In my painting I have used rule of thirds, repetition, and pattern. I used rule of thirds by having the picture of my face in the bottom right corner, which makes it easier to add other elements (like my collage). I also used repetition with the white flowers that were apart of my collage by having four that were all different sizes throughout my painting. Finally, I used pattern by using the flowers but then contrasting it with the skull heads, it was like showing life and death. I did indeed use juxtaposition and transformation in my painting. I used juxtaposition with the skull heads and the white flower because one it relating to death and darkness and the flowers show purity and life. They are complete opposites and don’t necessarily go together which adds an interesting effect to my painting. I also used transformation through the flowers and the skulls again. This time it seems like I start out as the skull faces but then the white flowers lead you onto a visual of my face. The flowers act as a path that can be interpreted as I start as the skull faces and lead to the picture of my face or that I start out as the picture of my face but then as time passes I die (which will eventually happen). In other words I transform from myself to skulls or from skulls to myself.

To make my painting I had to first print out an edited picture of my face that was black and white, except my eye was colored its normal color. I then used gel medium to attach it to the white canvas I was given. I then used black paper to cover up the rest of the white space. I then printed out my skull faces and my four white flowers which were later pasted onto the canvas as well using gel medium. However, for three of the flowers I left them popping out to add a 3D element to my painting. Next, I grabbed red and sliver spray paint to add a dark and scary effect onto my painting (I also spray painted the back of the canvas black just for fun). Finally I got black and red acrylic paint  and spray paint to add a drip effect to my painting. I wanted to make it look like the two colors were fighting each other so I had the red paint dripping down the direction that you would be looking at the painting and then the black painting started by my face and then met with the red paint in the middle. In other words the red paint was dripping in the right direction and the black paint was dripping upside down.

I am proud of the pictures that I used and the way the spray paint turned out. I like how it adds a scary and mysterious feel to my artwork. I think that I can improve on my drip effect that I used with the acrylic paint because it doesn’t show up well and it seems to just match up with the red paint even though I wanted it to create its own separate line. I also think that I can improve on the photo of my face because the gel medium created this weird bubble on my right cheek and the spray paint is also covering up a little bit more of my face than I would like to have.

The overall theme of my painting is death, sadness, and darkness. At the time I was in a very bad mood and so I started to express my anger through my artwork. Even though as time went on and I was in a better mood, I still wanted show my theme of darkness. I don’t know what my message is because I left my painting quite broad and able to have the audience chose their own meaning and message based on how they feel and how they view their work. However, I do see the message being that even though you may be having a bad day, there is always a bright side. i show the bad day through my color choices and the skulls but the bright side through the white roses.

I chose to draw Jackson Kaguri because he is not only a hero to me but many people in Uganda, Africa. When I moved to South Korea he visited my school, I went to a benefit dinner with him and for the past 3 years I have tried my best to help him and his project. He built a school for AID orphaned children and I sponsor a student there to give him and education, food, clothes, supplies, a bed, medication, and much more, his name is Lovis.

By drawing Jackson it made me miss him as well as want him to come visit HKIS and hopefully inspire more students. I do think that I have a greater admiration for him because I have had to stare at his face for the past 3 weeks studying every scar and little detail to his face.

I think I was able to achieve success in my drawing by having help with my shading and by having a grid. I have never been that good at drawing, so by having a grid it helped me break down each body part and be able to draw it just like the actual photo. Since there was a lot of different light hitting his face I had to make his skin a bunch of different shades, but by having shading tools and Mr. Lee and partners giving me advice I think I was able to make the shading look like how it is in the picture with the different lights.

As I explained above the gird allowed me to spend time on each body part in the correct position until I got it to look like the picture. By having the picture it allowed me to reference/look back at it to get the exact shape and shade from it. Another reason that it was good is that helped me portion the face out so that I don’t oversize something or maybe put it in the wrong place. Finally, it helped me transfer the small image into a big image.

I think that my shading could be a little bit better because I just started to really learn about it this year so it isn’t as good as it could be but it is still pretty good. I think that I could also add something in the background that maybe reflected onto his project/mission to show a little bit of a backstory on him. Finally, I think I could improve the shirt to make it look more realistic and clean because at the moment it it looks messy and to perfect to the point that it looks somewhat fake.

Our theme for out photos was hopes and fears. For fear we wanted to show a dark setting with a serious face or look to show that this is something that is scary. For hopes we wanted to show that we were striving for something and looking up to something hoping that one day we could be that happy and bright. In the three photographs the flower one shows both hope and fear. The dark setting is setting the mood for a sad and scared but the flower is showing happiness and hope with the bright colors. The photograph of me is also showing fear but a little bit of hope. The dark setting, having my face be half dark, and my expression is showing the fear but the hope comes from the light shining on half of my face. The picture of the hands holding the sun is supposed to show hope by having a bright future, literally bright.

In our final work we used several rule of composition, such as rule of thirds, rule of triangles, rule of space, diagonal lines, and horizontal lines. When you look at the photo of the arm and the bright flower you see a horizontal line created by the arm, there is also diagonal lines from the certain angle of the flower, and finally there is rule of space because the flower is facing to the right. Some people may interrupt that differently, depending on how you view the image. When you look at the photo of the hands around the sun, you see rule of triangles made by the arms that are coming together and rule of thirds because the arms and the sun are off center and to the side. Finally, when you look at the portrait of my face and shoulders you see rule of thirds because my body is over to the side and darkness is filling the rest of the space.

I do think that my work is original because I didn’t google hopes and fears to see possible ideas that would come up. Of course there is probably work out there that is somewhat similar to the work that we did but I don’t think someone is going to have a portrait of me is an art gallery. We did see what our peers were doing and kind of build off of some of their ideas or tried some of our ideas that were similar to others and worked for them when some of our ideas didn’t turn out as we expected.

I think that our work is effective in showing hopes and fears through different lighting and expressions. I do think that our work could also be interpreted in many other ways like, happy for the sun photo or maybe lonely for the flower photo. It all depends on how that person views the artwork and what they do to process it. I think that I would change the amount of photos that we took since we only took 3 and maybe the way we took them. I think that I would have liked to have had a different theme and have more props to help really show hopes and fears.

For this photography project my role was to help plan out what we were going to do, what we were going to use, setting up the scene, and taking the photos.

I think that this photo shows how life is a rush and that in an instant it could change forever. I say this because the background has a destroyed look to it and the man seems to be running away from it and in a hurry.

The real story behind this photo is that the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson knew that puddle jumping pictures were clichés but he wanted to bring his own technique and aspect into the photo. This photo was also one of the two pictures that he made that was cropped. He didn’t want it to be cropped so he sent it in to his editors but they cripped out a certain shadow that he had made.

1. I used rule of thirds, diagonal lines, and rule of space to make this photo. Amelia isn’t in the center of the picture and neither is the soccer ball, so that is where the rule of thirds is. There are several diagonal lines made by Amelia’s legs as she is in the air. Finally there is rule of space because Amelia is looking of to the side in this picture. 

2. The mood is relatively happy yet serious because she his doing a sport that she loves but she is trying to focus on the ball and the goal so that she makes it in. I made sure to have a fast shutter so that I could take multiple photos as Amelia was doing this action. I also made sure that no one else was in the frame as I took the photo so that they wouldn’t be a distraction and that the viewer of the photos would focus on Amelia.

3. I think that the three most important elements when taking an action photo are background, proportion of frame, and lighting. I think that background is important because there may be times when you can’t see the persons face yet the background could explain the entire image and the action of course. Proportion of the frame is also key to have so that there isn’t a bunch of left over space with people and other things in it. However if the people and other items are a part of your background then that is okay. Finally lighting is important because if the lighting is bright it could show happiness and if it is dark it can show sadness or maybe even fear. I had to edit my photo to make it seem brighter because I took it on a cloudy day and that is kind of a more sad mood but I wanted it to be happy.

I think the story behind this photo is a girl that was taken from her home having to travel far to find a new one.

The real story behind this afghan girl, Sharbat Gula, is that she was at a refugee camp in Pakistan. Her eyes show are haunted and haunting and in them you can see the loss of land and the tragedy taken by the war.

This photograph was taken by Steve McCurry and posted on National Geographic by Cathy Newman

Newman, Cathy. “Afghan Girl.” A Life Revealed. National Geographic, Apr. 2002. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.

1. The compositional rules that I used when taking this photo was rule of triangles, rule of thirds, diagonal line, and horizontal line. If you look at the photograph you see a pyramid and the front side of it is a triangle so that is where the rule of triangles is. Rule of thirds is also shown in this picture because Amelia isn’t in the middle of the picture and neither is the triangle because she is holding it off to the side. Finally there are diagonal lines and horizontal lines that are making up the pyramid.

2. This images mood is a little playful in the sense that she is holding a pyramid but it is also serious because if you look at her face she isn’t smiling or showing any emotion she is just staring at the camera. I think that the story behind this photo is fear because it is almost like Amelia is trying to hide her face and who she is from the person taking the photo. To accomplish these things listed above in the photograph I needed to make sure that the lighting was hitting her face perfectly so that it was half lighting up her face but half casting a shadow on it. The pyramid helped with casting a shadow on her face by blocking the light.

3. I think that the three most important things when taking someones portrait is a good background, lighting, and expression. First off I think that you need to have either a blank background or one with lots of color but not one with people in the back. I think that if you do have people in the background that you are maybe trying to show more than one persons life but for this certain project I just needed to show one persons life. I think that lighting is important because it has an expression and mood on its own. If you have a darker background it could show sadness but a brighter one could show happiness. I think that lighting is also important for casting shadows. Finally I think that expression on the persons face is important because that can change the mood of the picture, if they are smiling then the mood is happy. I also think it can show how that persons life is going in the sense that if they are not showing emotion that they are scared, or worried about the paths ahead.

Combination of any rules:

Diagonal Line:

Form:

Horizontal line:

Repetition and pattern:

Rule of space:

Rule of thirds:

Rule of triangles:

Vertical lines:

Here is my actual artwork!

My hand drawing photo shows my hands with a bunch of different designs giving to the leaves and effecting the leaves all in a different way. Think if it like different people giving something to other people but effecting the people all in different way. There are different patterns and lines used to create this simple yet complex drawing. I made sure that my hands were kind of overlapping to show receiving or giving to someone or something else. I know that when every I go to church and we are receiving the body of god this is how we hold our hands. I think that my drawing has a lot of emphasis with the bold colors and wavy lines. I think that overall the lines make people have to think about what they are looking at and what the meaning is behind all the lines and just the picture as a whole. I think that my work was successful in the sense that I like how it turned out however if I could change it or redo it I probably would.

I took 2 cards and 1 A3 paper that was folded in half and then glued them together. I then took 9 other A3 pieces of paper, folder them in half and placed them over the other 1 piece of paper and taped them down the middle 2 times around. After I nailed 9 holes 3 cm apart from each other. The sewing method is very easy first tie a knot of the needle and then go up 1 down 2.

*Note that the cover to my sketchbook is not done*

The name of the artist that made this binding is Cathy Adelman I think that the blue binding is supposed to be maybe some form of dominos on the front I also think that the platform that the book is standing up on is supposed to be another book looking type of thing.

The second picture (wooden one) is also by Cathy Adelman but I think this one shows how even though wood is thicker that you can still make it look and act like a book.

I think that paper books are still necessary because even though there is more advanced technology some people that maybe don’t like technology or don’t know how to work it may still like having paper books to read. I know that I have a kindle and I do enjoy reading from it but I usually only read a book once so having to pay for it is sometimes pointless. Having the ability to get a book from a library is a much better choice but the accessibility is also something to think about.