David Lenihan’s 8th grade portfolio

YAY.

Artist StatementHello, my name is David Lenihan, of course you’ve heard of me. I’m known around my classes for my insanity and love of drawing cartoons. When it comes art, I prefer pencils and Prismacolors to erase any mistakes I may have made. I’ll normally start a piece with a sketch, then go over it again to make it dark. Normally, I’m picky when it comes to my art, but occasionally, I’ll settle with something average. I love it when my art gets compliments. I also have a small binder where I keep most of my drawings.

Altered BookAll school year, I worked on my altered book. An altered book is an old book that’s been recycled to be an artist’s sketchbook. The book I chose was a reading book. When experimenting, I go to use pencils, paint, gesso, and Prismacolors. The photos above are my favorite entries because they make me feel all happy inside.

PortfolioThroughout the year, I kept most of my art in a portfolio. When I look back, I feel that I have improved on my drawing and coloring skills because my out-of-school drawing has gotten a lot better. On the front, I drew my name using depth of field and perspective using pencils and markers. The renaissance artists were the first to use one-point perspective to show depth and to make things fade back into the distance.

Abstract CompositionIn this project, we learned about the rules of creating a balanced composition. To make the composition interesting, we used the rule-of-thirds to place my focal point. Horizontal lines make the drawing look calm, vertical lines make the drawing stability, and diagonal lines give a feeling of movement. Blending makes the colors blend and fade into each other. I like this drawing because of all the colors popping out.

Contour DrawingsFor a week, we drew different contour drawings, which is an arrangement of objects that can’t move. We couldn’t erase and used only sharpies. I hated this, because we couldn’t correct any mistakes we made. My favorite and best was probably of Mrs. Forbes because it was the only one that looked human.

Computer Self-PortraitThe first step in creating this artwork was to draw myself using a mirror and a sharpie. I wasn’t allowed to pick up my pen, so the drawing was made with a single line; this technique is called continuous contour. When this drawing was scanned into the computer, I had to crop it to the right and alter it in Adobe Photoshop. While there, I added color and a gradient to complete the drawing. I liked drawing on the computer because we could add so much color, shading, etc, etc.

Glue-Drawing PortraitWe spent a week on drawing people. I picked my best drawing and used it to create this piece. The first step to creating this piece, is first, I drew a person. Second, I used magazines and cut and pasted pieces over the drawing. Third, I drew over the magazine drawing using glue. When it dried, I rubbed it with Never-dull, a metal polish which makes the magazine pieces change color. I liked this project because you’d never know what the end will look like.

Abstract PaintingTo begin the project , we listened to different types of music and drew emotional pictures to each tune or melody. The emotion I chose to paint was giggly. The painting represents my emotion because it looks like it’s spinning, and spinning makes me giggly! In this project, we learned about color mixing, and we could only use red, blue, , yellow, black, and white. I mixed these colors to make an analogous color scheme.

Prismacolor Rodeo ProjectThis project was created in the artistic style called photo-realism. I picked a photograph of a goat to draw because it had a complex fur pattern. To make a realistic drawing, I used a grid on the photograph to help me see where to draw different parts of the photo. Then I used many layers of Prismacolors to recreate the texture and color of the photo. To me, the most successful part was the fur texture on the goat’s body.

Tempera Paint ResistBefore I began, we studied some of Frieda Kahlo, a Mexican artist who excelled at self-portraits. Then I took a photo of myself, traced it on a light box, and painted layers of Tempera Paint. After it dried, I dunked the entire thing in black ink. When I ran it under flowing water, the Tempera Paint washed off and the areas with just ink stayed black. After this project, I learned that ink can’t stay on Tempera Paint.

Linoleum Block PrintThis is a photo of one of 5 (nearly) identical prints I made. The process of creating a block print is complicated, because when you print a color, you have to carve away what you want that color and print again, this time with a new color. I liked to make prints because we got to think up a print of our choice. However, it was difficult because we had to line each layer up exactly for best results.

Clay ProjectsThis time around, we made two different projects, clay tiles (I made four), and a clay pot/animal (made two frogs). You can see one of the frogs and one of my tiles above. To make the tile, we started with a big slab of clay, then we had to carve out and score on pieces of a face onto the slab, then we painted the whole thing. The frog was different, we first started with a “pinch pot”, then we had to score and attach on pieces to make an animal.

Negative Space SculpturesThis project was... interesting, to say the least. One reason was that we made the sculpture out of a block of wood, clothes hangers, and pantyhose! It was nuts, but strangely fun. My color scheme was analogous blue through yellow. I always seem to pick that scheme... meh, whatever, I like it.