Word Project Research

http://www.art.com/gallery/id--b22914/jazz-posters_p6.htm
I decided to post this website, not only for it's content, but of how it is set up as well. I typed in my word and a variety of things about that word came up, but on the left hand side I could click on different types of that word to get more specific. The website also gave more than just paintings. There are music albums, posters and photographs as well which are different, but still artworks which I thought was more exciting/interesting.

http://www.apassion4jazz.net/jazz_styles2.html
This site was defining the different types of my word and I was surprised to find out that there were that many. I probably couldn't recite which types there were or how they differ from each other, but it was still interesting to find that my word isn't just one thing.

http://www.squidoo.com/jazz-images
I think that this site was the best, because it gave a brief description of what my word is and then had different styles of art with pictures based on my word. The abstract ones were especially cool!

I've come to realize that school officially starts in two days. Although I can't say I'm happy about that, I can say that I think I'm prepared for AP Art! My three paintings are done and ready for critique, but that doesn't make me any less nervous about the school year. I guess my main goal for AP Art right now is to just get stuff done on time- it took me an entire month to complete one painting, and I'm pretty sure I'll get about half that during school. It will be especially hard considering I have four AP classes!! Hopefully my brain won't go on mental overload! I think that's my only goal for right now, but I'm sure as the year goes on I'll think of a few more.

My mom and I went to the Historic Third Ward to visit some galleries and found one in the Marshall building. I have to admit it was kind of awkward, because no one except the three people that worked there was actually there. Well that was better than the single lady in the other gallery we went to...Anyway the paintings I saw were really good but very expensive. I don't know who has $2500 to spend on a 8x11 painting of a bird. I did see some artworks that were more modern which were really neat because of the precision and perfection of the colors and lines in them-they looked computer generated, but the sign specifically stated that they were done using oils.

Paintings/photograph are done by Sandra Lo, Idell Weiss, and John Sun.

I just got back from my California Mission Trip this morning! We were staying at a camp in Santa Cruz, which is covered in gigantic Redwood trees- some of which are close to 2000 years old! What is even cooler is that everything was on mountains, so the scenery was absolutely amazing which of course means that I have amazing photographs! I was able to finish my one painting before I left for this trip so my new goal is to finish 1 1/2 other pieces by the time school starts. I'm going to be super busy these last few weeks (sad face), so we will have to see how close I get to reaching that goal.

Since I don't have any of my own pictures yet I searched for local artists of San Fransisco who also "captured" the city. These three stood out to me the most because of their colors, their realism and their strong compositions. I would choose a favorite, but I love all of these!

Nothing really happened this week except for work, work and more work. However, I was able to fit in some painting time and start a new piece. I am trying to work on it a little every day. The only problem is that it is in acrylic. Don't get me wrong I like acrylic, but so far I've only used acrylic and water color this summer. Maybe when I finish this painting I will buy some drawing paper and actually draw using colored pencils or something. I have a picture from Canada that I thought about doing, but I think it would look better as a painting so I'll save it for later.

I just got back from CANADA!!! and there was inspiration everywhere there for me! I took numerous pictures of everything (which is mostly trees and water) so that I can hopefully piece them together and paint a really pretty picture :) During my trip, however, I was able to paint using watercolor pencils in my sketchbook and I actually love how they turned out! So here are two of them; one is of a crayfish claw that was a purple-blue color and the other is of a bobber because I spent 6 hours of every single day for a week fishing. It's sideways...I have no idea how to fix that.

I found this picture when I visited http://www.scholastic.com/. It's digital art done by 17 year old Grant Leung in Ohio. I have no idea how to do any kind of digital art and that's why this picture really interested me. It looks so real that when I saw it I was completely grossed out! Though I don't have the technology (except for photoshop) that I could do something like this with, I hope to learn/try digital art in the future.

The drawing of the girl was so realistic same as me. This picture came up right after the digital one, but I couldn't help but post it. The way it was drawn- subject slightly off center, the extreme contrast of light vs dark and its source of light along with its realism- made me want to practice drawing people so that I could draw something like that.

From this site I learned that I could have entered a drawing in seventh grade to win scholarships. It's too late for that now but maybe I could enter in something this year and try and win some money. I also learned that they recognize writing as art which is kind of nice because people don't often put those two together. What was really nice is that they listed and then described how they judge each piece; originality, vision, and technical skill. Perhaps these are what the AP art test graders look for as well.