Eye Art

Hello!

Now, I'm not usually one for makeup, but when I saw this, my jaw dropped. This makeup artist uses eye-shadow to create famous scenes from Disney movies on eyelids. Here's the link.

What fascinated me most is the detail -- I have a hard enough time using three colours on my eyes, but to paint in a scene of a boat, or floating lamps is amazing. Here is a scene from Tangled:

What stands out to me most are the floating lamps  done as gold specks; it's really simple but effective. It's very subtle, but even the eyelashes are coloured indigo.

Another one of my favourites is the Aladdin one.

I love the blending on this; the colour choices on the right eye make it feel very warm, like a sunset, and on the left eye, the colours are cooler, making it feel like the sun has already set on that place. It creates a very broad field of view. 

When I saw these, I was very interested in them. I just wish there were images posted of what the eyes looked like when they were open; I feel like they would create an amazing effect. The amazing makeup artist is Katie Alves. Her work is amazing, and she doesn't just stop at eyes, there are paintings on lips as well.

Photography!

Hey! So the other day, I went out with a group of other students to try out the cameras to begin our photography unit. We posted the pictures on Payal's Blog, so just head over there to check out the pictures!

Edward Burtynsky

Happy Victoria Day!

In tech class this past week we have started our photography unit. To commence it, we watched a documentary on the famous photographer Edward Burtynsky.

The film Manufactured Landscapes, is a documentary of how Burtynsky photographs his main subjects, which are manufactured landscapes. I found the film very interesting because it demonstrates the effort he puts in to taking these magnificent photos. It gives us a very real idea of where all of the materials we use come from, and the damage it does on not only the environment, but peoples' living conditions in other countries such as China. Although it was a bit slow at times, especially in the beginning, I can tell that it is purposeful in order to catch our attention again, and to show the scale of such industries. At the start of the film, there is a long stretch of video for several minutes of the camera travelling through a factory that makes irons. As mentioned before, it shows us how large the factory is, and how many people there are. The other thing that impacted the film hugely were the sounds in the background. They were very subtle, but they were enough to make someone feel inspired, scared, disgusted, etc. If the sounds were absent, there would be something missing from the film.

I've researched his work, and the picture on the left is the one I recognize the most. At first I thought it was just another beautiful picture. Once I read about it I was shocked; I thought that this disgustingly tainted water was from somewhere else in the world, but it is from Sudbury, Ontario in 1996.

I like how Burtynsky takes all of the environmental problems we fight so hard to push to the back of our minds and shoves them in our faces once again so we cannot help but acknowledge them.

The second picture os of the massive oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico a year ago. Looking at the images, it's easy to imagine just how huge these landscapes are. Without the pictures acting as visual guides, if we had only heard about the oil spill, the effect wouldn't be the same.

All in all, I really like Burtynsky's work and the impact it makes.

Leonid Afremov

There are many times that a painting will catch my eye, but only once in a while will I stop to stare at a painting just to take in the beauty of it. I was on StumbleUpon (yet again), and happened upon the artist Leonid Afremov. What I thought was especially unique was his use of the palette knife. I've always wanted to, but never had the opportunity to use oil paint as my medium, so oil paintings fascinate me.

Towards Love

The effect the palette knife makes fascinates me, because even though there are fairly large blocks of colour, when looked at from a distance, it all comes together.

With the palette knife, it's easy to create the effect of water, so many of Afremov's paintings have to do with rain or water bodies. The reflection on the ground feels real although you can tell it is a painting.

I like these pieces because they have such a gentle and serene feel to them. The vibrant colours often create the illusion of a sunset.

That's about all I have to say; after seeing these I know I want to experiment with oil paints and palette knives.

Rain of Fire

Have a nice Wednesday! And you can check out the rest of the paintings HERE.

Art Inspired Food!

Happy Easter!

I don't really celebrate, but I am grateful for the long weekend! We were also blessed with the gorgeous day. I didn't really take advantage of it as much as I should have, as chemistry homework was calling me. I did keep the window open though.

In other wordsm I found this nifty cake on the internet! (Yes I just said nifty). It's inspired by Van Gogh's Starry Night. I love how someone decided to incorporate a famous painting into a dessert. Even thought it's only icing, you can tell that the artist/cook incorporated the brushstrokes on the surface of the cake.

I like it because it is something different and three dimensional. It is not just a paining that has been remade on a flat cake, but this is all around the cake on three different levels.

And that's all for now; I made myself hungry just in time for dinner. I will try to blog again this weekend, as I'm behind on my weekly postings.

Have a lovely weekend!

Chair Design - Book Chair

For our most recent art assignment, we were asked to design chairs that exuded our personality. For myself, whenever I sit down I want something comfortable that I could curl up in to read a book or watch t.v.... or just sleep.

Model

I designed my chair to resemble a book. Of course, this is only the model and not the actual chair. We used foam core to make the chairs, and I used paper as well as the upholstery.

I feel like this exudes my personality because it is a book. The word hold many meanings to me, not just that it means reading. I feel like books symbolize knowledge, wisdom, understanding, creativity and free thought. I hope to have at least some of these qualities.

I want it to be very comfortable, because I like comfort and simplicity. I was also debating to have to surface have words on it, but I thought against it because this way it felt like blank pages of a journal. I was surprised at myself for not having done something more technical or geometrical, but I am happier with this than I would have been with a scientific chair.

Orthographic Drawing

The chairs are supposed to be works of art. I feel like my chair is a piece of art. The difference between the curvy and straight lines create contrast. The varied levels of my chair make light and shadow. I feel like the texture on the chair is visible by the paper acting as what I want to be the microfiber. The colours I would want for the chair are just plain white for the seating part, and a customizable solid colour for the back. The colours would be bright or black to create contrast with the white.

Isometric Drawing

I would also add lines on the side of the chair to add the impression of pages in a book. This would make more organic lines to contrast with the straight ones.

My chair is just over a quarter of a meter high off the ground. If I were to sit on it, by feet would just dangle off of the ground. There is a storage area dedicated to books, but I suppose other items would fit as well. The seating area is very soft and comfortable; you would sink in if you were to sit in it.

Peter Callasen

Time for my weekly blog!  I haven't written about an artist yet, and I just found one now...

Peter Callasen is an artist who focuses on using white paper in many different, interesting and creative ways. He makes miniature sculptures using just white paper and glue!

I thought I would post some of my favourite works by him. He creates powerful images using only paper, but in such a skillful way. Most of his pieces are made from only acid free paper and glue! It's unbelievable how he creates sculptures with such intricate detail using those materials.

"Looking Back"
2006

It's interesting how he uses the cut out space in his paper to enhance his work. In this it is a shadow; I see it as someone who has passed looking back at his life, perhaps regretfully. I get the feeling he did not live as much as he wanted to.

"Erected Ruin"
2007

This next piece kind of reminds me of the first. It feels like an attempt at restoring an old monument. However, the shadow shows that it is not what it once was.

Anyways, have a good week everyone.