Project 2 by Jeska

The artist that I chose for this project was Bart Exposito. At first glance his works did not particularly grab my attention but looking at his pieces more closely you begin to see how intricate and complex they are. His art is graphic and very geometric. I think one of the major themes of his work is its understated complexity. Here are some examples:











Most of his work has a lot of movement because the lines are continuous and intricate. I used his technique with lines with wrapping and intertwining them throughout the layers of the image. I didn't realize how difficult and complicated his work was until I tried to copy his images in my sketchbook. It gave me a whole new perspective on how thoroughly his pieces were thought out. His work was also influenced by fonts and letters which I also used in my project.

Movement


This is the most complex of my pieces and in my opinion the most interesting. It was one of my first sketches that I really liked but doing the blow-up version became really confusing to work on because there were so many lines. It was also the first piece that I cut out which is why the craftsmanship is not that great. I also cut out some wrong areas that were supposed to either black or white so I had to make up some of it as I went along. Ultimately, I think this would have been a much better piece if the lines were cleaner and the craftsmanship better.

Repitition



This piece I appreciated more as the drawing then the way it looks after I cut it out of the gouache. I think the scale of the pattern should be smaller and the triangles bigger because they seem awkwardly all the same relative size. Also I think there is too much white in the overall composition but I do like the placement of the strong slanted lines. I also used Shepard Fairey's floral print as the pattern.

Emphasis and Economy



This category was the most difficult one for me and I'm unsure at how successful this piece is in representing emphasis and economy. Nonetheless I really like the way it turned out. I thought about how I could create a letter by using the negative of shapes to imply the lines of a letter. It's simple and flat.

Balance


This one is also simple and flat but I used Exposito's wrapping lines to add an interesting element to the letter. This one is a variation of one of his first pieces I saw (which I've posted above). I like how you can never tell where his lines end or begin because they weave in and out of his layers. However, I don't think this piece is that successful for balance because the bottom circle is larger and heavier so the weight of the picture is pulled downwards. It seems predictable and obvious. Perhaps it would have looked better upside down.

Gouache Day

Intense Gouache Day!

Foreals.

Check out my poor carrot.


When I bit into my carrot the other end flew out from my mouth and fingers and plopped right into my gouache.


Anywayyyyyyy, let's take a look at other people not eating carrots and intensely working on their neutral grey gouache.







Oh, Andrew. The palette knife is for mixing gouache, not for your nose...

And more students working hard~




And finally, my poor carrot once again. Take a closer look, and you can see the dried-up gouache stuck on the carrot. Yuck~

Project 2

For this project my inspiration came from Charley Harper. The way he illustrates wildlife and nature intrigued me because he was able to draw his figures to a minimal yet capture the essence of his subjects visually. His choice of color for his subjects are never dull; it is full of life and vibrance. His style of drawing interested me - the way his subjects were animated, yet realistic.








Being inspired by Charley Harper's work, I decided to make my project revolve around a theme - birds.
Here is an example of a black and white movement composition. Even though the bird itself may seem stagnant, the movement I created by the use of multiple raindrops, thus adding variety, creates the sense of movement in this piece.



Here is an example of a black and white repetition composition. I got inspired by Harper's use of repetition with his birds. In order to make this piece more playful, I added more contrast by the use of diagonal lines in the background as well as the birds itself. One group of birds have more of a specific outlining compared to the other group of birds. To add variety, I further playfully added parts of birds in each corner to induce the feeling to the viewer that there are more groups of birds involved in the piece.



Here is an example of a black and white balance composition. In order to capture balance to the viewer, I added trimmings of branches and a small handful of leaves around the bird figure. The sky would be left empty so I added another shape that may either represent the sun or the moon. I did not want a solid figure of a sun or moon because that might make the top left of the piece visually heavy, therefore I added further trimming to make it seem lighter to the composition.



Here is an example of a black and white emphasis and economy composition. In order to capture the essence of this composition, I chose a simple illustration - a bird on a branch. I used delicate lines in contrast with bolder lines to capture the emphasis of the figure thereby acquiring economy as well.

Culver City Galleries

Becca Mann's art really stood out to me as unique and skillful. Oftentimes I don't appreciate more abstract art because it doesn't seem to take as much natural or cultivated ability (I suppose I'm a little old-fashioned that way...)

Becca Mann's graphite drawings are not only incredibly detailed and life-like, but she also makes them unique by using ONLY chiaroscuro to define the various forms--she completely leaves out any outlines or sharp delineation. All that she uses to make the impression of form is the values...

She also uses negative space very cleverly in her Romanov Family Portrait (see top) and a few of her other paintings. She makes it looks like positive space, or a form, rather than the absence of that.

Overall, she shows her awesome skills but still adds something new and original..woohoo!

Emily

Culver City Art Galleries

I would like to note that this was my first time actually taking the time in the art galleries and this experience has definitely changed my perception of art galleries - for older, wealthier folks.

The intricacy of the above pieces were amazing.


I was amazed by the crispness and cleanliness of the lines in this piece.



This piece was a bit disorienting. I couldn't picture what it was that made the piece disorienting until talking to Sherin. The girl in the picture is very crisp and everything else is blurry and she just seems out of place in the picture.

This piece was by far my favorite piece. But I would not put this in my room. The way the artist uses the negative space to accentuate the fading of the figures making it more like a reminiscing of a memory. The way the piece spoke out to me was the question of where these figures took place today in society and the thought that they were fading away.

I thought this piece was hilarious. Those little things falling off the piece can be recognized to be people once you step real close to it.



This peace sign was a bit....weird? The way that it was filled with stuffed animals and all smushed together was all wrong. Stuffed animals aren't supposed to be smushed.


"THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE...AREN'T THINGS"
Hm...


"WHO WROTE THE BOOK OF LOVE?"
Is love not supposed to be a good thing?


"So...How can you tell me you are lonely"






OKAY, so these pieces above are a bit disturbing. First, you think, oh how cute, and then, disturbinggg.


I just wanted to note the basket holding the plant. It's made out of paper! It's crazy. Andrew pointed it out first.











I didn't really understand what the artist was trying to convey with the naked bodies.


This room was quite interesting. A home within a home. Different kinds of homes in the picture frames hung in a room of a house. Interesting concept.


"beauty...it rubs against one's tongue//it hangs there//hurting one//insisting on its own existence//finally it gets so one cannot stand the pain//then one must have beauty extracted"







These white frames look like a blank page, but once stepping closer, one can see that it's braille!



These pieces were interesting. The play on words and the space.


This painting was intense. The different hue of the red and the white paint evoked tension for me.



The class.


I took this picture because I thought it looked artsy = rebel look. Don't you think so?


I took this picture because I thought it was interesting that I thought the billboard said "Temporary" but really it was "Contemporary".


Obama!!


I took this picture because it was an inspiration..."No Dream is Too Big."


This is random graffiti on a wall, but I really liked the colors - the metallic gold against smoky black.