Concentration

They are both acrylic over the light molding paste.  Concentration = expression

Home Stretch

SO, finals are almost here, which means all the seniors will be entering there final semester of highschool.  Kind of scary to think about, but at least most of us are looking forward to college in some capacity.

I was finally able to start a concentration piece early this month.  I had this whole idea for a raised painting using the light molding paste, so we will see how that turns out.  Molding paste is much harder to manipulate than I anticipated, so I cant really make the smooth surfaces I wanted to.  It is kind of fun and challenging to paint over the stuff once it dries.

I wanted to put some more photos from the 100 photos project up, so here are some of those...

Intense Color

Tells a Story

Tells a Story

Taken at Night

Winter Break

So, I had a pretty good winter break.  I didn't do much (which is a change for me) so it ended up being pretty relaxing.  I saw my grandma, swam, and ate a lot of food.

I also spent a lot of time on art.  I tried to space the completion of the projects out over the two weeks so i would do better work, and i think it worked out.  For the concentration pieces, I kept working on expressions, but i still don't really like the idea.  I feel like i'm forcing everything to fit the concentration and consequently, everything becomes more of a task (less enjoyable).  I like drawing/painting because its fun, not because I have to, so i'm going to try and mix it up, try some new things, and not worry as much about the final product.  I started this be doing a piece in color pastel (which i never use).  The piece wasn't great, but I had way more fun on it than I do on usual pieces.  Hopefully improvement will come.

When I started working on the photos project, I thought it was going to be really laborious and boring, but as I worked on it, I enjoyed it more than I expected.  Yes, some of the catogories where tough, I did them at the last minute, and the quality sucks, but more often then not, I got pictures that I actually liked.  Not all of them perfectly match the descriptions, but I still like the photos.  Below are some of my favorites.

Happy 2011!

Intense Color

Simple Shapes

Tells a Story

Old, Rusty, Falling Apart

we tried...

Settling In

After working on art over the six day weekend, I think I came closer to finding a suitable concentration.  I was doing movement, but I realized that everything I liked or was tending to paint was movement in the face.  Expression seems to fit what I'm leaning towards.  The two pieces I did for this concentration check were more about deciding if "expression" is what I want to be doing.  They aren't my best pieces of work, but I think they convinced me that this is what I should be doing.

Now focusing on expression, I enjoy doing large faces.  I want to work with contortions some and get away from just smiles.  I do not want it to turn into an emotion concentration, so sticking with funnier expressions is probably a smart idea.

I started working on the pictures work of art project.  It felt like everything I took was posed to fit the prompts.  I would like to have a majority of the pictures be sparatic, so I might have to carry a camera on me more often.  I'm going to Atlanta in a week for a swim meet, so I think I will have some good photo opportunities there - I have a lot of time and can easily carry a camera on me.

Concentration Change

So, what I wanted to do before, contradiction, turned out to be way too complicated.  There is no way that I can think of 12 pieces that would be interesting enough and tie together.  McBride convinced me to just pick one of the principles of art to focus on, so I chose motion.  I have been looking through my Mom's photos (she is a rather avid photographer) and she has done a lot of stuff with motion that I would like to use - swimming / running shots of family and friends.  This topic is much more practical, and I they will all fit together well.

I fear the 100 photos woa.  That is a lot of photos to take, so I have already started messing around with a few of them.

Concentration

I want to do a concentration on contradictions.  I kind of explored this with my two of my projects this year (smiling while being slapped, crying while everyone else is happy).  Monet said I should do a little kid in a business suit holding a briefcase.  I think that would be cool, but I want to make sure all of my projects flow together (thought about just doing emotional contradictions, but need ideas).  Ideas???