Space, Sky, and Color

Space and Solving Problems

In my space drawing, I wanted the moon to be a focal point. So I made it big and centered and put the galaxy behind it. I took a few risks. One risk was mixing oil pastels to make the galaxy background. I'd never mixed oil pastels and didn't know if it would mix correctly or if they would just sit on the paper and not blend. After experimenting on my paper, I felt that they would work well enough for the background and this is the final product...

I really enjoy how the final product turned out. When I was using the oil pastels, I got annoyed and mad because some of the blue and purple from the galaxy got into the white of the moon. But in the end, I used those mistakes to make shadows in the moon. Without those shadows, I don't think the artwork would look the way I wanted it to come out. 

Sky and Taking Risks

For my sky drawing pictured to the right, I used new techniques that I learned and new materials.  This was the first time I used chalk pastels.  Chalk pastels are interesting.  They blend and mix well to make good sunrises like in the picture but they get everywhere and it is easy to mess up.  If certain colors (complimentary) are blended together, they make the color brown.  So I had to be careful that the blue and orange in the sunrise didn't mix.  I wanted the focus of this picture to be the sky because that was what the assignment was so instead of drawing detailed land, I just made it a silhouette.  I like how the chalk made a smooth service of colors that were blended in just the right way.  I took a risk with using a material I hadn't used before even though I knew if i mixed the wrong colors, the whole piece could be ruined.

Color and New Techniques

Part of this unit was learning different types of paints and techniques for the different types of paint.  We learned the color wheel, pictured to the right, and how to make tints and shades of a color by mixing primary colors (red, yellow, and blue).  Another thing we learned using water color paint is how to make brown.  You combine different amounts of the primary colors and to get a lighter shade you add water.  We also used water color paints to create different techniques including wet on wet, gradient, texture, and dry brush, pictured above.  I learned by mixing different combinations of the primary colors and shades and tints, you can create basically any color needed.  We also learned about 2 different types of paint; water color, and acrylic.  The chart to the right shows the difference between water color and acrylic.  

Paint vs. Chalk

If I had to choose which method is the best, I would choose paint.  Paint to me is a lot easier to use and is faster than chalk.  You can cover more area with paint and it looks smoother than chalk.  

Paint Vs. Chalk