Art Class Stuff

[Asila]

For some reason, I felt the need to create yet another thread to put my art class stuff under. Even though that art class is nearly over. But hey, if everything works out in my life, this won't be my last art class of the near future, so having a thread to dump updates in would be nice.

Anyway, here are the projects. Keep in mind that my digital camera really screws with color schemes. The colors of my current project look much better in person.

Here are the last two. I'm still working on adding more contrast to the colored one (for which the water-color background took an eternity but turned out nicely). The black and white one was popular in my class, but the professor had a problem with the house so he only gave me 93 out of 100 points. Which is bogus, because we were supposed to be able to scribble over any texture or object that would transfer onto the paper, and since that house is a relief it was fair game as far as I was concerned. Oh well.

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This is the project I'm working on. Or, to put that more accurately, it is the color scheme for the project I'm working on. The project itself is going to be painted on canvas. This is just something I quickly worked through with colored pencil to figure out what I was going to do. So it's of poor quality, but it represents what the finished project should look like pretty well.

I would like to stress again that the color scheme looks much, much better in real life. Somehow, my camera altered the shades just enough to make them look ugly to me here.

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[Asila]

Here's all the stuff I've been doing in my print-making class.

The theme for this image was "A slice of happiness". I really hate subjects like that. I always have a panic attack because my idea of happiness is parallel to my idea of horror. But I took things that I loved in my childhood, like palamino carousel horses, haunted houses, fair tents and thunderstorms. This is the result of that fusion of fun crap.

Title: "Bounty for a Thrill Seeker"
i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff505/PowellAJ13/170.jpg

I did this next print using the same techniques that I used in the first, but since this was a solo project that I did over spring break it didn't have an assigned theme. I chose to do a portrait of Annwn with shape-shifting Demon because I never had gotten around to drawing Annwn and I thought it was about time that I got around to it, since she's such a fascinating conceptual character to me.

Title: "We Will Meet Before the Carrion Crows Come"
i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff505/PowellAJ13/171.jpg

The second project of the semester had the theme of "Skinning a Form". We built a paper mache structure and covered it with a printed skin.

Title: "God of Uncertain, Ulterior Motives" ((I finally remembered)) The pattern on the creatures mask/face is a piece of poetry that I wrote specifically for this project. Yet another poem that doesn't rhyme at all and doesn't really have any structure. Maybe poem is the wrong word for it. Either way, it reads "When everyone around us/ wears a mask/ it is all too easy/ to forget/ that not all are entirely human/ beneath their mask,/ and that benevolence or malevolence/ can only be known/ through experience and/ discerning courage.
i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff505/PowellAJ13/167.jpg
I stuck my head in this picture for a sense of scale. This thing is big.
i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff505/PowellAJ13/169.jpg

Title: None. Same project, but this is part of a collaborative version of the theme that we had to do. I just made this plant/tree thing that my partners hung their animal masks from. I have it sitting next to the chair that I made because I thought they looked good together. i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff505/PowellAJ13/166.jpg

The theme of the current project that I'm working on is "Personal Demons and Hungry Ghosts". This is my prototype, because I've only just begun the print series and therefore do not have a picture of a finished print.

Title: "Peril in Becoming" The zombie thing is supposed to be a Hungry Ghost, a creature that was once a person until it's longing for something it wishes it once had turns it into a lonely, sometimes leech-like spirit. This particular hungry ghost is a reflection of the girl it threatens. Because sometimes, when we're haunted by something we fear for long enough, we become what it is we fear.

i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff505/PowellAJ13/172.jpg

[Seven]

Sorry its taken me so long to respond to this, but I definitely felt it was necessary since you put up not only one amazing piece--not only two--but FIVE awesome pieces. Maybe that's why I put it off--there's too much to say! I know I've already gotten sneak peaks at "Bounty for a Thrill Seeker" and "We Will Meet Before the Carrion Crows Come," but these two are really just such strong, amazing prints. I only know a bit about print-making, and how the way you make prints sort of limits you with using varying colors, but I think you turned what might have been a disadvantage for some into some of the piece's strong points. I mean, I know the idea of print-making is that you make the stencil like thing so you can then print your picture onto some sort of fabric, but the design, the dynamic, and colors make these two wonderful all on their own, and would make wicked cool posters or framed pieces on the wall. Or, in other words, they really don't need to be on a bag to be appreciated.

However, I have been meaning to ask...I know that you've been a part of a couple print sales through your school? How did those go?

The mask and the tree (especially the mask--sorry, I just love masks) are such a cool pair. Especially the mask--did I say that already? *grins* I was really not expecting the whole thing to be that big though. Wow, it must have taken a ton of time. And, if I may be so fangirlish--OMG, those spikes are so hot!! *grins* It's so dragon-y and cool! I love it! I bet your mask kicked the shit out of everyone else's mask. And the poem/prose is really thoughtful. I just love it all.

And finally, the zombie picture. OMG, zombies! You don't know how happy this made me. It just looks so freaking cool! Its so dark and gritty, it gives it such an amazing effect! And the style! It reminds me of the sort of 80s comic (I think?), you know--not so old like the 50s that were all campy and colored weirdly, but it definitely has some sort of old school comic feel with a dark twist. It took me a minute to realize that the shocked girl and the zombie were the same person (at different stages, I guess...); when I realized, it only made the picture cooler, and I noticed the details like that fact that the shocked girl is starting to turn. How horrible is that! Those last moments when you still have your humanity, but realize the awful future ahead!

Amazing, as always.

[Asila]

New stuff


Above we have my self-portrait. Which looks a lot like character-Asila, given the cat eyes and the ears that are just like hers. Of course, the reality is that I like cat eyes, tabby stripes, and tufted ears, so it's natural for me to want to include those elements in my self-portrait. And since Asila herself is a self-portrait, if a slightly dated one....well, it all adds up. My original title for this image was "Self-Portrait: Age 13". I just wanted to capture the feral-ness of the child that I remember being. I was edgy to the point of fearfulness, twitchy and mistrustful of adults, often fierce and unforgiving when dealing with other children. In a way, things were so much simpler back then. It was all about survival. There is nothing less complicated than that. And since the psychology I had then still haunts me now, it's a reflection of my issues as well. Every time I draw a self-portrait it looks creepy as fuck. I focus on flaws, try to capture my fears. I think I do this because I'm always trying to capture that girl who is my own personal demon.
(( This familiar picture is the reference for the features in my self-portrait i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff505/PowellAJ13/NewProfilePic010.jpg ))

This is the picture I did for the "Slice of Happiness" theme we were assigned. I just so badly wanted to see Annie in a world where she's happy and free. In the process of making this, I made a new memory for myself. Something to hold close in place of that last night I had with her, when I watched her die. When I was making these prints, I felt like I had her with me still, and when I look at one of them I feel that she is close. And in reality she is, because I've immortalized her in so many small ways that it's impossible for me to lose her entirely, which was the comfort that I needed when I was trying to survive in her absence.

[Seven]

I'm so glad you posted these, though at the same time, it makes me wonder why I even bother trying to draw. I should just use my time to pester you to draw more. This is incredible! I love the self-portrait--I love how it includes these elements of the fantastical in it with the Asila-like features, yet still seems so utterly intense and dark, and even frightening. The cross-hatching is incredible; I think you pulled that off perfectly. Especially around the eyes. The cross-hatching around the eyes gives the portrait such a deep, sunken in look, like an abyss. And the way you framed the shot, really close up and off-center, it really pulls one in. It's invasive, like you're being forced to confront it. Its so cool. Perhaps I'm a little one-track minded, but I can't help but think that this would be an awesome style for a graphic novel as well.

I can't pick a favorite though, between that and the Annie print. I can tell what the colors probably should have been, but the textures and the designs and the colors of everything surrounding Annie is wickedly awesome. It's so surreal and yet so vibrant and fun! It's cool that you kept the same wispy body for Annie in this picture as in your sculpture. And the puddle was a great touch. Annie herself looks so alive--she has great eyes. I'd love to see this picture in real life.

Still can't pick a fav. They're both way too cool.