the little mermaid (redone)

the nightingale (redone)

this picture shows Death sitting upon the Emperor's chest, waiting for him to die, while that many demonic faces, symbolizing all of the good and bad deeds of the Emperor, watch from the walls and curtains. the Emperor is positioned beneath Death, with a very childlike look of fear upon his old face, to show his weakness and submission without the nightingale to give him strength.

the focus of this picture was Death sitting upon the Emperor's chest, symbolizing his punishment for treating the nightingale so cruelly. i achieved this by making him darker than anything else in the picture, however i had difficulty getting contrasting tones because i was using only a 2B pencil. i am using a 4B as well as a 2B pencil in my next picture, which has given me a much wider variety of values.

the moral of hans christian andersen's "the nightingale" is that an imitation can never replace the original and that you should never try to keep beauty locked away from the world. the Emperor falls in love with the nightingale's beautiful voice and keeps her trapped in his court against her will. she escapes, and the Emperor replaces her with a jeweled wind-up nightingale. eventually, the jeweled bird breaks and the Emperor becomes deathy ill. Death comes and sits upon his chest, but is driven away when the real nightingale returns and sings to save the Emperor's life. i chose to illustrate the scene where Death and the face's of the Emperor's good and bad deeds wait for him to die. i chose to illustrate this scene, rather than the nightingale's triumphant return because the focus of my portfolio is the struggle of the characters in fairy tales, not their "happily ever afters". when Death visits the Emperor, he is hopelessly weak and cannot even call out for help. this shows a vulnerable side to him that is not usually shown for the powerful rulers in fairy tales.

i was not at all satisfied with my first attempt at illustrating hans christian andersen's "the nightingale". i chose to redo the picture in pencil because i am much more comfortable with that medium. i will do the rest of my portfolio in pencil.i am more satisfied with this illustration than my first because i feel that it has a more realistic feel, while still keeping the fairy tale abstraction that appeals to children.

practice portfolio

The Wild Swans

The Nightingale

The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid

Sorry this took so long. I still wasn't able to put the pictures together, but I hope they're ok like this.

My inspirational artist for the portfolio project was Arthur Rackham and my theme was illustrating traditional fairy tales. I'm not very satisfied with these paintings, and am sure that I will not use any of them in my final portfolio. Making this portfolio was an eye-opening experience for me, though, and showed me the many things that I need to improve on, such as line-work and developing backgrounds.

house project

when i took the pictures for this project, i tried to get as much variety as i could. i thought that since we would be decorating a house with the pictures, i should try to get photos of as many different rooms as i could, such as the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and even backyard. i decided to make my paper house an interactive work of art, where the viewer would have to find the little "monsters" that are hidden in each picture. the actual house would be covered in newspaper comics and childish drawings, keeping with the playful, messy theme. a magnifying glass would hang from a string on one corner of the house, to help the viewer find the monsters.

color was the most dominant factor in the composition of the pictures. the monsters are the main focus of the pictures, and in order to emphasize their importance i made them all very bright colors, while the backgrounds are very desaturated colors. i didn't want to make the creatures too difficult for the viewer to find, i simply wanted them to realize that there was something in the picture that wasn't supposed to be there, and tempt them to take a closer look at the pictures.

in this work i tried to convey the playful message that some houses (i.e. mine) are so messy, you don't know what could be living in them. i put the little monsters in the pictures so the viewer would be tempted to take a closer look at them, and while they are looking for the monsters, they take a closer look at the mess. all of the pictures, except for the one of the potted plant, were taken indoors, but i ended up desaturating most of the picture, which made the lighting less important.

i think that this work was successful and that people will enjoy looking at it. i want people to be amused at my house, but i also want them to think about their own homes when they look at it. perhaps seeing my mess, and what is "living" in my house will make people reflect on their own messes. doing this project made me realize how messy my house is, and resolve to be a little tidier.

art and activism (final)

my painting for the art and activism project is about abortion. i don't mean for my picture to offend anyone, it merely expresses my feelings, and i don't wish to attack anyone for their opinion on the sensitive issue of abortion.
my painting is meant to reflect the sadness of death taking innocent children away because of decisions beyond their control.
the painting is watercolor, but i didn't have very good paper, so it didn't come out as clean as i wanted it. i used the "dark strokes" filter on photoshop to darken the grim reaper and make him seem more sinister. the filter also got rid of some of the unwanted pencil lines that were in the picture.
i used the white cloth wrapped around the baby to symbolize purity and the grim reaper grabbing hold of the cloth to symbolize that death treats all its victims the same, regardless of their innocence. the grim reaper is wearing a surgical mask, which i debated putting in, but finally decided to use. the background around the baby is green, symbolizing life, while the background around the grim reaper is black and red, symbolizing death.
overall i am satisfied with this painting and feel that it effectively conveys the feeling of sadness that i have about the issue of abortion.

stop motion reflection

this project was hard for me because it required me to work in a group. i think that it was good for everyone involved though, because it gave us a chance to get to know each other and learn to work together.
i think that during the making of the video, we were a little disorganized and there were plenty of conflicts, but most were resolved in the end and i am happy with the result. i believe that we acurately conveyed the emotions sarah and claressa had in mind when they came up with the story. i think that if we had been able to spend more time editing, the final video would have been able to convey the emotions behind it (loneliness, confusion and finally happiness and belonging) much better.
i am satisfied with our group's video and i feel that it helped me learn more about my classmates and how working with other people in a professional environment might be like.

summer reading editorial (the picture of dorian gray)

for this assignment we were told to interpret our book from the summer reading into a photograph. i chose to photograph the scene of "the picture of dorian gray" by oscar wilde where dorian recieves news of his fiance, sibyl vane's, suicide (the note and the newspaper clipping) and the mysterious "yellow book". this event is an important point in the plot because it is when dorian finally realizes that his portrait has begun to change to reflect his sin; he had been cruel to sibyl the night before, causing her to take her life. the yellow book, given to him by lord henry, corrupts dorian thoughout the book, fueling his mad desire for beauty and pleasure; "dorian gray had been poisoned by a book. there were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could relaize his conception of the beautiful." (pp. 107)
i wanted the yellow book and newspaper clipping to be the main focus in the picture, which i achieved by placing them on a point of interest. the bright color of the book, contrasting with the slightly duller colors in the background, also draws the eye to it. the eye is also drawn to the newspaper clipping despite its neutral color because of the red in it, which isn't repeated in the photograph, and because it is surrounded by the bright yellow of the book.
in this photograph, i am trying to convey the idea that simple objects, such as books and newspaper clippings, can have profound effects on a person's life. to truly understand the concept behind this picture, the audience would have had to have read "the picture of dorian gray" which, in my opinion, is a setback because i would like my audience to be able to understand the work just be seeing it.
this picture was taken indoors, but i wasn't able to get the lighting effect that i wanted. i am satisfied with the composition of the picture, but i know that there is a lot about photography that i need to learn.

fun facts!
- the yellow book in the photo is a collection of "curious george" stories
- the newspaper clipping is really about kloe kardashian