Art Critique Student Examples

Art Critique

Title: Her Bottle
Artist: Yuri Takei
Medium: Coloured pencil and oil pastel


Description:
Yuri Takei creates a work of art influenced by how objects life is useful to humans. "Her Bottle" is the name of his artwork. There is a bottle that is being shown in the light with a girl holding the bottle and putting her hand towards the lid of the bottle. The figure of small clouds surrounding the blue clear sky. When I first looked at this work, I found this really eye-catching because there was a lot of light and so much colour giving emphasis on the glass-looking shiny bottle. Also, it was at an angle which showed that the audience is in the perspective of a bin and that the girl was not going to throw the glass bottle. It looks really realistic as if it is just a picture. Because if you look closely at the glass, you can see the background of the sky's reflection on the bottle. There is so much detail of the shirt as Yuri coloured the dark areas to show those folding areas of the shirt and to make it look realistic. There are very bright colours used like blue and white to portray that this work was near towards the morning and with the bright sun shining on the girl and the bottle. The bottle is shaped as a cylindrical looking, clear and shiny with a circle lid. With the bottle shaped like that, there is also horizontal lines on the bottle. There are mostly freehand and curved lines to show the figure of the bottle and the girl. This work has an abstract texture. This is because it defines the actual appearance of the artwork created by Yuri. The overall effect is looking like it's in motion and it's moving because of how the artist has drawn this piece and coloured it.


Analysis:
The artist used the colour of the bottle with white, blue and green to show the figure of a glass bottle and to show a bit of reflection of the sky and the girl onto the bottle. The artist used various types of colour including warm and cold colours. This creates an effect on the audience as it shows the objects of the artwork including clouds, bottles and the girl. The artist uses mostly curved lines to show the motion of the image at a certain angle. There are both dark and light colours which abstract each other. In my opinion, I think that the dark is abstracting more than the light as Yuri is giving the audience a view as if they are the bin. This can be shown, as the dark colours she used to show the colours of the shirt and the skin of the girl. Yuri uses space between her hand and the lid of the bottle. She also uses space between the clouds and between the bottle and the sun. She uses form as she emphasises more also on the dark areas of this art piece. I like how she emphasises on the sun and the brightness of it reflecting onto the bottle. The way she made her portion is also good as she made the bottle smaller than the girl's body.


Interpretation:
Yuri Takei's statement to this work was "The aesthetics of this work was inspired by Janet Fish - an artist who focuses on the movement of light. This piece is situated in an angle where the audience is in the perspective of a bin. In here, I wanted to portray how objects' "lives" out determined by how humans perceive their [the object] usefulness". I think this portrays that she made her artwork in an angle to show how humans use bottles and to show the movement of light within this art piece. I feel calm and I question myself as to if bottles never existed, then how difficult it would be for humans to live. Yuri made this art piece to show how another artist inspired her to do some kind of art piece similar to Janet Fish. She was inspired to do an art piece with the movement of light.


Judgement:
It is a beautiful piece of artwork and this was the reason why I loved this piece. It had so much of bright colours and it was really outstanding and all the hard work Yuri must have put in order to make every single detail relate to her inspiration from Janet Fish. It also affects the way I see the world. This is because now I think about how many bottles we throw away and not re-use them. It creates a feeling as now I start to feel sentimental about bottles and it is really touching. This affects the audience as it tells them how hard Yuri has worked to make people feel that there is a movement of light and that people will like her artwork. I personally love this work due to its colour, the morning daylight. The daylight really attracts me to this artwork. It is formal and a Mimetic standard of art. This is formal because it can show the audience what exactly Yuri is trying to convey.

~ Peehu Agrawal

Drypoint Print student examples

Student Example #1

In this printing project, I was discover how to make my print into the best it can be. This project had many steps. Throughout this entire process I learned many new things that I have never experienced before.

First, I selected an image. I chose this image because I thought it was a good fit for what Mr. Laurence was looking for and because I love how the background is so dark, but the white marble monument is bright and stands out. Also, I took this picture- it isn't off the internet. This image is of the Jefferson Monument in Washington DC. Next, I focused on editing it on Photoshop. I had never used this app before, so I was very confused about how it functions and how to work it. After messing around and trying different buttons for a few minutes, I figured it out, and I adjusted the the ratio to 2:3, then sharpened the image set the radius to 7px, adjusted the threshold, and made the image 9 by 6. These edits made the image the correct size to fit on the paper and it made the lines really pop so that I knew where to carve. I taped a piece if clear plastic over my edited image, and I was ready to start the carving process.

My next step was carving the plastic. I could see the lines of my image clearly, so I started scratching the outline of the object with an etching needle. I struggled with keeping my lines straight, so I used a ruler to assure that they were as straight as can be. I also struggled with doing the top part of the monument because I couldn't use a ruler as the lines weren't straight. I retraced it many times, but the top part was still very uneven. Next, I used sandpaper to scratch the top part of the image to make it dark. I also rubbed sandpaper across the trees, but I made sure to keep the outline clear so that the trees wouldn't get lost in the sky. For the rest of the image, I simply traced what I saw onto the plastic. This was very different from carving in the linoleum print because the tools were a lot smaller and each etch was more important. In the linoleum print, I spent most of the carving time on the background, but for this one, my time was devoted to the little details that resulted in a better looking print.

Following the carving step, I moved to the inking and printing process. I first used black ink and applied it to my piece of plastic with a brayer. I used cotton pieces to wipe most of the ink off, so that it would only remain in the places I carved. After a few minutes of rubbing the plastic, I then wet a piece of paper to print on. I let it sit for a few minutes in the water then dried it in the paper stack. Next, I set my plate under the lifted felt blanket into the printing press. I carefully placed the piece of paper over it, and lowered the felt blanket and gently turned the roller towards me to apply pressure to make the image appear on the plate. This was my first print. It came out a little darker than my liking, so on the next one, I followed the same steps but made sure to wipe the plate for longer so that the final print wouldn't be so dark. I wasn't too happy with my first two prints, so I decided to do a third one. I did it in blue instead of black, and I loved the turn out much more than the black prints.

Next, I water coloured the second print I made. I really only used three colours: grey, blue, and green. Because this picture was taken at night, the background was a deep shade of blue. I added grey to the shadows to make the white parts shine even more, and thenI painted the trees green.

Looking back, there are definitely things I would do differently. First, I would spend more time on the carving part, as this is the foundation for the whole piece. When I did the etching part, I think I rushed it because I was anxious to move on to the ink and printing press parts. Also, I wouldn't have painted the trees green. I don't know what made me do that... the trees in the image are darker- almost black. Overall, I think that this was a good way for me to experience drypoint printing, and I know way more about this subject from when I started.

 

Linoleum 2 color print student examples

Student Example #1

I was introduced this topic by Mr Laurence as Linoleum printing. I did not know what that meant in the first lesson. I was told to use this kind of material which felt like rubber. I was first mentioned to choose an animal or something that can be carved.

During my second lesson, I thought of choosing a macaw bird as its details were kind of interesting to me. So I asked Mr Laurence what do I do after I chose my animal and he said to use tracing paper to trace the silhouette and then transfer the silhouette onto the Linoleum. This was kind of challenging as when I was retracing the silhouette from the tracing paper on the Linoleum, it did not really show the lines. Then I had to render the lines without using the tracing paper. He then said to be careful and draw the details of the bird on the other side of the Linoleum. He also said that when you flip the Linoleum, make sure that you flip it the correct way like you don't turn it upside down and flip it. I understood what he meant by that so I then drew in the details of the bird on the tracing paper and re-traced it onto the linoleum. That didn't work either so I drew the details directly onto the Linoleum. During this lesson, I wanted to finish carving the rest at home so I asked Mr Laurence if I could take it home and finish carving it and bring it back the next lesson for printing and he allowed me.

On my third lesson, I asked Mr Lawrence what I had to do after I drew the details onto the Linoleum, and he said that I have to use a blue or black marker to trace the silhouette and the details of the bird. After that, I had to use a carving tool to carve out the edges of the silhouette as you can see from figure 1. I carved out the areas near the silhouette and I carved them quite deep so I can use a roller to then add paint to it later on.

When I finished carving out this side, I then started to carve the detailed side. I asked Mr Lawrence if I carved it deeply enough and he said it's enough and he said to the same thing for the detailed side but then I also had to carve out the white spaces in between the blue lines (see fig 2). This was a bit difficult as the thickness of the carving piece was really big. I asked Mr Lawrence how I could carve out such small details if there is such a big carving piece. He told me that I had to unscrew the bottom of the carving tool which had smaller pieces that I could use to carve out the Linoleum. This took about an extra lesson (lesson 4) to carve both the silhouette and also the detailed side.

During my fifth lesson, I wanted to start adding paint and the I did this was that I had to paint using a roller and add a lighter colour to the silhouette side and a darker colour on the detailed side. I started off by using pink. I got a palette knife, the pink paint, and a palette to put the paint on. I used a palette knife to put a bit of paint and got the roller and started to roll all the way till all the sides of the roller were pink. After this, I rolled this pink paint on the silhouette side of the linoleum and I had to get a piece of white paper. I needed to put this on a board that had thick edges looking like a right-angle board.

I realised that I had to place my linoleum at the corners of the right-angled board and place the paper onto the linoleum with the paper cornering the right-angle. I pressed the paper gently onto the linoleum and pressed the sides of the linoleum and firmly pressed it to get the print of the first side. Before starting the other side, I had to wash off the linoleum with water and soap and dry it with a napkin so it does not leave a mark on the table and so I can add different paint on this side and on the other side. I also had to wash the palette with the paint remaining and the roller. After this, I repeated this same process but using brown as a darker colour. For this side, I messed it up as I forgot to corner the paper to the edges of the board for it to come out proper. As you can see from figure 3, it looks shifted as I did not really do this print well. I started to repeat this same process. As a result, I made 2 more during this lesson (see fig 4 and 5). 

The challenging part was that I forgot sometimes which side to put the paper on as I put paint on both sides and did not wash off the other side. The problem was that I was supposed to finish it during this lesson, but then one lesson, I left the linoleum at home so I had to start with the next topic.

Overall, I really liked this topic as I learned a lot. For example, I didn't know what Linoleum or how beautiful prints like these are used from linoleum. There were a lot of challenges that I faced when working on this topic in and outside of school. I love all of my printings but one of the ones I really love is 2nd (pink and purple) and last print (red and black print). I could really improve on the 1st and 3rd print. For the 4th print, I think the colours were not good that I chose. But I think I did a good job overall for this topic.

Acrylic Painting student examples

Student example #1

Senecio, Paul Klee

sketch

final work

For this project we experimented with acrylic paints and different techniques in order to replicate another famous work. We also learnt about the color wheel and how to create color palettes and identified the original color palette of the artwork to then change it. I decided to replicate Senecio by Paul Klee and recognized the analogous color scheme he used of red to yellow (colors next to each other on the color wheel). I decided to use an analogous color scheme as well, however. using red to violet to change it up. I first identified the shapes and colors used by the artists in my sketch to get a basic idea of what I wanted to do with my acrylic painting. I used five different techniques in order to achieve my desired result; masking, sponging, scraping, palette knife painting, and a little bit of scumbling. I used masking to create the geometric shapes in the face and I used sponding to blend colors over each other to get a similar effect to the original Paul Klee. I used scraping to do this as well to blend and overlap colors. I used the palette knife painting technique to add texture to the edges of the painting and add more colors. I used scumbling to add extra texture in the face on the bottom.


I enjoyed using acrylic paints as I could experiment with texture and mixing colors to create my desired effect. I think i did well at incorporating different techniques that can't be seen the in original painting, such as palette knife painting, where I incorporated it on the edges to add more techniques to my work. I think I could have done better at blending the whites of the painting with other colors, similar to Paul Klee's technique of painting a color under the white. I also could have created a more perfect circle using a similar method to masking and better shown the geometric shapes of the original. Overall, this was one of my favorite projects as I loved experimenting with the thickness of paint and created 3D texture and I can see myself using these techniques again.

Student example #2

CHOOSING AN IMAGE:

First, I had to choose a picture from online. This was the picture that I chose, called Hydrangea, by James Aponovich:

Then, using a color wheel, I had to try and identify the colors and color combinations, if any. Color combinations include primary (red, blue and yellow), secondary (green, violet and orange), complementary (colors opposite each other on the color wheel, such as red and green), analogous (three-four colors next to each other, cool color schemes, warm color schemes), split complementary (a color, and the two colors next to its complement), tetrad (a square or rectangle on the color wheel), and many more. 

This particular painting includes a cool color scheme between the blue flowers and the green leaves.  It also includes some form of a complementary color scheme between the blue flowers and the oranges lying by the flower pot. A complementary color scheme can also be identified between the green leaves and the red raspberries. The raspberries bring a bright pop of color to the painting. 

After this, we had to try and change the color scheme of the original painting, or change some elements of the painting, similar to if the artist had decided to make a second or different version of the painting. 

What I decided to change:

• The color of the flowers to both blue and red
• The color of the sky to orange-red, to resemble sunset
• The add clouds in the sky
• To change the color of the bottom part of the painting
• To change the fruits to juices

As you can observe, the flowers are painted both red and yellow. This is a sort of 'double complementary' scheme. The red flowers are paired with the green leaves, its complementary color, and the blue flowers are paired with the orange sky, its complementary color. I added some clouds as another element to make the painting more interesting and engaging. 

On the bottom part of the painting, I wanted to create a completely different sort of texture, so that the bottom and the top look like two separate paintings, which makes both the top and bottom parts stand out more. At the bottom, on the gray fabric, I first painted it a red layer, let it dry. Then I painted it a silver-gray layer, and while still wet, carved a pattern into it. The outside I painted green, and the red curvy pattern in the fabric and the green also create a kind of complementary color scheme. 

I also used various techniques during this project, in which we had to use a minimum of four acrylic painting techniques. Here are all the all the techniques I used and all the places I used them in:

• Impasto: This is a technique that has been borrowed from oil painting and uses thick paint that stands out on the surface. It has highly visible brush strokes and has a stronger presence than thin paint. I used this technique to paint the red and blue flowers, and also the green background in the bottom part of the painting. 
• Sgrafitto: This technique has also been borrowed from oil painting and involves scoring into the paint to either reveal the white of the canvas below or another color below. The places where I use this are when I am scratching the veins into the leaves in the flower pot, and also the silver-gray fabric at the bottom of the painting, where I first painted a red layer of paint, let it dry, and then painted a silver-gray layer of paint on top of that, and while it was still wet, scratched out a curvy pattern on it to give the painting more character. 
• Texturing: This techniques involves mixing the paint with various substances such as sand, sawdust, or combing on the paint, or pressing objects such as coins into the paint while it is still wet, or also pressing textures like bubble wrap into the paint to create patterns on it. I used this when painting the flower pot, and mixed sand with the paint to make the pot look more realistic and imitate a real pot, which is rough.
• Scumbling: This technique involves scrubbing an uneven layer of paint over an existing color. It is important to not cover the color underneath with the second layer of paint, and also to let the first layer of paint dry before painting the second layer. I used this while painting the blue flowers, by painting a darker shade of blue over the original lighter blue. I also used some form of scumbling when painting the green background in the bottom part of the painting by mixing two shades of the same color, but didn't paint one on top of the other, rather mixed them together when both colors were still wet. 

Summary:

• We chose a painting 
• We learnt about the various color schemes on the color wheel
• We identified the color schemes in our chosen painting
• We decided what we would change in our rendition of the paintings, either elemens of the painting, or the colors or color schemes themselves
• We painted our paintings using four acryclic painting technqiues
• We wrote this blog post

Challenges:

• A real challenge was when I was trying to paint the glasses of orange and rasperry juice on either side of the flower pot. It was very hard to try to get them to look real. Even after the painting was finished, I wasn't very happy with how they turned out. 
• Another challenge was evening out the paint with the sand in it for painting the flower pot. The sand made the paint coarse and it was hard to smooth it out on the paper. However, I eventually managed to make the paint look neater. 
• Another challenge was painting the silver-gray fabric and carving out the pattern inside it. I had to be careful to not scratch out the red paint underneath too, and to not smudge any of the paint. I managed to overcome this challenge eventually also. 
• Overall, the only challenge I didn't overcome is the one where I had some difficulty painting the glasses of orange and rasperry juice. 

Successes: 

• I really like the way that I painted the red and blue flowers. I think I used the impasto technique very well here, and the flowers look very vibrant, neat, and stand out in the picture. 
• Another success, in my opinion, is the orange sky. I think I got the shade for a sunset quite right and managed to make it glow and contrast very well with the flowers. It makes the painting very bright and vibrant to look at, and gives the viewer something to observe. 
• Another think I like about my painting and think was a success is the way the top and bottom parts of the painting contrast and look very different from each other, giving the painting a unique character. I like the way the green background on the bottom and the orange background on the top contrast and complement each other. I also like how intricate the red pattern on the silver-gray fabric looks on the bottom part of the painting. 

Final Reflection:

• Overall, I think that even though I did have a fair amount of challenges while working on this project, I did a good job, and when looking at the painting, the successes outweigh the challenges, and the painting is quite pleasing to look at. I successfully managed to use four techniques and execute them quite well too.

Watercolor/Tempera painting student examples

Student example #1

During this project, I had actually struggled quite a bit. I had originally wanted to do yellow as my background monochromatic colour. When I saw that instead of a dark yellow, adding black turned yellow to more of a grey, I wanted to change colours. I decided to use yellow-orange as my main colour which I would change the value of throughout the piece by mixing yellow and orange. However, Mr. Lawrence informed me that using two colours wasn't the point of the project since the background was a monochromatic blend. I then decided that it would be best to use orange as my colour so I painted over the already painted yellow-orange squares underneath since the poster paints were opaque.

The orange turned into a brown when I added black to it so I decided to mainly use the white to change the value of the orange and make multiple tints of it. I wanted to add multiple points of darker values of the orange that connected in a lighter area which is why I made three points of browns that blended into a lighter orange which met in the middle. I wanted to do this to give interest, make the center of the painting where the seal was brighter to draw attention, and because I didn't like how blending from dark to light throughout the entire piece once looked. The darker areas are the top two corners and the middle of the bottom which forms a triangle.

The original seal stencil didn't have the separation between the two fins in the tail so I searched up images of a sea lion and used them as a reference to draw the fins. I kept the angular shape of the original stencil because I thought it would go well with the squared background. As for the inside of the seal, I wanted to use the techniques to make it almost look like the sea since they are sea creatures. I started from the top of the head and pointed towards the tail without going to multiple spots at the same time since I wanted to make the entire seal a blend of different hues of blue, also heavily using bleeding in the process. Most of the painting was wet on dry, except for the dark patch of the tail that was the dry brush. The first technique I used was rock salt on the neck, however, it didn't come out how I wanted. I tried using it again on the bottom part of the left fin but it still didn't lift the paint how I wanted. Other than that, I really liked using the other techniques, such as the water blooms on the back of the seal and the plastic wrap on the fin which I wish had used more than once because they added to the sea look. I also used masking fluid which you can see on the bottom by making circles and I used a graduated wash on the right fin. I wanted to make it kind of hectic looking so I used many other techniques as well. I used lifting out on the lower part of the tail, wet on dry (the darker lines on the chest) and feathering. I didn't like how the feathering looked because it clashed with the flowy feel of the rest of the painting so after it feathered, I used my brush to mix the paint around so it came out more swayed and blurry. It is one of my favorite parts of the painting, it is under the face on the left side.

Overall, I like how the painting turned out and I like that the background is a lighter, warmer colour and that the main component is darker because you have a clear point of interest.

Techniques:

Graduated Wash

Bleeding

Wet on Wet

Dry Brush

Wet on Dry

Lifting Out

Water Blooms

Masking with Masking Fluid

Rock Salt

Plastic Wrap Texture