Just Noodling Around: Non-traditional Portraits

       For this project, I chose a picture of my brother. He makes incredibly silly faces, so I knew that one of his signature expressions would be fun to work on. I created a list of materials that I thought would work for this project. My favorites were sequins, pony beads, and colored noodles. I chose the noodles because they were unique and cost effective. I also knew I needed something I could work with and break for curves and small places. My choice made my project look like a bunch of random noodles up close but a person from far away. This goes along with why it's non traditional. Some risks were coloring the noodles (I didn't know how), and I wasn't sure if it would come together as one piece in the end.  My choices were very good when it came to the colors because they went well together. I also did a nice job of fitting the noodles together and filling most of the empty spaces (some were left as highlights).  Overall this was a fun and time consuming project, and now Mrs. Rossi will be buying many new glue sticks!

Sticky Situation: Slippery Steps

     For this project, our theme was Sticky Situation and we had to incorporate repetition.  I thought of many ideas for this that were actually sticky, such as gum, candy, food, mud, and things figuratively sticky like police lights and a dog with a newspaper full of holes.  My ideas at the end of brainstorming were banana peels on a tile floor and a creepy staircase with lots of holes and darkness.  It was very difficult to think outside of the box because a lot of people were coming up with very similar ideas.  I ended up combining the banana peels and the staircase to come up with a sort of abstract idea of a sticky, or in this case, slippery situation.  I added in the repetition by painting multiple banana peels, steps, and stripes on the walls.  A lot of the shapes and patterns are also repeated.  I chose acrylic paint because I know how to manipulate it and the different colors and shades for value.  My favorite parts of this piece are the shading and values in the bananas and stairs.  Although I found it difficult to keep mixing browns that would work with the other shades, I found a way to make it work.  I like how this is unique and an interesting concept that leaves you guessing about what actually happened to get the banana peels on the stairs and where the mysterious door leads.  The mini lessons were important because they helped me practice with the different mediums, water color and acrylic, and they helped me to decide which one I would be better at working with.  I am happy with the outcome of the final product because it is different than my other creations.