with value.

Works of Art I Know

Genesis Wall Sculpture
David Robertson
Contemporary (Actual Date Unknown)
American

How the artist uses texture:
This sculpture seems to branch out in a way that makes the viewer's eyes travel up and down repeatedly as if the entire sculpture cannot fit in one view. The multiple extensions on the sculpture all have different textures. My guess is that the textures are to show diversity. There is a lot of emphasis happening in this piece of art as well. There is a line of symmetry cutting across the center so both the top and bottom are identical. This small detail that actually affects the whole sculpture is not only hard to spot, but teasing in a way as if Robertson is saying, "can you see it?" At first I couldn't notice it because the arrangement and textures seemed so random.

This is a hand-made steel sculpture. I'm not familiar with working with steel, but I don't think that he used his hands to create the textures. I think that the longest branch formed its own texture from being handled so much. As for the short one which increases in width, I think he used a smoothing tool to flatten any bumps it formed. The skinny one which has a small hook at the end is too small to take on any texture unless it was intentionally made. I think that the artist wanted to keep that branch texture-less because otherwise it would be hard to take on the form it has now. As for the other skinny piece, i think Robertson took a skinny cylinder-shaped object, laid the steel on a flat surface, and pressed the cylinder into the steel, keeping the width in between constant.

Works of Art I Know

Princess with Magic Fish
Tom Otterness
2003
American

Story of the Sculpture:
Tom Otterness describes the famous fairytale about the magic fish who grants a girl many wishes, one of which is to become a princess. She frequently returns to the fish by the sea (as depicted in the sculpture), until he sees that the princess is getting too greedy and decides that enough is enough. Just as quickly as he granted her wishes, he made them all disappear, leaving the princess once again a poor girl, just like she was before she met the fish.

I was familiar with this story before I saw the sculpture, but I think that someone who didn't know before could have figured out the story by examining the sculpture. One of the things that hints the main idea of the story is the posture of the princess. She has one hand extended to the fish: almost like she's asking for something (in this case, asking him to grant her wish). Or, she could be reaching to the ring that the fish holds in his mouth. The ring could have been one of her wishes, or it could symbolize her wish to marry. The crown was another give-away, confirming the "princess" part of the title.