The Elements of Art Project

Right now we have to do a project about The Elements of Art. We had to do work on all the 5 Elements of Art which are Color & Tone, Shape & Form, Pattern, Line, and Texture. For this project, we have to have examples of our own arts that represent each of the elements. Also, we have to have examples of each elements that are actual arts that belong to artists. Then we have to write captions for each art, explaining why we think the art piece represents the elements.

Each week, I had a chance to think before going to art class, and plan about each art. The first couple of weeks, I went in desperate because I didn't know what to do. But as I sit there, ideas started to come out. Since then, after I learned my lesson, I always have to think of an idea before going to class or else, I'll waste my time again. First I started with Color & Tone because I thought it would be nice and easy. I had an idea of painting the sky, because there are many tones of blue and it's a good way to represent Color & Tone. I also painted a heart with different tones of pink so it represented Color & Tone as well. For Shape & Form, I drew a castle because there are many shapes in it and it would be a good example. For Line, I drew a landscape and a girl. The mountains, river, sun, clouds were objects that had many varied types of lines, that was why I chose to draw those things. For Pattern, I drew random patterns that I could think of. Basically, things I drew were similar to the African patterns I used to do, only that the color is not African. And lastly, for the Texture, I painted the paper blue, and stick cottons onto the paper as clouds. I thought that it was a good way to represent texture because you could feel the texture when looking at cottons.

Here are the pictures of my arts:

Color & Tone:

Shape & Form:

Line:

Pattern:

Texture:

The Elements Of Art Project Reflection

For this project, I think that I've learned a lot about the Elements of Art. Before we had a chance to do this project, I had basic knowledge about each element but never really know things in this much detail. For this project, I think the hardest part about it is writing and explaining everything out into words. Sometimes it's all in my head, I thought I knew how to explain it, but it turned out to be really difficult to find the perfect words for describing each feeling. While I was writing the captions for each art, it occured that all the adjectives I used to describe each art turned out to be very similar. I think, definitely, next time, I should try to think of better adjectives to describe things as best as I can.

I think I really had a chance to improve my thinking skills and my ability to explain and interpret the feeling or theme that the artist was trying to communicate to us. Because of the Elements of Art, and plus the knowledge we already knew, I had a chance to practice a lot and it's a really good exercise to get my brain thinking about different things. Looking at the art really carefully and trying to use the different elements to help interpret is really useful and it was why it's so much easier than when I was in Chiang Mai. Back then, I still had to sit down and focus for a while before I could actually put everything together, make it sounds sensible and say what I think.

I think the project itself was pretty good and I'm proud of it. I really felt that I had really good time management for the art-making part because I finished everything as planned and didn't really have to do any extra work that is out of class. The art that I did wasn't too hard so it didn't take me so long. I sort of knew my limitations and my ability so I didn't aim to do something that was super hard. But for the research time management, I can say that I could have done better. I didn't really have a plan of when to do what for the research so it was not so organized. But in terms of content, I think I did quite well. I covered wide range of periods and quite varied artists. Overall, I think it is a pretty good project!

African Mask Project

After we are done with the coral painting project, once again, we have a new project. This project is called "African Mask Project". Right now in Language A class, we are reading a script called Anansi. It's a story that includes African stories with African animals. Our job is to create masks for each character in the story ready to be use for the play we are going to perform! We have to make sure that the mask represent African art meaning that we have to show african patterns and african colors. It also needs creativity in design and media. And it needs to communicate the characters through the Elements of Art which are colors, lines, shapes, textures, tones, and patterns.

Here are some examples of real African Masks:

[African Masks] Reflection I

In the first lesson, Mr. Pat told us to try some African patterns with the crayons on a piece of paper. I really enjoyed drawing patterns with squares, tri-angles, and lines. When I was a child, I used to draw patterns that I could think of and now it's the same feeling. When I draw each pattern, I started with one shape and draw a lot of that shape. Then I would start a new shape near the previous one. Then I would add some straight or squiggle lines. Then I might add some dots to it. I used different colors for each pattern so that I could try all the colors. As usual, I sat next to June, and I thought that she did really well. All her patterns seemed like African patterns! She used only brown and some black. She used lines, dots, and shapes just like I did, but somehow she did it so that it does look like African patterns. Then I realized that brown and black do give African feelings because they are earth colors just like Mr. Pat said!! So after that, I tried to use brown as well, but after I got some patterns already, I continue to draw other patterns with other colors. At the end of the lesson, I ended up with a few patterns. I really liked the patterns I drew because normally I always liked to look at patterns, so now when I get to create my own, it feels great!

[African Masks] Reflection II

Last lessson, we started to do the plans. We had to decide what characters we were going to make and it was first come first serve so the easy ones were taken really quick. I decided to pick the 'gerbil' even though I didn't know what it was. Then Mr. Pat and others told me that it's a combination between rat+mouse+hamster but I still couldn't really get the picture. But China drew a little picture of it so that I would get the picture so then I started planning. I started drawing the face of the gerbil and then it was time to put the African patterns in. From reading the book, I get the impression that the gerbil is a mean and arrogant character. He didn't give the ratbat a chance and he always say sarcastic things. So from that, I tried to make it look mean by putting shapes like tri-angles, squares and lines that are sharp because when we see sharp and pointy things, I think that we would get a mean and angry feeling. When I added enough patterns, I started to put some color on. I tried to use hot colors like red, orange, yellow and some black to communicate that my character is mean. I didn't want to use cool colors like blue, green, purple because people might get the wrong impression from my character!

[African Masks] Reflection III

Last lesson after I finished planning, it was time to start making the actual mask. I went to find materials and I found a cardboard paper. I started drawing the face of a gerbil. I asked my friends whether the size was right and they said that it was too small so I had to do it over again. I had to change it a couple of times until it was just right. Then I had to cut out the face. The cardboard was quite thick so it was really hard to cut!!

After I got the face cut out, I started to work with the eyes. I had to make holes so that the actor would be able to see. I figured out that the eyes actually have to be low or else the whole structure would be changed because of the way the face was planned. With the fact that the teeth is located where the mouth of the actor is, I had to move the eyes of the mask down so that it would be at the same location as the real eyes. Figuring out how big and how far apart the eyes are wasn't easy. I drew the outlines couple of times and I also erased them a couple of time. I asked my friends to try it on and tell me where their eyes are so I could see how apart the real eyes are. Then when I was pretty sure with everything, I went to cut the holes out. The size was perfect!!

After that, we still had some class time left so I went to ask Mr. Pat whether taping my mask or painting it white would be better. He said that painting it would be just fine but I had to be careful and make sure that the texture is smooth. I painted white on the whole mask and then paint white over the white again! I also had to paint the sides so that it would look good. When I finished, I was quite pleased with the results because it was smooth and I can hardly see the color of the cardboard.

This is the picture of the mask:

[African Masks] Reflection IV

After I was finished with the white background, I went after school and started making the patterns. I drew some pencil lines to start with on the ears so that I know where to paint. I painted red and orange on the outside, then paint brown and black. During this process, I had to be really careful that the colors are smooth and that the colors won't lay on top of other colors and go outside where it supposed to be. Then I continue the patterns of the sides. I realized that the lines were not thick enough to be painted with paint so I decided to use markers instead. Then I continued with the down-cheeck part. From there I started painting again. The colors I used were really African because there were brown, orange, and red which were earthy colors!

This is what it looks like:

Then after I finished with that after school, I continued to work in class. I started to paint the face yellow and used an orange marker for the nose. After that I outlined the eyes, eyebrows and down cheeks part with black marker. After that, I went to make whiskers. First I didn't know what material to use as whiskers but I realized that I could use strings. I went to mix the color orange and then I put the six strings into the paint. Then I dry them and stick them with TOA glue onto the mask. When I did that, it means that I was really close to being done!! But I knew that I need to add something else so I went to ask my friends. They didn't really have an idea either so I went to ask Mr. Pat. He said that my gerbil needs to be more cute, fluffy and stupid! I was really confused because I just didn't know how to make it fluffy and cute while it supposed to be mean and not friendly! Before I could do anything, the time was over so I left my mask like that.

This is a picture of me and the mask when it is painted (no whiskers yet):