honeycomb the trilogy

This is a painting that I did with watercolor, I started out with the hexagon design and then started to paint lightest to darkest. I really tried to not destroy my highlight cause I always make it too dark and then there is no highlight, which is no fun.

Rhythm is always the obvious principle of design since it is just a hexagon repeated over and over again. Contrast is another principle with the contrast between the dark and light colors. I tried to add depth in the shadows and with the walls of the honeycomb.

I was just trying to further my watercolor skills and get more realistic in my paintings. I think so far this has been my best attempt at honeycombs, I really took my time on it and I think it really paid off in the end.

I like how this turned out, I'm really satisfied with it, I think it looks detailed which is what I wanted. I still think it can be improved even more and one day I hope to achieve getting as realistic with the honeycomb as I possibly can.

another honeycomb

This an acrylic piece I did on a wood slab. It was my typical honeycomb design but I wanted to challenge myself and do it in acrylic. It didn't come out as realistic as I had hoped it would but I don't work i acrylic often so my skills are still developing. I started but tracing the hexagon pattern over the whole surface and then went in with a deep brown and traced around the sides creating the "walls" of the honeycomb where the honey is held inside. I then went in with three shades (an orange yellow, yellow, and a very pale yellow) and painted the honey. At the end, I went in with a lighter brown and tried adding highlights to the walls. Then after that, I covered the top surface with Resin to create a shiny finish.

Repetition is the main principle since it literally is just the same pattern repeated over and over again. There is texture in the wood which is one of the reasons I wanted to paint on this because I wanted to try working on texture and seeing if it would change my painting in any way. A way I tried adding depth was using a darker yellow on one side and then a lighter shade of yellow on the opposite side. It didn't turn out how I wanted it to but I am not mad with the overall product.

Every time I paint honeycombs I don't really have a reason why other than I felt like it. I don't know why I enjoy painting them so much, I think I find some sort of comfort in the repetition. At this point another reason I paint these is that I'm trying to make them more realistic each time I paint them, my goal is to get so realistic with them that you can't tell it's just a piece of paper.

I mentioned before that this piece didn't turn out how I had hoped it would of turned out, I was hoping it'd look more like the real thing versus just a pattern or design. I think where I messed up was in the overall shading of the honey, it was so simple and not detailed enough. But even throughout all the disappointment, I am still proud of how it turned out.

Art Journal

Throughout most of the 3rd quarter I worked in a watercolor journal. I filled up the entire thing from front to back over most of the quarter. I don't want to show all of it because it is mostly personal and really weird. I did a lot of minimalistic art in the journal though, and used a lot of quotes and lyrics.

Something that was common in my paintings was that I would use mostly muted colors and then just have emphasis on one color. I also painted a lot of nature, I've been working on getting more realistic with my watercolor paintings. I also painted a lot of things out of my comfort zone in this journal. I tried painting things that I wasn't confident would come out looking good or that I didn't really how to approach.

Pinterest was my best friend during this whole process, I got a lot of my inspiration from there. I usually looked up a lot of concept images and would always look at the related images to an image that I really liked. Sometimes I would find an image that I wasn't particularly fond of as a whole but maybe there was one part of it I really liked or there would be an overall theme that I took inspiration from.

As an overall, I really liked how the journal came out. There are some pieces in it that I do not like at all but I kept them in because it is all a growing process and even the worst of my art is still art. But there is also some pieces that I am really proud of. They might be really simple but I have learned to love minimalistic art and how something could be so simple yet so meaningful.

watercolor honeycomb

This is a watercolor piece that was inspired by the honeycomb. I used all watercolor and also used a hexagon stencil to create the design all over the page. I made sure to use different shades of yellow and orange to the piece to make it more interesting and have more depth.

Rhythm is clearly the most distinct principle throughout the piece, with the constant repetition of the hexagon design over the whole page. There is a nice balance between light and dark with the honeycombs progressively getting darker as the design goes down. Unity flows throughout the piece as well with the hexagons fitting perfectly next to each other and coming together, creating a design.

I was inspired by bees for this piece. Not too long ago, the bee went on the endangered species list and that is a really big deal, at least to me it is. Earth relies heavily on bees and if they were to become extinct, we would all be screwed. According to Albert Einstein, the human species would only live for about four years after bees went extinct, which is not a lot of time at all.

I am quite happy with this piece. I really just wanted to focus on color mixing and texture for this piece and I think I did pretty well at that. I would say that if I were to do this piece again, I'd try to make it neater but I actually feel like the messiness of the piece actually adds something to it.

Chalk Pastel Page

This was my chalk pastel page I did. I used chalk pastel on top of toned paper to create a study page of deer. I decided to just draw different aspects of the animal. I did both a male and female deer and I drew some of the things they liked to eat. I also did a nice close up of their eye.

Unity is a principle of design because all the drawings flow together nicely since they have the same underlined subject and color scheme. There is proportion in the drawings of the doe, buck, and in the eye and foot of the deer. Balance can be found if you were to split the page in half, I made sure to evenly space of each of the drawings.

I was mainly just inspired by the deer itself and how gentle and beautiful it is. I find the deer to be a very aesthetically pleasing animal, it is truly beautiful. I also think that animal studies are really nice and wanted to try incorporate that into this piece and make it all more interesting.

I am not completely displeased with this piece. I really liked how the eye and foot came out, I think I could of worked more on the food though. I also would like to try and make the colors bolder and just overall more interesting. I think I would also try to make it look even more like an animal study than it does, maybe add in some facts and notes about the deer itself.

Mixed Media Page

This is my mixed media page, I used pen, watercolor, graphite on toned paper, and scotch tape. I first started off by drawing my failed attempt at Matty Healy. That was what then inspired me to use one of his lyrics in my art. Which I just outlined in pen and filled in with watercolor.

A principle would be proportion, with the drawing of Matty, he's not weirdly uneven or anything. Balance is another principle because the drawing of Matty and then the lyrics balance out each side of the page. Unity is also one because it all flows together nicely and nothing looks out of place.

Matty Healy was my inspiration for this piece. He's one of my role models and I wanted to try and draw him. I decided to do those lyrics because they are from one of my favorite songs from them, "Somebody Else". I like it because it is a really catchy tune and is also lowkey sad which is nice.

I am pretty ok with how this piece turned out. I don't think it's absolutely amazing but I also don't think it is some of worst work. I think for not really ever drawing, Matty turned out pretty nicely. If I were to do this piece again, I think I would just make it more interesting. 

Heart and Soul Project

This is my whale that I created for the Heart and Soul competition. It is a mixed media piece, I used wood, silicon, acrylic paint, air dry clay, and resin. I just started out with the whale itself and just built up as I thought about it more. This was actually my first time using resin and it honestly was a complete mess but the results were totally worth it. 

For composition, there could be like a backwards "L" thing kind of going on, with the whale being mainly straight at the top and then the fin extending down. Emphasis is a clear principle in this piece with the whale being the main focal point of the whole piece. There is also proportion in the whale, nothing is weirdly sized compared to the actual blue whale itself. Unity is a principle, I think the whole piece flows really nicely and nothing seems out of place. 

I originally got the idea for this piece from an article I read about a dead blue whale washing up on the shores of California due to head trauma from hitting a ship and just something about that struck me and inspired me to make this piece. I mainly just wanted to address the topic I suppose and interpret in a way that maybe made people want to look more into the blue whale and how we as a species are single handedly abolishing this world of its largest mammal. 

I would be lying if I said I wasn't slightly proud of myself for how this piece came out. I was a little wary of it at first but as it progressed, it really started to grow on me and I especially like how the water came out, I think it really helps make the piece. The only growth I would say is just to have better planning when it comes to using materials like silicon and resin where once its down its not coming back up without completely destroying the whole piece.