This artwork is about making a tessellation and self portrait. Also, I learned how to shade, putting value in it, and using a grid for the self portrait part. When we were starting this project, we first made our self portrait. Before having a picture taken to be our guide, we used a sphere and a picture of Mr. Bean’s head. We practiced how to draw a grid and how to shade different parts. After all those practicing, we took our picture and put it into Photos and change it into a black and white picture. After Ms. Oda, our art teacher, printed the black and white photo, I drew a 2 cm grid on the black and white picture and 2 cm grid on another piece of blank paper. Of course, I started drawing my self portrait. Then, we needed to make a tessellation to put our self portrait on. I learned how to create a shape out of just a piece of paper that I can tessellate with. The shape for the tessellation is created by drawing a creative line starting and ending from the left side of the paper, then taping it across to the next section. For example, I drew a curved line starting and ending from the left side of the paper. The next thing I do is cutting out the shape. The shape should be exactly fitting into the cutted out area, then the shape will be translated across to the other side. So left to right. Repeat these steps again, but the shape would be translate from top to bottom.

The self portrait picture I chose was because I think the value are more obvious and easy to draw. For my tessellation, I made three different ones. I chose the one with curved lines because I think that one was the most unique one out of all of them. For the first pattern, I chose to put harmony in it. The outside is darker and the inside is faded lighter. The next one is a pattern with 4 different colors. I purposely chose those colors because together it is very colorful and I think it looks pretty good. Viewers might feel happy and inspirational when they see this artwork. That is because when you see something that is bright and colorful, you will feel happy and the black and white self portrait against the colorful background makes you feel motivated and inspired somehow.

The elements of art I used were line, shape, color and value. I used lines to outline the shapes of the tessellation, and parts of the features in my self portrait. I used shapes when I am drawing my tessellation and there are different shapes in the self portrait. For example, oval shapes for the eyes and the pupils will be in the shape of circles. I used colors when I colored my tessellation. I colored my tessellation in red, brown, light green, dark green, light blue, dark blue, purple, orange, yellow, and light pink (skin color). I used value when I was shading my face, making it look more 3 dimensional, not just flat. The principles of art I used were balance, rhythm, pattern, contrast, emphasis, harmony and variety. I used balance when I was drawing the tessellation. Balance was used when I drew the same pattern at the top and bottom and in the middle, there is another design. In the self portrait, you can see that the drawing is balanced, I worked very hard on all of the parts. I didn’t just focus on the hair, because it was easier, but I focused on my face, neck and even my ear! Another principle of art I used was rhythm and pattern. I think I used both of them in the same place. I created the pattern, which added rhythm to the whole drawing. The colors in the background, contrasted and emphasized the self portrait. The colors changed so fast. The background is very colorful, than the self portrait is more classic, black and white. I used harmony when I shaded the outside of the tessellation shape and then lighten it in the middle. Like I mentioned before, I used a variety of colors.

Next time, if I do a project like this, I would have more designs in the tessellation and make my self portrait look awesome. I hope that through this experience, I could use some techniques on other similar projects.

This artwork is making our own name out of ceramics. In this unit, we learned about different ways of making ceramics. For example, wedging, slab, coil, score-and-slip… Wedging is for getting the air out of the clay. If we didn’t do that, the clay would explode inside the kiln. The kiln is where we heat the clay up so it would turn into a glass like artwork. When making a slab, we are making a thick, flat plate. That might kind of look like a pancake or pizza. Coil is when we make a long roll of clay, also known as snake. Score-and-slip is to stick pieces of clay together. The first step is to scratch both of the surface of the attaching pieces of clay by a scratching tool. Put the slip on and push to make the two pieces into one. Add soft clay to blend in and add support.

For this project, I made my first name (Allison) because a lot of people in this class has a last name of Chen. I made my first name first, which was carved out of a slab. Then I made another slab for the name because my name was almost falling apart. I think it was because of the lack of thickness and the amount of clay that is touching each other. When I was sticking the name on the other slab, I score-and-slip it on. I pressed it down so it could really be stuck on. I decided to make a flower on the top so it could give it more texture. I also carved few lines at the side so it won’t look too boring. Then I added a few dotting designs and stripes designs, that would give this artwork a pattern. I made the dotting designs by using the dotting tool, and then the stripes designs by the needle tool. I was kind of worried that the whole clay would be stuck on the canvas, but it turned out okay. The canvas is the cloth/board to work the clay on.

Some of the elements of art I used were lines, shapes, space, texture, and form. I used lines to create a pattern and to make the shapes of my name letters. Shapes because the whole project is made out of shapes. My name is a shape, the slape underneath is a shape, even my little flower is a shape. I gave my name a little space because it started out kind of big and it turned out smaller at the “n” part in Allison. I gave it some texture too. The lines gave the carving a little bumpy feeling and the flower too gave some different feeling. The lines I mentioned before are also a little bumpy. There was form because it is 3 dimensional and not just a flat piece of paper. One of the principles of art that I used was pattern. I used pattern when I was creating a design that repeats over and over again. The dot and stripes design.

I think if I tried harder and worked harder, I could have done much better. I think in this project I did okay. I tried my best, but I kind of doubt if that was my best clay project. It was really hard to wedge, since I am so small. I am kind of scared if my project would explode in the kiln. Fingers crossed! There was some broken parts at the “s” part. I kind of tried to fix it, but it just cracks open. I think the lines are not thick enough. I hope my project turns out okay.

My artwork was about the Spasskaya Tower of Russia. I chose this tower because it is really pretty. I love how the tower has pointy things on it. I learned about the Elements of Art, and Principles of Art. This activity was to let us practice our use of value. Value is used in the artwork by showing how each ground have different shades of the color you chose. I chose green (cool color) so I put the original color for the middle ground 1. For the middleground 2, I added a little bit of white to the original green color. For the two foregrounds, I put the two shaded green. Finally, for the two backgrounds, I put the two tinted green.

When I was planning, I drew the Spasskaya Tower, The Burj Al Arab, and Big Ben. When I drew Big Ben, and I saw places that it will be very hard to draw, too many details. When I drew The Burj Al Arab, I found out that it looked kind of weird. It was pretty and all, but I don’t think I would like to draw that building for this landscape project. Then I started considering drawing the Spasskaya Tower. Spasskaya Tower was not that easy to draw too, but in the three, I thought the tower was the prettiest. Once, I decided which building I was going to draw, I drew it out on a piece of A4 paper. I folded in half, after I was done drawing. I colored the paper with red (warm color) and green. The right side with green, and left side with red. I chose green because I thought the trees in my drawing will look more mysterious feeling. I thought with red, the building would look okay, but the trees would look kind of weird.

The Elements of Art that I used were line, space, color, and value. I used different lines to outline the different foregrounds. I used space for the two buildings at the back of the tower. I didn’t draw the buildings very big, instead I drew it small, because it is in the background, very far away. The color I used, like I mentioned (a lot of times), for this value landscape drawing is green. I used different values of green to show the grounds, tint – farther, shade – closer. I used balance for my drawing by putting the trees where they were. I didn’t just put it all on one side. I also used proportion for my drawing because I didn’t make my foreground very small and background very big. I didn’t emphasize anything, everything was just drawn in harmony/unity.

I think I could do better at painting the little detailed parts of my drawing. When I was painting that part, I was kind of rushing through and was not paying close attention. Because of the color I chose, I had to mix two different colors, so I can’t get the same color every time. For example, the two building in the back. It was short of blue and I don’t really like it. I hope my craftsmanship would be better next time.