Post-Exhibition Projects

XTool Artist Statement:

For this project, we were to create a design for the XTool Laser to print onto our chosen surface. I chose leather as I wanted to make a keychain for my car keys. I love boating in the summer and going to the islands in Casco Bay so I knew this would be a personal design. 

I used Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Leather, and the XTool Laser to create this piece. It was definitely more of a hands-on project than I'm used to doing. It also involved more technical factors that I don't usually experiment with (because I'm not great with technology).  

I formed my design and then put it into Photoshop to clean it up. I used Illustrator to create the key-chain shape that I wanted. When sketching the design, I was deciding if I wanted the water to be black or Islands. I chose to make the islands black to emphasize their shape. I was scared it was going to look like cow skin but I think it looks relatively like islands. When using Photoshop, Illustrator, and the XTool app,  I came across small problems but was able to fix them with the help of my peers and Mrs. Medsker. For example, I had the sizing just a bit too big when looking at its framing before it was carved. I adjusted it until it fit (it was overlapping my key whole but it actually turned out looking cool). I wanted it to be pretty small but not too small. I think the size is perfect and it sits very nicely in my car when the keys are in the ignition. Overall, I had a hard time with the design from a technological stance, but am satisfied with how it turned out.  

Lino Artist Statement 

For this project, we were to create a design and print it using a Linoleum board and paper. I wanted to do something with nature. I formed a design that's similar to our state flag but made it my own. I made it a more detailed and "shaggy" tree and also added fish and a moon. 

I used  Linoleum board, ink, paper,  and colored pencils to create my prints.

At first, I started with a sketch of a big fish. I felt this was too boring so I resorted to sketching smaller fish. The crescent moon kind of just came to my mind when I started drawing the tree. Once I had the tree, moon, and fishes, it really started to remind me of the flag, so I added the star to bring it all together and create unity. It took me many tries to get a darker print, and the board that I carved kept leaving little marks - I was able to easily cover these up with paper towel pieces (however I'd have to take them off and re-apply every time I made a print).  Once I was satisfied with my solid print, I moved to the extended. I wanted to add color but keep it simple. I chose to do blue as it matched the oceanic vibe I had created with the fish. It also reminds me of nighttime (the moon).  By outlining, I created almost a glowing look which I thought was cool. Overall, I enjoyed this project outcome, but getting there requires some tedious work. 

Artist Statement Bob Ross

For this project, we were to follow 2 Bob Ross painting videos and create our own "copies" of them. I chose to do the Winter Frost scene and the Mountain at Sunset scene. 

I used 2 canvases, acrylic paint, brushes, and water to create this piece. 

I used primary colors along with black, white, and green on my paint palette for each piece. I quickly found that Bob's sessions are very fast-paced and that I had to pause them a good amount of times. I wanted to follow along at the same pace, however, it became difficult -- I had too small of a palette for the first painting, and found myself having to get another one after running out of room. On the second piece, I forgot to do a base coat of "liquid white" -- so as the session went on I just added a little bit of white to all of my mixed colors. Additionally, if my piece ever looked off, I would pause it and add water or white. I found this technique to work really well and it solved many of my problems (like my color being too dark or not blended together well enough). Despite some of the stress this activity brought me, I found it very fun and enlightening to follow along with Bob. It really is a "trust the process" type of work. Although mine don't look as good as Bob's, I picked up some valuable skills in landscape and I'm pretty happy with how my pieces came out.