Day 4: Your favorite flower.

Well, I took a break from art this weekend so I could drive up to Amarillo and visit with my parents.  I don't think I'll ever get used to living in West Texas; it feels like I stepped straight into an old western movie.  Flat terrain, tumbleweeds, snakes (I almost stepped on one the other day), canyons, dry heat, and so much dust. I guess it has a certain vintage western charm to it but I don't think I'd want to live here all my life.  But I digress.

The challenge was to draw my favorite flower using pointillism.  Such a challenge indeed with all those little dots, I thought my wrist was going to fall off.  This is Prisma marker on regular sketch paper, nothing too extraordinary.  I can't imagine doing this in paints, I'd die lol.

A famous painting done in pointillism is "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat.  This painting is 6ft x 10 ft and took him about two years to complete and I now understand why: this painting is done entirely with little dots.  I tip my hat to you, Seurat.  You must have the patience of a saint.

Day 3: A Universal Monster - Bride of Frankenstein

I just want to start off by saying I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day filled with awesome barbecue and fireworks. =)

Todays challenge was to draw a Universal monster through realism, which I felt was kind of odd because not only is realism about making art look realistic, but it's also about portraying real life (who knows, maybe there is an actual bride of Frankenstein??). I chose to draw the bride of Frankenstein because I think she's absolutely gorgeous. This is white Prisma color pencil and white pastel on black illustration board, 16x20.  I wanted to see if I could do it completely in white but I feel I need more practice to be able to do that so I cheated a little by using black and warm grey 70% on her face.  Using white on a black surface was difficult because you're working backwards. Typically, when drawing a face or an object, one would start with the shadows and go from there.  In this style, you have to start from the highlights and work your way to the shadow; you have to draw a map and go from there.  This portrait ate up an entire color pencil that had never been used before so I recommend finding some color sticks for something like this.  It saves on the hassle of constantly sharpening after 3 seconds of use.  At one point I was running super low on white color pencil so I had to improvise with white pastel which changed the look because of the different consistency.  To tone down the major different, I rubbed the pastel with my finger until it spread as far as it could go, then I went back with the dull unsharpened color pencil and went back over it as if I was coloring it.  This got rid of the excess pastel (because it likes to clump) and helped it blend with the surrounding color pencil.  A quick fix, but not very professional looking in the long run.  My advice, use color sticks or have a back up color when working on something of a singular color like this.  This piece doesn't exactly look realistic but I tried my best =P

A famous artist that specializes in realism would be Édouard Manet, a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.

Day 2: The meaning of your last name.

Today my sister picked number 12 which is stylization.  The challenge was to create the meaning of my last name in the art style of stylization.  My last name, Tapia, is Spanish for mud wall, or one who lived near the mud/adobe wall. So I drew an old adobe house.  This is india ink on bristol paper which was drawn with a calligraphy tip pen.  I used two different tip sizes, a tiny one and a large one (sorry, no technical names).  The fun part was dipping the big tip in the ink and blowing on it to make the speckled ground, even though my work space and my hands got super messy.  Normally when I used india ink I prefer to use a watercolor paint brush but the calligraphy pens give you better precision when making lines.  This is a 2-point perspective view which was very tedious but still fun to do.
A popular stylization piece would be the portrait of an Argentinian revolutionary and guerrilla leader Che Guevara.

Day 1: Pop Art Self Portrait

For today's art challenge I had my sister pick a number between 1 and 15 and she chose 7 which was pop art. So this is my self portrait as a pop art image. This is acrylic on canvas and only took maybe 30 minutes at the least. I've never painted a face before so it was hard to determine the placements of the facial features.
Famous pop art artist: Andy Warhol.

This is the picture that I used. Not quite the same but whatever, art means not going by the rules. =)

30 Day Art Challenge - Advanced

Day 1 - Self Portrait.
Day 2 - The meaning of your last name.
Day 3 - A Universal monster.
Day 4 - Your favorite flower.
Day 5 - Your city landmark.
Day 6 - Make a play on Mona Lisa (your own version).
Day 7 - A famous celebrity.
Day 8 - Whatever is to your right.
Day 9 - Your favorite animal.
Day 10 - A superhero.
Day 11 - How does your favorite song make you feel? (Or create something from a lyric)
Day 12 - A Disney princess.
Day 13 - Your favorite food.
Day 14 - Something of your favorite color.
Day 15 - Your pet.
Day 16 - A creature that you fear.
Day 17 - The meaning of your first name.
Day 18 - A holiday of your birth month.
Day 19 - When you were a kid, what you wanted to be when you grow up.
Day 20 - A celebrity you can't stand.
Day 21 - A character in your favorite movie.
Day 22 - Your alter ego.
Day 23 - If your life was a fantasy.
Day 24 - The last dream you can remember.
Day 25 - Your best friend.
Day 26 - Invent a creature, good or evil.
Day 27 - Type in your name plus a random verb on Google and use something from the auto-fill.
Day 28 - Your favorite memory.
Day 29 - Your pets personality.
Day 30 - A sexy version of you.

1. Abstract
2. Cubism
3. Expressionism
4. Fauvism
5. Impressionism
6. Pointillism
7. Pop Art
8. Post-Impressionism
9. Primitivism
10. Realism
11. Surrealism
12. Stylization
13. Art Nouveau
14. Dada
15. Minimalism 

Rules:
This art challenge is made for those who'd like to challenge themselves in the different styles and movements of art.  Or, if you're like me, a way to understand these styles better so that you don't bomb on your art history exams! You can use Google as a reference if you're not too clear on how a style looks. Each topic must be done in one of the listed art styles. You can choose at random, have someone near you pick a number, or go in order. Challenge yourself by doing at least one of each. 

Day 1 - Self Portrait

My summer has been a drag so far ever since I came back to Lubbock. I thought I'd pass the time with a 30 day drawing challenge that I found on Google. This is india ink and watercolor on watercolor paper. I'm learning that I don't do so great with watercolor lol. I will probably do one more later on that's more realistic but for now a cartoon will have to do. Also, I don't have a scanner at the moment so I'm having to be ghetto fabulous with my cell phone camera =P

Cat as the Mother Mary

First of all, I would like to thank everyone that is following me and have left lovely comments on my last post.  I am new to Blogger and haven't quite learned my way around yet so as soon as I can figure it out, I will be following you guys in return! Once again, thank you for the encouraging words! All I ask is: can someone show me how to follow people based on my followers list? When I click, it only gives me the option to message lol.

A little story behind this portrait, I don't normally draw things like this...actually, I have never drawn anything like this before, but it was requested by my best friend. This is her cat Ricki who is one of the coolest cats ever, and that says a lot because I'm strictly a dog person lol. I was thrilled to accept this challenge even though it took me a long time to complete due to certain circumstances.

This is prisma color pencil on black illustration board (16x20), my two favorite things to work with. Never in my life have I drawn an animal (save for the owl I drew for my Aunt) so I feel the face is a little misproportioned (is that a word?) but all in all I was pleased with the result.

Once again, thank you for the comments and for following my blog, I will do the same once I figure this site out lol.

Acrylic Sun & Moon

My sister and I just moved into a new house and naturally, we came across a lot of old junk from the old house during the move. Among the hidden "treasures" were two old collectible plate displays that you hang from the wall. I figured what better place than the living room? I wanted to make it look like an art freak lives there =). So I found some square canvases that I had saved and set to work and this was the result:

Naturally, you can't have the sun without the moon. Er...vice versa? I don't know how astrology works =P

And so goes the start of a lovely "art freak" living room. More to come =)