"The World is Our Canvas"

We've all seen graffiti.  I've never thought much of it, and you probably haven't either.  However, as well as the crappy word graffiti, there is also some pretty cool street art out there!  Here are some of my favorites...  (All images courtesy of streetartutopia.com)

By Antoine Stevens and Steve Locatelli, Antwerpen, Belgium
All Image Courtesy of streetartutopia.com

I love this piece, located in Belgium.  The faces are created using an almost cubist style, which makes the piece look very graphic.  I also really like how the streaks of color add visual interest.  The use of colors such as pink and blue, mix from farther away, making it look natural.  

By David Walker, London, England

What I really love about this piece is that the artist did it without stencils, without brushes.  Only spray paint.  I doubt that many artists could do something like that and have it turn out so successful.  I also LOVE the way he incorporated the bright colors into the figure.  It gives it a fun creative twist!

By STMTS in Athens, Greece

This piece really feels like it is popping out of the wall!  This is the first street art piece I've seen that uses cross-hatching to show form.  The crosshatching makes it look like a pencil drawing!  The emotion captured in the little boy is so adorable, it looks real!

It can be hard to find good street art in the real world, but the Internet makes it much easier!!  Though many people look down on street art, I think it is really cool!  As Henry Thoreau said, "The world is our canvas."

This is Sand

Messy, boring and useless is probably what you think when you hear about sand art.  To tell you the truth, I thought it was too.  Sure it looked cool, but I never really thought about it until my friend, Annalise, showed me thisissand.com.  Here, you can make your own sand art for free, without the mess, and online.  When you get to the website, it is just a blank page, but if you click and hold your mouse, it drops sand.  To change your color, press "c" and select the color you want.  You can also drag it to get a gradual effect.  Here is an example of something that I did on this website.

My Sand Art

Now may I say that this is not one of my best...  I made it while I was supposed to be writing this post.  One of the things that I love about this website is that it is so simple, but every time you end up with a piece that looks completely different.   A lot of people will probably get really bored doing this, but I can do it for hours at a time.  Here is an example of what other people have done on this website.

Image Courtesy of thisissand.com
Created by Olivia

This makes my sand art look horrible.  Literally.  The way the colors sort of blend together and flow throughout the piece is AMAZING.  The way the colors overlap give the piece texture and gives it its natural but vibrant feel.  There are tons of other pieces on this website, and it can be fun to look around at them.  

So next time you find yourself bored, try out this website.  You won't regret it :)!

Recreating Color

Repainting someone else's artwork isn't very creative.  Or artistic.  However, it does really help you get used to the tricks and techniques that you need to get a certain look.  So for this week, I decided to repaint a picture that I found on Pinterest.  The color and looseness of this piece really caught my eye.  Here is what the original looks like.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find the artist who created it, and I looked all over.  Just remember that mine is not an original!

Image Courtesy of Pinterest.com
Author Unknown

The color of this piece is almost overwhelming.  The way the artist used such loose strokes and still managed to get such  realistic look is unbelievable.  By mixing the hard of the bridge and the hill with the soft of the leafs and the water gives the painting a flowing contrast.  Finally, the short strokes of the brush gives the painting a texture that brings it all together. Here is a picture of what mine looks like.  Remember that I am not completely finished with mine, so don't judge it too harshly! 

Image Courtesy of Maddy Lee

Obviously, my version of this painting needs a lot more work before I can officially call it done!  I still need to add the branches in the trees,  make the bridge a bit less vivid, and do a bit more work in the reflections in the water.  I usually like to paint small little paintings, but for some reason I decided to use a four foot canvas for this project!  I actually ended up liking the size, but going bigger means that you will need to spend a lot more time on making it look how you want it to.

For most of this painting, I used a palette knife, which gives a thicker textured look.  However, I also used brushes for little tid-bits of it.  The hardest part of recreating this painting was probably letting myself be loose.  I am so used to trying to get every detail perfect, and if you did that in a painting like this, the effects of the painting would not be nearly as dramatic.  Overall, I had a lot of fun with this project, and hopefully I can finish it up soon!  

P.S.  Check out one of my older posts, Exploring Solar Printmaking to see how my prints turned out this summer!

Project Runway: The Ultimate Hard and Soft

Last week had my favorite episode on Project Runway teams.  "The Ultimate Hard and Soft Challenge" was a challenge in which the designers had to design using only materials from both a flower shop and a hardware store.  Of course, the teams each had to create a coherent collection, which caused a bit of trouble.  Some of the looks I was in love with, and others I wasn't so impressed. 

Dream Team:

Design by Tu Nakchat
Image Courtesy of Sewing in Style

Design by Stanley Hudson
Image Courtesy of Sewing in Style

Design by Samantha Black
Image Courtesy of Sewing in Style

Design by Matthew Arthur
Image Courtesy of Sewing in Style

Design by Layana Aguilar
Image Courtesy of Sewing in Style

Design by Benjamin Mach
Image Courtesy of Sewing in Style

Ultimately, I loved almost every design done by this team.  The dress done by Benjamin was probably my favorite, considering his colorful yet sophisticated pallet, and the hand woven material used asymmetrically in the shoulder.  My other favorite was done by Layana.  Her fun and whimsical design was made using only flowers, wire and string.  My favorite thing about her design was how well the hard and soft went together.  The only design this week that I wasn't in love with was probably done by Stanley.  In my opinion, the length looks uncomfortable, and the leaves used makes his model look like a bush.  This team was the winning team this week, and Samantha Black was nominated to be the winner.  Her silhouette was interesting and her use of leaves under the wire mesh was creative and interesting.

Team Keeping it Real:

Design by Patricia Micheals
Image Courtesy of Sewing in Style

Design by Michelle Franklin and Richard Hallmarq
Image Courtesy of Sewing in Style

Design by Kate Pankoke
Image Courtesy of Sewing in Style

Design by Joseph Segal
Image Courtesy of Sewing in Style

Design by Daniel Esquivel
Image Courtesy of Sewing in Style

Design by Amanda Valentine
Image Courtesy of Sewing in Style

Unfortunately, Team Keeping it Real was the losing team this week.  The thing that brought them down the most was lack of cohesion.  Every design looks like it was from a different planet than the others. However there were still a few that were pretty great designs.  Daniels design, as usual, was unbelievable.  Using white lambs ear to give texture to the dress gave the design something interesting without looking like a craft project.  His silhouette was incredible, however because of the materials used, they sort of look like moldy coconuts.  The other design that I really loved was made by Joseph.  His silhouette was very different, and the way he placed the flowers gave his funky silhouette a sophisticated twist.  His designs always give people a new perspective without looking distasteful.  Unfortunately, the judges did not like his design this week, and he was sent home.  My least favorite design of this team was definitely Patricia's.  Her idea of draping flowers was interesting, but the way she incorporate it into her design looked like a little kids homemade halloween costume.  However, the judges didn't think too badly about it, so she is still in the game.

This weeks episode was probably the most interesting of them yet.  The unconventionality of the whole thing was what made most of the designs.  So next Thursday, be sure to tune into Project Runway at eight o'clock on Lifetime!  You won't regret it.

Exploring Solar Printmaking

As a couple of you know, during the summer I live in a small town in New York called Penn Yan. I love love love it there, and cannot imagine being anywhere else during my glorious summers.  However, surprisingly, living on a lake can get a bit boring.  All of my friends live across the country, I am surrounded by old retired people and I can get a bit grumpy.  So this summer, when my grouchiness started to come on, I decided to sign up for a couple of art classes; one of which was solar printmaking.

Arts Center of Yates County
Photo Courtesy of ycac.org

When I signed up for this class, I had no idea what this was.  I assumed we would making prints of pictures (duh) and using a printing press, but other than that I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  When the class finally came around, I loved it, and had a ton of fun.  The process of solar printmaking involves a long list of tasks, including: printing pictures onto transparent paper, holding heavy solar plates in the sun for a couple seconds, letting the plates dry, and finally, inking your plates and sending them through the printing press.

This is the type of printing press that I used
Image Courtesy of  nontoxic print.com

Though the experience was very fun to do in a class, it is a very

expensive hobby.  Just the printing press can cost thousands of 

dollars, let alone the solar plates, which cost about $20 for one.

However, I recommend that if you ever have an opportunity to do 

this, it is definitely worth it!  Here are some pictures of a
few of the prints that I made this summer.  I also made one of them
into an accordion book, that I will be doing a tutorial on soon!

Print by Maddy Lee (Made from original content)
Image Courtesy of Maddy Lee

Print by Maddy Lee (Made from original content)
Image Courtesy of Maddy Lee

Print by Maddy Lee (Made from original content)
Image Courtesy of Maddy Lee

Exploring Wet Mediums

Acrylic, oils, watercolors, pastels, charcoal and more.  These are all examples of common mediums that artists can use.  In most of my paintings that I have posted, I have used acrylic.  In this post, I will show some examples of my work in other mediums.

One of my acrylic paintings
Image Courtesy of Maddy Lee

This painting is an example of acrylic.  Some reasons why acrylic is so popular is because the paint  is cheaper, dries fast and can be used with water.   When painting with acrylic, always remember that the pigment  dries darker than it appears on your palette.  

An Oil Painting
Photo Courtesy of Maddy Lee

Above is one of my oil paintings.  Oil paintings can sometimes turn out looking a bit pastelist, such as the one above.  I painted this in summer 2011 out near the Glen Wild Park.  Oils are much more troublesome to use than acrylic for many reasons.  One of the main reasons that I have trouble with it, is because you have to use turpentine (paint thinner) instead of water.  Turpentine can smell REALLY bad, even when you buy the odorless kind.  Smelling this always makes me nauseous, so I don't use oils very often.  Another troublesome thing about oils is that they take really long to dry.  Really REALLY long.  The painting above is a 8.5x11" and it took about three weeks to dry.  Not only is this annoying when you want to display your work, but also if you are on a quick time frame, or you have to get something done for a client.

Watercolor Painting
Photo Courtesy of Maddy Lee

This is a watercolor barn painting that I did this summer.  I live in upstate New York in the summer by the way.  Anyways, I had never done a watercolor painting before this one, and it kinda looks like it.  The background and foreground look horrible, and the only thing I really like is the streakiness of the wood.  Watercolors are EXTREMELY difficult, considering you have to plan out your painting before you paint, so you can leave the white spaces blank.  You also can't go over your mistakes, whereas in oils and acrylics you can.  I think that if I had more experience with watercolors, I would like them a lot more, but for now I am used to the spontaneous use of acrylics.

So these are all the different paint mediums I have used fairly recently.  As you can probably tell, acrylic is my favorite by far.  But don't take my word for it.  Try these mediums out, and figure out which one you like the best.  And remember, no matter how bad you think your painting looks, everything is better than a blank canvas.

No Need to be Professional

Another Picture of Claire
Image Courtesy of Gretchen Lee

 What do think of when you see this picture?  When you see it, you probably think of it as a average, crappy photo to throw in a box and keep for later.  When I see it, I think about the "golfing" experience I had with my friend, Claire.  Photos are meant to be used to remember an experience and can often hold great meaning to those who know the story behind it.  For example, this picture shows Claire's (sometimes) goofy personality, and another failed attempt at being golfers.  

New York Summer '12
Image Courtesy of Cole Lee

Now this picture is something else.  Talk about crappy, this photo has no quality whatsoever.  The lighting is horrible, the whole is blurry, and it looks like my friends and I are tubing on a lake of trash.  However, this picture represents a summer vacation that we will never forget.  This goes to prove that one person's trash is another's treasure;  meaning that this photo means nothing to you, but the world to me.  Not everyone is can be the best photographer, but the fact that we were on a bumpy boat ride did NOT help.

Me leaving my closet
Image Courtesy of Claire

Well this is embarrassing...  Goes to prove that you should never judge a  book by its cover.  At school I appear to a quiet bore, and at home I just come out of my shell.  Although Claire captured this picture with a professional camera, nothing is professional about this image.  It captures my personality in a funny way.

Now you might be wondering why I wondered off into this magical topic.  It is simply because I wanted to point out that not all pictures have to be perfect.  Sometimes it is the blurriness or crookedness that brings a picture to life.  Next time you find yourself holding a camera, remember that being professional is not the most important thing.

P.S.  Next week's post will NOT be about photography.