Conclusion post

For the past 15 weeks of writing about art, I enjoyed every minute of it. I enjoyed looking deeper into something that I have a passion for and learning about the different forms of art. Writing about this topic, art, has taught me how to be a better artist and be more open about my artwork to the public. Not only did it strengthen my art skills, but it also let me see the works of other artists in my community and share things that we have in common.

The experience has brought to my attention that art can be in any form. At first, I did have a slight idea of the different elements of art, but I never knew how all of them are connected in a way. For example dance and drawing are two completely different art elements, but they share the same idea of expression and feeling. Dance displays its expression through the movement of the body while drawing displays it's own through pictures. The same thing goes with music and poetry. To me, music is poetry, but with a rhythmic beat added on with it's lyrics. Art can be expressed through almost anything, it's all about how a person perceives it.

Doing research on my topic I learned different techniques like scraping and layering with the oil pastels. This helps the picture to show vivid details and more colors because oil pastels are hard to work with when one is trying to draw a figure. I've also learned the basic elements of dance (BASTE) and how two bodies can move as one with the right exercises, time, and energy. I find that interesting because two people dancing can either look sloppy or organized; when it is organized it seems like they share one mind and move so swiftly.

Another thing I enjoyed was looking at other people's artwork in my community. By doing that, it helped me to gain new ideas about my own drawings and also leads me to experience medias in art like sand art, snow art, or even using chalk on the sidewalk instead of paper. I can image how my skillful chalk drawings would look on the streets in the public; and not only would I be doing what I love to do, but I'd be sharing my talents with other people who walk past my work.

Before all of the blogging, I used to just use other people's works as reference's and draw the exact same thing as another artist. Now I expand my mind and try to make my work original (oil pastel taught me the originality part because it falls under the "impressionist" art) as much as possible. I started practicing free-form drawings and being more original with pen, which are the images you see below.

 

I recently just thought about making a post about pen drawings, it came to mind last minute. Maybe I will continue with this blog and make a post about it in the near future.Though I didn't get the chance to make a post about pen drawings, I can still show people what I can do with just a regular ball-point pen.

Paint

Remember back in your elementary school days during art time when you used to play with paint? Those days were awesome and also a great way to start off a child's use of art. Defining the word "paint" in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, paint is the decorative and protective coating commonly applied to rigid surfaces as a liquid consisting of a pigment suspended in a vehicle, or binder. Paint comes a various colors, from original, basic red to an electric, eye-catching green.

Being an artist and experimenting with the different elements and compositions of art, paint has a variety of mediums. There are:

• Oil
• Acrylic
• Watercolor

Oil

Oil paints are great for representing dirt, grime, oils, slime etc. The very nature of the paint is such that it mimics these effects very well. Oil paints are also easier to blend as they have a much longer drying time than acrylic paint. In The Painting Guide that I've found online, Debra Clem states an interesting fact about oil paint, which I was not aware of. 

Oil paints cannot be mixed with water or water based paints, including acrylics. Some artists, however, layer oil paints on top of dry acrylic paint. Acrylics cannot, however, be used on top of oil paints because they will not properly bind to the oil surface.

This subtopic in this guide discusses many different types of oil paints like poppy oil, cold-pressed safflower oil, stand oil, linseed oil, and sun-thickened oil. Clem goes into depth of each type of oil and their effects on the artist's canvass.

Oil Painting

Artist: Claude Monet

Acrylic

Acrylic paints, according to Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, are water based, and though they may not smell as much as oil paints, there are no messy solvents. During further research on this medium, "Acrylic paint is divided into different grades." states the Acrylic Paint Review. These different grades are:

• Professional Artist Paint- contains a high amount of pigment  without  fillers that dilute the intensity of the color.
• Student Grade Paint- contains less pure pigment and fillers are added to extend the paint in order to offer more volume of paint for a lesser price.
• Acrylic Craft Paint- best used straight from the bottle as mixing colors with craft paint can be unpredictable. (Often used by decorative painters)
• Acrylic Scholastic Paint- intended for elementary or high school students.

Acrylic Painting
Artist: Brian Simmons


Watercolor

Another form of paint in the art world is the water color paint. Wikipedia defines watercolor color paint as  the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle. The advantages of watercolor lie in the ease and quickness of its application, in the transparent effects it gives off, and in the brilliance of its colors. Water color can make beautiful abstract artwork as well as fascinating landscape pieces. Dawn McLeod Hiem gives us an inside scoop on different techniques to use with water colors which are:

• Controlled Wash
• Charging Colors
• Softening Edges
• Lifting, Scrubbing, Blotting
• Dry brush, Wet-Into-Wet, Salt
• Sponge, Graded-Wash, Splatter

Hiem states, "Water techniques are the methods we use to bring shape and form to our painting, while at the same time allowing us to express our creativity."

"Dead" by Khadija Azzam

   This is one of my paintings I did about a year ago. I called the painting "Dead" because of the poem I wrote onto the painting. I used acrylic paint as the first coat of the painting. I first layered it with blue paint, then continuously piled more paint with other shades of blue and cool colors. My favorite techniques that I used when painting this was the splatter effect. This was done with watercolor and I used this effects to give the tree a look where the leaves on the branches in the background look faded. This painting won a blue ribbon in the Prince William County Art Show and is one of my favorite pieces of all time.

The Right Side of the Brain

   Have you ever heard of the left-side, right-side brain theory? If so, I'm sure you know that the right side of the brain is our creative side as opposed to the left-side, which is our intellectual side. In this post I will not discuss the brain as a whole, but briefly talk about the right end of our brain.



   The right part of our brain, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is the right cerebral hemisphere of the human brain especially when viewed in terms of its predominant thought processes (as creativity and intuitive thinking). When a person is right brain dominant, they are thought of as the dreamers, the artists, and the musicians of the world. Just because they are not as good with numbers and remembering facts does not mean that they are "dumber" than a left-brain person. These people just have their strength in different areas.



   During my research on the right side of the brain, I have come across Barbara Pytel's article called, "Right Brain Characteristics" and she goes into depth about the traits and characteristics of the creative half of our brains. Pytel talks about how right-brain people learn, deal with work, their careers, and additional interesting information.

How They Learn

   In Barbara Pytel's theory, a person who is right brain dominant learns through visualizing things. They don't memorize too well and need a visual thought to recall facts. She also mentions in this section that when one who is right brain dominant answers a question, they tend to look to their left. From what I've heard from many people, looking to your left while answering someone's question generally means that the person is lying. That creative person isn't looking to their left in terms of being dishonest.

Dealing with words

   In Barbara's post, she provides an interesting and comprehensive example of how some right-brain people with words, or work in general:

On a spelling test, a right brain hears the word "dog." Their mind wanders to the thought of the neighbor's dog which barked most of the night, that reminds them of the fact that the neighbors are in the Bahamas, which takes them to an island with palm trees and sandy beaches, which reminds them that they need a bathing suit for this weekend, which reminds them that they will need to take spending money... Teacher says, "Word #7 is house." Student raises hand and asks what word #6 was. They've checked out for a while.

   I personally love this example because this is exactly how I act when I am trying to get work done. I'm right brain dominant and I get easily distracted by almost anything. One thought leads to another and it goes on for so long to the point where I ask myself, "How did I even get to this topic? Back to work!"

Perfect Careers

Some perfect careers for the right brain people include:

• Craftsmen
• Sales
• Athletes
• Dancers
• Artists
• Entrepreneurs
• Musician

In the study of the right brain in psychology (Kendra Cherry), some abilities that is associated with the right side of the brain include:

• Recognizing faces
• Colors
• Expressing/Reading emotions
• Music
• Images
• Creativity



Our creative side, I believe, is what started art.Without it, what would art, or even feelings and emotions, be in this world?

Works Cited

Pytel, Barbara. "Right Brain Characteristics." Suite101.com. Suite 101, 28 June 2006. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.

Cherry, Kendra. "Left Brain vs Right Brain." About.com Psychology. About.com, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.

Tattoos

Body Art is one thing the fascinates many people. In fact, according to Statistic Brains, 14 percent of the U.S. population have at least one tattoo on their body. Their survey says that the total percentage of people in the United States who says they're "addicted to ink" is 32 percent. What makes these people say this? Well from my prespective, these designs and art on the human skin expresses one's creativity and artsy side with the others. Kind of like graffiti, tattoos are a way share the meanings of the body art with the public; only difference is that tattoos are permanent.

Researching the body art, I came across an article, What Are Tattoos and Where Did They Originate. The article says that the word tattoo derived from the Tahitian word tattau, which means "to mark". The article also give a brief description of how the process of getting a tattoo is done. Tattoos are made by penetrating your skin with a needle and injecting ink into the area, usually creating some sort of design. What makes tattoos so long-lasting is that they're so deep, the ink is not injected into the top layer of pone's skin. Instead, the ink is injected into the second layer of the skin which make the tattoo practically permanent.

Today, tattoos are done by a modern tattoo machine. Be aware that in some countries in the world, tattoos are still done manually, and I know this by living in another country (Liberia). In Tracy V. Wilson's article "How Tattoos Work", she provides the component's of a morden tattoo machine, which are:

• A sterilized needle
• A tube system, which draws the ink through the machine
• An electric motor
• A foot pedal,which controls the vertical movement of the needle.

In contrast to the previous article, Wilson goes into great depth about creating a to tattoo and many facts one should know about the art.

Tattoos can have over a million different designs; from tribal, to abstract, to a portrait, to words. The ink shows a variety of colors and will forever stay put.

Tribal Tattoo

Glow-in-the-dark Tattoo

Quote Tattoo

From my personal experiences, I have taken a friend of mine to get his tattoo done. It took about 4 hours to get an image of the Greek God Poseidon tatted on his arm. The tattoo artist, Archelle, started off by tracing the picture onto a piece of paper, then afterwards she traced the stencil drawing onto his arm with a marker. After the outline was completed, she went right to work with the needle. The outlining of the tattoo was the longest part; the shading took about 30 minutes.

My friend, Marcus, getting his tattoo.

From my own knowledge of tattoos, high-paying jobs in the United States classifies tattoos as some sort of "bad image" to an individual. You don't see too many doctors or lawyer with a whole sleeve tatted on them, but if you do, it is covered up or in a place where one would have to search for it. I think it's like this because many people who have tattoos are affiliated with gangs or some sort of violence. Tattoos seem "unprofessional", but if those people can only open their eyes to see the true meaning of the art, tattoos should not be a problem.

My opinion on tattoos is that they are a work of art, especially when they have meaning to it. Im getting a couple tattoos myself on my 18th birthday in August. One is going to be The Seed of Life with the quote "Everything is connected. We are all God's children.", which will be located on my side where my rib cage is. The second tattoo is going to run down my spine stating, " My mother is my backbone" in Arabic. To me, the body is a canvass.

Opposing Graffiti

Is graffiti art, vandalism, or both? The bright colors and designs that cover the streets' walls may look appealing to the eye, but also a sign or gateway to petty crime. According to Jeanna Bryner's article: "Graffiti Triggers Crime and Littering" graffiti that is present in the public increases the crime and litter rate. A group of researchers did a few experiments to test out this theory, which in fact, turned out to be true.

A passage from Jeanna's article tells us some of the experiments the researchers did:

"In two other experiments, the researchers found that graffiti and litter can lead to stealing. They stuck an envelope that contained cash partway into a mailbox so that passersby could see the envelope and the money within. In one scenario, graffiti covered the mailbox. And 25 percent of passersby stole the envelope from the graffiti-covered mailbox, while just 13 percent stole from the clean mailbox.When litter was scattered around the clean mailbox, nearly 30 percent of passersby stole the envelope, compared with the 13 percent in the litter-free and graffiti-free scenario."

In another article that I have read, the author dives into the modern day perspective of graffiti. Killian Tobin states that graffiti started off as a form of artistic expressions from young people. It was a way to get kids, especially young boys, to show off their artistic skills and thoughts to the world, until it started getting onto the walls of private property owners. This is where things got out of hand when graffiti artists had to compete for space and private owners were offended by their markings. They started to categorize artistic graffiti as gang graffiti. It is very unfortunate that something so beautiful could have a bad reputation because of what other's judge.

 

"Artistic Graffiti" 

This is art.

"Gang Graffiti"

This is not art.

I, too agree that this form of art grew into an activity that vandalizes personal space of a private owner, but I don't think people should be scared every time they see a design or a basic word written on the wall. Spray painting art in the public may be illegal, but it won't stop those who rebel against it from expressing themselves to the public.

Though graffiti is a crime, it is still art. Maybe we should try covering up those gang signs instead.

Words of Art (poetry)

Roses are red, violets are blue
What is poetry to me and you?

   Poetry, in actual definition, is the literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm. It is a way to write out one's thoughts and emotions to relieve an internal conflict, whether it's positive or negative. When people think of poetry, they often think of it having a rhyming scheme. This does have a lot to do with poetry, but this is not always the case. My previous English teacher once told me that poetry has no rules or regulations; it comes from what you think is poetic and expressive from your own mind and heart.

   How can one understand the basics of poetry or even make it? Well, poetry is broken down into many different elements, just like how art, in general, is divided into many parts. According to the Lifestyle Lounge in their article The Basic Elements of Poetry, the main elements of poetry are:

• Theme
• Symbolism
• Meter
• Rhythm

Other elements include:

• Rhyme 
• Alliteration
• Simile
• Metaphor

   I've also stumbled across an interesting slide-show on Google where they included personification and repetition as other forms of elements. The list still continues because again, poetry has no specific rules or regulations; it can be composed with a lot of things.

 "To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first."  -William Shakespeare

   A couple of my favorite poets are William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson. Shakespeare is well-known across the world and has composed over a hundred of poems in his lifetime. Majority of people are familiar with his famous plays Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. The quote underneath his picture above is one of my favorite quotes by him. It is a simple statement that means so much and can be used for motivation in any situation in life.

Emily Dickinson

   Emily Dickinson is another one of my favorite poets because she was a private poet and lived a reclusive lifestyle. I find that interesting because I'm the same way, but with my poetry. I never seem to share my poems and I keep them locked away. What's unique about her poems is that they often lacked titles, contained short lines, and used unconventional capitalization and punctuation. This is specifically why I believe poems should not have any restrictions. Emily did it without a care and all because she was expressing herself and was not doing it for any reward or "academic writing skills".


   As an artist, I am a very sensitive and expressive person. I've previously stated that I express myself through my art and poems. This poem was constructed by me some time in the beginning of the year 2011. The poem in entitled "Dead" and it is based of a heartbreak that I have experienced in the past.

"Like a dying rose your words still untold
As my heart squanders and tries to unfold
Your presumptuous heart is highly elated
While my heart is truly devastated 
Will be dead.
Your love, evanescent, was very inconspicuous and brash
The burning flames confiscates my lungs with the burning ash
But my own solicitude for my fervent heart will stay
As your delusions and lies will be vanished away
Beginning to be dead
Looking back at the memories but on a new quest
My spirit is ascending, and my mind is more deft
As my journey comes to an end, I've finally arrived
You're still buried in your lies, because you never even tried
Dead."

   Words are beautiful, and poems say so much with just a few lines. Reading them, and picturing it can really make a person feel the pain or happiness of the writer.

Oil Pastels

Using crayons and chalk can be fun, but using oil pastels are even better! Oil pastel is a painting and drawing medium with characteristics similar to pastels and wax crayons. Oil pastels consist of pigment mixed with a non-drying oil and wax binder, which makes it more difficult to blend than "soft" or "French" pastels. Soft pastels are more powdery then the oil pastels.

The history of oil pastel is quite interesting and started off in 1921 where two brothers-in law created a crayon that combined the soft, smooth color application of crayon with the brightness of pastel. In 1947, artists Pablo Picasso and Henri Goetz decided to make a more professional version of the product. According to The Oil Pastel Society, Picasso convinced Goetz to create a medium in which he can use on anything without having to prepare or prime a canvas. Two years after, in 1949, Henri Sennelier invented the first professional oil pastels with the help of Goetz and Picasso. The history of oil pastel continues which is available on few websites like The Oil Pastel Society.

Greg Albert wrote in his article "Painting with Oil Pastels for Beginners" about different tips and techniques to use when working with this form of art. Some techniques he has stated here are:

• Underpainting
• Cross-hatching
• Blending
• Layering and impasto
• Scumbling
• Scraping

Oil pastels can be used on any surface, so drawing on top of acrylic paint, or even water color can bring out the different shades of colors and leave a visible background. This process is called underpainting. Cross hatching on the other hand is an artistic technique used to create tone or shading effects by drawing closely spaced parallel lines that cross each other. Blending oil pastels is a bit difficult to do because the medium is so wax-like, but this can be done by using paper towels or blending sticks. Layering and impasto is important in oil pastel paintings. The word impasto refers to a technique used in painting, where paint (or other medias) is laid on the surface very thickly. Having thick layers can lead to other techniques like scumbling and scraping that provides a broken, speckled, scratchy color over another color. This technique shows the lower layer of color.The result gives a sense of depth and color variation to an area.

Other sources of using different techniques in oil pastels are YouTube videos. This artist in this video, Oil Pastel Techniques: How to Color with Oil Pastels mentions stroke work and how to move and blend in the direction of the picture. She demonstrates few tips like highlighting and contrasting the picture to give it a more vivid look.

After reviewing these few techniques, I did a little experiment on my own. I have once worked with oil pastel in the past, so I compared my old drawing to the one I recently completed, using some of these tips.

I've noticed that I used an extreme amount of color to create this landscape. Now since oil pastel never dries, I went back and added the scraping effect in the corners of the page.

My blending in this oil pastel painting is way better than the first painting. I used scumbling/scraping, a little bit of stippling, and blending to create this drawing. The hardest part of the drawing was blending the colors in the water to give a reflection look.

Working with the product is pretty simple. It may be difficult to use for others, but it's easy to work with and to create originality in a painting or drawing. During my senior year of high school, my art teacher gave us an assignment to imitate a landscape using oil pastels. I personally disliked it at first because the drawing looked nothing like the original picture. Another thing that made the project even more difficult was the fact that we could not use the color black. These restrictions ultimately stressed me out, but it dawned upon me that we are only imitating and using the picture as a reference. Using oil pastels can help an artist become more colorful and original with their works because its almost impossible to make the painting look exactly like it's original/reference. 

The Graceful Art

What is dance?
   Dance is a form of art where the body moves rhythmically to music.

Why is it a form of art?
   Dance is self-expression and so is art. When a person dances, they are dancing out of fulfillment and satisfaction. It is their own way of expressing their mood and letting the body become free to express one's emotion. The human movement becomes the medium for understanding, sensing, and communicating ideas, feelings, and experiences.

   Dance is broken down into different elements in this worksheet found in the Dance Education Curriculum Guide. These elements, also known as BASTE, can help a person look deeper into the art and get a full understanding of the passion of dancing. These elements include:

• Body
• Space
• Time
• Action
• Energy

   Walter Terry commented, "No paints nor brushes, marbles nor chisels, pianos or violins are needed to make this art, for we are the stuff that dance is made of. It is born in our body, exists in our body and dies in our body. Dance, then, is the most personal of all the arts . . . it springs from the very breath of life."

Jo Murphy also describes in his article The Elements of Dance from MPS Arts Rich Community the concepts of BASTE and the art of dance.

   The movement of the body in dance is the mobile figure or shape that is seen by others, and felt by the dancer. First time dancers may be a little stiff in the body and not look right while they dance around, but professionals knows how to move, when to move, and create a move, which causes them to dance so gracefully. When I used to take ballet classes, my teacher taught us that the dancer shifts from the inner realm (ideas, intentions,emotions, identity) to the outer realm (expression and communication) of the body continuously.

Fabian Perez "Tango II"

   The space and surroundings of the dancer is an important thing to observe. Have you seen a choreography and it just didnt' look right? Maybe the spacing between the dancers were too wide or tight, or the setting didn't even match the concept of the performance. This element is important because the amount of space the dancer uses catches their audience's attention. Although axial movement can be very unique and eye-catching, I personally would not want to watch a dancer stand in one spot during the whole performance; it kind of gets boring. Objects and scenery complements the dancers and give their performance a beautiful effect. It helps others to visualize and feel what the dancer is feeling.

When hearing the word time, often you think of the word "when". Time plays an important role in dancing. Time is the speed and duration of the movement. There are the metered, free rhythm, clock time, and riming relationships. The dancer could dance slow then pick up to a faster rhythm, or their performance could be long of short. Time is used differently when it comes to dancing. Dancers may take cues from each other to start the next step or use a shared sense of sensed time to end a dance all at once.

Action and energy of dancer brings liveliness within their performances. Actions can include a dance step, a gymnastic flip/toss/turn, or even a facial expression. Action for dance does not always require moevment; it can be shown through a pause in the routine and the stillness of the face.

In dance, there are two types of movement that can be combined.

• Locomotor (travelling through space)
• Non-locomotor (axial movement)

Dancers also use energy to keep things moving and alive, and also for lifting weights of other dancers. Energy enhances the actions of the dnacers, providing a remarking performance.

This form of art also has many different styles and genres. Some include ballet, ballroom, tango, break-dancing,stree-dancing, tap dancing, etc. The long list of different types of dancing continues, but they all share on common thing, which is sharing the expression and passion of the dancer.

Works Cited



Terry, Walter (1942) . Invitation to Dance. New York: Barnes, 16.

Murphy, Jo. "Developing an Understanding of the Principles and Elements within the Creative Arts." Suite101.com. Suite 101, 16 Dec. 2012. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.

Mirus, Judith. "The Elements Of Dance." Selections from the Dance Education Initiative Curriculum Guide. Golden Valley, MN: Minnesota Center for Arts Education, 1994. N. pag. Print

Illegal Art? I think not!

   Many people believe that graffiti isn't art, and more of vandalizing a building or street wall. Well, technically graffiti is a form of art the captures the different shades of colors and angles.

   Society see's graffiti as a form of defiance towards them, even though it is a form of contemporary art. "The first modern graffiti writer is widely considered to be Cornbread, a high school student from Philadelphia, who in 1967 started tagging city walls to get the attention of a girl. But it was only in the 1980s that galleries began to showcase graffiti as artwork." (Melker, Saskia) The places you can see heavy graffiti culture is New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit. There are many other sites but the area where graffiti is accepted, as a form of art is Europe. The Europeans do not see graffiti as a form of vandalism; they see it as a form of art. Back in the 70s you would see graffiti on the Subway trains a lot. The reasoning the trains were targeted was so the artist work can see all day wherever the train would travel.

   Overseas owners really don't mind seeing graffiti up on their building walls. They see it as dead space, why not put up abstract or beautiful artwork up to help the building stand out. In Toronto, there is a case about whether or not the graffiti should be taken down or not. They see this as vandalism; the funny thing is that the owner of the building doesn't mind it being there. It is just so said that the world casts out graffiti. The only reason it is cast out is because many misunderstand it. Throughout history society tends to judge things they can’t nor are willing to understand.

   Who are we to say graffiti isn’t art? Art is like water. I say it is like water because water is a versatile element it can take the form of anything. Art has many different forms.

   Graffiti itself has different styles there is not one style, so you can say it's very versatile. To me I really can't say putting art on a wall that is just abandoned and taking up space is vandalism. I feel like if its not being used put graffiti up let the world no only see your artwork but bring life to the area.

    If society can't accept graffiti as a form of art then that means their view on art is one-dimensional. I would understand how the community would feel if kids just tag places without asking but if they want to stop it then open up a spot for them. I feel if they have a place where they can exhibit their graffiti or art they would stay out of trouble and be more respectful towards the community.

   If society accepts graffiti there will be no conflict with the community and the artist. Open doors to artist to exhibit their skills and it will have a positive reaction towards the community. I feel and will always feel Graffiti is art and I just wish the world wouldn't label it as vandalism.

Works Cited

Melker, Saskia. "History Of American Graffiti: From Subway Car to Gallery." PBS. PBS, 31 Mar. 2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.

Humber, Larry. "The Art Newspaper." The Art Newspaper. N.p., 07 Nov. 2012. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.

   This is just a quick entry that I want to share with my circle. Last Halloween (October 2012) I decided to get a little creative and go all out my way with my artsy side. I YouTubed a tutorial on how to do a sipper effect for Halloween. Being motivated to become something scary led me to my success of getting many compliments that night. "Your costume is scary as hell." said a customer at Walmart.
"Thank you, that's what I was aiming for."

   Materials needed to make this costume were:

• Red face paint
• A skin complexion zipper
• Spirit gum
• Black eyeshadow
• Petroleum Jelly
• Fake blood
• Foundation Make-up

"Zipper Face"

   The looks on many people's faces were priceless, especially since I walked around with a straight face half the time. Many people were appalled and I enjoyed every bit of terrified look. I scared a lot of people that day.

(Two entries: February 13, 2013)

Dusty Art

   Have you ever seen a chalk drawing done on the streets or the sidewalks that we walk on? If so, did they appear three-dimensional to you? Chalk drawings are a beautiful form of visual art that anyone can use. Chalk is a great drawing medium for anyone because it can be used on sidewalks, walls, paper, and other media.

Larimer Arts Association (2012)
 
  "The creation of a chalk painting takes many hours and is often not as simple as it seems. First, the artist must draw an outline of the original painting in proper proportion using pencil or a charcoal pastel. Then they begin to lay the base of colors. Using a number of colored pastels, the artist layers the chalk, blending the colors to create shadow, contrast, and depth. So one might ask, ‘why street paint when the artists’ efforts disappear immediately?’ As avid street painters will tell you, this is performance art, where the process of creating the work is more important than the finished piece. For many, the dialogue with spectators can be as rewarding as creating their masterpieces. People can view the work in all stages of progress, from layout and design, to applying colors, to the finished creation."


   Street chalk has to be the most interesting form of chalk drawing. They can be used for advertisements on university campuses, for elementary schools to play games, or even for creating new fun art for people to enjoy. Artist like Tracy Lee Stum make these paintings on the pavement and create an optical illusion to the audience's eyes.

3-D Street Chalk Art done by Tracy Lee Stum

   What I like about Tracy's work is that when she draws, Its freehanded. Stum stated,"I tend to work intuitively, often creating or developing each painting in the moment- I may not know exactly how it will look before I begin but I listen to my impulses and find they always led me to wonderful discoveries and results." I've always had a problem of drawing things from my imagination, so her being able to do that full-effect of 3-D drawings from her mind is phenomenal. Tracy was also a featured artist in the Artizen Magazine in their "Chalk It Up" article.

Tracy Lee Stun, and other artists, is in fact an actual street painter; it's her job. In this video, she speaks about her life as a street painter and also mentions that the beautiful form of art only has a life span of a few days! Why would an individual consume so much time in something that won't even last forever? Well after watching her video, Tracy does what she does simply for the enjoyment and satisfaction of other. Street art became apart of her and it allows her, and other artists to come out the isolated room and share the creativity with the public eye.

 

    Chalk art festivals occur in places like Denver where people can enjoy the beauty of chalk. The Denver Chalk Art Festival is a free two-day street-painting festival where more than 200 artists spend hours that weekend turning the streets of Larimer Square into a museum of chalk art.

   "Resting Place" by Khadija Azzam (me)

Crayola Chalk

"In Love And Death" by Khadija Azzam (me)

Made for my sister Julie

Crayola Chalk

"Sunset" by Khadija Azzam (me)

15 mins worth of time, Crayola Chalk.

"Dragon" by Khadija Azzam (me)

Crayola Chalk

11 hours; First Chalking Drawing of 2013

   Experiencing with chalk was very annoying at first and a challenge, until I finally mastered it. I first did a chalk drawing in my art class in high school, sophomore year. I hated it a lot because it was so hard to stay in the lines when the edges eventually becomes dull. My trick to staying in the lines is to continuously break the chalk so that the edges remain sharp. Blending the chalk on the paper would have to be the easiest part because chalk is dust and it smears smoothly. After three years of practice and dedication to art, chalk art has become my strongest point in drawing.

Works Cited

Becker, Kirsten. "History of Chalk Art." Denver Chalk Art Festival -. Larimer Arts Association, n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.

   To start this off, I would like to say that colored pencils are difficult to use, as I once said before. Doing a little bit of research on using colored pencils in art and creating a realistic figure, I did a little experiment myself. Today I used a little bit of colored pencil in a drawing.

"Blow Your Smoke"

    Creating this drawing was extremely fun. I took me about 6 hours to draw. The beauty of it is extraordinary and filled with fun colors and patterns, like the triangles in her headband or the shapes in her earrings. Testing out the colored pencils was interesting, but getting it to not come out so hard is complicated. The shading in her glasses is a little too hard and can see the lines in the lens. That was the hardest part because making the lens purple and trying to bring out her green eyes is a complicated task. I think I did a pretty good job on her lips. Because the pink was such a light color, it was easier to use to make the different values in her lips and bring out the shine on them.

    Looking on the web and looking at more of Bec Winnel's portraits, I decided to Google "How to use colored pencils in art." The Virtual Instructor helped give me a few tips on how to use and not use colored pencils. Some of the few tips are:

• Color Heavy
• Layer your colors
• Mix your colors
• Outline Last
• Take your time
• Burnish

    Burnish is a new term to me, which means to polish something by rubbing. In art, this term means to take a white colored pencil or a colorless blender, smooth the colors and values out to make a consistent texture and solid finish. Burnishing helps make the drawing look more realistic by showing the lighting in the picture. You can see an example of burnish in her lips, noticed that I did not fully color her lips pink, but left a little white to show that it's glossy.

    What I learned most from these tips was to mix your colors, and to always mix your colors when using colored media. It said on the website that if your using colors, you don't want to just go for one solid color simply because is supposed to be the color. For example, if a person is drawing the sky, or the ocean, they would not just want to use only the blue colored pencil. This, to me, makes the art work look like an elementary art class drew it. It's too simple and broad. If drawing the sky, or ocean, you may want to use different shades of blue and probably a little bit of gray or green depending on its scenery. Learning about this made me think of using chalk, since that's one of my strongest point in drawing portraits. When I use chalk to make landscapes, I always make the sky different colors..only because chalk is way easier to blend. I also learned a lot from the burnishing method, where you take a white or light color to smooth out any lines to make a texture. I guess the white colored pencil/crayon isn't useless after all.

   One of my favorite artist is Bec Winnel. She truly inspires me to get deeper into my own artwork. Bec Winnel's use of colored pencils to create something so realistic is absolutely stunning. She was a graphic designer and a part time drawer for seven years. Today she is a full time art maker. On her website, www.becwinnil.com, she tells the world that she is a self taught artist and explains the meaning of her drawings.

This drawing called "Farewell" was created by Ms. Bec Winnel, using only colored pencils complimented by other mixed medias. I personally love this one because it shows so much emotion and an intense feeling. The details in the woman's eyes shows hurt and many words that rest upon them. 

   

   Bec has done two solo shows, many group shows, and has won five awards. Bec quoted on her website, "Art is my therapy." That statement fulfill me with a rage of excitement because I walk around telling everyone those exact same words. Art is my own personal therapist, and the same reason why Bec Winnel draws is same reason I draw. Our drawings always has meaning behind it, whether if it's just an emotion or something from the past.

   Not to be an envious person, but her work makes me want to cry and do even better than her. Bec is a role model, every inch and angle of the paper is so precise and eye catching. Colored pencils are hard to use when drawing a person because it's so hard to blend on paper and soften. Trying to make a drawing look like a taken photograph requires an excessive amount of talent, especially if one is using utensils that cannot be erased or fixed. Believe me, I've tried and that's why I appreciate her work so much. Another thing I enjoy, which is kind of her art signature, is her drawings of all females. Majority of her work are all women; some may be the same lady in the pictures, but each expression on each paper shows the true beauty of the face. "I choose to draw females because I experience life as one and can therefore connect intimately to my work. Their physical beauty symbolises the beauty and depth of emotions the human soul is capable of." (Winnel) 

   I will challenge myself, and I will experiment with colored pencils, which are very difficult to use when drawing, especially if it's a person. I want to experiment with all media's and use different techniques in drawing. If Bec can be a self taught artist, then so can I. 

Making Art

   Today I read an article about the different views of art and the opinions of why we make art. Gina Gibney did say in this article that creating art brings things back together. Judy Dater likes to express her emotions through photography and making others feel what she feels. (Why We Make Art)

   In my opinion, art is anything that has any shape, form, movement, or emotion to it. Art can be expressed in many different ways. We make art because we need to let out some feelings within show release and ourselves our inner creativity. Some people make art through dancing, others through visual art, and some through pictures and photographs. There are many varieties of art and they way how the person carries it out in their own way are art. As Herrel Fletcher said, “Anything that anyone calls art is art.” It is how the person perceives their work and their own understanding of what they feel about the artwork.

   So why do we make art you ask? We make art because it gives us a fulfillment of happiness within ourselves. We can feel enjoyment by making art and sometimes-even peace. If an individual can’t make art, then they can relate to it instead. How many people listen to music? We can say almost everyone does, and why? Because we enjoy it and can relate to some lyrics that one person has thrown to society. Music can let others know that they are not the only one with their situation.

   On a personal note, I have many friends who are into the art field, visual art and music to be a little more specific. I always ask them why they love to draw or make music and each and every one of them tells me, “Because it’s me.” People can be so deep into it that it’s their own little escape from this cold world we live in. Art is beautiful, and learning more about the history behind it is really going touch my inner self.

Work Cited

Smith, Jeremy A., and Jason Marsh. "Greater Good." Why We Make Art. The Greater Good Science Center, n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.

Nature

     Art is something I do to ease my mind. It's my own personal therapist whenever I'm feeling a bit moody. When I draw, I like for my drawing to have meaning to it, and always tell a story. Inspirations usually come from tumblr or music of listen to. This inspiration is based on nature. Mother nature always seems peaceful, no matter how hot or cold it is or if there's a blizzard of a storm. Peace is one thing i enjoy having and leaves are a symbolic for peace in my drawing. Leaves gently flutter to the ground without a single sound. 

The Art of Art

     Art is a way of life. Art can be expressed in so many different ways. There's visual art such as drawing, painting, sketches, and so forth; dancing; singing; poetry; music; etc. Art can help stimulate a person's mind and have one at ease. It has been around for thousands of years and started off with carvings and drawings on a cave wall.
     I fall under the visual art category, simply because I love to draw. I want to learn more about the singing and dancing sections of art. Learning how to play the piano is a goal for me and learning to keys and more about the piano would be epic.
     Although I'm a pretty good at drawing, I wouldn't consider myself an artist. My reason for this is because i hardly draw anything free handed, I have to have an object or something in front of me. I'm only good at working with pencils and chalk; painting, charcoal, and wet colors are somethings i need to work on. I believe making a blog about art could help me achieve those things by expanding my mind on art and help me to be a little more creative. My weakest point is trying to get an awesome idea from my head onto paper. I really want to challenge myself.