Art Update: My Recent Projects!

This quarter I am taking my first-ever college art class, and I've done two assignments so far, both of which I am really proud. This first one was my most recent assignment, in which a friend and I collaborated to make a relic of our childhood, which is entitled Little Girls. Above, you can see my friend's baby teeth, and the main centerpiece of our relic was our ponytails of cut-off hair. I just recently cut my hair off, and what else would I do with ten plus inches of cutoff hair than make an art project out of it?

I modified the box you see here by installing panels made from cardboard and then covered with velvet, which was originally a scarf we found at Salvation Army. I also sewed those scissors onto the backing and hot glued the lace around the rim. I am so happy with how the box came out.

\

I also sewed the cloth we used from pieces of old nightgowns a lacy tablecloth, and bed linens that we got from the Salvation Army. The pink ribbons in our hair in the picture above also came off a nightgown. Upcycling!

We also bought about five stuffed animals from another thrift store and got them all dirty and burned their faces (yes, we felt bad doing this, we tried to buy animals that already had something wrong with them so we weren't taking the nice ones from children). 

These photos are from an earlier project, the theme for which was light and shadows. I decided to make an homage to Psycho and film noir through a series of photographs, and I'm really satisfied with these as well. (Although the Blogger photo uploader lightened them a bit, so keep that in mind). The model is one of my friends who lives across from me in Kresge, and the person making the shadows/holding the knife is my housemate. This was a lot of fun to shoot. If you look closely at these photos and the photos above, you'll notice the recurring white tiled floor. That's because both of these projects were shot in my creepy bathroom! Yay! 

My TA seems to enjoy my projects but also keeps using the word "terrifying" to describe them, so I think I might be scaring her a bit. My art isn't always super dark, so don't worry!

Goodbye Home: A Photo Diary

Hello there. Today I'm sharing a few photos of the things I'll miss now that I'm in college!

I will miss my doggies and all the cute little details of my room, although it hasn't felt like my room for a long time now. 

I will really miss this quilt. My great grandmother made it, so I wasn't allowed to take it with me.

Art Journals!

Hey everyone, today we're talking about art journaling! A long while back I did a post about journals/notebooks and their importance. This post is a follow up to that, only it's about infusing art into those! I am notorious for keeping many notebooks at once, (I have about 16, filled and not yet full), but that doesn't even count my sketchbook collection. I've kept many for a long while (being an art student, it's rather unavoidable), but I just recently stumbled across this collection of art journal pages by Alannah. I am completely in love with and totally inspired by what she does! I absolutely love the colors, textures, and different images and elements she incorporates into her pages. Please look through her stuff!

Look at all the different materials she uses. I love it! I have a couple old books that I use too, as well as old magazine images and old photos from when I was little or before I was born. I also use receipts and tickets stubs and markers. Anything goes!

This frenzy of inspiration inspired me to make a few pages in one of my own art journal type notebooks. Here they are:

The person in the red shirt is a picture of my mom from the 80's. 

What do you guys think? Do they look artsy? This are journal is contained in an old easy-readeer copy of Robinson Crusoe that I got for free at a community swap meet. I like using it for the illustrations and the old yellowy look of the pages. 

This is another one of Alannah's pages. I love the idea of putting little envelopes in and filling them with things, I definitely want to make a page like that. 

For additional inspiration, you can look at my Pinterest board Art Stuff, where you can find more art journal pages. There are a lot of boards out there dedicated specifically to art journaling too, including Alannah's own. Daisy Yellow offers tons of prompts to give you inspiration for pages, and this article at Rookie about journaling and sketchbooks is also an inspiring read.

So what do you think? Ready to start art journaling? 

I am :)

Photo Diary

Hey everyone. Today I am sharing a photo diary, the pictures for which were taken with a disposable camera. Some of these (as I'm sure you can see) are just silly shots, but I thought they were worth posting anyway because they give you guys a peek into my life. I feel like many bloggers are assumed to have glamorous, extremely different and exclusive lives. That is not true, and definitely not in my case. I wanted to show you guys these photos so I could show you the things I do. I hang out with my friends in my bedroom, in the hallways at school, and at parties. I take millions of pictures of my dog Chilli (seen above), and I go to the ocean and take pictures of cool purple RV things I appreciate. The seaside pictures were taken in Monterey when my friends and I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was super rad.

For anyone who is wondering, I got my disposable developed at Walgreens. They still do it!

I hope you enjoy this little peek into my life!

A Peek Into My Art 1 Sketchbook

Hello everyone! Happy Thursday! 

Today I'm showing you a glimpse of all the work I did in Art 1. I find it really enjoyable to look back on my old work and see how both my skills and style have evolved since then. Here I have picked out some of my favorite pieces that I did over the course of the year so that you guys can see. They're in chronological order, so it's cool to look at how I improved over the year!

The cover of my sketchbook is pretty much my pride and joy, I love it so much. 

The above drawings were from the beginning of the year when I was just learning to use pen and ink and graphite techniques. Below is one of my first ever tempera paintings!

 This college was supposed to be a commentary on American Society, so I did mine on how Hollywood and the beauty industry prey on the insecurities of young girls to make money. Hence the quote, "America eats its young.". 

The two drawings below are some of my favorite pieces I have ever made, and both were done with Crayola markers. Marker is pretty much my favorite media. That sounds professional. 

 This jellyfish painting was inspired by Finding Nemo and a college letter I had gotten in the mail recently. Jellyfish are really fun to paint!

This painting was done for an assignment using complementary colors and opposites. I used red and green and male and female. I'm really proud of the way their profiles turned out, since profiles are usually really challenging for me to draw, I don't know why!

When I was little, I had a crazy obsession with Monarch butterflies, and lately that obsession has been coming back, this painting is evidence! One of the most fun parts about this painting was mixing all the different colors :) So pretty!

Here's the back of my sketchbook, done up in marker and with pictures of Fall Out Boy, my once-favorite band, the glorious Ellen Page, and two other pretty people who just happened to look nice so i put them on here too. 

 Here's a preview of my most recent project, it's still in progress :)

Also, while we're on the topic of art, I wanted to show you guys my first-ever painting on canvass! It kind of reminds me of "Starry Night". This is also my first work done in acrylic, so it was a learning experience!

 Oh, hey, look at me being all cool with my camera in my room :)

Hope you guys enjoyed my artwork :)