Post Critique

After my critique of my final project, I feel really good about my paintings. I think everyone liked them, and they really illustrated my point well. I was nervous at first, so I brought my paintings into another class the day before for a practice critique. The students had no idea what the basis of the project was, or the assignment, so I asked them "If you had to guess, what do you think the point of these paintings are?" The responses I got were perfect. All of them hit on something along the lines of destruction of the environment and the world. This boosted my confidence a lot for the real critique and just my thoughts in general about the piece. I think I had been staring at it for so long, that the chipping paint all started to look the same, and I was afraid that it would become boring. In the end, I think it was all in my head, and I'm really happy with the result.

Nail Polish

A friend of mine pointed out to me today the random names the nail polish company "OPI" comes up with. Just browsing through them, I was immediately intrigued to see what color went with a few of these names. Some of them are self explanatory, such as "St. Petersburgundy," "Alpine Snow," or "Holy Pink Pagoda!" But in general, I have absolutely no clue what colors come with most of the names. A few examples are "Hoodoo voodoo?" "Suzi Says Da!" "Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ," "Don't Socra-tease Me," and "My Chihuaua Bites!". So, I decided to conduct a little experiment. I asked Nic and Niya to guess what color they would expect the nail polish to be, just hearing the name, to see if they were close.

"Hoodoo Voodoo?"
Nic: earthy browns
Niya: off white
Sarah: dark orange
Actual: hot pink


"My Chiuahua Bites!"
Nic: Yellow
Niya: Green
Sarah: Red
Actual: Bright Red


"Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ"
Nic: Red
Niya: Brown
Sarah: Dark Red/Brown
Actual: Pinkish/Burgundy


"Suzi Says Da!"
Nic: light pink
Niya: yellow
Sarah: hot pink
Actual: dark brownish red


"Don't Socra-tease Me!"
Nic: Green
Niya: Light blue
Sarah: Dark Red
Actual: Bright red


"Boris & Natasha"
Nic: gold
Niya: dark green
Sarah: dark red
Actual: rose/burgundy


"Skinny Dip'n Lake Michg'n"
Nic: dark blue
Niya: dark blue
Sarah: dark blue
Actual: flesh tone

Final Project

I had trouble at first thinking of a topic or thesis for my final project. Living in the city has definitely opened my eyes to how much people trash the environment. Whether it's working in large factories that give off toxins or littering the streets with garbage, even driving unnecessarily large cars that pollute the air, all of these actions contribute to the destruction of our world. I decided to use the deterioration of the environment as a topic for my final painting. I would start out with a true to life painting of the beautiful blues and greens of the world, but cover most of it with grays. This represents the smog and pollution, and the lack of vibrance in the world. With research, I discovered that areas such as New York, Los Angeles, Japan, and some spots in China and Europe produce a very large part of the pollution today. In my painting, these are the only parts where the color will show through, reminding these areas in the world of what they could look like if they cut down on environmental destruction. Lastly, the grays of the world on top will appear as if the paint is flaking or chipping off. This is just to reiterate the fact that the environment is deteriorating. Overall, I feel that this will be a fairly strong piece, and I'm excited for it.

Colors and Tones In Painting

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine about how differently fine artists, or people with drawing and painting backgrounds, look at color. For example, if I were to paint a realistic portrait of someone, there would possibly be tones of blue, green, red, etc in his or her skin. You have to concentrate more on what you see than what you know: on the exact color of what you're painting, not the object. Everyone is taught in elementary school that skin is a peach color, and for the majority, that is correct. But, when you look closer, that skin most likely has shades of completely opposite colors that you would never guess would look right.

Skin is just an example of looking at things differently. It happens with everything. If you were to paint someone's red shirt, it wouldn't be plain, solid red. It would have other tones such as pinks or greens or browns. A lot of times, this way of thinking/seeing is what makes painting so difficult. You almost have to train yourself to see things differently, and it takes a lot of practice.