Art dump from school (big dl)

copied my post from conceptart.org. This is what i've been up to in art class.

This here is my first assignment, a still life of some shoes. Graphite. I think it's my weakest piece but I want to show the judges that I've improved over time. The better pieces are coming up.


This is my second assignment, a self portrait. Not the best of self portraits, and not the best of hair days, but here it is. Again, not a really strong piece. Graphite.


This picture was an assignment called, "Shiny Objects". Basically to draw a reflective object. I had a lot of fun with this one, especially with the skewed perspectives near the edges. It's a candle holder by the way, complete with candle. There are still a few flaws with this one, like the candle blending in with the wall, but I ran out of time. This piece won 3rd place (and ten bucks) at our local county fair. I don't like the way I drew my hair...


This one is a personal favorite. The assignment was to draw your reflection in a pair of sunglasses. I drew my Neo sunglasses, which unfortunately broke at the fair that I mentioned above. One of the lenses popped out. But that proved to be pretty helpful, because I could see what I was drawing better (those were really nice sunglasses, real dark).


Now for some paintings. I admit that this school year is the first time I've seriously worked with any kind of painting, so it was a learning experience for me. This is my first painting, a piece done for a contest here in the islands. I forgot what the theme was, but all I know is I didn't win any money. Understandable, considering how crappy the painting is. Acrylics on illustration board.


This is my second painting. A still life. I turned this in late, along with the rest of my class. I sort of knew what the hell I was doing this time, but I was kinda stupid and didn't know that I could use water to make acrylics blend. I was so tired of this painting by the end of four weeks that I just half-assed the top right corner and the bamboo vase.


Now I'm starting to get the nuances of painting. Water can blend colors, and I should work from the back to the front. School is actually helpful. Acrylics still.


This last painting is for a contest. The theme was "what is special about Hawaii to you?" I painted a sunset. Cliche I know, but I like sunsets, and they're special to me. Our house has a great view of the sunset, and whenever I go to the beach with my friends, I always make them stay till sunset so I can watch. Or they leave and I catch up later.


Well, that's it. I have a scratchboard piece that won a silver medal (but no money unfortunately) at some state contest, but I haven't gotten it back yet. The fuckers better not have lost it, or I'll be seriously pissed.

I like your sunglasses one the best. i should really try to post some of my art class stuff.... i just dont know how im going to do it seeing as how a lot of them are in oil pastels, or chalk.... dont want to mess up my scanner.

to be honest, im not a big fan of your first few drawings... im not saying their bad or anything, just that they look a bit ...... cartoony, or rather, more like you dont have a firm grasp on realism yet. i see a lot of tone changes, which are good, but i still dont think they look like real people. I also dont really like smudging all that much...

ive done some paintings myself in class.... except my art teacher wants us to almost speed paint. He emphasizes that a painting isnt like a picture, so every few minutes he'll stop us from painting, make us step back and look at it from afar.... as long as it looks good, we're done. i dont really like how i paint... its very coarse looking, with blunt brushstrokes. He also doesnt let us use black in our paintings... he'll cuss us out if we do.. lol. instead, we ahve to mix complementary colors to get a darker color... bleh!!! i really just want to sit down, and take my time to finish a painting like you. I like your last painting of hawaii the best... dispite the misproportions of the figure.

In all.. good stuff... inspiring too.... ill go do a few reflection drawings.. ^_^

well for some reasons i personnaly like the first ones especially the third one, im a fan of non-realism, thoses are awesome... makes me want to pratice more

Heh, that sounds not unlike my Fine Arts Painting Class FUNG. There is a great reason for not using black in your paints, which I am sure he revealed to you but you chose not to grace us with. Black flattens out your colors and really takes a lot of the life out of it. My instructor told us that when doing such perceptual paintings we should envision the world as being composed of only greys. Making a grey simply consists of mixing your two compliments together like you said. If they are perfectly equal, you will have a very dark neutral grey, sometimes black, depending on what paints you used. Alizarin Crimson and Pthalocyanine Green make a good couple for this. You won't get absolute black, but truly, everything is relative to eachother. It is not so much each individual color so much as their place next to others. The brushwork can be a matter of preference, but I'll say that you are farther ahead if you can make your picture look as it should with minimal brushstrokes than if you had accomplished the same by overworking it. Your artistic brain has to do all kinds of things to reduce the world into those choppy brushstrokes, and it is excellent practice. Myself, although I can appreciate a photorealistic rendition, sometimes those expressive works make you work a little when you are viewing them to be rewarded, rather than simply slapping you in the face with a linear presentation. Both have their places and uses.

But that's besides the point. Time to get down to business.

1. This one is lacking some essential contrast to give it that punch. The drawing itself isn't bad, and you have some good work in the high key areas, but it would have needed more work. That 6B graphite stick does have its uses.

2. The linear qualities of this are at odds with the rendering style. I think if you treated it as a painting rather than a drawing to be filled in, it might have gone farther. Some anatomical issues and problems with symmetry. Again, those darker greys would have helped.

3. Aha. Better range of greys make for a more succesful rendering. Get rid of whatever it is you used to smudge those areas, though! And it would have been more interesting had you drawn the drawing itself on that piece of paper; what you have shown is a paradox, for you couldn't have been drawing that stick figure at the same time as the candle!

4. Getting better all the time. More complete range of greys in this one too, and the drawing itself is rather good. I like the distortion of the room. And it's a bit harder to tell here, but it looks as if you might have smudged some areas.

5. Heh, I didn't know what the hell was going on the first time I had to paint in acryllics either. Where's the eyedropper tool? That central composition is setting the picture up for something that it doesn't suite stand up to. Also, what is going on there? Is it somebody wearing a dress, sitting on a mound, or beind a hill? The color transitions in the far field of the sky defineitely need work. you can use water to blend those paints, yes. You might be interested in getting some retarder for the paints; delays drying and allows you to blend on the canvas like oil paints so you can get those smooth gradients. Never used it myself, but it's something that has ever picqued my curiosity.

6. Looking better as far as brushwork and technique goes, but it's lacking contrast and thusly depth. A rather flat image, that. The pot in the lower right corner is my favorite part; nice rich colors and hues.

7. I like this one the best. Has the look of a watercolor to me, and the colors use gives me a sunny disposition. Could have used some even greener hues in the water and some yellower greens in the trees.

8. The silhouette of the tree on the left is great. The foreground might have worked better as a solid dark shape. Those clouds don't like they fit in this picture, I must say. Top of the sky could be a little too light relative to the other colors. Or too desaturated, especially between violet and blue. Interesting texture going on here; almost looks like pencil crayon. Those reflections in the water might have been more succesful if they were a warmer orange; yellow looks like green if you shade it unless you warm it up with something.

Solid-looking work all in all. Hope I didn;t sound too harsh, but ass-pats won't get you very far. Keep it up mate!

thanks everyone. i appreciate the crits. my thinking was that if i put some weak pieces in the portfolio along with my strong pieces, it'd make the strong pieces look just that much stronger. the first 2 pencil drawings were done at the very beginning of the year, when i really had no idea how to apply some of the techniques i'd learned. same with the first 2 acrylics. yeah yeah excuses excuses, but that's the truth.

hehe about the shiny object, i'm glad you guys saw the little dude. i put it in there as a bit of comic relief.