STARS ARE BORN

WATERCOLOR/CHARCOAL

BEGINNING 2-D ART

watercolors & charcoal

I am such a proud mama to share these works that my babies created in the 4th Quarter.

Keep in mind they have now an understanding of drawing and design under their belts.

After a couple of weeks practicing different watercolor and charcoal techniques,

they chose their subjects and jumped right in 

I couldn't be more pleased with the results. 

So thrilled that I photoed almost every students work,

something I seldom do.

Let's start with junior Risha Bhakta. 

From the get-go we were all thrilled with her start.

So much so that I had to take a picture of it.

Notice how she is using the yellow mask for windows and parts of buildings 

to resist the watercolor. 

We were all so excited to see her finished product, 

and she did not disappoint.

WOW!!!!

Love how she faded out the foreground,

and how well her background compliments but does not distract from her cityscape.

This next beauty is by senior Suha Malik.

A brilliant contrast with her complimentary color scheme (yellow & purple),

and wonderful use of charcoal to build values.

And then junior Bernice Lin gives us something completely different using a diagonal horizon

that right off the batt pulls us in.

Then we enjoy her use of color as she pulls our eye to the center of interest.

Bernice is also cleverly using a complementary color scheme (green & red),

and then throwing in neutrals to balance composition.

I feel she has done a wonderful job with the textures of the wood.

She also is using the charcoal to build values.

Junior Hazel Cruz gives us a really fun,

 and beautifully drawn and painted eye as subject.

Those lashes are gorgeous and so natural looking,

not easy by any means.

And I love the clever cityscape as a central axis.

I wish I would have thought to photo this from a slight angle 

so you could see the dimensional effect that senior Karisma Dev achieved in her landscape.

It came about by accident which the kids know I love.

Senior Payal Moriarti gave me the perfect goodbye/thank you gift,

a canvas she painted with this quote

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes;

art is knowing which ones to keep"

Karisma had started the piece but didn't like part of it 

so she cut it up and then created another piece to go with it and glued them together.

So cool!!!

Everyone really liked junior Katherine Ku's piece above.

I like that she thought to stretch the subject so that it goes off the top and bottom of the paper.

That creates a nice balance.

Her color choices are brave,

and she is able to achieve her value ranges with her watercolor,

instead of relying on the charcoal.

Way to go Katherine!

And of course I can't forget to mention the wonderful textured backdrop she got 

with a black Salish salt I found at the grocery store.

Another favorite was this beauty by 8th grader Sara Ryave.

Sara built this very original abstract landscape.

and she has developed a very distinct painting style,

completely different than anyone else.

Very important to stand out like that.

My 8th graders were impressing us all.

Here is another by Iris Choi.

Love, love, love how she worked out her background.

Backgrounds are often challenging in watercolor because usually you paint the subject first

 then you have to fill in around it and you are scared of messing the piece up.

This year I took an online watercolor class with artist Fred Linus,

and I shared his technique for filling in backgrounds with several of the kids who were struggling.

It made a huge difference.

This next landscape by junior Jane Juan is so very delicate and lovely.

I especially like how she faded her side edges,

and allowed the white paper to act as her border.

She has also created the illusion of dimension 

by making the stars close larger then the ones behind.

She is also using a very pretty analogous color scheme to achieve a calming effect.

Birds are a favorite subject for me

so I have a large collection of bird resources that the kids can use.

This piece is so well done by junior Kyla Balquin.

She is using Fred's technique for background and she nailed it.

I feel like she's really captured the moment when the bird realizes it's being photographed 

and it's ready to flee.

That one exact moment in time.

This next work shows great depth of feeling by 8th grader Rochelle Serrano.

There is definitely a message here that she wants to convey.

We had another student use the eye as subject matter,

Emily Chen.

What I found very appealing is how she mounted her practice piece 

above her one to be graded with exciting angles.

Very unique!

And her painting skills are exceptional!!!

We end with these last two birds.

Both are lovely,

each with it's own style.

The one above belongs to junior Charity Lizardo.

She killed the background with rich diffused color and added texture with the black salt.

And notice those cool charcoal details she put into the bird's wings.

What's really impressive is that she used the exact same colors in her bird 

that she used in the backdrop.

Yet they contrast beautifully.

Told you these kids are STARS!

Junior Hapshiba Kwon is the artist of this last work.

Delicate, lovely, and precise.

Just like Hapshiba  :)

She has also done the Fred backdrop (as did Charity)

and nailed it.

But what makes it really special is the added salt.

The texture she achieved is PRO!