YELLOWSTONE Concentration Piece #1

 

 YELLOWSTONE

Allie Snyder 

Feb. 2014

Medium: Acrylic Paint

My concentration is national parks and there history. I want to capture the beauty in the national parks of America through there natural beauty and there unique histories.

Artists Create Original Art

I came up withe the concentration topic and composition all on my own. I am very proud because I feel that I have found myself in my art. I love history of exploration and who couldn't love the beauty of nature. Ever since the Romantic Era people have scene the beauty of nature.

Artists Develop Art Making Skills

I love painting. Ask anyone what I do when I am stressed, happy, sad, excited, or just calm. They will say, if not swimming, that I always have a paint brush in hand.  I found a unique skill of mine a few years ago when I put down the paint brush and picked up a palette knife.  I have only grown with this skill through projects like this.

Artist Have a Global Awareness of Art-making

My whole concentration relies on culture, history, and research of the national parks. The colors, mediums, and techniques I use in each piece are based on the unique histories of each park.  This park is well known for its beautiful (and stinky) thermal pools.  I also knew and researched about Teddy Roosevelt's contribution to the  Yellowstone National Park.  The history all lies in the Native Americans. I am 1/8 Cherokee Indian (which may be what led me to represent the histories of these parks) and wanted to represent American Indians well in my piece as an important building structure to the piece and also a figure of the past. The mountains represented this perfectly.

    

Patchy the Dog (3)

Patchy is my friend, Maddie's dog. I decided to draw him because black is a harder color to draw in fur.  It takes abstract thinking when adding in other colors to provide texture.

Artists Develop Art Making Skills

Drawing fur on a animal with black fur is not easy. You have to include more than just black and grey to show the defined lines in the fur. I remembered that when you see black dogs in the sun, their fur almost looks blue.  I took this in consideration when I added in blue, turquoise, and purple. Then, with Mrs. Rossi's help, I added more and more black on top to define the fur.

Artists Reflect

After completing this piece, I do see many areas for improvement.  I need to become more comfortable when added in black for the fur. Mrs. Rossi had to practically drag my pencil for me when I was adding the black. I was so stuck on how I saw the piece that I did not see that the dog looked more velvety than furry without the black lines.  I need to learn to be looser too. I am very stiff when I draw. Fur is not stiff (unless it is geled...) and the black lines shouldn't be stiff either. I need to work with a flowing hand.

Artists Create Original Work

I took this picture of Patchy about three years ago at Bond Park when Maddie and I took him on a walk.  Of course, at the time I was not intending to use the image for any art project. I just wanted to take it because he was almost modeling for the camera as we sat in the amphitheater.

Hundertwasser Project (2)

My next project was inspired by the artist, Hunderwasser. Hunderwasser is known for his abstract arts in buildings and the colorful, textural shapes in his architecture.

Artists Develop Art Making Skills

I am not an artists who thinks as abstractly as Dr. Seuss, let alone Hunderwasser so this project took a lot of research and referances for me to fully grasp the artists style. I started my piece with shapes that were colored in in one solid color. The texture component of Hunderwasser's pieces was missing from mine.  I added pattern and shading to make the piece bold and flashy. I also added a more realistic image in the windows (across the street) to show how bold and flashy the actual building was it. The building was not meant to be normal.

Artists Take Risks

I had an idea but no plan going into this piece.  I had not clue what patterns, what colors, or what angles I was going to use in these pieces. All I knew was Hunderswasser's style.  I did not map out many of my lines with pencil first. I let my mind freely flow. I did use a ruler and pencil on the lines and angles that were crucial to making the building appear to be realistic and sturdy.  

Artists Collaborate

It is not uncommon for artists to ask another how a piece looks. When they do ask they are not looking for a simple, "Good," or, "Pretty!" They want to hear constructive criticism. Is there anything that draws there eye or could draw there eye? I believe that my AP Art class is very strong in this area. We all help with each others artwork and praise each others accomplishments. This piece required a lot of peer input because it was so far out of my comfort zone. I love the outcome!!

Reflection Project (1)

For my first project in AP Art, I decided to work with reflection. I have not drawn in so long so it felt good to get back into the old habits of griding and working with exact measurements. Painting is very relaxing but challenging the more mathematical part of the brain and art is always a fun get away.

Artists Develop Art Making Skills

I focused on measurement and how glass changes shapes and distorts objects. I had never used colored pencils in this class and I wanted to explore with Prisma Colors. Learning how to draw with distortion is tricky. Your ind thinks the piece should look opposite of what the piece needs to look like.  I began to focus on the small areas of the photograph instead of the whole picture. I am very happy with how this piece turned out. I am loving the new comfort I have in using many bold and bright colors.  I am learning how to make my art one of my own, an original...

Artists Create Original Art

I set up the composition in my house using dinner clothes, sundae glasses, spoons, and money.  It took many shots and many meetings with Mrs. Rossi on what to add and take out of the images, but, in the long run, I was very happy I made so many changes.  I got an image and composition I loved that told my story...

Artists Communicate Through Their Work

I loved this idea with reflection  because it was not only a reflection  in glass, it was a reflection of my childhood. When it was a nice Sunday and my sister and I were well behaved, my parents would take us to the Salem Street Soda Shot. There we would have the most delicious, and probably most fattening, burgers, fries, and shakes I have ever tasted. Setting up this composition reminded me of those great memories at he now closes shop on Salem Street. 

Project 10 (more to be added)

 For my last project I wanted to go back to using Photoshop. I loved the Photoshop class I took last semester and I wanted to take a brake from the canvas. As everyone knows, I am a swimmer and my whole life revolves around the sport. I eat, sleep, and plan studies around practice times and goals I have for college swimming.  A old summer league and high school coach took pictures of me at my last apex meet that I used in this project. I really enjoyed this project because it brought back many skills in Photoshop I had not used in a while and I got to express some of my athletic life in my art life. I love combining my interest.

Images taken by Catherine Grimes

My Photoshop edits:

More will be added to this piece soon. :) Stay tuned!!

Artwork for Portfolio

These are some of the pieces I have done in the past. The first image is made with all wallpaper and the second image is made with all watercolors.

The following pictures are all made with acrylic paint.  I plan to use acrylic on all of my concentration pieces.  I will add in techniques to the pieces, however.  I have learned how to use oils on top of acrylic and how to use a pallet knife (like the flower picture here) and other mediams to make my pieces really pop.

 

Petals of Seasons Changing

For my second to last project I needed to let my creative, spontaneous side show. I wanted to just let my hands create without my mind having plans and ideas. I had a basic goal of having the four seasons combine with petals, that also change throughout the flowers life, but, other than that, my creativity was free to run wild. 
My project started out looking like this:

The background is all wallpaper. I loved the look of it being similar on each petal but not completely the same.  A flower changes through its life but not so much to the point that you cannot tell it is the same type of flower. The leaves may wilt and turn brown or darker but it does not change too drastically. I chose petals of flowers because leaves of trees are a whole nother story. Trees change colors regularly.

The final product:

 Petals of Seasons Changing

Allie Snyder

 December 2013

Medium: Wallpaper, water solublie colored pencils, water color, sharpie 

Throughout creating this pieces, I had to take many peers opinions on what to add. I added a border to the piece and placed purple strategically throughout the piece to make it look like one unit. The boarder looked too bold so I used sharpies to tie in the wallpaper on the boarder to the wallpaper on the petals' background.

I enjoyed this project. Sometimes you just have to let your creative juices flow to see what cool and new ideas you can add to future pieces. THis project was a perfect turning page to next semester in AP art.