The way I make art is through thought out decisions and also random occurrences while in the process. I like to have order, but I also enjoy anarchy. With the combination of geometry and dry brushing I have achieved both of these goals to make art.

Big or small, the size of the platform I work on does not matter to me. I have found out that the shapes must be a certain size or else they will come out unwanted. If the shape that I am painting is too big, the outcome will be sloppy. While on the other hand if the shape is too small, I will be stuck with a blob of a single color. The order of the shapes is thought out from start to finish. There needs to be a story behind why I put a shape in a certain spot. To start off the working process I prime the board to the preferred texture. Once that is completed I then begin by figuring where each shape will go. After everything is settled and all the shapes have been aligned to perfection, I place blue painters tape on the edges and then dry brush it in. Wax is added once the painting is finished to add an interesting texture and feel to my work.

The moment when I step back to look at a finished painting is the best feeling in the world. All the emotion that I put forth into the work propels itself outward to the viewer. My hope for future work is that it will have the effect on the viewers as it had on me while making it. 

Art is about passion and emotions that someone has expressed on a canvas, or a piece of wood, or even a shoe. I myself have never felt an emotion strong enough to influence my work, but I try and display emotions I know little about. For these three pieces I believe that the emotions being displayed are depressing, sad, and down. The image of a man cowering in a fettle position came into my head one day when I was thinking about what to make for the summer work. I thought it was a powerful position that displayed a boat load of emotion, and maybe if I felt depressed or sad I could have put more passion into it. It is an awkward feeling when you are painting something depressing and yet you feel happy and joyful while doing it. Alone the third piece would not be acceptable as one piece of work, but combined with the two figures I think they could be an impressive trio! Right now the paintings are not fully finished. I still want to touch up on all the shapes that leaked paint onto other shapes. But, once finished I think this will be an exceptional achievement. 

          Advanced design has been a fun class ever since 9th grade. Every year there are memories made that will stick with me forever. This year has given me plenty of hilarious memorize that I will carry with me forever. My favorite project form this year was definitely the art deco movie posters. I enjoyed every part of that project and I hope you will keep giving this project as the years go on. Also form this year I learned that simple is more. Every year we were taught this but I rarely applied it to my own work. For the final project this year I wanted to use less than I regularly did and it turned out to be one of my bests. The reason simple is more was so valuable to me is that it helped me improve my work. And finally what will I remember 10 years form now. In this class I will remember a lot of things 10 years down the road. Form matt hitting his head to the "why do you like it" responses. But what I know will stick with me most is the 

Ever since I started the alphabet project that I started myself, I have seen no growth in my sketchbook. I see this as a way to fill my sketchbook while having fun. I enjoy drawing random things, and animals always make me happy. The quality of this page is basically the same as the last drawing I uploaded because I don't feel like it needs to be highly detailed. In my opinion, watercolor is not meant to be used for details. It is used to fill the page with color. I know that watercolor can be used for incredible paintings, but I do not have the patients to make it look amazing. I am happy with what I have done so far because I am also working on another sketchbook and I do so much more in that one than this. So in the end, my quality has not gone anywhere and it most likely wont in this sketchbook.

For this poster we were told to combine everything we have done throughout the whole year and make 1 poster out of the design elements. To first start off, I had to think which project I would work off of. I decided to combine the logos project and text project to create the center piece you see above. After I made the center piece I thought about having a horizon. The reason for this idea was because of A.M. Cassandre whom I had recently done an artist study on. He had used so many horizon lines and so I thought that would be a great way of tying his design style into this piece. After I had gotten the design layout done, I wanted to reflect on the past marking period and what I had learned. I found out that everything seemed to be review and I used the word toxic because of how my mom used it in the past. My brother and I had been up on the third floor for so long every day that my mom said it felt toxic there. So I got the word toxic from that story! The final part of this poster was to add the paragraph I prepared earlier. It wasn't a huge pain to put into the work, and I actually like the effect it makes in the "toxic water." So all in all, I like this poster and what came out of it has enlightened me. 

          When I walked in the day the show was complete, I was surprised. One day there had been very little paintings on the wall and then the next there were paper cranes and flowers everywhere. And to my surprise, the paper and white flowers complemented each other with a foggy white feel to it. Each artists brought their own technique to this show. It is obvious to see it if you look closely. For example, The doodles are clearly from 1 of them (Jinny Kang), the flowers from another (Alex), and the portraits from each artist have there own feel. It may just be because I know them and I know their style, but if someone were to walk into the show, they would most likely be able to identify the difference between each artist and what they contributed to the show. Aside from the artwork on the walls, you have flowers and cranes hanging from the ceiling. I thought this was fantastic and gave the viewers a chance to interact with the work. However, the room felt stuffy and claustrophobic. In my opinion, this should be done in a bigger room to give the viewers breathing room. And don't get me wrong, they added breathing room with the hall in the back, but if there were 20 or so people in the art hall, the room would feel like a tiny box in which you cannot get out. 

          The obvious three big things in this show are the flowers, cranes, and doodles on the walls. They are seen throughout the whole room and can be seen at any angle. What amazes me is how it is just the right amount of each. There isn't too much or too little of each piece. I believe that without the doodles, this show would be completely different. There wouldn't be a personality to it. While walking through the gallery, I saw this serious and comical/quirky personality. If the doodles hadn't been there, the room would feel more quiet and have less activity. And the best part about the doodles (in my opinion) is the "yolo" that the fish is saying. That is what gave me the feeling that there was personality to this room and that there was so much more to look at. 

          This is the third installment of my cartoon names project. The project is self-made and I am making 26 pages in total. I will be drawing a cartoon animals and the last letter in the name I give it will be the next letter in the alphabet. I currently only have three done, but I will be making plenty more soon enough.  
          The Cedric drawing was done completely on the spot. I did not do any planning and I will not be planning for any of the drawings in this project. I was happy with the results because this is just a project I made for fun. When I was making this drawing, I made a mistake which made this image completely different. Instead of having a body, I was forced to draw an acorn because of that mistake. And I like when that happens because it happens all the time and it i a form of problem solving in my eyes. 
          I do think I could have done better with this drawing, but because I am not trying as hard to make it look realistic, I am happy with how it turned out. 

The first two projects of the 2013-2014 school year were based on making images out of type. In both the "type as an image" and "type as a texture" projects, I discovered that you can make anything out of text. Even so, based on how each of the projects turned out, I can say that they look nothing alike. The only similarity one could make just by looking at them is that both are made from text. During the creation of both projects I was growing irritated due to the amount of time it took to make the finished product. In the "type as a texture" project, I even changed the image from a potato chip texture to the denim texture you see above. So because of these projects I found out that to make a strong design, you must take your time. Without making these projects and writing about them now, I probably would have never found out that time will help you in your designs. Both of the text projects have different qualities to them. The "text as an image" project allowed us to explore more ideas. While the "text as a texture" project had us pined down to a certain texture. Even though we could take the picture (which I did) and use that, there was little possibility of making them look like they were from the same artist. Maybe if instead of starting with the "text as an image" project, we switched it and started with the other one. That way we could base our more open project on how we made the "text as a texture" project. However, if we did do that, the "text as an image" would then be less open minded. So after thinking about it for awhile, I feel that the order in which we did the projects originally were better suited for us growing as designers.