Relief Piece: Gazelle

A relief is a sculpture made through a special technique, where the image is made to appear as if it's above the background. There are three main kinds of relief techniques: sunken, where the non-background parts are dug into, making the background into the top layer; high relief, where the image is cut deeply so depth is clearly visible; and low relief, where there's only shallow cuts to help show details.

For my relief piece, I chose to create a gazelle. This is because I wanted to try creating a different animal than the kinds I usually lean towards (foxes, dogs, cats), and make something more new and interesting. I am particularly proud of the fading on the hooves, snout, and ears, as well as the brush strokes on the horns, as they seem to make the gazelle more interesting to look at. If I could redo any parts of this piece, I would have liked to use larger pieces of cardboard so I wouldn't have the odd, folded parts on the horns and legs. I also would have liked for the tail's gradient to be a bit smoother.

Hipster Cat Bear

This is a hipster cat-bear with a space texture on it. I don't know what else to say about it, really.

Color Piece: GAME OVER

For my color project, I chose three things- nighttime, my dog, and videogames. Personally, I love the night sky, and how the stars and moon shine against it. I chose it as my background. My dog is almost a given- she's my first dog ever, and we've practically grown up together. I painted her next to me, resting by the tree. Lastly, I've loved videogames since I was a tiny little gal, and decided to make a 3d "GAME OVER: Continue?" thing at the bottom of the page, as well as including an empty health bar at the top of the page. I chose to paint with acrylics because I wanted my picture to look very solid, then used a bit of oil pastel to add the health/magic bars and some minor details. And of course, I used cardboard and acrylic to do the lettering at the bottom. If I were to change anything about this picture, I'd probably want to add more paint details- I'm not very skilled at painting, but if I had had a while more to finish I might have been able to at least fix up a few issues.

Name Piece

For my name piece, I used an analogous color scheme centered around green. However, I got a little carried away with the first "I" and the "T" and ended up using brown and red. I used marker for my piece because I particularly enjoy using it, and with all the straight edges and lines I needed I knew I needed to use a not-as-smudgy medium.

Art Article II

    Only a couple weeks ago, a long-lost Van Gogh painting was rediscovered, tucked away in an old Norwegian attic. Art academics and Van Gogh lovers alike all marveled at the new masterpiece, thought to have been lost to time. However, one must think; how in the world do you lose an art piece? Especially one created by someone as famous as Van Gogh? Well, there’s a simple explanation for why it had been tucked away for so long; forgery. During the period in which the piece was first bought, art forgery was rampant and spooked many buyers into shamefully hiding away their spoils, thinking that they were tricked into buying something crafted by some master copycat.

    Art forgery had begun over 2000 years ago, when Roman artists mimicked Greek sculptures. Later in history, apprentices of famous artists all the way up to Renaissance times would have their pictures sold under the names of their instructors. Post-Renaissance nobles went through an antique-loving phase, which was a golden age for art forgers, who would go to great lengths to make their art seem authentic. Even Michelangelo, the famous painter of the Sistine Chapel and creator of lifelike sculptures such as The Pieta and David, had created some fake Greek sculptures, even going so far as to bury them and even breaking pieces off to make them seem authentic. Some “fake” art pieces from those past eras are still beloved today, despite their false identities being revealed.

    Today, art forgery is still wildly rampant, though there are many advanced ways of detecting fakes, such as testing the paint’s makeup, giving the suspicious pieces an x-ray, etc. Many “flunkie” artists are often the tricksters behind these fake artworks. Although the art of forgery is far from being exterminated, we can at least enjoy the fact that in this modern age art forgers can easily be caught and stopped.

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Work Cited

Brown, Mark. " Newly discovered Van Gogh painting kept in Norwegian attic for years | Art and design | theguardian.com ." Latest news, world news, sport and comment from the Guardian | theguardian.com | The Guardian . N.p., 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 23 Sept. 2013.

<http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/sep/09/van-gogh-painting-discovered>.

Anonymous Author(s). "Art Forgery" Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_forgery>.

Realism Piece 3: Tuba Line

Lastly, I chose a picture of myself and two other tubas in a line during marching band to be my main piece. Marching band is a huge part of my life, and I don’t think I would be anywhere near the person I am today without it. I used pencil to create this piece, and used the principal of patterns throughout the whole piece. The reflections on the bells of the tubas were the most difficult for me to recreate, and I spend quite a while trying to make them look correct. Also, the grass texture was hard for me to perfect and I had to erase and redraw multiple times in some areas so that the whole field looked about the same shade. If there was anything that I could fix, I would probably try to add more details to the bells, since I am still unsure about how satisfied I am about their final appearance.

   Overall, the pieces I created for the realism unit turned out a lot better than I was expecting them to. I really think that I did pretty great, and I’m hoping that in future units I will be able to put my talents to the test again like I did on these three works.

Realism Piece 2: Desk

The second piece was an overhead view of a desk, covered in materials I need for APUSH; a textbook, pencil case, eraser, pencil, and sharpener. I believe that this is a common sight for many students like me, especially if they are enrolled in several AP classes. I used pen to create this picture, and experimented with the use of lines to create values. Personally, I think it turned out extremely well, considering my limited knowledge of linework and my shaky hands. If I could change anything, I would probably fix the errors I made on the pencil case, as well as add more detail to the desk itself, since it’s rare to find a flaw-free desk in a school like Apex High.