Art from my past

Hello Everyone!

Today, I was going through my past art pieces which I found in a folder on my computer in CyberArts class from last year. So I thought I should post it up.



This one of my art pieces from Year 1 CyberArts. It is a simple drawing of a bunny used with conte on a simple large piece of newsprint. I used black, white and brown colours to hatch in the shadows. The white hatching shows the light, the black shows the shadow and the brown hatching shows the mid between the dark and the light. Hatching together, it partially made the picture of my bunny 3D.

I think this is one of my favourite pieces of my most early work, just because I think I did a good job on it and I can see where I need to improve and where I can excel from last year.

I hope you like it! I will be back with another blog post in a couple of days!

Sparkles in the Snow

I stepped out of my door on tuesday and the first thing that I thought was, "Oh my gosh, It's cold." Not that it should be sweating hot, it is February, but there was a wind chill and I was waiting at the bus stop. But then I looked around and I didn't feel cold anymore. Why? Not because the bus came (because it didn't) but because I saw the snow around me.

It started snowing and in about five minutes the ground was covered in white and more fluffy snowflakes were falling from the sky. Everywhere I looked I saw sparkles from the reflection of the sun on the snow. It was beautiful and I would have taken a picture and posted it up, but I sadly didn't have a camera.

So the moral of my story is, when your outside and your freezing, look around you. Not only will you find distraction from the freezing weather but you'll feel inspired in one way or another. Trust me, it happened to me.

El Anatsui

Hi Everyone!

Today, I am going to tell you about a very popular and known artist, El Anatsui, and his breathtaking art. This is because we will be working with him in the upcoming months as he displays his recent art at the ROM. Not only will we see his work but we will be able to add some of our own. It's an honor and I'm glad to be able to participate in it.




El Anatsui is a world known sculptor in the world of art. Not only is he a sculptor but a professor that has been teaching at University of Nigeria, Nsukka, since 1975. He is known for his creative and mesmerizing sculptors.

El Anatsui was born in 1944 in Anyako, Ghana. He was trained at the College of Art, University of Science and Technology, in Kumasi, Ghana. Although he was born in Ghana, most of his working career was spent in Nigeria. His art has been exhibited and recognized in many honorable galleries across the world; Brazil, Japan, Germany, England, South Africa, the United States and many more.


El Anatsui has worked with many different types of media. Such as wood, clay, ceramic, and most recently, metal. The image above is one of the pieces of his latest work magnificent metallic quilts made of liquor bottle caps. He has taken unused and discarded metal liquid bottle caps, flattened them and stitched them together using wire to make a work of art. Coincidentally, the colours of the caps were similar to those of traditional kente cloths.

Anatsui uses many themes in his art that recur in his artworks, all relating to African history and crafts. His recent message, the message we will work with at the ROM, is about barriers and boundaries of society. He wants everyone to lower the walls; physically, mentally, and emotionally.

His other works include three dimensional sculptures made of scraps he has found, such as food tine, aluminum roofing, metal graters, etc. Though he uses unused materials, he does not think of it as recycling. He believes that he is taking something and making it into something new.


Personally, I am awed by El Anatsui's work. I wish I was able to do what he does with the same passion and skill. I am amazed with the amount of detail and precision he has in his art. My favorite would have to be his most recent work; the quilts made of liquor bottle caps. The quilts are beautiful. I have only seen photographs of his work so I can't even imagine what they look like in reality. After researching and looking at photographs of all his work, I am looking forward to working with him at the ROM. Not only will I learn from this experience, but I will be working with one of the greatest artists of our time.

It's been a year...

Hello Everyone!
It's been a year since I last posted! I've been busy with school and things at home so I haven't been able to post. But I'm here now, back in CyberArts for year 2! I will be on more and hopefully post some new and interesting things.

I'm looking forward to writing on this blog and communicating the interesting things that I have learned!

Take Care!

Some New Graphics

Hi! Happy New Year Everybody!

Yes, its 2009!
Well I have had an awesome and relaxed winter break. Back to school on Monday. *Sigh*
During my winter break I made a bunch of creations and graphics and so I thought I'd post some of them! :) Hope you like! Feel Free to Comment/Criticize (But please don't be too harsh on me)

Some Icons



Some Colorizations

Some Blends/Siggys



To See the rest you can Check my india-forums Gallery.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW MY INDIA-FORUMS GALLERY

Optical Devices

Laura Hayes and John Howard Wileman Exhibit of Optical Toys website, im my opinion, is a simple yet informative website. I like that it isn't crowded and is point-on. I also like that you click on the image of the toy to get more information about it instead of clicking on a bunch of worded links. My favorite toy on this website is the Chromatrope. The Chromatrope can project kaleidoscopic patterns. It has a mechanical slide so there are moving parts inside the Chromatrope that create the different patterns. All of the discs inside the Chromatrope turn when you rotate the exterior handle that turns the gears inside that turn the glass discs. The glass discs are painted with designs and can be projected onto a wall. I found this site really interesting because I learned many things and I didn't know about some of these toys. Click HERE to visit the site.

Pinhole Photography

For our Cyber Arts trip we went to Gallery 44 to learn about Pinhole Photography. There we learned how to make Pinhole Cameras using a container, a pin, a tart tray, some electrical tape and tin foil.

What is pinhole photography? Well pinhole photography is where you use pinholes to take pictures/photos. The pinhole would be your aperture and the electrical tape on the pinhole would be your shutter.

To create the camera we first got a container (coffee containers work) and spray painted the inside black. We then cut a circle on the side. We took a tart tray and cut out the bottom so it was a circle. We taped the tart tray circle on top of the circle on the side of the container. We took a pin and drilled a small hole into the tart tray circle. We took a piece of electrical tape and used it to cover the pinhole. After that we went into the dark room and placed a light sensitive piece of paper and put it inside of the container, opposite of the pinhole. We took some tinfoil and placed it on top of the container and sealed the lid of the container on top so no light would get in. We went outside and took pictures. How you may ask? Well we placed the camera where we wanted it (Pinhole facing the object or place we wanted to take the picture of). We took off the tape so light would come into the container and onto the light sensitive paper. After letting it sit about 1 and a half minutes we put the electrical tape back onto the pinhole and went to the dark room to develop it.

I really enjoyed the trip. The most exciting thing on the trip would probably be getting to use the dark room as it was my first time. I learned how pinhole photography works and overall it was an awesome trip. Below are some of the pictures I took using pinhole photography.

"Bike"

"Down the Alley"

"Fall Building"

If you would like to see more pinhole photos visit ALEXIS RAGO's portfolio. She has many photos and some more information about what pinhole photography is. I really liked this site and I recommend you to check it out too.