FIVE FEET BY FIVE FEET???!!!

OH MAN THIS TOOK ME ABSOLUTELY FOREVERRRRRR!!! Ugh. And my sister was the most whiny, fidgety model ever. So I made her face look all masculine to get back at her. She didn't believe I'd do it but HAH. TAKE THAT. xD Other than that though, I'm pretty pleased with it. :)

Awwwww! x3

And just for kicks, here's one of the Chinese lions I talked about in my last entry! If there weren't so many little kids around, I totally would've gone up and petted him. xD

Trekkin' away to the Penn Museum! ^_^

So this past weekend, my friends and I headed off on an epic adventure to the Penn Museum! There just happened to be this awesome Chinese festival thing going on that day so I almost decided to write about these adorable Chinese lions they had there. Y’know, where there’s people underneath the lion costume and they dance around and make the head move and blink and stuff. There were all these kids crowded around petting them. Twas really cute! ^-^ But alas, I wasn’t sure if that’d be considered an art piece so I shall write about something else instead.

After checking out most of the museum, I stumbled across this awesome nineteenth century Japanese Fudo statue. It wasn’t too big and it wasn’t in a room per se (just kind of sitting in this mini gallery jutting off the main hallway) but it still seemed to demand attention. For one thing, it was clearly the centerpiece of all the other surrounding pieces. It was easily the most dramatic and was placed directly in the middle of everything. It wasn’t the most colorful either (it’s predominantly red and black), but the jagged flames of red sweeping through behind the figure were completely different both compositionally and shape-wise than any of the other surrounding statues.  The red just seemed to evoke a sort of creepy power over everything else, and against the black skin of the figure, it really popped (not to mention, all those shiny gold adornments were pretty eye-catching too).

The colors definitely intrigued me. I immediately was drawn to it, and it was the first one I examined in that area. I mean, that face is pretty scary, but the drama and intensity of the colors and the awesomeness of it structurally really interested me. Not gonna lie, it did freak me out a bit (jeez, that one eye just seems to follow you, doesn’t it?), but it seems to have more of a “come-look-at-me-or-you’ll-regret-it” mood to it than a “stay-away” feeling. The red flames seem to emphasize a sort of powerful ferocity (which makes sense since Fudo was the god of fire) and the black of the figure seems equally ferocious and balances out the red. I also liked how well the black and red and gold were spread throughout the piece to tie it all together.  The pedestal the figure sits on seems to be completely in sync with the overall piece and doesn’t feel disconnected or out of place thanks to the distribution of the same several colors.

Overall, this seems like a pretty objectively powerful piece. It’s so well rendered that it seems to evoke the same emotions in most everybody. I saw a bunch of little kids shy away from the piece saying it was “scary” and heard several adults comment on its creepiness as well. There were a lot of other pieces in the room, and yet this one was the one that got the most attention and was looked at the longest by most people. On a subjective level, I feel that having the historical knowledge of what this figure stood for would definitely add to the viewing experience. People who viewed this shortly after its creation probably would’ve had a very different experience and feeling about it than viewers today who may simply see it as a creepy statue. It’s one thing to see the art, but it’s another to understand its meaning and the artist’s intentions. Knowing that Fudo was the god of fire takes it to a slightly different level, but knowing that Fudo was also the god of wisdom sheds a whole new light on the piece. Suddenly, the gaze of the figure becomes less intimidating as it does scrutinizing and vaguely thoughtful (although, he must be thinking pretty hard to get such a crazy look on his face).

I do really like this piece and I only wish I could carve wood like that. I mean, jeez! The fluidity of those flames look pretty awesome in contrast with the geometric feel of the pedestal. Also, I love the gold accents peppered throughout. He’s wearing a pretty sweet sash if I do say so myself. As a whole, I really enjoyed looking at this piece and I think that the color usage is extremely effective in evoking powerful (albeit somewhat fearful) emotions in the viewer. Definitely recommend checking it out in person! :)

Pretty crazy-lookin', huh?

Black without black: TAKE TWO @_@

Second attempt at the black-without-using-black drawing. I tried really hard to make it a lot darker than the last one (unfortunately the picture makes it look rather light which is lame...I PROMISE IT LOOKS DARKER THAN THIS IN NORMAL LIGHT! ^^;) Switching to chalk pastels actually made things fifty gazillion times easier! I used oil pastels last time and pretty much killed my soul slaving away over that thing. Never again I tell you! Never. Again.

We can't use black, say whaaaat??

Ho jeez. Well. Here's my drawing for the all-black-still-life-without-using-black assignment. Gahhhh I'll admit that I got super super frustrated with this and it took me absolutely FOREVER! Hours upon hours of messing around trying to mix and layer colors and I'm STILL not happy with the result. I mean, I like it for what it is, but I'm just afraid that it's not dark enough or clear enough or fully explores the dark tones that could have been made. Ugh. At this point though, I've already reworked it and darkened it a bit so I guess we'll have to see what happens. And now I'm off to bed before I collapse from exhaustion. Ahh the life of an art student! @_@