Taylor's AP art

I took this class because of my love for art itself. It was a really fun process to collaborate with new classmates with different ideas and different talents but all having similarity in interest. Personally what I struggled with the most was brainstorming. When you are in a situation of forced of doing art you get lost a lot, but also you get into modes where art is all you want to do and it would be preferable to just stay in that classroom all day to finish it. Joining Ap art I learned lots of different things with what I can do and what others can do to.I've met new people through this program and I expanded the variety of what I can make myself. It is well worth your time to join this class if art has any interest to you, you become a better artist.

The central idea of my concentration is the idea of representing imagination and beauty in art. I personally  enjoy art that leads the mind to different places and represents more than one subject. I am inspired by the kind of art that one can spend time looking at for different subjects and meaning that lie within the composition. My concentration  gives the viewer a chance to use their imagination and create their own narrative.

In life, we all have our own story to tell. Some stories are harder to tell than others. At times life can be  twisted up in several different directions. Similar to the craziness in the art pieces I’ve created. My art is designed so anyone can see more than one meaning, finding it interesting for a viewer to flow through the piece of art. The focal point of my art is based on the choices of a woman, an eye, or a creature. The women represent beauty, the eyes represent future and life, and the creatures represent fear and the past. The central idea of all these pieces is beauty, imagination, and all the different outcomes in life. Throughout my concentration I used little color overall. When I used color it was to emphasize a subject or feature. The first piece of art shows a full portrait of a woman's face which is colored in cool colors of blood to represent a heart. In my pieces you might see doodles and craziness, but within all that you will see something more meaningful. My last piece is a detailed drawing of half of a face. The unique thing about this piece is the silver sparkle in the eye representing innocence and dreams within the eye of the beholder. The detail I used represents the uniqueness of each individual. In all each piece of art has it’s own story to tell leaving one to their own imagination.

Elaina's AP Art Studio Blog Post :)

Jeeze. This year has been crazy! But let me tell you what Ive accomplished. This is my senior year of high school has been all over the place, but I think the one thing that really kept me going was My AP Art Studio class. It wasn't like any art class I've ever taken before. Basically we are able to do anything we wanted to do. Well anything artistic. Ms. Dercks pushed us to do things that we haven't tried out before. So I learned how to use photoshop. I spent a total of 15 hours using photoshop to finish my AP portfolio. Let me tell you, my hands are still recovering.

The central idea of my concentration is “The Beauty Of Nature”. I’ve choose to show nature in an unnatural form to emphasize the flamboyant appeal of bright colored objects. Through the natural and unnatural photos, I have been able to show my perspective of plants while challenging the viewer's perspective of natural world around us.

My life has always revolved around the idea that nature and the world around us is sacred. My grandma was a huge inspiration not only for my art, but also love of nature. I dedicate my concentration in memory of her. I will always remember her talking about trees, and how they artistically talked to her. She taught me many art techniques, like watercolor painting. She also taught me the importance of not being afraid to try new things. Through experimentation of new techniques, I was able to turn my own perspective of nature into art. In pictures like the trees in the woods (#11) the yellow glow of the sun and serene scenery honestly brings a sense of peacefulness and warmth. And in pictures like the fuschia flowers I was able to use the rule of thirds. It is just astonishing that we are able to take scenes from everyday nature, and transform them into beautiful works of art. Another technique I learned this year is how to change the texture and color of the photos I take. In pictures like the obscure blue flower, I was able to take the nature of the picture and give it a whole new feel by transforming the colors. I learned a lot about color theory by trying out new techniques.  I was able to change the overall feel and atmosphere of each picture to create a feeling of connectedness and awe for the nature around us.

 

Kaitlyn APStudio Art

There was many ups and downs in my year of AP. Starting with the fact that Ms. Dercks changed my theme of my concentration three fourths of the way through the year, which meant i had to work harder and faster to get all of the concentration projects done on time. In the end I was able to get all my projects done and uploaded on time. Over the year I have figured out that I am an abstract artist. I do believe that overall I did much better than I could of ever hope of doing in AP Studio Art. Wish to continue improving my artistic ability.

There are many meanings behind a person’s face, but you never really capture every single meaning because we get distracted by our perception of beauty. With this style of painting you won’t be able to see superficial beauty or even someone’s facial flaws. The faces are distorted by color; you can still see the person’s face but not by the looks.

Everyone has an attitude, personality and purpose all their own. Instead of showing beauty or flaws I choose to show the people in my life as I see them. My concentration shows what we can’t see at first glance. With each abstracted painting  I’ve negated the small detail while still emphasizing the shadows and highlights.  Each person is painted in different tones and values of the basic color wheel. There is thought and meaning to each specific color choice and placement. While choosing color composition for each image I considered individual personality and the relationship I have with them. I’ve repeated one person more than once because she isn’t always the same color or color combination. Most of the time she is a shade of blue because she can be a shy and calm. Sometimes she can be frustrating, which can change her color to a bold color. This concept can also be seen in the other paintings. Once I thought through the best colors for their personalities or their connection to me, I looked at basic color theory and whether the color’s complemented each other in some way. In some cases I used complimentary colors or analogous to create contrast or emphasis. All the people depicted in my concentration are important everyday influences in my life.

Alexa's AP Studio Art

Overall my year in AP Art has allowed me to learn a lot more about myself and my capabilities. Even though I faced some struggles in developing my concentration with the idea a the works itself, I was able to show perseverance in completing my art works within the time period. My biggest "aha" moment was when I put together the pieces of my concentration (literally). I feel my concentration was very well put together and that I had a lot of thought and motive behind it. This year I was able to watch my artistic abilities evolve and improve, and because of this class I concluded that I can thrive as an individual, which means I would probably enjoy a possible future career that involves individuality and creativeness. 

Beauty can sometimes be a very socially- constructed negative idea, but I believe that the idea of beauty and being able to see beauty in others is very important. It is our distinct individuality embedded within everyone that makes us as humans beautiful. The paintings express how each unique person comprises our beautiful and diverse world, and that is why my central idea for my concentration is to portray how beauty creates unity of people around the world. 

My work consists of portraits of a variety of different walks of life ranging from many different ethnicities, lifestyles, health conditions, etc. Each individual is essential to making up our harmonic world. Covering a vast array of people was crucial to developing my idea of unity, because it is all our striking, yet beautiful, differences that unite humanity. In each painting, I depicted this idea by creating each piece with simple and small designs to create a textured like look rather a smooth and blended look. These small lines or designs that comprised of each piece are what made each piece a whole. This is much like how each person, no matter how big or small, is a part of and composes our globe of beautiful people. Each mark in the piece comes together to create a textured look. The texture symbolizes how each person in this world is different creating a variety of people rather than the world being filled with similar people making the painting smooth. Each person in this world matters because they are beautiful in their own unique way. If I would have missed a mark in one of my paintings, it would be noticeable, like how each person contributes to the world, each mark contributes to the painting. Each piece along with all the pieces together as a whole symbolizes unity within this beautiful world. 

Ben Neuman AP Art Studio

In reflection of this year in AP Art, it was a difficult but worthwhile year. Even knowing how slow I am to get art projects done, I took on two art classes. Things were made even more difficult with my decreasing motivation. However, to counteract that, I was able to make a couple friends to help me stay motivated to get work done. I am very grateful for that. It is also because I had two classes that I had enough good art pieces to sent in for my portfolio for college, which got me a really good scholarship. I did get very worn out this year, though mostly my own fault for not getting things done sooner. Apart from increasing skill and knowledge, I have also gotten faster at doing things. I have created the most art this year than I have in any years past.

                                                                                                                                                      

The monsters in a child’s nightmares and imagination are the main idea of my concentration. Some children have an overactive imagination which, though they are likely to be creative, will cause them to imagine and dream about things that instill great fear in them. I was one such child. This remains prevalent wherever they go and causes frequent nightmares. My concentration expresses the different places and ways such a horrific imagination can seep into their conscious.

A different monster is featured in each illustration and usually reflects its environment or a feeling associated with the piece. I used different drawing mediums that were on a grey scale or black and white such as graphite and ink to contribute to the mood.  In image 4, the drawing is about when a child is in a forest and hears noises that originate from what is normally an animal. Catching only a glimpse of the creature as it avoids them, their imagination takes over and they imagine the monstrosity depicted. The creature is a combination of several different animals. This can be seen as their imagination in the moment or the nightmare they have about the experience afterward. Image 12 depicts a child getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or to get a drink of water. As he walks through the hallway, he feels he is being watched and that there is something in the darkness. The Resident Evil inspired black substance of the creature grows across the floor and the walls, creeping up on him. All of its eyes are on him. Not all of the pictures feature a child because it is from the perspective of the child as they look upon the monster, or in one case they are the monster.

Javi's AP Studio

Year reflection- This year has been amazing, filled with positive memories. In the beginning of the year I made many friends that support each other as they struggle through projects. But for most of the year I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. Should I stay in Drawing or should I switch to 2D where I can potentially get a better score for my AP portfolio.

My concentration is based on life struggles of today’s youth. Life can seem like purgatory. Death can seem like a sanctuary. I’ve showcased the torment of a young girl going through life’s struggles with mental illness. My sister has been diagnosed with Depression, Social Anxiety, PTSD, Bipolar Disorder, and symptoms of Schizophrenia. My art creates awareness of my sister's struggles and the life threatening effects of these disorders in an effort to save a life as precious as my sister’s.

The mood and tone builds on the subject’s isolation and pain as you view each photo. In #(3 ) through #(6) the vibrant colors represent the areas where the person doesn’t feel comfortable being touched. This is due to all the years of sexual and physical abuse. Picture #(3) shows that even in a safe place people can’t be trusted. The women has a disheveled look with her straps exposed showing she is exhaustedly distraught from being abused for all those years. The Black and White in #(4 ) represents death or lack of inspiration. Death and despair surround the subject, representing the only way out of her misery. All the photos in my concentration are a visual documentation of my sister’s dark moments of her life. That is why I have her in  #(7) through #(12). The words written on her body are the thoughts and emotions that consume her life. #(8) show her coping with these emotions by playing the keyboard. Overall this is the struggle of my young sister who has been on the edge for most of her life. Life is a beautiful thing, but others think otherwise. This also can be a representation of all the young teenagers who are going through similar struggles with mental illness. By bringing awareness to these subjects I can potentially save lives as they realized they’re not the only ones with these issues.

Brandon's AP Studio Art

I experimented with many different kinds of art throughout AP. I tried watercolor and i did not enjoy the experiment at all. All I created was a colorful mess. I used to never paint but now i do more than drawing. I tried finger painting and succeeded. I ended up creating two works of art. I tried pastels and didn't like them. They kept smearing everywhere and all my colors we mixing. It’s hard to not get pastel on anything, it needs to be covered in newspapers.

My artwork represents the pieces of life. I was inspired by the hard lines and geometric shapes of a piece I saw, and from there I found my style. The mood of the piece depends on the colors I chose. When you look at a drawing of mine you either see pain and agony or happiness and joy. The color usually give it away. Grays, blacks, and whites usually show the impaired parts of life, bright colors show joy.

They say every piece of art has a story and a title. However, it's not the same for everyone. When you look at a piece of art you make your own interpretation. The colors bring out most of the emotions for the story. You see bright, vibrant colors and it makes you happy and excited, it gathers your attention. Your inner child comes out and you feel the emotions of the painting or drawing. Same goes with dull and bland colors. Your emotions change when you stare at a piece of artwork with uninspiring colors like shades of gray or brown. The story is different for everyone. I use a wide variety of colors in my drawings to give each person a different story and title. The angle the drawing is positioned gives another chapter to the story. If you're drawing a person, the angle they are looking towards or the position of the eyes gives a lot away. Looking down could mean sadness or misery. Looking up could be happy and joyful. If you look at a picture and the eyes are very detailed you can see a story or image through the eyes. You don't always control what you draw sometimes you just go with the flow and something ends up on the paper. However, my style contrasts the colors I use. The geometric shapes and hard lines are the outline of the story it tells. Everything else depends on the lines and what they make up.

Rebecca's AP Studio Art

This year has been fun and eventful, giving me good advice that I can use in the future. I’m slowly learning to overcome my insecurities in drawing and designing my own artwork, but I’m slowly working on overcoming it!

I’m glad that I’ve been able to worry about things as much as I have, because it has taught me to really have a fuller understanding of how I need to use my time. I couldn’t be happier with how I’ve grown as an artist and a person throughout my senior year here in this AP Studio Art.

The concentration before you is one that took much longer than originally planned, but came out exactly as expected. I decided to show the different emotions of people, having them go ahead and creating the expression that frequently and accurately describes their life. With this being done, I took it upon myself to let my creativity flow and show what I thought accurately depicted the emotions given. In several of the pieces, I decided to include my love for cartooning, adding a spin on the reality of the photographs. I hope that all those who view my work can learn to understand my concentrations and the work that I put in to make them look the way they do.

This concentration holds the work of a half a year of AP art, and includes photography mixed with an overlay of sharpie drawings. I hope that you enjoy and can see the creative process of it.