The final assignment in the first semester of my art class was to take a master and re-create one of his pieces of art. I chose Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel for my inspiration. I chose this for two reasons: 1) because I love the artist's work (for me it is all about the emotion), and 2) I usually draw female figures and decided to do a male image for a change. I used the grid method for this piece and we could only use dry media such as colored pencils, pastels, etc. for the final project. It took about 4 weeks to finish and even at that I was close to not finishing when the final exam rolled around. My art teacher, Diane, would have a mini-exhibition for our final where we would present our piece and then give a report about the artist and the piece at the same time. Our families were invited to the exhibition and the food and drink (non-alcoholic) made the evening all the more enjoyable.

This piece was invited to be part of an exhibition at the Boehm Gallery at Palomar College. The piece is called "Camera Shy" and was done completely in white charcoal on Mi-Tientes paper. This piece was done using the grid method. We had to take a small picture and make it at least 25% larger.

This was a piece I did a while back from a bust that was in our art classroom. I used a regular graphite pencil to do this piece which was a study of light and dark. It took me a couple of hours to do this freehand and without the use of a grid. I didn't use the "thumb" method either. My art teacher told me I have a really good eye.

We did this piece from a black and white photo picking out the colors of the pastels we wanted to use as our shadows. We had to group these items in a way that pleased us and then draw them without using a grid but keeping them in proportion. This was a challenging project.

In the second semester of the art class, we started using both white and black charcoal. It was a little more difficult to use since we weren't allowed to mix them. This was a study in perspective which was an excellent lesson for me since I had been away from the art world for so long. I also have to give credit to my art teacher Diane. She was great and I always recommend her.

Much like the bleeding hearts, this was a project done over a period of a couple of weeks which we were to draw without using a grid. I used my thumb and a pencil to keep the proportions correct. We used white and black charcoal on Mi-Tientes paper.

I had been away from art for some time so I decided to start taking some art classes. I started out with Drawing & Composition which was a class that used only dry media. For this particular piece, we were supposed to take a color picture and convert it to black and white using black and white charcoal. It took about three weeks to do this project. This was a little outside my box since I prefer doing portraits and figure drawing. We did this drawing using a grid much like the old masters. It started out as a small picture which we were to increase by size.

We also did some transfers on our prepped background pages. We applied soft gel medium to the background and placed a double-sided image on top of the gel. On the page with the map, I let the image set for a very short time and then pulled the map off leaving remnants behind. For the other page I used a peeled paint technique with masking tape. The masking tape technique had some really interesting results. The image with the music notes peaking through is the one I used with the masking tape. I am not finished with this page as it was time to pack up bevause the class had ended. I think the colors are too bright but I am not sure what I am going to do as of yet. With one of my other pieces, the colors were a little bright so I covered the page with some gesso then recolored it. I am thinking of using some Titan Buff over this one since the colors run on the cool side.

The next background we created used gel medium applied through a stencil. The background had been prepped from the blotting off the excess from the covers so these next two backgrounds were the same as the cover before paints were applied. I didn't have a before/after picture for these next two images. I used a Dreamweaver stencil with regular gel medium (matte) for these next two images. If you look closely you can see the pattern created by using the stencil.

I took a 3 hour class on Friday with Karen O'Brien. It was really messy and so much fun. The time went by and before we knew it the time in class was over. I really must recommend a class with Karen. The workshop focused on backgrounds and a book to hold them in. These backgrounds could be used for anything but were intended as a reference for different techniques. The first thing we did was to create the covers for the book to hold our backgrounds in. The first thing she had us do was squirt some paint and gesso onto a piece of watercolor paper which we then spread around. If there was too much paint, we used another piece of watercolor paper to blot off the excess. We applied approximately 3 colors of acrylic paint before moving to the next step. Using soft gel (matte) medium, we applied images and words to our painted background. I always like an odd number of items since it is more pleasing to the eye. After the gel dried, we stamped on the background using stamp pads, paints, gesso, whatever was handy. The the real fun started and we began adding paints, glazes, reinkers, etc. to the pages. I have posted a before and after picture of the cover pages. What a difference, huh?

I just got a book in the mail today and so far it is fabulous. I have always hesitated doing a self-portrait because I don't like my looks. This book is having me look at things a little differently and I highly recommend it. The title of the book is: Mixed-Media Self-Portraits by Cate Coulacos Prato. One of the things that has always fascinated me about self-portraits are those done by Frida Kahlo. I think it is very interesting to compare her portraits by Diego Rivera and Frida's self-portraits. It is interesting to see how she viewed herself and how he viewed her.