From Light to Dark ..with some shapes on the side

Who thought making a simple 10 shade scale would be so hard? Create a shape and go from light to dark, can't be to hard.... While making my scale I learned some things about the process and the delicateness of shading. When coloring things in I tended to go to real dark and not spend enough time exploring the lighter shades. The lighter shades, I also found, were harder to control in gradually making them darker. It was nice to be able to see and understand that you do not need a new pencil just for a different color, but you can harden or weaken the pressure on one for different outcomes.

The piece that I drew was a little difficult, surprising me once again. The background of my creation is shaded instead of white, which was annoying and smudgy to fill in. It was hard to keep it consistent and not smudge into the other shapes. Having the background light grey worked out, I think, because it allows for the some of the shapes to be white without blending in with the background. The fact that all the shapes aren't all connected and part of each other helps the different shades stand out more, especially with the light grey for the background color.

Living, Breathing Lines

Drawing lines on paper and making lines with string and two, quite different line experiences. When making the lines on paper I was paying more attention to the shapes and how the composition looked-was it pretty, did the black and white balance, ascetically pleasing? When making lines with the string my focus was more on the string and wrapping it around things, rather then what the final image would look like. The string activity was alright, it kind of made me think of lines more then I thought I would. It made me realize that the crossing lines could make a shape and still be lines, they just all had to be connected, it was harder to see that on paper. At the same time, however, we were just given the string and not directed to do anything specific and it became more about throwing the string around while coming up with inventive ways to attach it to places. Drawing the lines was more about the whole picture and composition, as I said before. Using the string, more attention was paid to where those lines went, as opposed to the whole picture. Since we didn't really pay attention to the composition of the lines of string I don't feel like it came out looking like something really aseptically pleasing or nice. If I were to do it over again I would plan something out ahead of time, or at least be more conscious about where I was placing the lines of string.

Line or Shape? Monkey or Man?

1. Ummmmm I think that A and B could be considered lines. C and D I'm not so sure...C could just be a thick line but at the same time I'm thinking of it as a rectangle. D looks like a some sort of coral but could be a thick line? I feel this is a trick question... but my final anwser is that A is a line and the rest, except for C, are some sort of Line/shape hybrids.
2. C looks like a shape... but don't shapes have lines in them? D could be a shape to, a shape of coral from the sea (I'd like to be beneath the seaa in an octopuses garden with youu). C is certainly a shape.
3. A line is... Not connecting to anything, free based, and the outside edge to all shapes. 4 lines make a square. Without lines we'd have..nothing.
4. A shape is a bunch of lines arranged in a certain way, all connected. The lines all form something which our brains recognize as , possibly, a shape or something else familiar.

Description: Horizontal and very busy- but not in a bad way. The colors used in this piece are very earthy and dark: Browns, blues-dark, cobalt and a little aqua- light pink, gray, manila, black and red. There is also a tiny little flower of yellowish orange. The picture flows from the top left diagonally towards the bottom right, getting very busy in the middle. Large negative space can be found in the lower left and right hand sides and some om the top right. Shapes include circles, some looking like mandalas, roses and lines forming into what resembles, to me at least, raw iron chandeliers or some form of hanging light fixtures.

Interpret: This piece kind of makes me think of a bittersweet celebration-like a funeral. You're happy the person has moved on but at the same time it is still sad. The dark color of the blue isn't a calming one, it's one of mourning combined with the gray above it makes for a dreary left side of the painting. The light blue roses, however, counteract against the dreariness of the dark blue and gray, brightening it up a bit. As the eye moves towards the right of the page the colors soften to a light pink and manila giving it a feminine quality. There's much more activity on the right side of the painting, the celebration part of this funeral. All the circles could be interpreted as representing life and the never ending cycle of it, while the flowers could represent life and or love (you can even see a heart in the painting). Like the flowers, life and love do not last forever and will eventually wilt away. The circles and connection of all the lines helps show how everything in our lives is connected.


Evaluation: I would buy this painting and put it on the wall of my dorm if i could. The representation of celebrating life and death is eminent and displayed very well. I like how the colors make their own story and the circles, flowers and 'chandeliers' fit into the message the colors are conveying. This is aesthetically pleasing .