Tape Technique

Last assignment we were told to do cool shadow with warm light. This time around he flipped it. Warm shadow with cool light. It was a challenge because my brain worked with the other way but it took a little more energy to think about it on this one. The other focus on this assignment was texture.

First we start with a warm underpainting, mostly monochromatic.

Then you take packaging tape and cover the whole thing.

Next paint on your cool lights onto the tape.

Then using your finger nails, or any object you can find you can scratch off where you want to put texture.

The ball and owl were my in class practices. I kinda went crazy on the background of the ball.

I have some fixes to do but here are the bears. I told Cody it looked like desert polar bears and he said it was probably just a statement about global warming. :)

enjoy

supply for the demand

Here's my two latest pieces I've done. They are both from my media experiment class.

This first one was a photo transfer technique. You take a photo or a line drawing and print it out on a toner printer. To transfer it you put it face down on literally any surface then take a blender marker and color over the picture. Then take a burnisher or anything else you can find to rub it onto the surface, transferring the picture onto it. After we had our picture we painted over it in acrylic. I kept mine really thin washes but you can go thicker to where you can't see the lines anymore if you so desire.

This was our first assignment that was a color assignment. We're all the way in acrylics now, where as before you could choose to do oil over your acrylics if you wanted. Our assignment was warm light, cool shadow and really exaggerate it. My professor saw this picture I had and told me it would be perfect for the next assignment (this assignment).

Our newest assignment we just got today is warm shadow, cool light and I'll be putting up pictures of that soon.

Oil Lift Out

These two pieces are the newest technique we've learned called oil lift out. You start with a wash all over your surface with a mixture of oil and turpentine (which actually breaks down the paint). You then go back and lift out what you don't want dark. You can go back over it afterward with a wash of a different color or add more opaque paint to it to build detail.

This tree picture was my practice that I did in class. It shows how good of silhouettes you can do with this technique but if I wanted it to be a really good piece I would go back and add things because it's too simple in itself. We'll see what I do with it.

This buddha painting is actually taken from a picture I took in China when we were in Hong Kong and visited the Big Buddha statue. I did a dark blue wash over all of it and then I went back and added the purple background color. The neat thing you can do with this technique is what you can see in the sky. If you drip turpentine on the paint it breaks it up and does this little neat thing. You can also paint some on, tilt the board and then you get a cool dripping affect, or crackling affect.

so... ta da!

The Taco Bus

What is this?..... Why it is the Taco Bus. When my dad dropped me off here at the beginning of the semester we drove past a silver bus. I looked at it and was like hmm... looks like a taco stand. It wasn't until I saw a gleaming "open" sign in the front that told me that it was actually legit.
My roommates with me agreed that we needed to check out this "taco bus." Everybody we mentioned it to knew exactly what we were talking about and apparently it was AMAZING so we had to go see for ourselves. And you know what? It's pretty darn fantastic.

The first time we went we were kind of nervous... I mean you never know about these kind of things. It was empty but as we were waiting for our food four other cars pulled up. Then today when we went two more cars full of people showed up. Apparently all the teachers and tons of students love it.

inside the taco bus.
They actually put benches and tables up so you can eat inside

Story behind the story, turns out that this couple (mexican) drove this bus down here after the husband lost his job. They then opened this taco stand and have been here ever since the beginning of this last summer.

i'm an art major!

More so than other semesters I'm really starting to embrace my art-major-ness. I've got the drawing class and design/color class out of the way (pre-reqs for every other art class) which gives me the freedom and chance to take real art classes. This semester I am enrolled in Intro to Illustration and Media Experimentation. The first one is pretty self explanatory the second class has a big word title. I always saw art-work up from that class in the Spori (art building) and was so super impressed. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty intimidated by this class but am now grateful for it. We're going to do some super neat things that I'm so excited to share with all of you.

For Illustration we first had an assignment, "Fire". We could do any medium, any design, format whatever. I only had acrylics so that's what I chose to do it in. And you can't really see it but for the veins of the leaf I did the Chinese character for fire.


The second assignment that he has all of his classes do was a cookbook. We find a recipe and illustrate it only requirement was that it had to be in perspective. I love this class purely for the chance to just be plain creative. Other classes it's more about technique and then once you get that down you can go draw what you want on your own time. This class we'll have a lot more chances to show off our creativity. We got to choose the recipe so looking it up I stumbled upon this little gem and instantly had a vision of what I was going to do.



Now the best for last. For our first assignment in Media Experiment we started in oils. There are other oil classes offered here that teach you the gob on as much paint as you can technique but our teacher wanted to give us a different technique to have under our belt. This was more oil glazing with photo rendering. That meant we took a picture of a simple object (he said it'd be best with a fruit, or vegetable or just something with a simple shape) all I had was an onion so that's what I went with. After starting it I realized that this was going to be a challenge. But it definately paid off in critiques today in class.
(ps. my camera warped the pictures of them a little bit. the real photograph's colors are a lot cooler but when i printed it out on a 8X10 it really did turn the colors to that greenish gray, and warmer like in my painting...aka looks better in person)



enjoy.

Rexburg... blah.. blah.. school.. blah.. blah..

I just wanted to give a little update on everything that's been happening in a little town we call Rexburg.

Today is the end of my first full week of school which means I have my classes, roommates and teachers down well enough to figure out how this semester's going to pan out.

I'm living at Tuscany again. They really are the best girl's housing around (other than the ridge but that's for the people that really don't care for the rules). My motto here is single rooms save lives. Because they really do. No matter how much you get along with somebody, it's always nicer to have a room to yourself. A nice little retreat and especially a quiet(ish) place to do homework. My roommates are AMAZING, and trust me when I say I'm not using that word lightly. This set of roommates is seriously the ones you dream of having before you go to college for the first time, but you know you're not going to get because you need to learn some life lesson or "people skills". We just all get along so perfect. I've never been in an environment where complete strangers are ALL so kind, nice, generous, helpful and fun. Usually there's one or two that you avoid, but thankfully not this time. (I'll share more about them later).

My schedule is do-able but is keeping me very busy with homework. I'm taking two 3 hour art classes, Intro to Illustration and Media Experiment. They are both wonderful classes that are going to benefit me a lot but both are crazily challenging and completely take me out of my comfort zone. I'm also taking an online Chinese Literature class (to complete the requirements for foreign language), a money management class and the second half of Art History. But the one that I want to brag to you all the most about is my religion class. I decided to take Teachings of the Living Prophets and as I was looking for a teacher on the registration site my eyes scrolled down the list of names and I came to one, Clark.... Kim Clark... well the only Kim Clark I know is the president of.. the.. school. So yes, I am taking my religion class from not only the ex-dean of Harvard Business, but the PRESIDENT of our school and a general authority! I really truly feel most blessed to have gotten into this class, and just by chance! Last class he had a budget meeting to go to, (he team teaches the class with another professor who is a good teacher as well), but today we had the full two hour class to ourselves with Pres. Clark. What I love most is first, just the presence he brings into the class. There's a certain level of authority that enters when he teaches. Also, he is just a good guy. He cares about us students so much, and not just our educational welfare but also our physical and spiritual as well. And he has a sense of humor. We can have fun with him while learning. I just feel super blessed to be able to learn from him every week.

Last of all, recent happenings. Last Saturday our town hosts what they call "Rexburg Unplugged". They take up a side street that connects to main street where local businesses have a chance to introduce themselves to the students. Chantelle and I went because you get a bag full of coupons and there's usually more freebies. We have a Paul Mitchell beauty school that does your hair crazy for free. (see picture). Also in the picture I'm holding not just an ordinary corn on the cob but they call it "Nacho Libre Corn". For any of you who have seen the movie you know what it is. But they cover it in butter, then what they call spanish parmesian cheese and then chile/lime powder. Chantelle was a little hesitant to try but I thought I'd take the risk. And you know what risks sometimes pay off! It was delectible!! I also partook in a night of Craigo's with a group of friends from our first semester here. Craigo's is kind of our thing. And I got to try my very first cookie monster. YUM! (think chocolate chip cookie bottom, with ice-cream, with whipped cream, with caramel and chocolate syrup on top in a pie pan...serves about 8).

my little bag of goodies and a tiger's blood/mango snowcone

So there's a quick summary of what's been going on. I'll be sure to give you some more depth later.

Back At the Burg

Welp I have once again found myself alone back in good ol' Rexburg. I love the start and end of school because that means I get a little mini-vacation at my grandparent's house and get to see family (who I don't see enough of). I was lucky enough to have my dad bring me out and have my good friend Chantelle (went to China with me) come with us.

This semester I'm still living at the same apartment complex, Tuscany, but I switched rooms. I really loved my roommates from Fall/Winter last year but my very first roommate from freshmen year became available and I have wanted to live with her since my first semester. It's nice though, because I am just a tower away from my old room so I will go and visit all the time because 3/5 old roommates are there again.

It's looking to shape up to be a good semester room mate wise. I have Emily (my old roommate) who if you ask my dad he will tell you is full of giggles and happiness. Then there is Kristy and Kaylee who seem really cool and just really nice girls. There's another Jessica (I'll never escape the curse of the multiple Jessica's) who is a freshmen in her first semester. So we're helping her out. And Elizabeth makes six who is from Africa and loves to cook. She'll keep our apartment smelling nice which will either suck or be good depending on how hungry I am. I can't foresee any major problems happening other than all of us just getting to know each other better.

Today was nothing day so Chantelle and I just went to campus and got our books and looked around (I'll update you on the changes construction has brought here) and just hung out. Classes start tomorrow, I only have one from 3-5:45, Intro to Illustration, all I can say is SLEEP IN!

Next week when I've been to all of my classes I'll give a report on how they go. I'm really excited I think I have a good schedule and if I keep myself busy enough I won't get too homesick.


I loved seeing all of my family at grandma's. When I got to see everyone I realize how much I miss them being a frequent part of my life.

Cheers to the Taylor Family. ♥