Art Museum Gallery Visit 2

IN Exhibition
In this exhibition, I saw numerous artworks from students attending other international schools. It was refreshing to be able to see what other people are working with, and although some had similar pieces with mediums that I've worked with, there were also some differences that shows the uniqueness of each school. One thing I'm glad about was that during the exhibition, I was able to see what others at the same age as me were able to do or work with, and how they did it. The experience was definitely eye opening and it actually gave me inspiration about what I can do with my future artwork.


My first takeaway from this piece is that you have to know where certain highlights are in a portrait. This piece really got my attention because I did a self portrait in acrylic myself, and looking at this made me finally see how I could improve from the areas I was struggling with. Although the artist only seemed to have used white for her highlights, she put in just the right amount and in just the right areas that led her painting to look more realistic. For example, she really perfected the highlights on her cheek, under the eyebrows and the nose, to make the shape that is unique to the face itself. This piece really got to me because I know what it was like to draw a face with acrylic paint and how much I struggled with it, and to see how the artist made the paint so smooth but not too blendy was amazing.

My second takeaway from the piece on the right is that blending might seem like the better option, but leaving defined shapes can really adds more depth and meaning to an artwork as a whole. As I looked at this piece from afar, it seemed so realistic and contrasted, but as I looked closer, I could see how the artist purposely painted her painting with similar strokes of rectangles. It added so much more emphasis especially to the water, because if the artist had just blended the entire background to be an ombre of blue, it wouldn't look as creative and interesting as leaving the brush strokes as part of the water.

A third takeaway from the painting on the left, is that sometimes abstract and more simplicity in an artwork can give out more emotion and leave the audience more amazed. Almost all of the artwork I've done were transferred from an image to a surface, but I never once thought about making abstract art. As I looked at this painting, it ended up being one of my favorites because of the mixture of abstract acrylic paint that the artist created as a background to the boat and ocean. The audience may not grasp what the artist wants them to see when it comes to abstract art, but it definitely leaves both them and me thinking more about it.

My last takeaway, which is very similar to my third as it was one of the main things I loved about the exhibition, is to get creative with my imagination and images by putting together a piece that is unique rather than transferring an image right away on paper. For example, in the artwork on the right, the artist obviously didn't take a picture exactly like the painting she made, instead, she combined a person's face with an abstract background and had even made the piece abstract by getting messy and creative with the different paints on the face and a few areas on the background. If the artist had just drew a normal and realistic face and butterflies around it, I wouldn't have been as attracted to the artwork as I am to it now.

Final Thoughts
Overall, the main takeaway I had from this entire exhibition is that for myself, my favourite artworks or the ones that I am most attracted to are the ones where the artist combines both realistic and abstract aspects to his/her piece as a whole. I think that this is because when an artist adds even just a little bit of abstract into a realistic image, it makes me wonder and think more about the uniqueness of the piece itself and how it can be interpreted in many more ways than just a picture.

Concentration #2

Manipulation of Materials:
For this concentration piece, I decided to use rapidograph after doing one of my timed drawings, which was a single building that I drew on a created surface. I wanted both of the pieces to go together more than just having the same concentration theme. Unlike the first rapido on created surface building that I did, this one took me much longer, especially because it was a lot bigger. I also had to cross-hatch repeatedly over and over again since the building itself is very straight and square with its shapes. Because the building structure itself is repetitive, it was easy for me to know how much to cross-hatch for all of the similar areas, such as the windows and the brick walls. If I were to do this again, I would probably draw the windows and bricks on the walls more proportionate and neat when aligned with each other, as I feel like some are too crooked or too big/long compared to one another.

Problem Solving:
The main problem I had when creating this piece was how much I wanted to transfer the image to the paper. Because the created surface was made before I chose my picture, I had to plan out what I want to add and draw from the photo that will fit proportionately to the created surface. In the actual photo, there is much more to the actual building than what I actually drew, and I also drew less windows to make sure it wouldn't take me too long. Another problem was that I thought drawing the whole building would be too much and too crowded, especially since I made it very dark and detailed already. Because of this, I decided to leave the bottom to sort of fade into the paper to add more emphasis to the piece as a whole. Part of this decision was made because of how I left my timed drawing building's bottom also fading into the background, which I ended up liking.

3 Timed Drawings

Manipulation of Materials:

For this assignment, I chose to use rapidograph on created surface for all three pieces. I wanted to practice and get used to using a very controlled medium so that I can focus on the smallest details of a single object, while the created surface adds more depth to the piece as a whole. This was my second timed drawing piece, and in my opinion, the best one out of the three. The picture of the building that I drew was very detailed and tinted with light and dark at every tiny corner or edge. I really liked how with rapido, layering more cross-hatches adds more darkness and depth to the piece. I tried focusing on the shadows on this one, with the sun hitting the right side of the building and the left side mostly being dark. I wasn't as satisfied when I finished because I didn't get to finish, but I'm glad that I took my time to add on more layers to make it detailed. 

This was the first piece that I drew, and I really focused on line and shape for this one by thinking about how thick or thin the rapido should be, or how much I should layer by cross hatching to show the deep and dark parts of the skeleton. With this piece, I focused on using only one rapido pen and learning how to make the lines thicker or darker without having to use different rapido sizes. It did take a longer time, especially with the darker areas since I had to take my time to cross-hatch thin lines over and over again, but in the end, I liked the result better than other pieces when I used the thicker rapidos. If I could do this again, I would make sure to emphasize the dark side of the objects even more so that it would stand out further, especially since I used black ink for the background of my created surface.

For my third and final piece, I decided to choose a smaller object to draw and focus on the lines, especially since the wooden stick figure doesn't have much detail as my other two pieces. I took a longer time on contour line drawing than usual to get every line that has a different shade based on where the light hits it. Because there were so many lines, time became more of problem than usual, especially since I had to make sure that the layering of the rapido doesn't overlap with other lines. If I were to do again, I think that I would work faster now that I know that it takes longer than I thought it would to cross-hatch all the different areas. I would also try to define the dark areas more or the edges to add more depth and contrast to the entire piece. I drew this picture smaller than my other two, which is also why I think it looks more bland and plain.