Mandala

We started this unit off with the creation of mandalas. We learned how to make templates for mandalas and then made both black/white and color mandalas.

Mandala Artist Statement

Through the creation of my personal mandala, I really valued the peace that it brought me and that every individual is able to create a unique artwork. I do not consider myself a natural drawer, but the mandala allowed me to express my ideas in a simpler and neater manner as opposed to plainly drawing on paper.  It was nice to start the year off with the mandala project because it was an adaptable and not too complex process. In addition, it helped me to get more comfortable with digital illustration.

The tool used to create the mandala, Adobe Illustrator, is very versatile and allows the artist to explore their unique artistic styles. I chose to keep my mandala light because I see myself as a minimalist and like to keep things decluttered. I incorporated a few flowery elements and used mostly curved lines rather than straight and rigid ones. I chose to do this because I see myself as an approachable and flexible individual. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the mandala illustration project process for both its creative flow and flexibility.

This I Believe Video

Inspired by our english “This I Believe” essay, we created a video to go along with the it.

Photoshop Art

For this project, we used Photoshop to learn new techniques to create digital watercolor and pastel paintings, photography conversions, and 360 art.

Photoshop Painting

Photoshop Painting Artist Statement

For this Photoshop digital painting project, I chose to create a digital watercolor painting. My piece was based off of a photograph that I took beforehand. In the artwork, there is a man walking with a surfboard along the coastline cliff with the ocean as backdrop. I really appreciate the simplicity of this artwork and how the solitary surfer complements the background ocean colors. A challenge that I dealt with was coming up with an idea to start the project; I brainstormed a bunch of ideas and did some practice paintings before I began crafting the actual piece. If I were to go back and recreate this piece, I would make the sides of the tree branches and the cliff softer colors and edges because it would add more depth and unity to the artwork as a whole .  

Overall, I really enjoyed experimenting with the different brush strokes in Photoshop and found it fascinating that Photoshop enabled me to make the artwork look as if it was a physical watercolor painting. I will definitely use the skills and techniques I learned through this project in the future. 

Photoshop Photo Compositing

For this project, we made several different artworks using the photo compositing technique.