Adrian

toc =**In Class Work**=

Skills Evaluation
I feel that I would earn a three or a three and a half for my technical skills grade. I feel I should receive this grade because I passed everything on time, followed all the steps required, but my painting is not of the best quality. I do have more than eight colors, the landscape is a pretty clear translation of the Ansel Adam’s photo, and my different colors distinguish different parts. However, I feel that the painting over all is somewhat messy. The trees, especially the ones in the foreground, look sloppy and the leaves look like bunches of cotton candy. The colors that were used to show shadow have also been blended in rather poorly. I find this disagreeable, but concedes that I am ready to be done with the painting in question. That stated, I thinks it is an average effort.
 * Technical Skills Assessment:**

I am very proud of all the colors I mixed for this landscape in part because I found so many that relate to the painting, and also because I just like the colors I made. Multiple tints were produced from several different hues in order to create shadows which, as I said before, look pretty sloppy, but do their part in translating the photo to the painting. Though I used many colors from the painting Floating Ice by Claude Monet, I think that I could have tried a little harder to match the color scheme. The purple ground draws away from the overall effect, and another color probably could have been found instead of using purple. The painting style is somewhat close but not right on. It seemed as if Monet had used a style looked almost puffy, or rougher, in some places. However, I believe that the matching of styles was only an average job. For these reasons, I would give myself another three or three and a half.
 * Creative Problem-Solving Skills Assessment:**

Still Life Evaluation
1. I used marks that are most similar to Henry Moore in my final still-life drawing. Our marks are similar because we both use rough lines to make our values. Also, we both draw in our shadows so that you can still see the individual lines. In other words, the lines we use to add shadow don’t blend in very well. I used these types of marks when I was shading most of the objects in my still-life. However, they are most apparent in the teapot and glass jar. Both objects have rather coarse, strong lines. In the teapot they look a little haphazard and not drawn in with much precision or time, but more in a quick, uncaring manner.

2. The drawing that I am most proud of is my final still-life drawing. This is the one I am most proud of because I think it shows progress and its aesthetically pleasing to me. As I look back at my initial still-life drawing, I notice that the objects are out of proportion, reasonably well shaped, the placement is a bit off, and my style of shading is poor. In fact, I used the flat of my pencil to add shading which, to say the least, did not work quite as effectively as the techniques I have learned now. In my final still-life drawing I am happy to say that the objects are in proportion, accurate looking, and their shading is realistic. All of those aspects show improvement from my first attempt at drawing a still-life. Finally, I just like how my still-life turned out. I think it looks realistic and the white and black charcoal added great contrast. I’m so proud that I could create something that I still like after I’ve finished it!

3. Three important things that I have learned from doing this assignment are how to balance and draw with white and black charcoal, how to use multiple techniques to add shadow, and how to draw from life. White and black charcoal were the only was of adding value to the drawing, so of course it was important to know how to balance them. I really had to learn how to look for and evaluate the shadows to know what color I needed and how much pressure or value to add. Blending was to be done carefully so that my drawing wasn’t just a blah looking gray. Now that I have used white and black charcoal to really make the shadows and the highlights pop out, I think it will be easier for me to spot and draw in shadows when I am using regular colors as well. Another important thing that I learned was the multiple ways to add shadow. Hatching, cross-hatching, and different lines can be used to suggest depth of shadow or the shape of a figure. Knowing these different styles will help me make my future drawings more realistic and life like. Finally, learning how to draw from life was an important thing I learned. Before this class, I had mostly drawn or doodled images from my mind. Drawing a still-life is actually much more challenging than it seems. You have to get proportion, placement, and shape all perfect for you piece to look like the original set up. I believe that other drawings I do, whether from life or from my mind, will be better due to this practice I have had.

Color Vocabulary
Hue: A color or shade Example: Periwinkle Blue

Primary Colors: A group of colors from which all other colors can be made by mixing. Example: Red, Blue, Yellow

Secondary Colors: Colors made by mixing two primary colors Example: Purple, Orange, Green

Tertiary Colors: Colors created by mixing the primary and secondary colors Example: Red-orange, Blue-green

Analogous Colors: Colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. Due to their close proximity, they usually go well together and create a nice, harmonious feeling or impression. Example: Yellow-orange, Orange, and Orange-red

Monochromatic Colors: Colors that are all within one palette, or all the values of one color Example: A painting that is one color but contains many different types of blue, such as sky blue, midnight blue, cerulean, etc.

Complementary Colors: Colors that are opposite of each other on the color wheel that add a great amount of contrast and intensity to each other. They can help something stand out. Example: Purple and Orange, Red and Green, Blue and Orange

High Intensity: A color at its full saturation has high intensity. Example:This would be like opening a can of paint and doing nothing to it before painting with it. A neon color.

Low Intensity:A color that doesn’t have total saturation, or has had another color such as white or black added to it to take away from its natural vibrancy. Example: Gray

Warm Colors: Colors that are radiant and lively. They usually advance in space. Example: Red, Yellow, Orange

Cool Colors: Colors that exude a sort of calmness that makes a tranquil impression. Example: Green, Blue, Purple

Color Examples
The Red Buoy. 1895. Oil on canvas
 * Paul Signac: Primary Colors**

The Papal Palace, Avignon. 1900. Oil on canvas
 * Paul Signac: Secondary Colors**

Train Trestle, Bath, 2008, Oil on muslin on panel
 * Tina Ingraham: Tertiary Colors**

Autumn Light, 1995. Oil on linen
 * Mark Wethli: Analogous Colors**

Georgia O'Keeffe**: Monochromatic Colors** Street, New York No. 1, 1926, oil on canvas

In Newfane VT, 2004, Pastel on Paper
 * Wolf Kahn: Complementary Colors**

**Giorgio de Chirico//. Piazza d'Italia.//** 1913. Oil on canvas.
 * High Intensity**

Under A Northern Sky, 1992. Oil on linen
 * Mark Wethli: Low Intensity**

The Floating Ice, 1880, Oil on Canvas
 * Claude Monet:** **Warm Colors**

Portrait of Nick Wilder ,1966. Acrylic on canvas.
 * David Hockney: Cool Colors**

[[image:DSC01194.jpg]]
I believe I deserve a three in this section of technical skills for several reasons. One of those reasons is the way the value pieces look. Almost every piece has some edge of white bordering it, whether it be from the paper it was torn from or the excess glue. This detracts from the overall collage and prevents it from being such a high quality. However, these little white spaces do not contract from the over quality if it is seen from a farther distance, which means it is not particularly badly done. There are also few gaps in the collage that take away from the overall composition, and when taking piece off of lamination sheet some more tears and holes occurred.
 * 1. Technical Skills:**

A three and a half would suffice as my grade for creative problem solving skills on this project. A large range of values was used in this project that made it akin to its photo counter part and added a little three dimensional depth. The placement of the values and where they were placed weren’t done to the highest degree of detail, but again they are at a high enough level that the collage translates well from the photograph. The features, I feel, are not very well defined. This ties in with the placement of the value as aforementioned. With better placement, these features might have been more realistic. However, when one steps back it does look like me, especially because the hair that is flicked to the side was copied fairly closely.
 * 2. Creative Problem-solving Skills:**

It might help to have done the exercise of breaking down a photograph into different value shades when you are drawing because you can repeat the process in your mind. The exercise with finding values on your faces was to help you be able to recognize values elsewhere as well. Now that you know how to spot different values, it should be easier when you look at a still life and see the values it has. You can pick out the individual values and make sure you include the full range in your drawings rather then just black, grey, and white. The collage was just a way of blowing up the picture and physically marking and coloring in the values. Working with a larger image and set values was a prep for drawing in your own values.
 * 3. Why might the exercise of breaking down a photograph into value shapes help when you are drawing?**

Negative Space Drawing and Reflection


I believe a three would best suit my grade for the technical skills piece of this assignment. This is because of the quality of my work, both in the thumbnails and final drawing. My thumbnails seem to be a little boring, and seem more like outlines of a plant than negative space shapes that create the image of a plant. Also, in my final product, the background pattern is rather sloppy. Some of the lines arch either up or down, creating bumps of varied sizes in my pattern that detracts from how nice it looks. However, the drawing is very neat, and the shapes are well drawn on the final piece. It isn’t a very boring sketch and makes use of positive and negative space.
 * 1. Technical Skills Justification:**

Another three would work well for my creative problem solving skills grade. It is a three because though the negative and positive space is interesting, it is not “a dynamic composition”. The quality of the pattern also makes it closer to a meets than an exceeds. It is an original and unique, but it is not the same size in some places and slopes at times. The overall look of the drawing is nice and well done, but better craftsmanship could be put in to better the details.
 * 2. Creative Problem-Solving Skills Justification:**

Artists will make thumbnail sketches before starting a formal drawing as a way of testing out their ideas. It can be a quick outline of what will be drawn; a way to organize what will be drawn where on the final copy. Thumbnails provide an artist with a chance to draw something and become familiar with the shapes so they can draw it better on their finished product. Thumbnails affected my work in a way that I could see which drawing I had done best or was most interesting and would be the most appropriate one to enlarge. They allowed me options to choose from rather than just sitting down and drawing a plant then having to stick with whatever I drew. Another thing the thumbnails were good for was practicing drawing negative space. It took some trials for me to get the hang of it.
 * 3. Why do artists make thumbnail sketches before starting a formal drawing? In what ways did it affect your work?**

The background matters because it defines the outline of your plant and is the filler for the negative spaces. If your pattern is tiny stars close together, then the contrast between your positive and negative space will be greater than if you did a patchwork type of pattern. Different patterns will give the project different looks. If you choose a very unique and interesting pattern, then the overall presentation of the piece will be very good. If the pattern is dull, or perhaps spaced widely apart, it will make the shapes boring and leave an unclear outline of the plant.
 * 4. Why does it matter what pattern you choose for your background? How do different patterns affect the "look" of this project?**

Leaf Designs and Reflection
Tension Rhythm Symmetry Free Choice

I believe that I deserve a three for my technical skills in the positive and negative designs leaf project for several reasons. One of these reasons is that to exceed, one must have no visible smudges, pencil lines, or glue marks. My rhythm, free choice, and a little part of my tension piece all have minor glue smudging on them. This detracts from the general appeal or how neat my work looks and also shows poor artisanship. Another reason I deserve a three for technical skills is because the paper must be neatly cut. I know, because I cut them out, that several of my leaves used weren’t cut with accurate precision. It also shows on my tension piece for you can see at the bottom of one of the cards that the bottom black strip doesn’t meet up with the edge. However, each piece, especially the symmetry, have my name and principles written on the back and posses a good quality of work. Only slight smudginess and mishaps mar the general look of them.
 * 1. Technical Skills Justification:**

I believe that “the visual impact of all four designs is fabulous!!” might be over stretching it to describe my positive and negative designs, but perhaps it deserves at least one exclamation point. I feel that all three of my designs demonstrate tension, balance, and rhythm. The symmetry of my first piece definitely has balance, the number of leaves and the amount of positive and negative space on each side. My tension piece is feel is very creative and fits the rule of having tension. I saw no other pieces that had playing cards alluded to or used, so I can assume that this idea is original. My rhythm work is the one I had the most trouble with, but I believe that using the whole leaves and creating the negative tops of the leaves really helped show motion and creativity. All in all, my pieces displayed a unique design and used the relationship between positive and negative space in such a way that it was above average, but still not reaching exceeds. As such, I would give myself a 3.5 for creative problem -solving skills justification.
 * 2. Creative Problem-Solving Skills Justification:**

I would have to say that my balance, or symmetry piece, really is the most successful attempt I had at using my positive and negative space well. I feel this is so because of the way the shapes are arranged on the page and also because of how I made my corners. The way i placed the four leaves so that they touch creates a new shape in the center of them, except this one is white with black outlines. This is turning the negative space into a new shape by effecting it with the positive space. My corners also exemplify this although not in the same way. The corners make it look like the leaves were drawn out from them, almost like it’s a puzzle you could put together. With these corners you can see the beginning of a white leaf starting to form, a negative space leaf. Altogether I think these techniques make it a very interesting and well done piece.
 * 3. Which of the four designs do you feel is the most successful in terms of using positive and negative space well? Please explain.**

I believe that my tension piece really communicates the assigned Principle of Art because it has everything necessary included inside it. It has creativity, it uses positive and negative space and shapes, and it conveys rhythm like it was supposed to. I also used the whole page, and the space in it. My design has it so that at least one leaf if touching or coming out of each side of the paper. In this way, the piece seems less contained and have more flow to it. I also used the positive and negative space in this design to my advantage when I made one leaf black, and created the other so it was white with a black outline.
 * 4. Which one of the four designs do you feel best communicates the assigned Principle of Art? Please explain.**

=Sketch Book Assignments=

Color Wheel

 * 12/13/08**

**Color Meaning**

 * 12/8/08**
 * 11/21/08**

[[image:DSC01452.jpg]]

 * 11/7**

Still Life 1

 * 9/25**

**Tesselation**



 * 9/19**

**Falling and Exploding**
Falling Exploding


 * 9/11**