O'Keefe

Starbs

 

For my last piece, we had to do a still life. Mine is a still life of a table at starbucks. I actually learned a lot on my last piece about shading, something I struggled with all semester. This is my favorite piece because I finally feel like I learned how to create what I wanted.

An Impression of Impressionism

For this assignment I had to copy the painting of an impressionist. Through this, I learned that each person's perspective is different. Each brush stroke was different and hard to capture.

Go Green

Are Political issue was pollution. My idea is that if we don't make an attempt to "go green" by recycling and being aware, then we will physically "go green". The picture is of a girl who has changed her physical feature and her face is part gas mask. It's the idea of evolution, that if we don't change our habits then we are going to have to adapt to survive.

"Pop Art"

For my pop art painting, I wanted to do a "pop art" design of pop art. I took the most iconic ideas of pop art- bold colors and slogans, and exaggerated them. I tried to purposefully use colors that clash together unpleasingly and went over them twice to make them bold. Then I covered up most of the painting with an iconic saying from Andy Warhol. The saying is meaningless and charming, much like pop art. In the end, I feel like I accomplished my goal of making fun of pop art whose goal is to make fun.

Cali For Me

For this assignment, we had to use two colors beside each other on the color wheel and a complimentary color. I chose blue, green and orange. This is suppose to be an image of the ocean and a rocky cliff but I don't think there is enough contrast to be able to tell what is what. I learned how to smooth colors out in the sky and how to use texture. I use a napkin to make the clouds and to give the rocks some texture.

Misty Moutains

 

In this painting, we had to use three colors that were next to each other on the color wheel. I chose cooler colors and placed the warmest color, yellow, at the front to give the mountains the appearance of distance. I had a really hard time with the mountains; I either put too much detail in and the mountains looked patchy or I didn't put enough details in and the mountains looked like clouds. Instead of trying to use both highlighted areas and shadows, I just focused on the shadowed areas and was happy with the results. I used a dry brush to smudge the bottom of the mountains, giving it the appearance of fog. After everything was done, I dropped a brush right in the middle of the fog. It took so long trying to figure out how to create the affect that I didn't want to ruin the whole thing so I left the smudge there. yay.

Color Wheel

 

 

For the color wheel, my idea was to take one color and across from it make the color lighter so that there would be a dark side and a light side. My first few paintings used up the majority of my black paint so I tried to use more white but I shortly ran out of colors just using white. I wanted the colors to be vibrant so I left a space between the colors hoping that the blank space would make the colors stand out. I made the background gray so not to distract from the wheel. If I had to redo the color wheel again, I think I would stick with the idea of having one dark side and one light side but I would use more black to make it more evident.

La Luna

 

This is our monochromatic project. I really wanted to capture the brightest whites and the darkest blacks by creating a scene using shadows and light. This is an image of a moon lying in a nest in the forest, I got the idea from a previous picture I had seen online. I had trouble creating depth at first but I think I figured a way to manipulate the background giving it highlights and lowlights by using dry brushstrokes. In the end, I learned a little about shading and light radiation to give the picture life.

Rip Tide

The first project of the semester had to do with water and smoke. Being constantly inspired by the ocean, I noticed that the paint mixed with water gave a wave affect. I wanted to keep the movement fluid so I cut up the paint and water mixture by using the negative space that most complimented the waves. The wooden board was painted white and dipped in water that attracted smoke from a kerosene lamp. The result for my board reminded me of waves again (shocking) and it just seemed natural to put the two pieces, the painted plate and the wooden board, together. The backboard resembles the shore and the blue and purple piece are similar to the currents of the ocean. The middle piece is suppose to go against the tide creating a rip. With the balance being uneven and the contrast of black & white versus color is suppose to create tension. The only art experience I have had is one class in high school where all we did is draw still life and little water color sets I got for Christmas when I was 8. So this is my first time working with paint (and obviously smoke) but I liked the way they complimented each other in my piece.