Traveling

We made it!

Velingrad, Bulgaria

Our first little adventure... Here we are, on the way to the park. Notice the "man purse" on Gabe. Somehow between playing on the swings and eating dinner the bag disappeared... along with house keys, car keys, credit cards, cash... so here we are getting back into the house:

Welcome to Bulgaria!

Just for fun...

I had help with this one.

School is out for the summer!

For me, I'm not sure how long school is out, but my first semester of art classes was a success! I really hope I can be a life-long learner, but for the summer at least I think I'm taking a school break. I'm a working woman these days! Starting full-time on Monday :)

The art show was fun. I didn't get any of the big prizes, but those mostly went to second year students taking the advanced art classes. There were some really neat pieces and it was an honor to have 3 of mine make it in!

Yesterday I finished my final critique, packed up my locker and kissed the campus goodbye (only to return again in the evening to pick-up my pieces from the show). Today I'm considering venturing to the art store to use my 40% off coupon to purchase my very own easel. I'm just not sure where I would put it...

Good News

Well, the best news lately is definitely Easter (Christ has conquered death and the grave! We're being restored and redeemed!) This is the Good News, but among other good news is that I recently got a new job! and three of my art pieces made it into the student art show! There was lots of competition to get into the show and so many talented students, I'm excited to just be a part of the show. Friday night is the awards ceremony and opening of the show. I'll let you know how it goes.

Babies

Living with these little guys this semester has made them easy subjects for lots of art projects. These were my first attempts at drawing faces--ever! Drawing from photos is simpler because it's easier to see the color values (lights, darks, shadows) and to shade. Pictures don't change either depending on the light and can't be rearranged--and the people don't move! So, these drawings are in my sketchbook from pictures of D & T when they were little.

Faces

This is my first attempt at drawing a face in class. He doesn't look exactly like the bust we were drawing... but he does look scary and old... and like a man. Close enough :)

Mannequin

Meet the mannequin! I brought her picture home and I think I scared the family :)

Goldilocks

Dayzha named this one because she said it looks like the chair that Goldilocks broke :)

picnic

Degas

For the end of the semester we are doing grid drawings of master's works. I chose this Degas' "Dancer fixing her strap" to enlarge from a 8.5 x 11 and here it is (almost finished) at 16 x 22.

spring

I guess it's time for gardening! This was our still-life for drawing class this week.

Depth of field and other photo lessons

Right before moving to Kenya my cousin helped me buy a new camera--a Nikon D40X. It was amazing--the auto setting gave me great photos overall. There were times, though, when I couldn't get the camera in auto setting to give me the picture I wanted. One particular setting that gave me trouble was when I was out on safari, trying to get a picture of a person in the foreground and the animal behind them in the background (you know the shot you want so you can show your friends and say, "look at me! I went on safari!"). On auto the camera seemed to choose one thing or the other to focus on, either the background or the foreground but not both...

I think those are elephants??

I still have so much to learn about photography, but my digital photography class has taught me so far about ISO (film speed), aperture, shutter speed, and I've learned how to change the settings so that I can change the depth of field, which was the problem I was encountering in the above picture/situation. I needed a low aperture to give me a full depth of field (meaning all objects in range of the photo are in focus).

For taking portraits, it's good to have a shallow depth of field in order to allow the focus to fall on the subject. Here's my little model, Dayzney, as she prefers to be called these days. My teacher told us not to use kids because they couldn't hold still enough, but I can't resist this little girl's expressions, so with a little bribery we got some great shots.

Notice how the background is out of focus, allowing you to focus on the subject.

St. Patty's Day Parade

Full Depth of Field

Notice how everything in the picture--from the girl in the left of the photo back through the parade--is in focus.

Shallow Depth of Field

Notice how the little boy and his shamrock hat are in focus, drawing your attention to him, while the rest of the photo is less in focus.

Maasai Castle

This was a little bit of a stretch for me--creating a "fantasy skyscape." Some of my classmates used monsters and crazy stuff, but I went for more of the fairy tale theme.... in Maasai land. Maybe this was my dream from Kenya?? No, I never dreamed of flying purple giraffes. Maybe a castle to live in, though.

This was created using photoshop. I started out with the African landscape then cut out the castle, placed it behind the clouds, created the purple giraffe, added wings, cut out the rainbow and made it look like it was actually in the sky.

Little Pieces

Several weeks ago we began this project called "Self-Portrait Mosaic." Use small pieces of paper to create a mosaic using different shades of paper. This took forever!! so many pieces to trace, cut and paste. But it was really interesting to try to find the shadows and different tones in the picture to create a unique self-portrait.

This was the original photo, courtesy of Kerry Brooks styling and photography :)

Midterms...

It's been a week of loooong days... and cool projects. This week is midterm, so for our Drawing class we worked on one still life for both classes this week and instead of just picking a few items to complete from the table we were required to draw everything. After about 8.5 hours here is the result....

Photoshop

Our first photoshop project in our Computer Art Studio class was to create a pop art self-portrait poster using lots of different photoshop effects in the Andy Warhol style. If I would have had more time I might have done it a bit differently, but the idea was really to just get practice using the different filters and effects that we were introduced to in our first few classes.

This picture isn't as bright or clear as the actual, but you get the idea.

Bugs and eggs

For this project the first step was painting an insect with homemade egg tempera paint. Making the paint was as simple as mixing egg yolk, water and pigment (the color). Tempera paint is the kind of paint used as early as 1st century AD. All of Michaelangel0's paintings are egg tempera! It was the primary painting pigment up until the 1500's when oil paint was introduced. I really enjoyed learning how to make the paint and painting with a medium that's been used for thousands of years. My bug should last forever :)

After the bug was painted, I cut it out and glued it to the background made from transferring a xerox copied twig and flower design onto my background paper. I finished it by adding some gold leaf to accent the flowers and some of the bug's spots.

Design

Our first design project--positive and negative space. This was a really simple project but I really love how it turned out. A simple pencil transfer of the image and then cutting around the silhouette. I'm hoping to make one for my niece and nephew for my honors project.

Maji

or H20 or vada or agua... or water. So many reflections and shapes in water. I'm realizing that when you draw realistic reflections the drawing looks more realistic. I guess that seems obvious but wasn't to me at first. I could see my classmates' reflections in the water and as they moved the subject changed. You can see an easel, small white stool, and lights (among other things) reflected through the water in the pitcher. I was sad I didn't get to finish the bottle or jar but I made myself draw the pitcher first because I knew it would challenge me more. The 2.5 hours really fly by...

Material

This was one of those days where I felt like I just couldn't find my rhythm. Capturing the wrinkles and folds in cloth is a challenge! When we're drawing in class we just draw for the allotted time and then stop when time is up. Most of my drawings are no where near being finished when class is over, but that's ok. It's more about the practice right now.

Shading

This assignment was all about shading. We drew shiny objects--some glass. We couldn't use any hard outlines. I enjoy shading--there's lots of forgiveness in the smudging whereas hard contour lines show everything. This pot had some fun reflections going on...

Paper Bags

much like cloth, are difficult to draw. Lots of shading; lots of shadows.

Drawing Boxes

Drawing is one of my favorite classes... well the truth is that all my classes are my favorite, but I really enjoy drawing because we just show up to class and draw for 2.5 hours. It's relaxing. And it can be frustrating at times. Boxes are a little frustrating. This is from the second day of class.

My boxes ;)