Ink Project

Another piece I did this year that I really like. For this project we were introduced to using ink and though I've never used it before, I really think i did a good job with it. It was fun playing around with it and seeing that it sort of works just like watercolor, as adding water would lighten the ink. I used a separate paper to test out the values of the ink before i got started, going from pitch blacks to feather light grays and just seeing how the ink worked. I would like to re-do this piece one day and make it better, but for now, i'm satisfied with this. 

Still Life

I think this was one of my best pieces of the whole year. I used objects given to me by my teacher and took my time sketching them out and shading and adding highlights using a white pastel. I used watercolor to bring focus to the flowers. It was hard to work with the perspective but it was a good challenge.

Album Cover

Last project of the school year and another one of my favorites. We had to design an album cover for one of our favorite artists and mine is the Weeknd! He's such a talented singer and I immediately knew that I wanted to do an album with him on it. I used the name of his most current song for the title, and then chose a picture of him and got started. I used a tutorial to turn the picture of him into a watercolor like painting, then I erased half his face and used a water color brush to make it look like he was fading away. I then added crows because in the video for the song there was crows.

Close Up Photography

For this project we had to take up close pictures of whatever we chose to. This was really enjoyable to do, and i think upclose might be my favorite form of photography. I took a picture of a red berry in a cluster of green ones, a dew drop from a honeysuckle, a dandelion, a purple flower, and a baseball from the baseball field.

Junk and Death

An extension of our still life project, we had to create a still life scene from scratch using Photoshop. I of course used food because I love to eat, but I actually decided to put a message behind this. I put all the typical junk food that my generation eats, and then a bowl with a skull next to it to show that in the end we all die, so just eat what you want because you only live one life. I also put a garnish on top of the skull to symbolize that being vegan or vegetarian or whatever won't stop people from dying either. It's a path we're all going down, so let's just let people enjoy whatever food they please

Food Portrait

For this project we had to take a picture of someone or ourselves and use food to recreate the subject of the picture. This project was inspired by a Renaissance painter. This is a photo of my friend Veronica, I used tortillas to make her skin, a churro for her nose, crow feathers for her hair because that's her favorite animal, cherries to make her shirts, and chili peppers for her arms.

Mood and Message

Another fun project, we had to find a picture and edit it in 4 different ways in order to convey a particular mood. I took a picture of the side of my school and then edited it in Photoshop. I created one where it looked like a watercolor painting, then one where it was at night and I added a mysterious fog and little sparkles to represent fairies because I wanted the scene to magical. Then for the last two I created a scene that looked like a storm was coming and then a beautiful sunset.

Bee PSA

I loved doing this project! I think it's one of my best! We had to create a poster, sort of like an ad, promoting the welfare of bees because they are rapidly disappearing. And if they all die, we're not far behind. It had to be eye-catching and I think I accomplished that, this would make me stop and read it if I saw this poster on a building or billboard or something. I really don't even remember how I constructed this, I started with the meadow as my background and just went with what came to my head after that. The honeycomb came from a downloaded brush, and I'm pretty sure I used the "Bevel and Emboss" option to make it look like it was carved into the poster. I also added bee's floating around because what's a bee poster without any bees.

Still Life

Honestly this was the only project I disliked. I found it kind of boring and had zero inspiration to do anything creative. I kind of threw something together, some of these don't even really count as still lifes. Putting it together wasn't hard either, all I did was put the pictures in Photoshop and add a stoke around them.

4 Seasons

This too was one of my favorite projects, we had to find a picture of a regular tree and then split it up into four quadrants, each section representing a different season. This assignment really gave me room to be creative but it was also kind of difficult. I had trouble coloring the leaves and working with perspective kind of stumped me as well. But overall this was fun to create.

Color Pass

For this project we had to take a picture and select one part of the picture to color, in order to bring focus to it. I deviated from the original instructions because after simply coloring my friend's shirt, I thought the picture looked entirely too boring. So I decided to add some markings to her face using different blues, and then I created a chart made of gradient blues and filled them with words that describe her.

Paint Bucket Project

For this project I used an old picture I had of my friend Ron, as we would frequently have our own little  photoshoots when we had the time. I used the paint bucket tool to go over areas of her skin, hair and shirt to create a sort of cartoony effect and I really like how it came out. For the background, I used a blue of my choosing and then a lighter blue for the clouds. Then I used the smudge tool to elongate the clouds and make them more stylistic, and finally I went over them with luminosity to make them glow.

Recreations Project

Another one of my favorite projects and honestly one of my best, we had to choose some pictures from the same photographer and recreate them ourselves. I used myself (top) my friend Jessica (middle) and a classmate in order to do this project.  At first I wanted to seriously recreate these, using real flowers but I never got the time to go and get any so I just had my classmates get into the same positions as the models, and then I took the picture. Then I edited my life away in photoshop, trying to get it as close to the original as possible. For mine, I used the brush tool to add eyeshadow and then I copied the flowers and positioned them to match. For the second one, I added hair to Jessica using the brush tool as well as the smudge tool, then I copied and added the flowers sporadically. Lastly, I made the background for the last one and copied and added the flowers where needed, and added makeup to her as well, omitting the blue lipstick. 

Sequential Photography

One of my favorite projects, this assignment combined the use of shutter speed and photoshop skills in order to create motion within a picture. I had my 3 friends each do a different action, Jessica (top) skipping, Veronica (middle) running. and Bree (bottom) spinning around, and I would have to up to shut speed to capture their actions in multiple frames. I then went to photoshop and opened up the files I liked best from each photo shoot, and would copy & paste individual frames into a main photoshop document. After I got all my frames in I would lower the parity of certain layers to make them look like they were disappearing, just an artistic touch.

Text Portrait

This project was no doubt one of the most difficult. Though my teacher provided us with a tutorial, it still took multiple tries to get it right as I would sometimes accidentally move ahead or forget a step. The words I used for this project are all words that make up who I am, a majority being art terms because I'm an artist. Some of the text spilled outside of the picture unfortunately, but I think it adds a kind of cool effect. But ultimately I like how it came out, I sorta wish you could see more of my facial features but at least you can see my eye.

Character Development PSA

For this project we had to choose a positive word and create a poster based on it. My word was "Welcoming" but I shortened it to "Welcome". I decided to use the front of my high school since high school really is the very first doors opening towards your future, it's where things get stressful and serious. But I opted for a more relaxed poster and asked my friends to be in it, to create a more friendly feel. This was also one of the first times I really played around with photoshop, as I had to figure out how to gray out the other two doorways and only leave color in the middle one, the focal point. 

Shutter Speed

This was our first ever project in Photography. I had a hard time with this because I was new to the class and had absolutely no idea how to work with a camera. But thanks to the help of my friends and my teacher, I figured out how to properly do the project and complete it.

Homage

Flower chosen: Water Lily

Meaning: For my last piece, I chose the Egyptian blue water lily. I used multiple references such as Ancient Egyptian scrolls in order to draw my subject. The water lily represents royalty so I adorned my subject with lots of jewelry. I also tried to replicate the stiff yet fluid movement of Egyptian figures with this piece. There is not really a meaning, I just wanted to explore a different culture.

Me, Myself, and I

Flower chosen: Sunflower

Meaning: In this piece, I drew a girl having conversation with herself. The meaning behind this is due to the sunflowers they have in their hair. Sunflowers represent friendship and the message is to be your own best friend before anything else, because you will always be there for yourself.

Elysian

Flower chosen: Roses

Meaning: This piece was inspired by roses, which of course mean love. I drew a girl having a picnic by herself and enjoying the sun and just enjoying her time there. She has moved on from some unfortunate event in her life, (which is why I placed closed rose buds in the bush at the back) and is moving forward (hence the blooming roses in the front most bush). The message is self-love, because at the end of the day, other people do not decide how you should see yourself.

Self-Growth

Flower chosen: Cherry Blossoms

Pretty much as the title states, this piece is about self-growth. The girl has flowers growing at of her hair to show that what you put in is what you get out. If she took poor care of herself, I would’ve drawn the flowers wilted and decayed, if she had potential and refused to do anything with it, I would’ve drawn the flowers as buds just waiting to bloom. Overall her flowers are bright and healthy, and this piece is to encourage people to treat themselves and their bodies/mind good so they too can grow and bloom like a flower

Tranquil

Flower chosen: None in particular

Meaning: This is the first piece I did to start off this capstone, before I knew I wanted to work with flowers, however it still has meaning behind it. No plant in particular is the subject of this piece, however the theme of relaxation was my main inspiration. I believe people should have time to themselves to relax, whether it be reading a book or going on a hike or taking a relaxing bath like my subject. Her arms being plants represent that we as people need to replenish ourselves to grown, just like plants need water to grow.

Reflection

Flower chosen: Poppies

Meaning: Another piece where I more illustrated the direct meaning of a flower instead of drawing an interpretation of it. One of the many meanings behind poppies is magic so I drew a somewhat whimsical scene in order to show that.

Live While You're Young

Flower chosen: Lilacs

Meaning: Here there are two young girls, holding hands as they view a beautiful field of lilacs. Lilacs are associated with purity and innocence so I chose to use children in this piece because they are often the most innocent (hence why they often tell the truth as it is). I wanted to capture a nice moment since the world is so often full of bad news and almost nothing good is talked about anymore.

Goodbye for Now

Flower chosen: Daisy

Meaning: In this piece I drew a mom and a daughter as the daughter is about the leave for college. Daisies represent closeness and companionship so I gave them both a matching flower tattoo to show that even though the daughter is going away, they'll still have a close bond.

Wedding Bells

Flower chosen: Chrysanthemum

Meaning: The message behind this one is not really a message, more of a direct art piece related to the meaning of the flower. Here is a woman dressed in wedding attire because a Chrysanthemum represents long life, fidelity, and joy, so what better illustration to do than a woman on one of the happiest days of her life.

Inside and Out

Flower chosen: Carnation

Meaning: A carnation symbolizes beauty so I drew a girl in a beauty pageant. The carnation is over her face because all beauty pageants really do is judge based on physical qualities, barely caring about mental capacity or personality. So I used this piece to convey that people are more than what they appear to be on the outside.

Kiss and Make Up

Flower Chosen: Amaranthus

Meaning: The two people walking away from each other can be interpreted as a couple or friends, but they have obviously had a disagreement. The hearts on their arms (derived from the phrase "wearing your heart on your sleeve") are connected because though they are mad at the moment, they eventually make up because an Amaranthus symbolizes "never ending feelings." The overall message is that some bonds are just too strong to break, and those are the type of bonds worth fighting for.

Sun and Moon Twins

A painting I did in Painting I, I think the project was to work with medium you haven't before so this was my first time working with oil paints. It was pretty difficult because the consistency of oil paint is weird, but I still enjoyed painting this.

First Ever Portrait

First ever painting/ portrait I did in art class, it was based off a photograph. 

Collage

This is a collage of sorts, the assignment was to just draw things that come to mind so a lot of the things that ended up here was my favorite color (purple), my favorite cartoon characters, my favorite singer, etc.

Kairos

For my Capstone project I decided to go with the theme of flowers and their meaning. After some research, I found that Hydrangeas serve as a relief from anxiety so that's why the upper half of this piece is shiny and bright, while the lower half has falling teardrops, to show the subject having a moment of happiness. The title "Kairos" means "the perfect, delicate, crucial moment" so I saw fit to name this piece using that word

Still Life Drawing

Piece created using drawing pencils and watercolor, and using random objects in my art class as my subjects

Paint Bucket Project

Project for photography where we had to take a picture (this one is of my friend Ron) and use the paintbucket tool in Photoshop to go over the picture and give it a cartoon- like effect.

Choose a Word

Project for photography where we had to choose a positive word (mine was "welcome) and make a poster using that word.

Poster of Recreations

Poster I did in photography where we had to recreate photos using the people in our class

Painting of Myself

Painting I did during my junior year of myself, it started out as just painting practice but then I kept going.

Typography Project

Project for photography where I had to put words that represent me over a picture of me.

Color Pass

Project for photography where we had to choose one color and use it how we pleased withing a picture of something or someone

Save the Bees PSA

This is a poster I made in photography this year in order to bring awareness about bees and how to better protect them.

Final Harlem Piece

Elizabeth

Facial proportions practice with a classmate, Elizabeth

Full Body Proportion Practice

In Class Proportion Practice

This is a practice sketch of a girl (randomly made from my imagination) and this was my first time using lines to evenly space out my body proportions. Usually I just wing it since I do more cartoon like drawings than real people, so body parts are normally exaggerated or stylized. But this was good practice for drawing real people.

More Proportions Practice

This is a head to toe drawing practicing both facial and body proportions, Alyssa was my model

Proportions Practice

Practicing facial proportions with a drawing of my mom's high school graduation photo

Harlem Sketch