artSpark

This past weekend, my good friend and I participated in artSpark, a chalk art competition in Downtown Raleigh. Hundreds of college, high, and middle school students participated in the event, covering the streets with bright chalk! We each had a 5 foot by 5 foot square, two packs of chalk pastels, and two days to complete our chalk murals. It was such an amazing experience to be able to put my design in to the community and to be surrounded by such talented people. I learned a lot from the experience and am so glad that I participated! Enjoy the gallery of my partner and I working as well as the final piece! Check out my partner's blog here:

                         http://hannahbush-apex-12.weebly.com/computer-art-and-animation

Original candy land sketch :)

Working hard

There was more chalk on us than the street...

All done!

Final piece!

Reflection Final

Final Piece

I really like how my final piece turned out. I have never used Prisma Colors on such a large scale before so I was grateful for the opportunity to fine tune my skills. When we were introduced to the concept of creating a drawing of a reflection of something that is reflective of us individually, I came up with an idea that I kind of decided on, but was not excited about. As soon as I became inspired by the idea of hands coming together and reflecting in this unique way, I could not get the idea out of my head and soon forgot my original plan. These images show my original sketch and some of the final piece in progress. 

Original sketch

In progress

I am very inspired by the idea of people coming from varying impoverished backgrounds, for example individuals in Africa, coming together under one unique culture. I think that the fact that despite having much materially, they have so much spiritually and I really wanted to capture that in my drawing.








I believe that these individuals deserve to have a voice and to be heard! To portray this message and to tell their story, I decided to show all the hands of multiple individuals in one wash basin.











This is representative of the unity of individuals as well as the joy that can still be found even through the simplicity of things. I tried to emphasize the joy and whimsy through the bright colors and native prints. Here are some of images I used as inspiration and reference.

                                                    

                                                          

                                                


Like I mentioned before, I have not used Prisma Colored pencils on a large scale before. I have had the case sitting in my bedroom but all its done is intimidate me. When I began the project by sketching out the design, I became even more intimidated because the design was very detailed. However, once I got into it and fell in love; I never wanted to put the pencils down! I think that because of the properties of the pencils, it really enhanced my drawing. I love the blending techniques and texture that I was able to achieve with the pencils. 

I think that my piece has a really strong message to tell. I really appreciate the opportunity that I had to tell a story through my art and work with this new medium. I hope that the piece inspires you the way that it inspired me throughout the process of working on it!

New school year, new project

Welcome back! I have started in Art 4 at my high school. The year has just begun and we have already been hard at work! Our first assignment is to create a drawing of a reflection that is reflective of us using Prisma Colored Pencils. I am very inspired from the idea of the peace and innocence of people who live in third world countries. I decided to draw a metal wash basin with multiple hands in it, representing the unity of individuals in third world countries. It's still a work in progress, as Prisma Colors take a while! Here are some pictures of my progress thus far: 

Practice drawing water

More practice and color scheme

Multiple practice sketches 

Final piece in progress

Perspective Final

The mural is finally finished! We are really, really happy with how it turned out. It took a lot of work and many, many days to do a mural on such a large scale, but it was totally worth it! It is exciting to have our artwork where everyone can see it in the school courtyard! Here is a brief timeline of our process. See the Perspective Ideas post for the original planning!

In the Planning Process

In the works

In the Works

It's a good day when you get this messy in art class!

Part 1 of the Final Piece

Part 2 of the Final Piece

The whole process was really fun and we are very happy with how the final piece turned out! I learned a lot from this project about going out of my comfort zone, collaborating with others, and more, listed here in artistic behaviors. 

Artists Collaborate: For this mural, we had five of us working on it. At first, when we were doing the original designs, it seemed like it might be kind of difficult to work with so many others and collaborate with them as we all have such unique perspectives and creative gifts. As we continued on, however, we quickly learned that we could use those "setbacks" to our advantage. We decided to run with the idea of having such differing perspectives and use that in the piece. We knew we wanted to do a landscape, but that simple idea grew with the idea of each incorporating our own perspective into those landscapes. Each section truly represents each of our unique tastes and aesthetics that would not have been captured as effectively if we worked individually!

Artists Take Risks: I'm not exaggerating when I say that this mural is HUGE. It was extremely intimidating at the beginning with the five of us standing in front of this tall, long, completely empty brick wall. We considered scaling down a bit, but after planning out such an elaborate mural that we were all so excited about, we could not bring ourselves to do it! It was a big risk to complete a mural on such a large wall, but I am really glad that we took the risk. With the five of us working hard, we were able to complete it and make the wall a lot less empty! As you walk past it, it is really eye-catching because of the size and vibrant colors. I am happy that we decided to take a risk and not be intimidated from the start. 

Artists Develop Art- Making Skills: I will be honest, I have never worked with chalk before except for creating endless rows of hopscotch with the kids I babysit (and occasionally for myself :). I was nervous at first for taking on such a large project in a medium I had not experimented too much with, but the process of creating the mural was truly just that, an experiment. I quickly learned that the chalk was great for blending and creating unique values in the crevasses of the brick. I was also able to create a lot of detail with the smaller pieces. Who knew that chalk could be used for more than hopscotch? 

Parallel Project Idea

To begin brainstorming for this new project, we were asked to think of a list of current events that would serve as inspiration. Our lists all consisted of the major news stories going around, mostly hard things to grasp that are always circulating the news. The assignment is to create a project that parallels a current event using metaphors. As I was studying the lists, all I saw were these horrible event and darkness. I was feeling super uninspired in all the depressing stuff going on, but as I furthered my own research, I discovered a lot of "faith in humanity restored" stories that often get overlooked because they do not cause as much affliction or drama.

 I suddenly got very inspired and got the idea to do my whole project as one big parallel for the idea of restoring faith in humanity in the midst of so much darkness. 

My idea for the execution of this idea is to do photo transfers of black and white newspaper headlines as a metaphor for the bad news. The newspapers will form "bricks" that will appear to be falling apart and on top of them, I will use tissue paper flowers to symbolize the peace and goodness that can still be found. I did a mixed media project last semester and really enjoyed the experience, so I am excited to try it again. Stay tuned for updates and pictures! 

Time as an Element Final

For this assignment, we were asked to portray time as an element in our piece. Immediately I knew that I wanted to use dried paint as a material in my piece as it has intrigued me in the past and I thought that it would create a good representation of time. I also decided that I wanted to paint two of the same faces, but use different colors to portray the different moods that a progressing day creates. I am really proud of how this piece turned out and am very excited to present it at my first art gallery in the North Carolina Museum of Art!

A link to this gallery is as followed:

http://teens-inspired.org/post/81780830854/new-teens-inspired-submission-hannah-siegel

Because this piece took "time" to complete, I have created a timeline of how I got to the final piece.

One of the most exciting things to me about this two part collection is it's ability to tell a story and the different interpretations that viewers take. I think that I was really able to communicate a message through my pieces. I was trying to create the message that throughout the day, the environment might change, but the individual stays the same. Through the materials that I chose to use, I think that I was really able to create that feeling. I have improved in my technical skills a lot over the years, and through that, I have also improved in my ability to create a deep message in whatever I have created. I think that I improved in this skill with this piece, as everyone who has looked at it sees something different, and that is such a great compliment for me as an artist! I hope that as you view my pieces, you are able to create your own message and I hope that it is an one :)

One of the main reasons that I think that this piece turned out so well is because I was really open to collaborating with other artists in my class and asking for advice. I believe that being open to others views and having a second set of eyes really enhances one's vision, and I am so grateful to have such wonderful artists in my class to share that with. Originally, I was planning to paint the faces in normal skin tones, when one student had the idea to paint them in black and white, which I think helps get the vision across much more effectively. I am so blessed to have a great group of surrounding artists that encourage and aid each other! Some of their blogs can be found below. They are all extremely talented!

http://apex-2015-jessica.blogspot.com/

http://ahs-ariel-2015.blogspot.com/

http://chassitysartblog.blogspot.com/

http://apex-2016-michelle.blogspot.com/

Come out to view my work at the end of summer at the NCMA!

Perspective Project Ideas

For this next assignment, we are working in groups to create a mural on a wall in our school that portrays or incorporates perspective. My group consists of some other students in my class; Jessica, Rachel, Nora, Chassity, and myself. We brainstormed a lot of ideas and decided we wanted to create a mural that looked as if we punched through the brick wall. We also decided that we wanted to incorporate perspective more than in the physical way. We came to the conclusion to collaborate by each choosing a place that inspires us (our perspective on what our inspiration is) and join them into one. Each portion of the mural will also use perspective to get the idea across. 

Here are our beginning thoughts: 

We got all our thoughts on paper and then did a larger sketch in which we chose a basic color scheme. The main part that I will be working on is a mural of a scene in Alaska in which I saw a couple of summers ago and continue to be inspired by. The picture shows my perspective artistically as well as physically. We combined our perspectives together and completed  this collaborative final sketch in water color. 

Here is our final sketch:

 

We are already enjoying working together and can't wait to display out creation to the school!!