Breadth #12

This piece focuses on balance.  I was inspired by the De Stijl style that uses only primary colors, black, and white in a grid. I was also inspired by some pieces full of concentric squares drawn with fractal algorithms on the computer. I may need to take another picture as I can't seem to get it to lie completely flat causing some of the lines to look crooked.

Breadth #11

This week I decided to draw a map of the world. I used prisma color markers to show desert, mountains, forests, grasslands, and tundra. My original idea was to incorporate designs representative of various colors, but that proved to be too complicated, so I showed geography instead. I am still debating whether to add certain details like an elephant in Africa or the Eiffel Tower, but I haven't decided yet.

Breadth #10

This is a piece I did a while ago with a palette knife. The buildings are supposed to be really loose and textural, but I think the perspective is off on the shorter ones, so I might change that.  The focus principle is rhythm through the brush strokes.  Also variety through color and texture.

Breadth #9

 I did this acrylic painting in the fauvist style by using extremely bright colors that do not match the subject matter. I also tried to emulate the large brush strokes. I was especially inspired by a couple of boat paintings by Derain. For this piece I focused particularly on contrast through the individual brush strokes, the value range, and the complementary colors.
Here is the updated picture:

Breadth #8

Ink and watercolor. In this piece I tried to show a sequence of ten images. Reading from left to right (and top to bottom), each diagonal set of squares shows one image of the story. So, the first one is the very top left corner and the last one is in the bottom right corner. Following the yellow umbrellas from the first image to the last image shows the whole sequence. Now, I don't think the viewer necessarily gets all that, but I think the general idea of a girl dancing in the rain does come across clearly. I used a generous amount of salt in the background to make it look like rain. I used Emmy's idea of the lamp post, and I think that is one of the most interesting aspects of the painting. I think its changing position from image to image reinforces the idea of movement and a sequence.

Breadth #7

This week I did a still life in Sharpie. For this piece I focused on texture and unity through mark-making.

Breadth #6

Pointillism. Historical reference: Seurat.  This is the edited version; I made the shadow bigger.

Breadth #5

Negative space with cut paper.

Breadth #4

This is a street scene in New York City depicted in cut paper.  I tried to focus on variety, harmony, and rhythm with the paper.  The buildings look a little warped because I am having trouble making it lie completely flat.

Breadth #3

I decided to do a landscape in acrylics inspired by Chuck Close's portrait work. The large majority of the piece is composed of squares. I used a few short lines for detail too fine to be a square. I am thinking about making the red boat house on the edge of the lake more solid looking. I don't really like the way it looks now. Overall, I am happy with the contrast and visual texture.

Breadth #2

Ambiguous Space. Oil pastels and turpentine.  The goal of this piece is to convey ambiguous space.  So I drew rooms going back in space in different directions and to different depths.   The bright, warm colors come forward and the dull, cool colors recede, showing a sense of space.  I retook the picture in better light.  It is no longer super orange.

Breadth #1

Self Portrait. Pencil and prisma color. I added paper scraps from my photography class last year. I think the background is now less distracting and more integrated with the portrait.

Concentration #12

This piece is Color Blindness, specifically Protopia (middle) and Tritopia (bottom). There are three different kinds of cone cells in a normal human's eye, which absorb light of different colors, allowing the colors to be distinguished.  The three types of cones look very similar and in my painting are represented by the three rainbow cones. If a person is missing a type of cone, then he or she is colorblind. The middle row shows a type of color blindness that occurs when the cones that absorb red light are missing (person cannot see red). The color scheme for these cones shows how a person with this type of color blindness (Protopia) would see the rainbow cones of the top row. The bottom row depicts a type of color blindness in which the cones that absorb blue light are missing (person cannot see blue). The color scheme for these cones shows how a person with Tritopia would see the rainbow cones. The black sharpie designs pick up some of the shapes from inside the cones. These patterns are inspired by the color blindness tests that are made of little tiny circles.
I plan to take another picture because for some reason the edges of this one are blurry.

Concentration #11

This painting depicts Familial Hypercholesterolemia, or FH for short.  This week I decided to make the cholesterol molecules the primary focus.  So I super-magnified the spheres made up of cholesterol and other molecules.  The orange spheres are coming apart, which is healthy because it means the cells are breaking down the bad cholesterol.  However, if a person has FH, then they do not break down the cholesterol, which is seen in the solid blue and green sphere.  The almost white overlaid images are the cell membranes.  The bottom two are healthy because the extensions (LDL receptor proteins) coming out of the little dips in the cell membranes (coated pits) are able to grab the cholesterol spheres (LDL) and pull them into the cell to be broken down.  However, in the top cell membrane the receptors are not in the appropriate spot, so the cholesterol does not get pulled into the cell and does not get broken down, causing many problems in the body.  I am happy with the way this one turned out.  I like the high contrast, the large size of the molecules, and the clean lines of the cell membranes.