Sick Ollie, Bruh.

My Goals

                One of my main goals in art is to get better at illustrations so I can one day be a concept artist for video games, animations and more! I think one of the biggest things in the way is motivation—I try to perfect every piece then tend to burn out and stop drawing for periods at a time. But concept sketches and designs don’t NEED to be perfect. I think for one of my goals (short and long term) I’d like to start an “ugly” sketchbook—which I can fill with less serious doodle ideas, gestures and speed drawings that I’m not allowed to stress on. I think it could help me get the practice I need without burning out.

                Another serious goal is continuing art classes to better my skills—such as taking classes like life drawing to better my anatomy and perspective, or more painting so I can practice color and backgrounds more!

                I’m hoping both practice at home and continuing to take art classes will eventually help me reach my ultimate goal.  

Young Poseidon (WIP)

(WIP)

This is one of the more realistic paintings I am working on! It's far from finished and needs tweaks in some places perspective wise, but I think I'd like to purchase a specific kind of blue for the ride before continuing, since mixing turquoise and cobalt blue didn't really work well. Overall I'm liking it though!

Young Poseidon, done with acrylics on a 9x12 canvas. 

Monster

          Monster was my medical ethics piece, based on The Monster Study. I chose to do the Monster Study because I think people are especially shocked and horrified when experiments are done on children. The experiment began in 1939, and was performed on 22 orphan children. Half of the children were given positive praise for their speech, while the other half was given negative feedback for every imperfection they spoke. The phrase shown on my piece “Don’t ever speak, unless you can do it right” was actually said to these children, some were as young as 5 years old.  While many of the children did not develop a stutter, they did suffer from terrible negative psychological effects; several began to refuse to speak at all in fear of being reprimanded. These speech problems would affect them for the rest of their lives. This experiment did not become publicized until later in the 2000’s. 

In my painting, I chose reds, blacks and oranges to create a grungy-like atmosphere that resembled something like hell—while the child himself was rather gray and colorless. I think most of us can agree that what these children went through was a psychological hell, and I wanted to show how this treatment sapped the color or light from their childhood. I made a makeshift gas-mask to symbolize how many of these children had to filter how they spoke in order to avoid criticism from their doctors. There are other little details I included, such as a faint silhouette of the doctor in the background.

            I think overall the piece is effective in representing what it was based off of; however, there is a lot of room for improvement. If I could re-do it, I’d like to make the text brighter so it’s more easily seen. I also had the end of the top phrase trail off the canvas with the words clumped together—this detail was done on purpose to show that there was no “right” way for these children to speak, as they would be negatively reprimanded no matter what. However, I worry it just came out looking poorly rendered more so than anything.

Overall I like how it looks, and I can always go back and touch up the text! 

Monster, a multimedia painting done with acrylic on a 16x20 Canvas.

Filtered in Photoshop Express: 

Detail Shots:

Don't Ever Speak Unless You Can Do it Right

Trust The Doctor

One Day I Floated Away

     One day I Floated Away was an assignment where I was meant to replicate the style of a certain artist, or use a specific kind of theme. So I used some of my favorite aspects in Gustav Klimt’s art, as well as a use of symbolism.

     One thing I noticed about Gustav Klimt’s pieces was his heavy use of gold and ornamental patterns, as well as a focus on the figures face in his paintings. So I decided to use gold, bronze and copper in my own piece and have the main focal point fall on the face. I also noticed he typically used women in his paintings and sketches, so to differ it a bit I decided to make my figure rather androgynous. So depending on the viewer, they can be presented as male or female.  

     Initially, I was going to make this piece on anxiety, but as I painted, it felt far too light and airy for that subject alone. So I decided to make it based around a day dreamer instead, (which daydreaming can tie in with anxiety depending on what ones day dreams are about)!  

     The brick wall in the background of the piece was meant to represent hitting a standstill, a creative block, “hitting a brick wall”, ect. Everyone knows the feeling, whether an artist, musician, writer or whatever! However, there is a reason I made everything else in the foreground, which was meant to be taken on a more positive note—these blocks happen, and they can last a while, but they don’t last forever.  The twisting gold pattern was meant to represent good vibes, or a creative flow. The small, broken pieces below it are meant to represent the same, but perhaps when it’s not coming as steady as one would like.  The tidal waves represent ideas, which come in varying sizes—ideas can start out small and grow bigger with time! It’s hard to see, but there is also a silhouette of a shark within the waves—it had no real meaning, but perhaps (depending on the person), it can be taken as a bad idea—or a badass one! The bats (as much as I love them) and the fog can represent negative or unsure thoughts. They are semi-transparent as these thoughts aren’t always made known to outsiders. Bat’s as a totem animal however, can represent rebirth. Sometimes these kinds of thoughts can motivate us to work harder, (example: anxiety for a test can make you study harder), resulting in a better outcome. The bell on the figures hat is just a symbol for the phrase “Bats in the Belfry”.

       One day I Floated Away was definitely one of my favorite paintings to do this semester. I had no issues with it and it was just really fun to make. However, if I were to make any changes, I would probably add more streaks within the waves, as they seem over blended compared to the harder lines and texture in the rest of the painting! I might also go back in and add more gold accents at a later time to balance it out more. 

One day I floated Away, a multimedia painting done with acrylic on a 16x20 canvas. 

No Border:

Detail Shots: