Abstract & Conflict :)

Recently;

We have learned about colors and techniques to transform them into other colors. We applied this
in an abstract painting we did, but to make it different we decided to add conflict. Conflict as we learned, is when there is a contrast in the painting, whether it's opposite colors, or completely different shapes, and even texture. In my painting, I decided to do straight, and smooth lines that are tints and shades, and even mixtures of the colors blue, light blue, light green, yellow and a little bit of red (to make purple).
This kind of artwork reminds me of a story. While I was painting this I thought about how stories run smoothly, which is why I represented the smoothness and flow of a storybook through my lines. But then every story, (or every GOOD story) must have a conflict. Which is what represents the orange "infinity sign" and the orange circles. I did this because you always expect a story (in this case, a painting) to have a similar theme throughout the canvas, and even though we were assigned to do conflict I still felt the need to add it in. Because having an abstract painting without conflict, for me is like a storybook with no problem and also no happy ending.

Drawing & Painting Self Assessment

^ my black and white lined painting^

So far in drawing & painting we've been studying value. We just

recently put these skills we've learnt to the test in a Vincent Van Gogh drawing. Although instead of

recreating the painting itself, we did a black and white version of it, using

markers and lines. Value, is when you add light to a black and white picture, it's shading and also

giving off the impression of it being three-dimensional. So

needless to say, it was really hard to do this project. The process was a challenging one, that stressed me out at

some points. I remember first starting and thinking that it would be near impossible to use marker and

not make mistakes. But along the way I stopped to realize that this

was just like painting, except we weren't using paint. I began to see slowly how I could imagine Van Gogh

himself painting this and which way the lines would have flowed. And whether I'd use short strokes or long

and elegant ones, looking at this project in a different light really made it easier. And this painting was of

irises, and imagining how the lines in an iris would be wasn't as challenging as the project I thought would.

Van Gogh himself also created his original paintings into black and white lines, imagine how hard it'd be for

him not even knowing how the painting would turn out. But Van Gogh was an

artistic genius, who made everyday things look more complicated with his dynamic

lined strokes. He's well known for his paintings of sunflowers, irises, and vast fields, these original

things were turned into masterpieces because Van Gogh decided to show the way the lines flowed in this

situation. If I was given this assignment again I would probably have paid more attention to

the intricate detail. I am satisfied with the value and the color in my final product, even though the color is

black and white it seems like it would be an easy project. But it's very hard to create value and

add light to the sections that are illuminated. Observation was

key in this project, I observed somewhat, and my observation skills developed even more, because

before all I observed really carefully was those microscopic specimens under a microscope in science ;) it's

amazing how you can connect simple black and white drawings to things like

science. My final results are alright, my other classmates did an amazing

job though, so it's instinct for me to compare mine with theirs :) believe it or not but we didn't just learn

value in this project, life skills and observation skills came with it too.

:)

^ this is the origninal drawing Van Gogh created^