Tiny, timed monocrome painting

In this painting, we used acrylic paint and also some medium.  So, our assignment was to get white paint and then pick ONE between black, brown, or purple.  I chose purple. :]] I love the way that mine turned out.  I asked Nell if I could put black on my painting after I was finished with it and she said no, to put the darkest purple on it. And, it turned out super awesome..To me it’s a hopeful looking painting.  Doing it in an hour and a half made me work fast and not be able to stay stuck fixing one particular part for too long.  I feel like this class is making me look and see in different ways.  I always find myself looking at things in a more detailed and valued range now..taking time to look at how specific things change from one part to the next and what is going on.  I feel myself noticing it more naturally and not having to actually remind myself to do it, which is super cool to me.

Risky big-mixed-media project Reflection

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I know throughout this project I felt so resistant to opening up to my risk and letting my painting direct me instead of me trying to direct my painting in the direction that I wanted to take it.  In the end, I love how my painting turned out, it is super abstract and yet very defined in the value and form of the leg.  The background, which has ink on it is a huge focal point and was another struggle I had throughout this process.  I experimented with many colors and surprised myself before it was done with a beautiful piece.  I turned it upside-down and did some black and green on the right side of the painting.  Turning it upside-down produced some alternatively directed drips which run up my painting when it is turned up-right.  I think it is super cool.  Unfortunately, I missed the part of the critique when the class talked about my painting due to being sick.  I was so mad because I wanted to stay and talk about the works, all of them turned out amazing and it was super disappointing that I had to miss it.  Back to the painting, my huge risk in this painting which made me SUPER uncomfortable was putting gesso over the right mannequin’s leg and letting it be.  It was a good decision to leave it and not try and change it because it added a lot of uniqueness to the piece.  Leaving it makes people just stand there and look at it.  I feel like it was a huge letting-go process for me to leave it and I had a lot of back and forth with it.  It eventually transformed into what it was and it was loud and proud and wanting to stay there.

hmm…big painting?

I am lost in my painting today and have been thinking about it non-stop.  I am looking at it up close and far away and reflecting on it, I am at a loss.  On a wave of miscommunication with my painting I don’t know where to go from here.

The one leg in the almost center works because it makes my painting super interesting. But, proportions could easily transform.  That is what is being screamed at me right now. MAKE ME BIG! MY LEGS & FEET DESERVE JUSTICE! haha. However, after talking it over with Nell I am not so sure anymore.

Big painting, post ink and NEW media, gesso

After putting ink on our patings, this gesso on them.  So, at this point, I have pencil, watercolor, ink, and gesso on my paper.  Also, as stated in an earlier post, I have blocked off portions with rubber cement which I wish to remain the layer I am sectioning off.  After applying the gesso, there was a transformation in my painting, the mannequin’s legs were no longer just a pair of upside-down legs…it was a more abstract half-leg, half something marvelous.  I quite enjoyed this experience partly, at first only because of the feedback that I received from Nell.  I felt relieved that she has seen something so awesome transform before her eyes, just by blocking off part of my legs with gesso.  But, I also felt even though she liked it that it was really incomplete and not what I am used to liking or my usual style when I paint.  I like more realistic things and challenging myself to keep this abstract part of my painting was a stretch for me and it kinda put me on an emotional edge for a couple of days!

Big Fluid Painting

We made a pretty cool still-life and my part of the still life involves a mannequin’s legs upside down with flowers at the bottom and right-side-up high-heeled shoes on the bottom of the feet of the mannequin, which are actually in the air. Compositionally, it is pretty cool and I think it has a lot of room for learning and risk-taking. Also, we did a lot of directly observing our objects and what we were gonna draw/paint.

Developing work on big painting

Today we came in and were told to put watercolor to our paper. I did that to my mannequin and then we got freed to put ink on our paper which put natural divisions on our paper. I was putting pink and purple on my paper and Nell thought it was too stripe-y, I toned it down and did a few layers of water which made it less stripe-y, and actually added some cool things to my painting! I also put rubber cement on parts of my painting to keep them that color even after I paint more layers on it.

painting 241/341

In painting 241/341, we first were told that we will not be in a traditional painting class. It was to be an experimental lab rat-esque painting class, involving mixed-media and other fluid mediums. I, honestly, wasn’t too excited at first, because I just wanted to learn more about painting in acrylic paints. I ended up posing my own proposal to my professor, Nell Ruby. I plan on continuing several acrylic works which are unfinished and I also want to do some of the assignments that the rest of the class are doing, in addition to creating new works which include mixed media. I am actually excited after she approves my proposal and looking forward to this art class.

The Onion (My very FIRST watercolor!)

Those are links to pictures of my first watercolor paintings ever! They were done from direct observation of an onion. Some of the notes that I have just by looking at the onion were:

-almost spheric in shape.
-deep crimson in color with lighter shades in various places.
-tilted.
-root coming out of the top, and a little at the bottom.
-layers peeeling back a little.

There were a lot of different colors in my onion, and I was trying to work fast like I do when I work with acrylic. However, watercolor paints need to dry before I can add layers, which was a totally new challenge for me. I had to wait a lot and waiting isn’t my strongest trait. My first onion was basically a big puddle of red and fluidity. Before I kept adding water it actually looked better and more layered with colors. But, it ended in a pool of water mostly…I did learn a lot through painting my first onion. Even from onion 1 to onion 2, I can see a beautiful change in my technique. I learned to let things happen and also to wait in between layers, which allowed me to see each layer. When I did onion 1 I kept layering water, but waiting really helped distinguish each part that I did, giving me an awesome result and helping me develop a new approach and technique to painting with not only watercolors, but with other mediums as well.

Lil Wayne

I really love this piece because of the wall, it looks like it is really moving and that is what I truly love about the piece! All three of the figures are different figures of Lil’ Wayne. He is awesome, and one of my favorite performers.

Bob Marley and the Lion

This is far from done but, what I have done so far. This is just a painting that I decided to do for fun. It was for someone, but something brought them from my life, so, it’s mine now.  [EDIT: 07 october 2011]  The work I am doing to it really makes me hear it sing..well, to me, at least.  It’s really developing slowly, but also beautifully.