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Sarah Russ Rebecca Agosta English 1103 9 February 2014 Where to Draw the Line
Comment [R1]: Excellent MLA

I have had a love of art forever or at least as far back as I can remember; preschool and I can still remember when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up and I would always comment with artist. Ballerina and zookeeper were also desirable but artist was just as important. I will commend my parents for being the first sponsors to encourage my desire to be an artist as they both were very skilled in the areas of drawing, design, painting, and sculpture. I would consider my parents to be my first role models.

Comment [R2]: Phrasing is a little awkward here since preschool cannot remember

Comment [R3]:

Comment [R4]: Did they do a lot of this stuff with you during your pre-school years? Also, I think its funny that they ask preschoolers what they want to be when they grow up. I guess it is a question Ive been asked or thought about at many ages, but it just seems funny reading it back.

My art teachers have also always been sponsors for my literacy in art as they have always encouraged me to continue drawing as they saw my potential. Even my in elementary school, my art teacher understood my enjoyment of her class and encouraged me to try to further progress my talents by pointing out things in my class assignments that I did not understand at the time, but would make sense to me later as I began to learn about color placement and application. We had one assignment in her class where we were to paint a self-portrait using either a warm or cool color scheme. I chose a warm color scheme going with the colors of red, orange, and yellow. Now, I thought my color selection for this project had been mostly random but my teacher commented that my color placement was similar to the appropriate lightness and darkness that comes from natural or realistic color. This was quite a compliment to me as this

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teacher was someone I respected very much and as an adult compared to a child, a compliment from them must be very special.
Comment [R5]: Interestingthis makes me wonder if other kids saw you as talented too. It reminds me of my friend Mary. She was particularly good at drawing monkeys, to the point where classmates asked her to draw monkeys doing various things for them. She is getting her masters in art, specializing in pottery / sculpture. Basically, its making me think about how early recognition as artist may work as sponsoring this literacy and identity. I wonder about kids who do not get recognized and how that affects their literacy hmmm.. I like papers that make me think!

One characteristic of drawing is the materials that go into the process. The choices are endless as there are hundreds of different selections of paper to choose to be used for its respective medium. For example, when using graphite, a smooth paper with minimal tooth would be most appropriate as opposed to using charcoal which would preferably accept more tooth to the paper. The tooth of the paper could be related to the texture of the paper as a paper with more tooth would be much more texted compared to the texture of a paper with a minimal tooth. There is also the weight of the paper to take into consideration; the heavier the paper, the better the quality. Paper is made in rolls. The weight of the paper comes from the weight of each role. For example, the weight of the paper in my sketchbook is fifty lbs so this would be an average paper weight.

Comment [R6]: Im enjoying the mix of memory and information. The information shows your literacy in action. It also makes me wonder how you learned to make choices and how those choices in turn build the type of artist you are.

Surrealism as defined by Ggoogle is a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images. Surrealism is the marriage between realistic and unrealistic themes. I would consider surrealism to possess a dream like quality making it my favorite type of art and I try to incorporate this into as much of my work as possible. Part of this incorporation went into the main theme of my AP drawing project as I combined images of myself, strange fashions, and juxtaposed items to create a surrealistic composition. My art teacher for that class is another person that I would consider to be one of the sponsors for my literacy in drawing as she helped develop the concept for my AP drawing project by introducing
Comment [R7]: Ah, if we quote, we must cite. Citationmachine.net should be able to help you make a citation here or even, if you post this to your online portfolio, a link to this definition/search.

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me to several fashion models of strange styles and the styles of art nouveau and the Rococo era which all had some influence over my project.
Comment [R8]: Why do you go toward this style? Does it mirror how you see other things in the world? Why does it inspire you? How did this style affect your drawings of self?

I was with one of my friends at RDH eating dinner and he asked me what I had left to do for the day. I answered that I had to buy a specific type of drawing paper due to the medium that I would be using in my drawing class the next day. Apparently, I had stated this with more enthusiasm than I thought, as he commented, you know, most people dont get that excited over buying paper.. It was then that I realized just how important art was to me. Even though this event was recent, it was still eye opening for me. I had never really had anyone point out to me before something so insignificant yet so relevant.
Comment [R9]: The passion is intimate to you.

I lived in Canada for a time and during my freshman year of high school, I attended an art school and I needed a portfolio to get into that school. This would include a group interview as our skills were assessed and possibly what actually went into the portfolio. The portfolio included in different mediums for the portfolio, an entire sketchbook of work, and a 3D piece for the portfolio, and several specific works; self-portrait wearing a hat, view through a window, a still life composed of five objects of my choice, as well as several other pieces that I cannot recall. The in-person interview was a day where part of the students trying to get into the school were gathered together in the same room for an assessment, this included creating a drawing that gave emotion to inanimate objects and showing our technical skills in shading and rendering objects from a still life that was placed in the middle of the room. I was extremely nervous through the entire process as I really wanted to attend this art school. I can remember one of the guys sitting next to me chuckled for seemingly no reason during the interview process and out of
Comment [R10]: Called for different mediums? Some of the wording here isnt clear.

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my nervousness, I thought he was laughing at what I had drawn but to this day I am still unsure of why he laughed.
Comment [R11]: How do you feel about this process within art? The weeding in and out of legitimate or good art? Im sure you have more of that now in college. How has this affected your view of art? Do you enjoy critique?

Although not directly related to drawing, one of the required courses in order to obtain my degree is a foundations course known as Concepts, which is basically a class that focuses more on how the artist creates a concept in their work more than anything else. For this specific project for the class we were to create a project focusing on identity. The teacher encouraged going out of our comfort zones for the sake of the project. So I decided I would be naked for this project and have my boyfriend film my actions. So I first wrote down all of my regrets, which amounted to forty, then, placed each regret into a separate balloon. The balloons symbolized regret. The balloons were then taped onto my body to symbolize the regrets that I carry with me. Then I ripped off the balloons to symbolize myself becoming a better person as I leave my regrets behind. The naked body symbolized freedom and acceptance of my identity by finding out new things about myself as I do things that I have never done before. Before this semester, that would have been something completely unthinkable for me to do, but as I learn more about what other artists create, I become more open to new forms of expressing artwork as innovation isare important to every artist.
Comment [R12]: Interesting I do think being opened up to a larger scale of whats out there allows us to understand that we are capable of more than we thought before. I liken this to my studies of beauty. Once that became more inclusive, I understood myself within that world differently.

Even though I have always wanted to be an artist, I have never known specifically what I wanted to do with that, so I first considered exploring the idea of interior design. I decided to revise my decision after taking an Interior Design course at my high school. Interior Design focuses more on shapes, measurements, and structure. I prefer more freedom in my designs.

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My next exploration of a possible career was in graphic design. I again decided against this after visiting Appalachian State University and discussing with one of the professors there what a job would be like under graphic design. Graphic Design focuses mostly on the use of computers. I prefer a more simple approach of just pencil to paper; so how could anything be a better fit than Illustration?
Comment [R13]: A distant friend majored in illustration. Shes done anything from childrens books to artist renderings for television shows (costumes, sets, you-name-it). Im sure this literacy will lead you in exciting directions. I really enjoyed this piece. There were times where I wanted more information, but overall the stories were connected and built on one another. I learned about the various things that shaped this literacy as well as how this literacy shaped you. Beautiful piece. Please check Moodle for your grade and revision choices.