When I first began this project, what came to my mind was, “How was I going to express my message to the viewer, the audience?” It took me a couple days before beginning it in order to realize what I truly wanted to say in the form of strokes. I finally was able to map out what I wanted my message to be and finally, it came out to be, “Messages can take the form of colors.” This statement was able to guide me through the whole project as it allowed me to only purpose my message. The colors were there to convey it and have the ability to communicate the message to the viewer. Before coming to this high school, I was able to conduct a deeper analysis of the arts and literature. During that time, I tried to find the meaning of the art besides just dismissing it with, “oh that looks nice.” There is more to the piece than what we make it be. During this project, I was able to analyze an artist who I am really fond of and produced my own style in the process. For this project, I decided to do Limited Palette. Limited Palette allows the artist to only use 5 colors. I decided to use watercolor paint rather than acrylic paint.

A technique that I had to develop was trying to “stitch” using the paint brush. I am uncertain as to what the technique is called, however, it played huge contribution to my work. The technique allowed me to display the leaves of the trees and make value into the piece. The technique is essentially using simple “x” strokes across the canvas. However, you want to make sure you have a small brush if you decide to make the image further away. This is a mimic from one of Bob Ross’s own technique I saw on his tv show. As such, his art has inspired me to do something similar, creating the beauty of nature using just 5 colors. Techniques are very important to the work and especially the artist. The artist needs to develop a technique in order to make the work consistent. A consistent story can tell a story whereas a dictionary cannot.

Present in my work, there are trees scrambled all over the place. However, there is one tree that seems to be close to the viewer, located on the right. Finally, there are mountains in the background, coated with a lot of colors. For the project, I decided to use Permanent Light Green, Phthalo Blue, Burnt Umber, Brilliant Red, and Chinese White. The Light Green was used primarily on the leaves, and I knew I could make the paint more transparent due to the fact that this is water coloring. Phthalo Blue was used more on the sky and the mountains, with some on the ground. Burnt Umber was used mainly for the trees and giving texture to the wood. Brilliant Red was also used for the mountains. Finally, Chinese White being used mainly for giving definition. I mixed the colors Brilliant Red and Phthalo Blue to get a similar purple color. Personally, the color looks like the many visible colors in the galaxy. Thus, I decided to use it on the mountains because it felt “distant” enough. At first, I watered it down to get the concept of what I pictured the base to be. Then Mrs. Hertz instructed me to use less water to get more of the colors into the piece. For the trees, I used a mixture of Burnt Umber and Permanent Light Green. Mixing the colors gives a very light brown and it was very good to give the contrasts of the trees. The stitching technique was very useful for the trees as well. I was able to stitch leaves into the canvas using the technique. I even combined Phthalo Blue and Permanent Light Green together in order to paint in the ground, the hill. This work is very similar to my previous work. It had trees and hills, however, lacked the mountains in the background.

In conclusion, I have learned a lot through the process of this project. This project allowed me to explore the many colors and possible combinations to get a different result. The Limited Palette was very challenging, but it makes the artist improvise when producing his/her artwork. Throughout the challenges I had to face, I could say that I am very proud that I was able to use colors to make other colors stand out. However, with many warm accomplishments, I also wish I had done things differently. I wish that I could have made the grass more visible rather than being transparent. The difficult of water coloring makes it very challenging to make things stand out since the water only makes the colors more transparent. I also wished I had not used such a big brush as it started to ruin up my canvas by giving it visible “cracks”. Overall, I am very proud of my work and the project was very challenging but fun.

Dexter Le

10/16/17

Art 1

Artist statement portrait

My picture is complicated because of the colors in the scenery and the grasses. The scenery is vibrant with many colors, using Crayola colored pencils. The grasses stand out with a usage of ebony Prismacolor pencils, contrasting the green hills. The dark tree is to the left of the canvas; almost black. The dark sun that seems to only be absorbing the energy at the top right. The house in the middle, colored brightly for the reader to visually understand the meaning of home.

During Hurricane Harvey, a similar experience took place when the harsh raining nearly made visibility in front of me, impossible. However, I was able to see the forming rivers on my street, filling up slowly as if it were growing; a monstrous but illustrious experience.The hills are colored green. They could be seen for miles as the green stands out. The skies are lightful and they seem to like it’s glowing. The viewer would instantly know that the hills are green, and the skies were blue. Yet in the back, rests humanoid figures. Standing on top of the hill, behind the colorful skies, a story begins to play. I’ve made this story through Crayola colored pencils, graphite pencils, ebony Prismacolor pencils, and an eraser. I trace the canvas precisely with my pencil, so the viewer would understand that every line I carved into the paper; have to mean. Colors had to mean in my portrait. The green is supposed to symbolize the life in the world, the dark grasses to symbolize the dark. I used this technique, of coloring in lightly then tampering it with darker colors so that the objects of the canvas stood out to the viewer.

After analyzing a lot of painters, I’ve found a way to make the artist’s message stand out more. This technique consisted of doing very light strokes and using heavy strokes every so often; this was not perfected. I’ve gradually learned through trial and error. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, such as directing the attention to the side with lighter colors or making the sky way too dark. I’ve gone through many improvisations along the way. I’ve decided to continue this drawing style, darkening the foreground and light backgrounds, because of my experiences that I’ve witnessed through Hurricane Harvey; fully dedicated to the event. I wasn’t able to see outside due to the heavy rain yet the flooded streets stood out entirely. Almost as if it were a flowing river. I’ve decided to maintain that drawing style because it gave me more freedom to manually express myself. The color changes in the portrait give it a special theme. It looks bright at first until you start staring even more. An almost eerie sensation reveals later on as you continue the stare. Many questions begin to form as you continue, however, this is one of the many benefits; I love the drawing technique that I created during the process of this portrait. It allowed me to precisely trace my lines on the canvas and ability to color in easily.

I started my portrait off with coloring the background and foreground lightly. After that, I used a slightly darker color to fill in the foreground. I proceeded with minor details using a dark pencil to make the grass, the flowers, and the tree stand out. It develops contrast when comparing it to the light backgrounds because the ebony Prismacolor pencils are extremely dark. Making the correct marks on the portrait, I begin merging the light colors with the dark. I did this by rubbing my fingers on the portrait, smudging the dark colors with the light colors. Finally, I went back into my portrait to highlight the background by using a yellow color pencil. The yellow colored pencil easily contrasted with the blue skies. The technique of an art piece is extremely crucial to the artist. It allows the observer, the viewer, to understand the artwork and interpret it in their own eyes. Their eyes will translate your picture, your message, into something that is understandable only to them. What inspired me to the paint this way was from Darko Tolapski’s painting, Forest by the Lake. I was browsing the internet during my time in Houston, Texas, and found a painting that stood out. It was a lake that seemed to be glowing in my eyes, the foreground was nearly nonexistent. I wanted to mimic that same experience in this portrait, completely voiding the foreground and background.

If I had one thing to change about this work, I would definitely include more usage of other materials. I was having thoughts and relapses of including charcoal to signify the darkness even more, however, I thought the ebony pencil was great enough. With the changes that I would’ve wanted, I was happy overall with this work. I was able to communicate my message and my experience through a major transition in my life. I want this artwork to communicate the struggles of life. Although there is an eerie feel to the portrait, I’ve had terrifying experiences recently. I wanted the white humanoid characters to feel “pure”. Although it may look eerie, white is the color of pureness. Throughout my time this year, I want to alleviate my mental illnesses and start to smile more. I personally believe it’s better to be happy than nothing and sad.

In conclusion, this work that I had produced over a couple weeks allowed me to critically reflect on my life and experiences. It allowed me to capture the recent horrors in my life and allowed me to set positive goals. Although the goals may not be accomplished in a while, noticing weaknesses is more important than noticing the strongest points.

Online, I can be seen as a cheater, hacker, gamer, forumer (previously) and even just a regular person browsing the internet. I am known to be these genres because of the deeds I have did for the past 6-8 years. I first started off on xbox, got myself a 360 and live for a year. Little did I know what would happen as there is so many people on the internet. Sure, xbox is not our so called, “internet” but it actually is an internet. In fact, it's even a social media app where people gather up and play games together. I’ve invested around 3 years on xbox while I completely left it for my Personal Computer I received at 10. Before that, during almost every game on my xbox, I would be accused of being a Hacker/Cheater because of the skill level I would be at compared to others. You might be wondering why i’m telling you my story but It can relate to all of the tips and helps you should be wary of before spamming on forums.

At this time, I was pretty new to the “actual” internet. It was a different world, new stuff to be explored but my age was a big major deal towards this as well. Kids will also want to explore, wonder, not pay any attention to rules. Not only do kids do this but, they are portrayed with disrespect with the equivalent of a rat. From my experience, I know this because I wasn’t taken serious of people far above my age. This can happen because of posting something that you are not taken serious of / show dedication towards.

For example, go to youtube, go type in A vs B or (character) vs (character) look at the comments. You will always see one person that will post something that is completely abstract and not following the flow. There is a big difference between a conscious poster and troll poster. Every conscious poster should be wary and take notes from the other group of the situation. Examining is always the best option for you. Take a look at the other post that go against the situation. There will be posts that will eventually turn into a debate. Eventually, might even turn into a video. I’ve seen this happen to many times and too many people are getting death threats from this. I suggest everyone, consider the other group’s ideals. I'm not saying you should “accept” that this is better than that but actually make it into a more simpler, less demanding post. This will bring a peaceful mind to others and you won't receive death threats because of sharing your opinions or thoughts. I happen to do this most of the time and I can tell you this, this tactic almost works most of the time.

Every sharing website, for example, social media, is extremely risky and extremely providing at the same time. Social media is a good way to store data, your pictures, lifelong statements, you name it. The only disadvantages is that your identity would be leaked regardless of making yourself private. Your friends can broadcast/re post your picture and your done. The best way to remain the anonymity is never post anything and in fact, never make a social media account.

With the creation towards your social media account, there will be consequences if you fail to be able to control yourself / refrain from posting offensive material. Everyone, has and will, have a consequence because they simply could not control themselves. You may even grab a bad reputation from posting these offensive material which is why it's not recommended to do so.

Your social Media life can also affect your job selection process or some other process your employer does. Most employers that are in no need to rush for workers would sometimes search your name on to a search engine. For example, if I type my name up, you only see my Facebook account. If you type of my online username, you will find a different result. I do this to keep my information separate. However, this is not related towards the job selection. Your employer may find your social media account if you do use any, or any other content related to that search result. If they find material that is offensive or you simply like or follow an offensive page, you have just lost your spot to your job.

The most important situational event that happens everywhere is free of speech. You may see some debating on some videos on youtube. A small percentile of those comments may lead a threat to the original poster or another commenter. You may also see some threats that are made to representatives and the most funniest thing ever, they say that’s free of speech. Stated on the constitution, the first amendment, mainly freedom of speech, will not be protected from threats or acts of violence.

Another issue I will be explaining is our most favorite sadistic and funniest person on the internet, the troll. We are not talking about the real “trolls” but the internet “trolls”. Everyone has heard of them and they are true. Almost every single social media page or Youtube video, you will have that one person stating false/invalid information that is certainly entertaining but can be offensive. The best way to avoid the troll is to not even give the troll the reaction. Most of the time, you can just laugh at their post because it's just funny and it doesn't make any sense.

The internet is mainly revolved around one sole purpose, anonymity. Being anonymous sounds very nice, in fact, you are hidden in many pages. This can easily protect your identity from someone else and keeping you away from trouble. Sure it can keep you away from all of these things but, in the end, you’re just another page without a title. People will not know you at all, since you are posting anonymously and someone can easily just take your credit. Following with all of this, it’s nice remaining anonymous but,  being an empty page is not so entertaining.

Out of all of these years of me just browsing the internet for the first time, I can tell you this, I was lost. I had no idea where to go and it was just overwhelming. My first tip instantly is to make friends that use the internet frequently or simply make a friend online. However, be sure to get a trustworthy friend because almost everyone has a made up name. You don’t want to be like me and put my first name in my username, which is still there because I cannot change it now. Luckily, my friends were there to support me and help me change my name on other applications.

My next tip from my experience is avoid the illegal parts of the internet. I recently found this through researching but you need to stay away from dark spots in certain forum sites. As some of the material on those sites are extremely illegal according to the US Federal Laws. In fact, these sites are everywhere and you need to stay clear from them. It would be best if you had a filtering on your computer if you wish not to see such a thing. So just do yourself a favor, and don’t browse anything disgusting so you won’t get a knock at your door.

My very last final tip for people that don’t correspond to the other tips, do not make a social media account or never use the application. Never, you should never make a social media account for any reason if it’s related towards your lifestyle. Even if you did have it private, once that person sees your profile picture, he/she knows who you are. Whats even more disgusting is that pedophiles go to chatting boards to find children. I’m saying this because it’s all true. It’s been in the news and i’m pretty sure no one wants to be on the news because a man drove across the country to meet you. This can also occur not only just chatting boards but everything in general. It would be best to leave forum sites for good, social media for good, anything for good. Don’t be a part of anything if you wish to remain an empty page. However, if you accept all of this that it can happen, then you deserve to make an account or continue to use it.

Thanks everyone for reading, be sure to give me your thoughts by replying. Also, I do have a couple social media accounts open but I barely use it and it basically just sits there with the rest of the dead accounts. Luckily, I haven’t started anything with my official name but my username is surely getting some results.

Number of edits: 2

Notice: Server issues have been recently caught on the media section, therefore, I wont be able to post the picture, it is basically my desk and working space.