For my quarter 4 project, I studied David Choe. He’s known for his street art and his figure paintings, which explore themes of desire, degradation, and exaltation, are characterized by a raw, frenetic tone that he has termed "dirty style." In my project, I tried to do my own interpretation of his style with a rough, imperfect, graffiti style look using multiple tools and a few of his many characters he’s known for drawing. To create this, I used acrylic paint, oil and acrylic paint markers, spray paint and ink. The spray paint was used for the green overspray while the ink was used to make the drips on the top left corner. Everything else was used for the background and to fill in the characters. Through this project, I learned how to use my resources to their best ability to recreate a specific style or look in my artwork. My tip to anyone trying to do this project would be to observe every small detail about the artist and find similar tools to the ones that the artist used. This project has inspired me to use other styles and techniques of artists to use in my own artwork.

My artwork is composed of an eye, a nose, and an eyebrow representing a quarter of a face. I chose this because it explains who I am. I am a very visual person. Everything I do is about the visual experience whether it’s learning or having fun. I don’t think there would be any other way to represent this besides an eye. To create this I used a pencil, white-out pen, brown and black color pencils, and a thin sharpie. I used the pencil to sketch everything out. I used the brown and black colored pencils to start coloring and shade. I used the white-out pen for the eyes once I got to that part. The thin sharpie was used last to make the eyebrows, eyelashes, and the pupil of the eye.

I think Ellen Cooper makes similar work to what I made. It’s a portrait that is not too realistic but not too unrealistic. To get this style I think shading was the most important step. Your level of shading makes drawings more realistic. During this drawing I learned how draw eyebrows using single lines. If I could change something I would just make everything closer to the edge. Hopefully I can go back and revise my project in the future.

Slide 1:

Hi, my name is Cyrus. This is my project.

Slide 2:

This is my quarter 1 project that I used to create a website. This project was successful because because I was able to finish and I got a good grade and a successful start on a portfolio.

 Slide 3:

This website was made to show who I am, my resume, and portfolio.

 Slide 4:

There are many pages that can have much more added on to as I do more in life to be presented.

 Slide 5:

This is my quarter 2 programming project

Slide 6:

My goal was to learn programming using this program names Karel.

Slide 7:

This project was successful because I finished everything correctly.

Slide 8:

My third project was basically programming.

Slide 9:

I used Notepad++ to code and make changes to the website.

Slide 10:

This was successful because I was able to make the website look more visually appealing.

Slide 11:

I chose to change the homepage to make it look better

Slide 12:

This was my last project which was basically revising a project I did in middle school. I thought there was more that could be changed so I did it.

Slide 13:

I made the home page look less hectic and I think it now looks better

Slide 14:

I think I learned the most when learning how to code using codeHS

Slide 15:

During this course I became better at coding

Slide 16:

I could use these skills if I ever decide to make my own website in the future

Slide 17:

Next year we should try to code our own website and learn how to code

Slide 18:

Tips: Do all of your checkpoints. If you miss them your grade will drop.

Slide 19:

Tip #2: Submit your work on time. Losing points for lateness is not worth it.

Slide 20:

Tip #3: Meet all of the requirements for your checkpoints

Cyrus Foster

Artist Statement Art 2

For my project I chose to do the Linoleum Cut. I chose to create this to help me out with my personal art. I was interested in printing stickers and thought this would be a good way to start. I remember learning a little about this in 9th grade but I never got a chance to make something of my choice. I wanted to basically create a stencil of the half faced character I use for street art which is shown below. The artist that i’m inspired by is myself because I am an artist. My work isn’t meant to communicate with viewers but the product of it does. It creates cartoon like characters that any people enjoy finding and seeing outside. Through the creation of this work I was able to complete my goal of creating the stencil. I will now be able to create more artwork at a faster rate. This adds on to all of my previous artwork and builds on to many different methods of  artwork. Street art in general is contemporary art and I am one of the many artists who contribute to it. Creating the stencil on the linoleum block isn’t hard at all. There’s only a few steps to follow. First, I drew my design on paper with a pencil. Next, I used transfer paper to transfer the design onto the linoleum block by placing the transfer paper on the block and tracing my drawing. This will place the material from the transfer paper onto the block in the places that were traced. Then, I traced my design on the block with a marker so my drawing doesn’t disappear while i’m working. Finally, I used the cutting tools to cut out my design. The tools have different blades and I had to carve away the linoleum in all of the negative parts so my drawing can be the only part sticking up. I made a few prints to test my cut and make sure everything is fine.I learned that it’s very important to cut deep and have sharp solid lines. I am planning to have a future in art and this project is helping me improve my craft. I learned that I do can create the same piece of art using many different techniques.

We wanted to do something that is similar to the project choices mixed with something we really like to do.  Our overall vision for the work is to mix and older style of artwork with a newer style of art. Henna is an older cultural art and it is very detailed. Graffiti style lettering is a very new form of art. When you put these two together it creates something new that you rarely see. The message that we are trying to send is that nothing should be stuck in it’s category and trying new combinations can turn out well. We made a unique artwork and that is not seen a lot. Practicing on the henna designs and also the lettering help us a lot. I like working with 3-D art and street art and this is mixed with a little of both. Our artwork is similar to  ZADIE XA because the  work is very detailed. First we sketched out where we would do my henna designs and then I started with a little flower into a big henna designs over all the buildings. I make a sketch in my book then I drew it on the canvas. I colored it in with acrylic markers and went over it again with another layer of acrylic paint. Our work shows Philadelphia which is the city we live in.  It could make different artists get together and collaborate to make new ideas. Without shading the lettering wouldn’t look the same. The shading makes the letters 3-D. It it was all white it would be very hard to read and look very flat and basic. I learned to go back over my paintings with layers of paint which is something I didn’t do before. I hope everyone likes our art work.

Henna Design by Shirin Akhter

Graffiti Lettering by Cyrus Foster

I created my project using Wix. We were supposed to design a website with 4 pages. My goal for this project was to meet all the requirements but make the website easy to look through. From my own experience on the internet I know that I hate seeing pages filled with words. It’s very unattractive and makes me not want to read. Throughout this project I kept that in mind. To make this a little easier the project was completed using checkpoints. With checkpoints no pages are rushed and you have about the same amount of time to finish each page. When I first started I was going to use weebly. Weebly didn’t allow me to make everything I wanted the way I wanted it to be. After that I moved over to Wix and I liked it a lot. I learned through this project that it takes many errors to get your final product because i’m the type of person who likes to do everything 1 time and 1 time only. If I were to do this again I would know to use wix which would save a lot of time I wasted trying to find a site to use. I think i’m going to continue editing and updating this site as I work on my resume.

Cyrus Foster

Art

       Artist Statement

I chose to draw what I did after looking through a few examples. I was going to draw a circle at first but I wanted to do something more complicated. I have a dog/wolf character I draw and I thought the many colors of the color wheel would look nice with it. The character is drawn in 3-D so I planned to color the main parts with the color wheel and color the shaded parts black. I made it in a way that you wouldn’t exactly relate the coloring to the color wheel unless you’re really thinking about it. I wanted the drawing to look like it’s naturally colored so the color wheel won't be forced into the picture.

My current work is very similar to all of my other work. I am well known in the local street art community for my character that I drew. I notice that in the current times street art is becoming very recognized and well known. The type of street art I focus on tends to take a basic character and exaggerated it with emotions, actions, and colors in many different ways. The color wheel was made and used to help artists with colors. Many of my pieces consists of the same character in different settings showing different emotions and colors. I was basically inspired by myself to draw this picture the way I did.

The main focus was to color the character in with the color wheel and leave the 3-D parts for the black. I bolded the outline to make it stand out and I did the background red and black and left the middle white to contrast.  

Cyrus Foster 11/11/15

Spanish 2 benchmark English reflection

My Grandfather

My grandfather passed away when I was younger. I don’t remember the exact day or year but i’m pretty sure it was between 2011 and 2013. Most of my life I lived outside of the city where I never really got a chance to talk to him or know him. Around 2008- 2009 my family moved back to Philadelphia and I still didn’t get to meet him until maybe a year later. When I finally met him he was very happy to see me. I had some very old memories of him from my younger years but it wasn’t anything I would say was important. When I met him we connected a lot because we had many similarities and similar interests. He played a role to create the way I am today.

My grandfather meant a lot to me and still does. I feel like without him I wouldn’t be the person I am today. He is the one who got me interested in technology. When I was younger I liked technology but I never really knew what it could do or how things worked. Whenever I came to his house I always learned something new. He always showed me new things about phones, computers, and other technology. I remember one time he gave me a keyboard piano and I started learning how to play it. I think that really started my interest in music and instruments. He taught me a lot about phones and computers and how they work. After that I have always had an interest in how technology work. Finally, he was a very religious person. He always talked about the bible and church. He taught my family and I to stay positive and what we should and shouldn’t do. Everyone in your life teaches you something and I think he taught me a lot.

I decided to create my sugar skull in remembrance of my grandfather because he’s the only one I was pretty close to that died. I knew him enough to be able to describe him and share my thoughts on him.

My sugar skull reflects my grandfather by using two basic concepts to describe the overall type  of person he was. I used a lot of glitter on the skull and I put a cross on the face. Glitter is very bright and colorful which is how you could describe him. He was a very smart person and it was very obvious even if it was your first time meeting him. He had many interests and was a very curious person. My grandfather used his interests to gain more knowledge and pass it on. I rarely ever saw him in a bad mood. He was the one who the family would always come together to see and he brightened many people's day. I put a yellow cross on the forehead of the skull to represent religion. He was a very religious person. I used yellow because it is a bright and noticeable color. He made it very noticeable that religion was something he followed to the max because he would always talk about it. I remember he had a group of friends that he studied and discussed the bible with. He would always have them over or be on the phone with them. His good spirit and participation in religion is what I tried to show on the sugar skull by using bright colors, glitter, and a cross.

I guess Día de los Muertos has opened my mind up to celebrating the passing of loved ones by making me think about the positive. Most people here in America take death as a bad or scary thing. People think about dead people as just not physically being here anymore but I think we should think about the good they left behind. Everyone leaves something behind whether it’s good or bad and people should remember that. Nothing lasts forever so you should enjoy the time it’s here and celebrate the fact that it lived as long as it did when it goes. I think I've learned to enjoy things why you have them and to never forget the impact that was left on you. If you ever get close to someone that means they’ve put a part of themselves in you. Never forget that and pass it on. There’s a positive in every negative and I've learned that it’s up to me to choose which one I think I should look at.

Cyrus Foster 11/11/15

Spanish 2 benchmark             Eulogy

My Grandfather

Hola mi nombre es Cyrus Foster. Yo soy dieciseis anos. Mi abuelo fui a muy importante persona en mi vida.

Mi abuelo fui de Filadelfia. Él fue de el norte de Filadelfia. Mi abuelo es el padre de mi madre. Él  es el marido de mi abuela. Él nombre fue Michael. Él fue a muy inteligente persona. Mi abuelo fue también a muy calmado persona.

Yo gusto aprendizaje en el tienda de la computadora. Yo soy muy feliz el enseñar me de computadoras.

` Él  enseñar me mucho más de el algos yo soy interesado en. Yo soy orgulloso de lo.

Video:

https://www.wevideo.com/view/510073288

This project was made for Day of the Dead and I celebrated the death of my grandfather. I created a reflection, eulogy, and video for the project. The video also includes pictures of the physical part where we had to design a mask and sugar skull.

Do you think that affected your life in any type of way?

Yea. If I payed attention in school as I child I wouldn’t be in the position i’m in now. I think not going to school and being careless about my education destroyed my chances of achieving my goals and dreams.

How do you feel about my position as far as education?

As I always tell you, i’m proud of you. I am happy to see you doing something I wish I could’ve done. The stuff I hear you are learning and doing is stuff i’ve never done before. You are on the right track in life.

Is there any messages you would like to say?

Umm, education is your life. To anyone who is playing and not taking school seriously, you should. I didn’t do good in school and now I wish I could go back to do it over again. Life is more than fun and games. Education will take you anywhere you want in life.

We chose to use a phone case because we had to find something in common to work on. We both have phones and cases on our phones so we decided to use the lights on the case. We wanted it to look cool so we used a lot of lights and colors. Everyone like phone cases but they are usually plain and boring. We thought lights would make it look less boring. A phone case is important to us because phones are important to our life. We would always be bored without phones. Without a case your phone can break and we won't be able to use it.