1a. Why did you select this artwork to recreate and what do you decide to change to improve the original?
I really liked how my first piece came out, and drawing with charcoal taped to the end of a meter stick allowed me to really let go and see that art doesn't have to be done technically to be successful and evoke a response from the viewer. My first piece lacked depth. I couldn't create a sense of three dimensions because everything looked to be on the same plane. To counter this in my revised piece, I tried to include darker lowlights and brighter highlights. I also added a simple background which brought the piece together more. Finally, in the second piece I used my finger to blend rough edges, which allowed me to achieve better shading.

1b. For me this class was mostly about experimentation and seeing what I liked and was good at. In my first piece I was really trying to get a feel for the implement because it was quite awkward to use originally. I think this limited the quality because I was experimenting with different techniques on my finished piece. This gave it a sort of jumbled quality. In my second piece I was really able to focus my attention on the lines and how the different buildings fit together. This gave it a more finished, put together quality. Throughout this course I think I really learned to let go and that mistakes can be made into beautiful things too. At the beginning I was very critical of my work and it prevented me from attempting some ideas that I had. Now I am very open to trying things and if they fail I accept it and move on.

Question 2: How do artists document the human experience through art?

In this piece by Cinta Vidal, the everyday life of humans is examined. Each person in this painting appears to be in their own little world, although in reality they are quite close together. Their peaceful expressions and eyes that gaze no where in particular show that they do not find themselves much affected by others, and that they're more interested in their activities than the activities of others. I think this is a nice metaphor for society. Many people try to be unique by wearing different things or talking different ways, however humans are more closely related than we like to acknowledge.

2. How have you used art to document the human experience? In this political cartoon I criticize politicians who abuse their power to make money. While this is a common issue seen in politics, greed affects everyone, everyday. The desire to have more or be better than others is innate, and in some ways a good thing. Without competition, humans would be weak. That being said, when people in power such as the house representative shown above are greedy, it can lead to hardships for the people they represent.

In this unit I learned many new skills. I learned how to use pointillism to create darker values by placing some dots closer together. I also learned how to mix brown paint from using either two colors that are complementary, or three triadic colors. Finally, I learned nine different watercolor techniques such as resist and dry brush.

I think that my acrylic painting was the most successful in this unit. My clay tile looked good before firing, but chipped on the edge. I also was not satisfied with my choice of color scheme for the tile, which took away from the scene of peace and serenity that I was going for. In the acrylic painting, I wish I could've gotten more motion in the clouds and water as it looks very stagnant.

The most interesting media to me was the watercolor. I really liked that it was somewhat unpredictable because it allowed me to let go of strict lines and be more expressive. I also like the fact that you can achieve a unique range of pastel tones by putting down the paint in thin, transparent layers.

Lines can be made in hundreds of different ways. They can show shadow, depth, and create illusions. They can be used to outline shapes or make up the shape.

I feel okay about my final artwork. I like my use of curved lines to create movement in the piece which keeps it interesting and dynamic. If I could revise the piece, I would create a more interesting background to complement the squid.

This week I taught myself how to use Adobe Illustrator. I improved upon my creative design process. When I began this assignment, I had two distinct ideas, and sketched them both out to decide which I could execute more effectively. This improved the overall quality of the artwork I produced. Before this lesson, I thought that the only ideas that got made into art were original ones, ones thought up by the artists themselves. I now realize that nearly all art stems from a borrowed idea. This means that art is still considered original when an existing idea is remixed. During this unit I had a hard time creating realistic looking objects on the computer. Computers are intended to be perfect, though we all know that the real world is not. If I could go back and redo this project I would've used graphite on paper instead of creating my art on Illustrator to keep a more authentic, lifelike feel. In the art I created, I think it is harder to relate to due to its sharp lines and lack of imperfections. Simply put, it looks too fake.

In this technical drawing, I used three-point perspective to explore how three-dimensional objects interact with space. #2 pencil on paper.

This photo demonstrates forced perspective by tricking the eye into believing that the subject in the background is on the same plane as the subject in the foreground, creating an illusion.

This week we learned how to draw in one and two point perspective, what space was and how to manipulate it, and what to expect for the rest of the semester. I particularly enjoyed the two-point perspective drawing.

Kagan uses an impasto technique to examine the relationship between humans and man-made objects, particularly in space.