After seeing all the new art abilities I picked up and how much I improved during the Artists Observe unit, I was very excited for our next unit, Artists Steal. I hoped I would learn new skills and a new way of thinking about art, however I didn't really achieve either of these. In our pre-assessment when asked if stealing or copying someone else's work was okay I said, "Yes, if you copy part of someone's work, but change it and make it your own it's okay. However if you outright copy someone else's work it's not okay." Throughout this unit I learned exactly what I had already thought, that changing someone else's work is okay as long as it's not exactly the same. During this unit I found out a lot about my art ability, not by learning new skills, but by learning what I can't and don't know how to draw.
The first project we were assigned to was to remix an already existing character... aka the Character Remix. I spent a long time scrolling through Pinterest to get a grasp of what I wanted to do on this project, until finally a metaphorical light bulb popped up over my head. I was going to recreate one of the Disney Princesses and put them in marching band. In case you didn't know I am in marching band and play the alto sax, hence the idea for the Character Remix. In the end I chose Rapunzel to be in my marching band. I then got to work on my project, and slowly realized that I have no idea how to draw people, let alone Disney Princesses. In my opinion Rapunzel is no where near proportioned correctly, and her hair looks very fake. The only things in this picture I am very proud about is the way I transformed her dress into a marching band uniform and that I decided to draw Pascal on her hat. I used blending techniques in the background of the picture, especially on the lanterns, and added the yard lines on the football field. Overall I believe this picture could be greatly improved with lessons on how to correctly draw people, and making Rapunzel look overall more lifelike.
For the second project we were told to do a two into one. That means that you're taking two ideas or two things and combining them into one idea or one thing. For this project I knew I couldn't draw a person or anything too detailed so I shot down almost every idea I had in the beginning. When we worked in groups to come up with ideas I said combing a pineapple and a penguin could be very cute, but everyone thought that idea was crazy and shot it down. I spent sometime after this floundering around trying to grab hold of a plausible idea for someone with my art skill. Finally it hit me, I'd show everyone in my group that a pineapple penguin was possible and possibly the cutest thing ever, and it is. I'm very happy with they way I captured the texture of the pineapple and how I combined it with the penguin. I think that to make it better I could have some more contrast between the "Pineguin" and the background because right no everything blends in together. I also could've switched the yellow and green on the 'Pineguin" so the yellow would be on the outside and the green would be in the center. Overall I am very happy with the way this particular project turned out.
For the third and final project of this unit we were told to combine art with another subject. When we were told this I had literally no idea what to do, the idea seemed almost redundant to me. So to collect ideas I spent time on Pinterest ( My Pinterest _ ) and discovered Banksy's work and fell in love with it. I loved the way he brought up current events and world issues by creating more problems and not really solving them. After seeing his work I really wanted to make a statement with my artwork, but I couldn't come up with a god idea. To be completely honest I had a total breakdown about this project because I had such an artist's block and couldn't come up with any ideas. When I finally chipped away at the block enough I was able to formulate a little bit of a plan. I had seen pictures where people had destroyed books and I really wanted to try that out. So I went to the Goodwill, found a Percy Jackson, and could feel that block vanishing. I decided I would create a page for each of the 12 Olympians, but this was a bit ambitious. In the numbered days that I had I was able to create a page for Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades (The Big Three). Overall I am very happy with how this project turned out because it restored my confidence in my art ability. It taught me that my ability doesn't have to lie in just drawing, but it can push boundaries and connect with people. The reason I enjoy art is because I get to learn how to draw things I didn't know how to before, however throughout this unit there was no teaching and my art ability has stayed exactly the same throughout and that frustrates me. Over the course of this unit I think I discovered a lot about myself and my art ability, however I do wish there would have been more teaching.