Princples of Design

         The work that I looked at was called "the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" and it was created by Grant Wood. In this painting the artist used a number of the principle's of designs in order to enhance the meaning rather than detract from the artists idea. It is clear that the principles of design were used with much consideration because they really are woven in well with the picture. It appeared to me that the artist didn't make an effort to use too much balance because the weight of the painting doesn't look even on both sides to me. I did however observe asymmetry by including the church only on one side and the forest on the other. These things didn't balance each other out and even though he is very small, having Paul Revere on the left side of the painting added the most asymmetrical feeling in my opinion. Grant wood also did a great job of putting emphasis on the landscape and background but not Paul revere himself. In researching i did read that when painting the picture wood focused on the scenery and not the character but i could visualize it better with the contrast of how detailed and colorful everything was. except Revere. Wood did a good job of showing the movement and creating a sense of rush that Paul revere experienced by drawing the horse in mid-stride with the legs out-reached to show the implied movement of Revere and his horse. The long winding road that stretched from one end of the painting to the other was a form of ledaing lines which also shows movement by showing action and events outside the painting s well as on the canvas. Last but not least Wood's use of proportion was in fact my favorite out of all his uses of POD in this picture. i find it clever and funny that woods painting was titled after such a minuscule aspect/part of is painting. I also like how the proportions of the scenery:character reflect woods's interest in what he was painting.

Fabric Drawings

Today i felt that once again my drawings from observation was a mess. As i have mentioned befoe, time limits fore tuesdays drawing from observation are relly difficult for me and by the end i usualy am not close to eing done but also unhappy with my product. THough i do like drawing from observation, i dont prticularly like hanging things or big groups of objects. I like to work close to the object and have it smaller so i can make it larger, not the other way around.

Mid Term Reflection

at the beginning of the year we were asked to write a document that identifyies signs that show that we are engaged in the class as individuals. I wrote that i dont usually like to speak up in front of everybody, but somtimes i do and thats a sign of engagement. I think i am getting better at speaking up ore but i still prefer to show mh enggement through the focus on art and through my sketchbook. Speaking of Sketcbook, i have a lot of room for improvement with that. I really like to work in the sketchbook, but i am struggling with the due dates. I tend to work slower in general and especcialy in art and because of my pace i dont end up finishing things. Even though it is a sketchbook i still am being too particular on how everything has to look and thats whats keeping me from finishing the spreads. I think i can change that and that soon i am hoping it will be less of an issue for me. As far as the work i have finnished up to this point, i am not that happy with. I like the assinmennts and i enjoy doing them but i just dont end up liking the way it turns out for me. This isn't unusual for me, infact after all the years i have taken art i dont have too many products that i feel really happy with. I also have a lot of projects that arn't finished. Drawing from observation on tuesdays gives me mixed feelings. WHile i do enjoy drwing still life somtimes , i am not into the time pressure knowing that we only have that one period to finish the piece. I am always happy to go back to the long term projects that we are in the middle of when D.E.A.D is over but i find drawing from observation relaxing, and some of my favriote pieces of mine in the past years ave ben still lifes. I also am more enthusiastic about it when we arnt all drawing the same thing and when we get to cose the item we want to draw. Maybe somthing manufactuerd like a toy becaus ewe have done lots of natrual objects.. But i like the class a lot and feel that i am the one who needs to pick up my pae and be more accepting of my art.

The Changing in still life

In art class today we drew from still life and like always there was a variotion/catch to it. Today we had to dra a single jar using only charcoal (which barley erases) and without knowing we had to draw a new object and its relation to the jar. This consisted of overlapping and blockking parts of the jar and other objects that were added in. The hardest thing to draw for me was the string, not the ball but the strand that went from the top corner of one side of teh paper to the oppiste bottom cornor. Once we added all the thing probbably about 7 objects we had to take all but one object out that was the hard part.