Concentration piece #1
It was exciting to start my first concentration piece and to kind of get a feel of what I need to do in order to complete all my concentration pieces. It was challenging to come up with a great idea for this piece because I wanted it to be really meaningful and reflect my story. My story is about combining my life now with my Hawaiian heritage because my grandma is from Hawaii and it has been a big part of my life so I want to relfect that in my pieces. I started brainstorming ideas trying to come up with the perfect representation of my story, I l looked at all the pictures that I got from hawaii of the flowers found there or the geography there and I finally came up with a base idea. I started with the idea of a whirlpool of flowers because I knew I definetly wanted to incorporate the plumeria flowers into my pieces. I started thinking more on that concept of the whirlpool of flowers and thought what if in a way I was being "drowned" in a sense by the flowers. I decided to go with the idea of me falling into a whirlpool of plumeria flowers which reflects my story of combining my life and my heratige. I started sketching the flowers on an orange piece of paper because I wanted to use prisma colors as my media. After sketching the flowers in and myself on the paper I started coloring the flowers with a white base and then adding in differnet colors that matched typical colors of a plumeria flower. Once I finished coloring the flowers I colored in the parts of the piece that were not covered in flowers with a green background to represent the shrubbery around the plumerias. I lastly worked on coloring my arms and legs and my hands and feet. I tried to make it look as realistic as possible but I could have made it look more like skin color if I had more practice with using prisma colors to make skin color. I think that there could be more shadows added to show the different layers of the piece. I like how the flowers turned out and how the colors are a nice pastel color but some are vibrant as well. I enjoyed doing this piece and I enjoyed challenging my creativity because I have never done a piece like this before. Overall I learned a lot from this project that will help me in deciding my ideas for my future concentration pieces.
Concentration Piece #2
For my second concentration piece I was not sure what to do and how to relate it to my story but I started to brainstorm more on previous ideas that I came up with. I wrote a list of stuff from my life and then wrote a list of stuff from my hawaiian heritage which helped when bringing ideas together. I found a picture my grandmother took in Hawaii of the Chinaman's hat which was named because of the legend behind the island that basically tells a story about a man who grows into a giant and floats all the way to Hawaii becoming an island. The picture has some land in front of it and I thought what better way to represent my life coming into the Hawaiian life was to add a soccer field into the photograph. I decided to use acrylic paint because I felt like they landscape would be well represented when using acrylic. I started to sketch out my piece on canvas and made sure I had a good outline that would help me for when I paint and then I added a brown-sienna wash as the base. The first thing I started painting was the Chinaman's hat which I really enjoyed because I liked adding all the shadows and textures. The second part I did was the water which was difficult to do because I wanted to get the same color blue that was in the photograph but I had trouble matching it exactly. I tried adding some white and black into the blue to give it a more dull look to it because in the picture it was pretty dull blue. I added some darks and lights into the water to give it some depth and I also left room for the boat. The third part I did was the sand and grass which was challenging because I had to make sure not to make my strokes too big and to make sure the tan parts looked like sand. I then added the soccer goals onto the land, the hard part wit adding the goals was to make sure they were at the right angle. The reason why I decided to add the soccer goals into my piece was because soccer is not a typical sport played in Hawaii and for me bringing that into part of the Hawaiian Islands shows that all though my heritage is in Hawaii there are parts of my life that are not typical of the Hawaiian culture. The next thing I did was paint the boat, and in the picture there were people on the boat but I didn't want to add them because I felt like it would take away from the piece. I got the colors of the boat wrong but then I fixed and made it more brown and yellow. The last thing I did was paint the sky which was also fun to do because I got to add some clouds which turned out really well. I tried adding a soccer ball by the soccer field but I did not like how it turned out so I covered it up and it looks better without it. The official last thing I added into my piece was a Hawaiian lei on the boat. I wanted to add Hawaiian plumeria flowers into all my pieces because I think it adds some light into the pieces and gives a pop of color. All and all I think that this piece turned out well and if I were to go back and change anything I would change the thickness of the goal post and add more shadows.
Concentration Piece #3
As the weeks go on I find it harder and harder to come up with good ideas for my concentration. I think there are so many directions I could take my concentration that it makes it difficult to come up with best idea for each project, but once I get it then it is easy flowing from there. I started this project off with an open mind and started to brainstorm ideas from my list I made of events or things in my life and events or things in the Hawaiian culture. What I kept going back to on my list was poi. Poi is basically a Hawaiian pudding that is very tart and the only way I can eat it is if I put a ton of sugar in it. I was trying to come up with an idea on how to incorporate the poi into my piece and came up with a couple of ideas. I ended up coming up with the idea of putting the poi in bowls that are from my home because the whole purpose of my concentration is combining my life with my Hawaiian heritage. I had to choose from three different bowls I owned and I decided it based on which one would work best with the color of poi which is like a purple brown color. I went with a light blue bowl because it really would make the poi stand out. I then had to decide what to do for the background, my idea was that I would do a wood table with the sunset in the back. I was at first hesitant to do the wood but I knew it would be a good challenge. I decided to do my project in prisma colored pencils because I thought it would give it an interesting texture. I started to draw the bowls on a brown piece of paper and I could not get them to look right and I could not figure out what I was doing wrong and then Mrs. Rossi came over and asked me where my vanishing point was and that was when I figured out that I wasn't going based of perspective. So finally I figured out how it was supposed to look and got it right. My next step was to add in the plumeria flowers because in every one of my pieces there are the Hawaiian plumeria flower. I then started coloring the bowls slowly adding in the shadows and highlights making sure I got them right. I think the bowls themselves turned out really well. I was on such a roll with them that I ended up coloring inside one of the bowls where the poi was supposed to be and ended up having to erase some of it. I next started on the poi and this was really fun to do because I kind of got to experiment with colors and find out which ones mated the color of poi them more and it turned out that the purple and brown worked the best. I also added highlights and shadows into the poi to give it a more realistic look. After I finished that I worked on the flowers and those went well because I got the hang of how to do them after the first two projects. The part of the project I dreading to do was the wood because I have never done wood before with prisma colors. I practiced a lot before actually doing it on the art piece but once I got it and did it on the piece I think it turned out really well. The sunset on the other hand was not my favorite part of the piece, the colors just did not blend well and it looks separate from the rest of the piece. I think if I blended the colors more and added in more warm colors it would look better. Overall I really liked how this project turned out and I enjoyed doing the wood and was glad I did that instead of doing a plain background. Three projects down, nine more to go!
Concentration Piece #4
Brainstorming what to do for this project was difficult because I had a couple it was just a matter of choosing which one I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to paint myself as a little girl hula dancing. I found a picture of me when I was little and I changed my outfit to a Hawaiian shirt and skirt made of banana leaves. I started by sketching myself first with pencil and practicing the details of the clothing. I then sketched it on a 9x12 canvas and laid down a burnt sienna base coat. While that was drying my next step was to come up with a background. At first I was going to do a floral background but I was worried that it would take away from the main part of my piece. I then found a picture of my grandmother standing in the water at the beach and I thought that it would be a perfect background to do. The first part that I painted was the clothes because I wanted to start with the most simple part of the painting and then I added the base coat of the sand and island. I had to redo the island part because I went to dark with the greens but I finally got it right. I put the Hawaiian instruments called Uli Uli's in my hands because they are a beautiful instrument and I actually own a set. I of course had to add in the plumeria flowers so I put a lei around my neck and a haku on my head. I added some darker colors into the sand to give it a more realistic look and started outlining the water, I also added in the base color of the sky as well. I have never actually worked with skin tones before with painting so this was my first time trying to paint it. I thought that I did a decent job and got a good skin tone down. Once I finished the skin I finished the rest of me adding in all the details and my hair and then finished up the plumeria flowers. The part of the piece that I was the most worried about was the water, I had no clue how I was going to get the water to look realistic. My first attempt at it did not go very well and I did not add enough colors. After trying it again and adding in more blues, greens and browns it looked a lot better. Overall I think the water turned out really well and the piece as a whole was one of my better pieces. I would probably go back and add more shadows and highlights and more color to the lei and haiku, but other than that the project was a success.
Concentration Piece #5
For this piece I knew exactly what I wanted to do, I wanted to do a portrait of my grandparents. At first I thought I was going to do the portrait in acrylics but then I changed it to oils because it would be better to work with especially since I was doing people. I was a little hesitant to work with oils because the last time I worked with them it was challenging and very different from acrylics which I normally work with. I figured out with oils that it takes a lot of patience in order to get all the details in without the paints absorbing it all. I started painting like I do with acrylics, doing the base colors first. I didn't let it dry long enough and when I went to add more lights and darks into the piece the paints just absorbed it. The first part that I worked on was the background which was trees, I thought that it would be best to work on that first because it would be a good way for me to ease into the oil painting. Once I got the hang of it, it started to be fun to figure out the layering process of the oils and how smoothly they go on to the canvas. My first experience with oils was different because the oils I bought were very watery and that is why I was a little hesitant to work with them again. As I continued with the background it got easier and easier, I added in more details and I finished it up. I added a base coat to the shirts and then started to work on the leis. I was really excited to work on the leis because I wanted to add in the pop of bright colors that the leis bring to the piece. I started with adding the pink parts of the lei first and then once that dried I added in thick layers of white making the leis look 3D and while that was drying I added in the shadows to make them look realistic. Once the white dried I went back and added in some more pinks. I also added in the shadows and highlights of the shirts. The last part I had to work on was the faces, which was the part I was most worried about because I have only worked with skin colors a couple of times and I have never worked with skin tones with oils. I got the base colors down and slowly started to add in the shadows and highlights, it was very challenging because I kept getting the colors wrong. I took a break from the skin and worked on the hair and eyes of both my grandparents. My grandmas eyes were the hardest because they were so dark in the picture and i had to add in a lot of dark to the eyes and my grandpas eyes were the more simple because he was wearing sunglasses. I went back to the skin and finally got most of it right, I had to go back and added in some more shadows but in the end I think it turned out really well and is one of my favorite pieces so far!
Concentration Piece #6
I was trying to come up with ideas for this piece and I knew I wanted to incorporate my dog somehow into this piece because she is a huge part of my life. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do and then an idea popped into my head which was to put my dog on a surfboard. Surfing is a big thing in Hawaii that many people learn while they live or visit there. I had to pick a picture of my dog and that was probably the hardest part of this piece because I just had too many pictures to choose from. I decided to go with one where she is standing up with a hat on backwards. This one most resembled what she would look like if she were on a surfboard in the water. I got this piece sketched out on a canvas because I wanted to use acrylics for this piece. The next step I took in completing my piece was to start on the background, I started painting the surfboard with orange, red and yellow in a tye-dye painting style. I added a yellow stripe across the front of it with plumeria flowers as the pattern on top of the stripe because in every piece I have done I have added in plumeria flowers in some shape or form. The next part I worked on was the water I mixed some colors together and painted the water then decided to add a sky. The more I looked at the background the more I started to dislike how it looked. It was just very unappealing and so I decided to take a break from that and work on the fur. I started off with a gray base color and then added in textured black fur with hints of white highlights. As I continued this I realized I didn't really like the gray base because of all the blues in the piece and the color of the surfboard. With that said, I decided to paint over the gray base and the black fur with a brown coat because I thought that it would give a nice undertone to the fur. Everyone was very confused as to why I was painting my dog brown because she is obviously a black dog with a little bit of white but I had a plan and a mission that I knew was going to turn out well. As I started working on the fur I used prussian blue, burnt umber and black mixed together to create a more realistic look to the fur and I also added in the white highlights. I also painted the base coat of the hat which was red just to keep going as some of the paint was drying. As I continued the fur I could not stand looking at the sky and water any longer so I painted white and so I could start over on that part. The next step I had to work on was my dogs face. I started painting the ears and part of the face and it was just not looking right so I decided to paint in the eye just to see if it would look better and sure enough that side of her face came together. I finished up her face and was happy about how it turned out. I then decided to paint the surfboard a different color and make it more of a traditional wood surfboard instead of a bright orange one. I also made the stripe a light teal color. I finally started to redo the water and used a more realistic blue and then added in some of the waves. I finished up the hat and added in all the shadows that needed to be added to make the hat look like an actual hat. Some of the last things I added to the surfboard were more shadows underneath my dog and the plumeria flowers which I painted them black and white. The last things I did to the piece was finish up the waves, added more depth and detail to the fur and defined the paws more. I changed this piece a lot because there was a certain way I wanted the painting and I did not know that till after I started painting my original idea. I really liked how my dog turned out and how the surfboard looks but I would probably go back and add more waves and maybe some more blues to the body of my dog. All and all I think this piece turned out really well even after the five times I changed my piece.
Concentration Piece #7
I actually had a plan for this piece because I was searching through some things in my room and found this old jewelry box my grandmother had given me when I was younger. I thought it would be interesting if I used this in my art piece. I planned on making the ballerina inside the box to be a hula dancer and I would also replace the mirror on the back part of the box with a solid cream so it would not take away from the hula dancer. I knew I wanted to do this piece in prisma color because I thought it would bring a the colors together nicely. I started off using a dark brown piece of paper, sketched out the box and started coloring. I then realized that the colors were not blending well on the dark brown piece of paper. It did not look how I imagined it so I decided to switch the papers. I went with a light brown color paper so that all the light colors in the jewelry box would blend together. The first part I started on was the outside of the box where I used yellows, creams and browns to add in the highlights and shadows. It was challenging to decide where the highlights and shadows went because I replaced the mirror with the solid cream color. I figured out that the edges needed shadows and the upper middle needed highlights. I also knew there would be a shadow behind the hula dancer which I added in later. The next part I worked on was the inside of the box where I used pinks and purples to created the velvet texture that the box had. I really enjoyed doing this part because it was fun using highlights and shadows to make the piece look three dimensional. All of these parts of this piece took a while because of all the layers I had to add to make the piece look realistic. The last part of the box I did was the hula dancer. I used bright colors to make the dancer pop and to show that it was in fact a hula dancer and not a ballerina. It was challenging to get all the details in it since it was so small but I think it turned out pretty well. I also added in the medal parts that held the box together and held the ballerina in place. The last part I did for the piece was the background, I was going back and forth on what to do and I really did not want to do wood but somehow I ended up doing it anyway. I did the wood because I figured the most realistic place for a jewelry box was on a chest of drawers in a kids room. This is also why I did a bright flower wall paper background. This piece was fun to do and a great learning experience.
Concentration Piece #8
This next piece was extremely fun to plan and do. Throughout doing my concentration I really wanted to add in the Hawaiian islands but I had no clue how I was going to incorporate it into one of my pieces. I started planning for this piece and I really wanted to do something with fishing because I love to fish and it is a major activity you see done in Hawaii. I wanted to be fishing off a cliff because I thought the perspective would be cool. I then had an ah! ha! moment when I thought what if I fish off a cliff but I am fishing for the Hawaiian islands. I decided to do this piece in acrylic paint because it allowed me to use the colors I wanted to use for this piece. I started off painting the cliff where I used light browns and greens. I then added in the darker parts of the cliff where it is going down towards the water. It was very challenging to try and make the cliff look like it was going down towards the water but I think it worked out well. I then added in the gray rocks by the water and the rocks on the cliff. I also added in the plumeria trees because again in all my pieces there is a plumeria flower. I then started to work on the water using bright blues and using dark blue for the horizon and light blue, almost white for the waves going up onto the rocks. I also worked on the sky, doing a light blue color so it would not take away from the focal point of the painting. The second to last thing I did was the Hawaiian islands making them look like little islands in the water instead of big islands as they are in real life. I added in the last of the waves and I was finished with the islands. The last thing I did was the girl fishing on the cliff, I dressed her in red so she would be seen easily and turned her sort of side ways so it looks like she is actually sitting on the cliff. This was a very fun project to do and I think it turned out well.
Concentration Piece #9
For this piece I wanted to do a portrait of my parents because they are a major part of my life and my mom is part of the Hawaiian culture as well. I found this old picture of my parents when they were younger and thought it would be perfect to paint.The only thing was that it was in black and white so I had to decided how I wanted to paint it. I thought it would be different and cool to paint it in black and white with oil paint so that is what I did. I started off with the most simple part of the painting which was my moms shirt, I added in the whites and added in the shadows. The next part I did was belt and pants, the was super fun to do because I tried to get the texture of the pants and it turned out looking super cool. I then painted the hair of both my mom and dad, I used a combination of black and brown. Next, I started painting the arms and skin of my mom and dad focusing on the highlights and shadows. The part I dreaded doing the most was the faces because I was working on a smaller canvas and it was hard to get all the details. I decided to just go for it and start with the lights and work my way up to the darks. I worked on the noses and that turned out pretty well but I had difficulty with the eye. I think this was challenging because of working on a small canvas and making sure I do not make the eyes too dark. I lastly did the background adding in all the different patterns and highlights. I also added in the plumeria flower behind my moms ear to show her Hawaiian culture.
Concentration Piece #10
I really wanted to do a piece of me and my sister because she is a major part of my life and also shares the same Hawaiian heritage as I do. I love looking at all of the pictures we had together when we were young because they represented how small and innocent we were. I decided to paint in oils a picture of us in a outdoor playhouse that was at my grandparents house. Since my sister and I were really close to our grandparents who are from Hawaii, this was the perfect picture. I started sketching the faces and background and made sure I got all the basic details I needed and then I started to paint. I started with the background adding in light yellows and creams because that was the color of the playhouse. I liked using those colors because they made my sister and I stand out more and added a calm tone to the piece. I then added some color into the shirt of my sister. I added in the skin tones making sure that I got the different skin tones for me and my sister and I also added in the highlights and shadows. The most trouble part of this piece was trying the make the faces look three dimensional. The shadows did not look right and it was very frustrating to try and figure out what I did wrong. I then proceeded to ask my fellow classmates about how to fix the faces. They helped a lot, they told me where I needed to go darker and what other details I needed to add. I then added in the hair colors and that turned out pretty well. The last part that I worked on was my shirt, the original shirt had sunflowers on it but I changed them to plumeria flowers to add that same repetition that is in all my pieces. I am happy about how this piece turned out and I am thankful for the help I received from my classmates.
Concentration Piece #11
This piece has a very personal story to it, that my grandmother had told me. She told me about the ship my great grandmother and her son were on when they came to Hawaii. The ship was a cargo ship and carried them from China to Hawaii. I decided to do this piece in acrylic paint and only work with black and white because I thought that it would add an older feel to the piece. I started to sketch the ship and decided to do it at an angle to give it a different composition. It was challenging to match exactly what the ship looked like back then so I had to use several reference pictures to add in details. I tried adding in highlights and shadows as much as possible because I wanted to make sure it looked realistic. My grandmother had also told me that at the same time my great grandmother and her son were the ship, my great grandfather was on a military plane at the same time. I decided to add that into my piece because it represented the travels my great grandparents had to take in order to reach Hawaii. I started adding in structures to the ship and poles that were connected for communication and wind. I loved adding in the escape boats that lined the side of the ship in case of an emergency. I then painted the plane in a dark gray so it would stand out a little more with the ship. I worked on the sky making it look gloomy and misty as it would on the ocean. I also worked on the water making it dark and wavy to add a struggling effect to it. I added in the details so that people could interpret it in different ways. My favorite part of this piece is the sky because it is very calming and adds a more upbeat tone to the piece. This piece was extremely personal to me and I am glad I added this into my concentration.
Concentration Piece #12
I saved this idea for my last concentration piece because it represented kind of my send off to Hawaii. I have ironically never been to Hawaii so this piece was a symbol of my future travels to Hawaii. I knew I wanted to do a self portrait but I wasn't sure what other details I could add. I knew that I definitely did not want to do my whole face because I already had done so many full face portraits. I thought it would be cool to have a giant hat on and a Hawaiian shirt on to show the Hawaiian culture actually being a part of me. I started to sketch this piece and it was the first piece I did not have a good reference picture for so I took snippets of other pictures and combined them into one. Once I finished sketching I started adding in the base colors for the hat and then I started to add some colors into the shirt. The shirt was one of the main parts of my piece because it was supposed to be significant in my future. I did my whole piece in acrylic paint and I did the shirt a bright red color and I am really glad I did it that color because it really stands out. I put plumeria and hibiscus flowers into the shirt with some leaf designs which I think really added to the piece. I added some more details to the hat and took a break from the shirt. I started working on the face making sure I got the shadows around the nose and the highlights throughout the face. I also had to make sure I added in the shadow from the hat to show that the sun was shining. I was just going to do the background the sky but I did not like it very much so I added in a horizon and the ocean to the back. I had to go back to the hat and add in a lot more darks to show folds a lot better. I finished the shirt adding in the whites of the hibiscus and the oranges of the plumeria flowers. This is one of my favorite pieces that I have done because all though it is very simple and has a deeper meaning to it.
Reflection
Wow! This year has gone by very fast, I can't believe I did 24 pieces in one year. I was very hesitant going into this year because I did not think that I could do AP art, I never thought I was as good as all the previous AP art students that I had known. Last year in art 3, so many people were trying to convince me to take the class and I was honestly completely frightened to be in AP art. Somehow, someway I ended up signing up for both art 4 and AP art. Over the summer I stressed a lot because I wanted to make sure I got all my summer pieces done before school started. I have never had Mrs. Rossi as a teacher and I heard that she could be very strict so I was so worried she was going to deduct points from my grade if I did not do it. Now that I have had Mrs. Rossi for a year she is the best art teacher I have ever had and although there are sometimes she is strict she is looking out for our best interests. I have learned so much from her in one year than I ever have in all my art classes. I had no confidence coming into this class and Mrs. Rossi and everyone in my class has allowed to open my eyes and make me realize not every artist is the same. This class has taught me how to find and express myself through art and helped me figure out what ideas work for me. Art 4 allowed me to experiment with different ideas and mediums that I never knew I could do which was really great for me to grow as an artist. AP art allowed me to take those skills and apply them to a focused idea that meant something to me. I honestly cannot believe I made it through this class because there were so many pieces to do and to meet the AP deadline was very stressful but it was probably the best experience I could have because it taught me so much. The classmates that I have been through art 4 and AP art with are not just my classmates they are my friends. We have all become so close over the past year and I am so glad I have people to be around who understands are the value of art and appreciates the time it takes to be an artist. We have all learned from each other and have helped each other out on many occasions. I will never forget the AP art experience and what it means to be part of the Apex High school AP Art class. It means the world to me that I have been able to share this experience with me art friends and to be a part of something amazing. Thank you to everyone who has supported me through my art journey!!!
Special thanks to Mrs. Rossi for being the best art teacher ever!!!!!!
Special thanks to Mrs. Rossi for being the best art teacher ever!!!!!!
Link to my presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XrcXd3kquVvdxnUqYRIffkqpqTK4MelI0VkEmYP1gSA/edit?usp=sharing