Semester 1 projects:
1-
Current Artist: This piece was super heavily inspired by the landscapes of the cartoon 'Over the Garden Wall', so for a current artist it would only make sense for it to be the animators of that. The serenity and details of the backdrops of the show meld together with the simplistic nature of the characters really well. It was hard to translate my references, which were done digitally, into physical art mainly watercolor and pen. Especially since I didn't do it on real water color paper but instead just my notebook.
2-
The current artist that I choose for this piece is BlackBean CMS. BlackBean CMS is a youtuber and artist who mainly uses oil pastel and sometimes oil paint. His style is a lot of bright colors and exaggerated feaures and abstract portraits. I used colored pencils instead of oil pastels but took a similar approach to the shading and coloration.
3- (Semester 1 Final)
This was done in the same style as the first picture on this website, (zoomed-in landscape in watercolor pencil), but this time I used more pen for the shading. I strayed more from my reference but kept the main concept. For this, I was inspired both by the same animators as my other piece, and also the watercolor illustrations of many children's books such as James Gurney and . I tried to focus on the contrast between the background and the vines in the foreground even though they were the same base color. and similar shades. Millard Sheets, although he had a fairly
different style compared to this, had a few watercolor paintings of plants and landscapes that helped me figure out placement and shading. One thing that I am proud of is being able to shade the pure white flowers without it looking too forced. This is something that I have always struggled with and therefore avoided, but now that I have an idea on how to do so, it can help me in other projects as well.
^(very rough sketch)^
4- (Semester 1 Final)
Techniques I was practicing while doing these is creative linework. I typically work from a reference photo, so during these, I was focusing more on the creative/surrealist aspect of art. I also enjoyed focusing on the little details of linework. My inability to work with gradient, since I was using a pen, forced me to explore other means of shading. Artists who inspired me to try this style were mainly people on the internet who pop up on my feed. Cody Tarantino and Artmanee are both people who work a lot with this dreamscape-esk linework, and looking at their pieces has inspired me a lot when doing my own.
As for a historical artist, Albrecht Durer also had a similar reputation of simple lines to create an overall picture. James Gurney, the illustrator of Dinotopia, was a huge inspiration in figuring out a subject that ended up being the house on the rock. He also influenced my decision to add watercolor.
5- (Semester 1 Final)
Simple realistic graphite drawings were something that I've been trying to work on throughout the semester. I think it has helped me focus on other styles of art too. Also, having the medium just be a mechanical pencil that I have with me pretty much all the time made it easy and accessible to practice. I used to be afraid of drawing realism because it's a daunting task, but I learned to just take it step by step, not be afraid to go dark and understand that real things don't have an outline. I learned from the current artist Dylan Eakin who mainly does giant realistic portraits, using reference photos that he takes himself. He says that his creativity comes out through his photography, while his talent and process show through his drawings. Although Eaken is a huge
inspiration when it comes to professionals, I learned a lot from other students. Having such great artists sit next to me in class and being able to watch their process and receive their feedback has been extremely beneficial in learning different techniques. Paul Cadden is a historical artist who also specialized in hyper-realistic portraits and landscapes using only a pencil. He believes that hyper-realism is not only about creating an image but also creating a reality with emotion and life to it. (pardon the smudged paper)
Semester 2 - 1:
An ongoing project I've been working on is these little frog characters. I really enjoy doing them because there isn't really a right and wrong because they're clearly characters and not based on anything real. They all started with just doodles but I ended up polishing them a bit more and then adding color using acrylics. Even though I wasn't going for precise realism, these taught me a lot about how bruh idk
2:
Here I was working on four mini canvases and acrylic. I initially wanted to have the tiles slightly separate and adding something to the piece but when I tried it didn't look as good as I anticipated. I didn't take a bunch of progress photos because I was working pretty fast, so I added some reference photos I used. The reference on the right is what I used for the giraffes, creating that grid on top helped me with laying it out on the tiles and getting proportions correct. There are a few adjustments that I would make to the heads and bodies if I were to redo it however. THe second reference is what I used for the tree. I think it was good for me to look at a tree like that. Seeing all of the shadows and how the leaves interact with each other I think will help me in the future as well.
I really tried to focus on texture doing this, along with layering. Working in acrylic made it able for me to paint over things I had messed up on and retry. One thing that bugs me but is a pretty easy fix is that the base of the tree looks like it is in front of the giraffes' feet but the branches are behind their heads which doesn't make sense.
3:
(this was my first idea but I
changed it)
To be honest, I don't love this one as much as I wish I did. I think that once I added the color and background it made it worse and kind of confusing. I did this because I wanted a more "finished piece" and in my head that meant color but I wish I found a way to polish up what I had before adding those things without taking away from it. This one was really fun to do however (up until the watercolor part) I really enjoyed finding ways to make these simple characters show expression and interact with one another. It was done first in pencil and then watercolor with black inked background
progress photos of current things I'm working on so I don't have to keep the pictures on my phone taking up space:
