My oh my. This was one of my very first landscapes and it was incredibly challenging. I have limited experience with watercolor so this was a piece that involved trial and error. I am actually not too disappointed in the way it turned out for one of my frist watercolor pieces.
I got the picture from one of my close friends, Carissa, who moved up to Asheville this fall. I miss her so very much so I when I needed a landscape idea I thought of the beautiful mountains in fall up where she lives. The changing colors of the leaves are a signature part of the mountains of North Carolina that I wanted to capture. I knew I wanted to paint this but I was debating between mediums. I think watercolor was an appropriate way to capture the lake and colors of fall. To begin, I worked in my sketch book and I immediately knew how difficult working with watercolor would be. Just getting the color you want and the right amount of water while preventing over blending and pilling on the paper. I really wanted to be able to use both very light watercolor and pure watercolor paint. I knew that was the only way to get the depth I wanted. I also chose a very large piece of water color paper. I wanted to make sure it was large enough to get the full effect of the water colors. I also tried to effectively capture the composition and the rule of thirds that I used. I knew I had to work in light layers, which I tried to do throughout the water. However when I got to the trees the color was more concentrated than I thought. To compensate for this I added water and tried to make the leaves look realistic along with the shape of the tree line. I added purple to the mountains to make them stand out more against the trees while making them still appear in the background. After that, I added in the dock. The dock was incredibly difficult. I had a hard time capturing the shadows and the correct shape of the wood. I moved on to work on the branches, I think I got the shapes and snags of the branches well. Stay tuned for a break through... Then, the amazing Hannah from last year visited out art class. I was honestly embarassed to show her my piece because I have seen how great her work is. When she saw it she immediately knew what I need. More darks. She told me that this will get the dock and tree branches from looking like they are in the water. Can I tell you she was so right! It turned my piece into a much higher quality piece of art. I transformed the landscape into a more realistic painting. I think this is a piece I could go back and add to but I also think it is one of the most improved pieces I have done this year. I really wanted to just quit but I stayed persistant. I think this piece taught me a lot about myself as an artist and showed me that I am capable of trying new things and succeeding. This first one may have not turned out to be the best piece I have done so far but it shows me it is doable. I am so thankful for the encouragement I recieved from people at my table and everyone around me. I can honestly say this has probably been my favorite art class.
0 Comments
This piece is of my pal Calli who runs cross country at Apex High School. During one of her meets, I captured a great picture of her running down the home stretch to the finish line. I wanted to take this picture and turn this moment into a piece of art work. When I found out that the piece we had to do coming up was nature turns mechanical I immediately knew this is what I wanted to draw. I wanted to get the colors right so I decided to work with prismas.
This was the first time I had ever drawn a human body and boy was it hard. Getting the proportions of the body right took many tries. I have to say, I gave Calli a bubble butt at first yikes! With the help of my awesome table group, I was able to figure out how to make it look more like her body in the photo. Once I finally got the proportions right, I had to add mechanical aspects to the piece. Since runners can be "super human" I wanted this piece to embody the strength of a runner. I wanted to make her knee and elbow joints stick out so I chose gears and hinges.Then I added metal rods for the bones and wires to be like the muscles. It was so hard, but I tried to add silver, purple and blue to give the metal value and depth. Then I started added color to make her jersey. Apex colors are black and gold but I did not want to use black because values would be hard. I choose dark blue and purple with some black in the very dark spots. I then mimicked the color and shape of her tennis shoes. I wanted to make this as close to the picture as possible. This was important to me because I know how much values runners put into their running spikes and shoes. Each person has something unique about their pair. I wanted to capture the wrinkles in her clothing. Then I moved onto skin which has always been hard for me. First I made the skin too pale but then I added values which helped a lot. Throughout the whole piece, I feel like I maintained my style. In the skin as well as the grass and tent I kept my textured style I use with prismas. Sometimes I get discouraged when everything is not as smooth as other peoples prisma drawing but then I get excited because I see my own unique style developing. After finishing most of her body, I moved on to the lettering of the banner. I have not done much lettering before so I worked very hard to make it look as precise as possible. It took a few tries to finally get the right shape and size to the letters. I am really happy I tried lettering on this piece because the simple font was a good starting point. To finish out, I completed the grass and trees. I am very proud of my tree foilage because I have not done much of it before. To make this piece more mechanical I added springs and bolts in the grass. Since runners do not always have both feet on the ground I felt this was appropriate because springs push you into the air. It also incorporated more mechanical aspects to this piece. To improve this piece, I would have extended her back leg more. I really feel like that would have made her look like she was running even more so. I also would work on her leg shape. I am overall pleased with the way this piece turned out though. I feel like every time I put effort into a prisma and give it time it comes out better than I had hoped for myself. I hope to continue to work with prisma and master even more tecnhique. |
AuthorJust make art. Archives
January 2017
Categories |