BACKED INTO A CORNER

CORNER OF THE ROOM DRAWINGS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

graphite, fine felt tip & watercolor accents

Every year these drawings get more and more complex and creative.

The assignment was to draw the corner of my room using Dr. Betty Edwards Sighting approach

from her book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

It's too tricky to explain,

only the book will do.

But basically it's 1 & 2 Point Perspective using more of an intuitive process

that is a must read in her book with great diagrams to help understand.

So anyways,

we practice this skill in several smaller drawings 

then I ask the kids to pick a corner of my room to sit in front of 

and draw a point of view drawing. 

They must decide after the foundations of the walls and corner are in

if they want to embellish with surrealistic details,

or just leave it be and not add anything that isn't already there.

Let's see which way they went.

We start with junior Manishka Ranjit,

one of the most imaginative students in the class.

She went all out and did a bit of both,

plus she went way beyond the graphite required and adding pen & ink and watercolor.

So much fun to figure out and explore!

Next,

check out this impressive attention to detail and craftsmanship by 8th grader Ashley Lee.

Yes,

that's right,

8th grader!

Another of the requirements was to add both simulated and real texture.

She did a brilliant job with this as well as adding rich nighttime color with stars.

And talk about added color,

another 8th grader,

 Madison Plotkin,

 brought in gorgeous amazing color thru her watercolor skills.

And with her incredible drawing skills,

 she turned the clay damp room into an undersea adventure.

Then junior Esther Ahn  decided to really go for it 

and drew everything she saw on my checkout counter,

even the cup of spilled paint.

But as you look up you see the room starting to bust apart,

walls cracking open and so forth.

So cool Esther!

And wonderful projection too.

We end with junior Steffany Reyes who brings a frightening serpent from the cracking ceiling tiles,

and turns the walls ino windows of an Asian countryside.

Fabulous woman!!

WHO'S LURKING IN THE SHADOWS?

SHAPES OF SHADOWS

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

india ink on smooth bristol board w/ watercolor & collage accents

Senior Ylia Matayag was gracious enough to agree to be our model for this assignment.

We sat her in a dark corner of the room and shone a bright light on her upper body 

to bring out the shape of the shadows on her face, hair and shoulder area.

The kids sat in a semi-circle around her so they each had a slightly different point of view.

They used graphite first to lightly draw in ONLY the shapes of the shadows cast on her.

This was very difficult for the students to grasp 

even though we had done a very similar prior assignment.

Once drawn they used a soft watercolor brush and India Ink to paint those shadows in.

Then they had a choice,

to bring in watercolor or collage accents. 

We all really liked what senior Sarah Oh did with her watercolors,

but at first she had only done it in the background.

But after the critique we convinced her to also bring some into the face and shoulders

for a super cool piece.

Senior Tiffany Chen also used a watercolor accent and painted it all the way thru the portrait.

I love that she turned it into a fabulous landscape complete with castle.

I also really liked the fine felt marker she brought in to pop it and to add the birds.

William Tan, senior, choose watercolor as well.  

He had her frontal as his point of view.

I love the quiet, contented sense of self he brought into her face 

by capturing her with her head at a bit of a tilt backwards with eyes closed. 

Brilliant!

And then the watercolor dripping over top her is a marvelous finish.

It was a favorite by the others.

In each of these poses Ylia seems to take on a different nationality.

Here she seems to be taking on characteristics of the Indigenous people of North America.

I love the dynamic collage backdrop that contrasts with the soft stoic face of Ylia.

This was done by junior Angelica Luza.

But it was this one that took my breath away.

Powerful Native American Woman I want to call this.

Senior Mary Kim has brought in both collage and watercolor for a remarkable portrait.

This work was probably one of the most outstanding pieces on display at Open House last year.

NO NEGATIVITY ALLOWED

NEGATIVE SPACE DRAWINGS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

india ink, felt markers & watercolor accents, silk flower & plant props

These are always a favorite assignment of the Beginners.

They take great pride in the outcome,

oftentimes getting their parents to frame them up.

And each year they seem to get more and more remarkable.

Like this creation by junior Esther Ahn.

What a complex, beautifully crafted and designed piece this is.

She planned this out before she began after lots of research into past pieces she viewed on the blog.

I use the blog as homework for whenever I start a new project with the kids.

They must access it at home and pull up the project 

and look thru all the others that have been done from years past for inspiration.

Of course they may not copy anyone else's work.

Here is a close up below of the intricate pen work Esther put into the text..

This next one was made by junior Manishka Ranjit.

She designs with this woman's silhouette in a lot of her artwork,

along with putting different hats on her,

flowers surrounding and running thru her and shades of lavender to color areas in with.

It worked out perfectly for this assignment.

Check out the tiny marking pen details below.

And lastly we have senior Jessica Mones.

Love how she has drawn the plant thru the ship and bird.

It feels really magical like I am in a Peter Pan adventure.

I miss you Jessica.

Hope you are continuing to do more in the art world.

SO MUCH YOUNG & FRESH TALENT

1 POINT PERSPECTIVE BOX CONSTRUCTIONS

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

graphite on bristol board with watercolor & paper collage accents

It is such a pleasure for me to show off the incredibly gifted art talents in my 2nd year 2-D class.

Two of these three senior girls are off to our top art school in the country,

Art Center of Design in Pasadena.

All 3 girls went so far over their minimum requirements for this assignment.

I love when the kids push themselves so.

The minimum was a 3 box construction in graphite with a light source and cast shadows.

Let's see what they did.

We start with Sarah Oh,

bringing in her distinctive cats and fish that are present in many of her pieces.

She balances the piece thru Approximate Symmetry and by watercoloring only the cats.

Sarah has also brought in the prefect amount of pen & ink on the cats.

Bravo young woman!

A truly complex piece.

Tiffany Chen creates this magical wonderland,

and moves your eye diagonally thru the work which the eye loves.

I also like the linear repeated texture she has brought into the upper left corner 

that helps to balance out the horned creature.

But the piece that really did it for me was this last one by Mary Kim,

and her 1-point ship.

That alone must have taken her hours,

but it was the paper collage that brought it to life.

She went thru my scrap paper drawer and found this discarded paper towel tye-dye piece. 

She masterfully ripped it into many pieces 

then patiently collaged it back together around the ship.

Also love how she pushed a couple of pieces outside the borderline.

Brilliant work Mary!

"I WANT TO RUN THIS BY YOU"

JUNK BOOK MURAL

INTERMEDIATE 2-D ART

junk mail, gesso, watercolor,  & Sharpies

Famous last words, right?

Wanting to please our new Principal ,

John Briquelet,

I gladly told him I'd have my Intermediate 2-D art kids do a mural on one of the walls

 in the new student union building for him,

 the new idea he was hoping for.

I had to figure a spot large enough to put it into

inside my already tightly packed Tentative Schedule. 

1st Quarter Final,

which was to be their Junk Mail Book,

 was the only place I could work it into,

So I renamed it the Junk Mail Mural.

Personally,

 as an artist, 

I have never enjoyed working on assignments together with others.

There is always a slacker,

and then there are the procrastinators.

I used to get too anxious that we wouldn't finish on time.

Not for me.

But I had faith in this Intermediate group that they just might be able to pull it off.

To please the new Principal...

Let's see how it worked out.

We had six kids in this group,

5 seniors and 1 junior.

All of them wanting to be art majors of some sort.

Now we needed a thumb nail design to work from and I wanted it to be an original student design.

For homework I had them all draw up a couple of ideas then they voted on their favorite.

Senior Malaya Sithichai's was chosen of a sweet little astronaut floating in space.

Now the fun begins!

Above are the kids spreading out all my junk mail from the last year I had saved for them.

A ridiculous amount!

Each student picked one favorite visually pleasing piece first,

then auditioned it next to all the others they picked for Visual Flow

(color scheme, text, envelops).

Next they divided up the wall in 6 equal vertical sections,

then lotteried off each section to make it fair.

Can you see the pencil lines?

The wall we chose was small and narrow as you can see,

we didn't want to overextend ourselves.

Next each student had their own brayer that they used to roll on  "YES" glue

onto the back of each junk mail piece to attach to the wall

(we experimented with many glues,

and this one was the strongest to attach those thick mailers with).

Look at those cuties go!

Almost done with this portion.

Honestly I kinda like it just like that.

Could we have called it done at that point???????????

For me personally,

Yes!

Notice the visual flow thru each vertical section??

Kinda feels like a rainbow effect.

Next came the gesso over top the junk mail.

Two things were not quite working.

When we build the books 

they were required to have at least on piece of mail that opened up like a flap.

We tried it on the wall but it seemed a little too much.

Also,

the kids over applied the gesso too thickly and not enough of the mail parts were showing.

What to do?

We ripped off several of the flaps to calm down the distraction,

and I had them sand off some of the gesso.

Ahhh,

much better.

Up close.

Next came the watercolor.

Each student chose a color scheme to work in and lightly brushed watercolor over the gesso areas.

What I forgot to take a pix of was what that looked like before the Sharpie drawing was applied.

It didn't look good at first 

because the color schemes were so different and created a hard edge separation.

So then I made the kids go back and overlap their watercolored section edges

 and use a wet sponge to blend them.

Yes,

better. 

Next came using the overhead projector to enlarge Malaya's image,

and each kiddo had a Sharpie to draw over the design lines.

More gesso was then added into areas that needed popping

 like the astronaut and his safety line,

and all the little twinkling stars,

and of course the planets.

Pattern that reads as texture from a distance was added with a Sharpie as well.

Used to be called doodling now is called Zentangling.

You can see that better in the pix below.

Here is the gang standing in front of each of their sections.

From left to right we have Ayesha, Eileen, Kevin, Malaya, Jazzarie, and Samantha.

And sadly below we have the chairs back in place that belong in front of it.

Rats!

And it wouldn't be complete without their signatures.

We have Senior Ayesha Durrani,

Senior Eileen Lee,

Senior Kevin Ma,

Senior Malaya Sithichai,

Senior Jazzarie Lo,

and Junior Samantha Tun.

What I totally forgot to mention in the post 

is that it took almost the full school year to completely finish it.

Much of that extra time was taken away from their regular class assignments.  :(

So I really admire their sticktuative-ness in bringing this mural to fruition.

What a wonderful legacy these children are leaving behind

at a school they spent 6 years of their lives at,

their Alma Meter,

Whitney High School.

WHO'S IN YOUR CORNER?

CORNER OF THE ROOM

BEGINNING 2-D ART

graphite, watercolor accents, colored pencil accents, felt tip marker accents

I will always be honest with you here,

so let me tell you one of the least favorite assignments of my Art I kids 

is to draw on location,

 a corner of my room.

The reasoning behind this horrendous task

 is to allow the kids to practice and perfect their

Dr. Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Sighting skills.

Sighting is another way to teach perspective but way faster.

But the kids hate it because it requires them to use some left brained skills

involving rulers and measuring to get distance and correct angles.

But it's like any new global skill,

once they learn it they will always remember it and it becomes easy,

 like riding a bike.

In this first one,

11th grader Nara Choi took off like gangbusters

 because she knew she wanted to get to the watercolor and sparkly things.

The kids have a choice to draw exactly what they see happening on the walls and cabinets,

or to make something up to put into the corner.

Everyone loved Nara's finished piece,

the whimsy and color really made her work pop.

Sarah Oh, 

11th grader as well,

thoroughly got into the assignment too.

After she finished drawing with her pencil,

she brought in watercolor and pen & ink which made this work extra special.

Was color required?

Nope,

just if you wanted to and if you had the time.

Do I give Extra Credit for going above and beyond?

You bethcha!

Here we have senior Cathy Huang with this very soft & delicate piece.

She chose to draw the area right above my teacher desk.

I really enjoyed how she captured the branch of Bougainvillea

that 2014 art student Alex Lee donated to the room several years back. 

And if you look very closely you will see a dragon sitting on top of the shelf on the right.

Cathy made that in her 8th or 9th grade year from her aluminum lunch wrappers,

and it's been there ever since.

I really enjoyed how senior Melissa Ongko turned my sink corner

into an ocean themed wonderland.

I'm pretty sure she used colored pencil but honestly I can't remember 

from this photo.  

Could have been watercolor too.

All's I know is that I really liked it!

Look closely at the texture see rubbed onto the walls.

One of my personal favorites was this one by junior Tiffany Chen.

As a child I always loved playing with miniatures,

I think we called them Tumbellina dolls.

I still have mine in hopes that my first granddaughter will play with it.

So I adored how she put the tiny girl atop the bird to fly thru the room to it's nest.

In fact,

there were many small,

cool details to find and explore.

I could totally see Tiffany building this magical journey 

into a children's book complete with illustrations.

And last but never least is upcoming superstar,

 8th grader Ashley Gong.

Just look at the energy and effort she brought to this work!

Wow Ashley,

this is powerful!

Bravo young woman  :)

and kudos to all of you who rose above this awful assignment

hee hee

I felt your pain since I also had to do this when I took Betty's class back in 1982.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION

NEGATIVE SPACE PLANTS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

india ink on construction paper w/ watercolor accents

Every year the kids manage to come up with a new twist to this already complex assignment.

Junior Gauri Deshpande hit the lotto below by adding strings of lights to her piece.

The assignment:

to draw a silhouette of a subject (Gauri drew a sun motif),

and then to sit in front of a real plant/branch of leaves 

and draw them in Negative Space over top the silhouette.

Afterwards to paint in the positive spaces with India ink.

And at the end to add a special twist.

The results are always stunning!

We do this on a large format,

18" by 24".

You can see the battery packs on either side that Gauri glued down.

Because the paper was so thin and couldn't support the weight of the packs,

she mounted the work on a thick piece of poster board.

Now the artwork hangs beautifully,

and man oh man is it beautiful on display.  

Way to push this assignment even further Gauri and inspire next year's group!

This next gorgeous piece was done by senior Jocelyn Chou.

The plant came together perfectly with the tiger for a crazy balanced composition.

And the topper,

the watercolored green eyes.

Just the right touch.

In this next one by junior Mary Kim,

she picked an incredibly complex silhouette 

wherein she mixed the bronco buster with a piano keyboard.

When she first tried to explain her idea,

I told her it sounded a bit too difficult to pull off,

but Mary was not deterred,

thank goodness,

and brought this together in splendid style accompanied by bits of glass shards and buttons.

Wow,

bravo young woman,

you rocked this assignment!

Next is senior Melissa Ongko.

Instead of totally overlapping the plant with the silhouette,

she figured out a way to bring them together in a complex oval border,

with watercolored flowers underneath for a breathtaking piece.

And make sure you note the dragon morphing with the plant.

Where do these kids come up with these complex ideas??

Junior Tiffany Chen brought us this eye catching piece.

Instead of doing a recognizable silhouette,

she chose to work with geometric pieces for the plant to go over.

And for her special twist she came in with copper paint.

Her's was one of the class favorites.

Photographer senior Luna Chen,

cleverly chose to do a self-portrait for her piece.

Luna is rarely seen around campus without a camera hanging from around her neck.

She photographs most all the sports events along with other happenings at our school.

Thank you Luna for your great art and your service to our school.

I found this work by junior Madelyn Uchiyama really sensory,

capturing my attention from the moment I laid eyes on her finished piece.

Love how she used the watercolor in the background to make it come alive.

And we end with very sweet and hardworking 8th grader Ariel Kim.

She took music for her 7th grade elective 

so I didn't get a chance to work with her in the 7th grade Art Wheel class.

But she told me she really wanted to do art,

and I'm so glad she did.

She came up with this adorable young girl and her umbrella

with the plant running thru like rain.

Her special twist,

she Zentangled in each of the leaves which took a lot of extra time.

Like I said,

a hard working little one.