Drawing From Nature Week 7

This week we were supposed to find someone that works in the same area that we are basing our series on. I couldn't find an actual artist but there is a website that i found that involves everything that my series is heading towards and its endlesscanvas.com which is basically just the different type of graffiti work done in the bay area part of California.

I found this to be one of my favorite pieces because not everyone believes that graffiti can also be a form of art not just the tagging of letters. No one truly see's graffiti for what it truly is, when someone hears the word 'graffiti' they automatically think about the tagging they see around their neighborhoods. I grew up around that type of graffiti but also around amazing work that will always remain with me because of the details that the artist was able to input on the piece.

Drawing From Nature Week 6

This week we were just working on our individual projects by ourselves. So all i did was just continue to research the different meaning of animals.

I looked up the meaning of owl's and found out that owl's symbolize:

• intelligence
• brilliance
• perspective
• intuition
• quick-wit
• independence
• wisdom
• protection
• mystery
• power

The first picture is a done in pen and the picture next to it is in charcoal.

Drawing From Nature Week 5

This week i believe is when we started discussing our individual projects. I chose to do tattoo's at first but my niece lost the work that i did. The tattoos that i was planning on drawing were the common animal tattoos that people get because of the meaning that the animal upholds.

This was the first drawing that i did for the tattoo series. When i first drew the wolf i planned on just leaving it alone but when i searched up the meaning of a wolf i learned that they actually represent a companion, someone that stays faithful to you and also a guardian. When i read the guardian part i thought about my dad and so thats what the name is on the banner, Muliau is my dads name.

Learning Success Week 8

This week we went out to look around for any objects that can make the form of a letter or find letters laying around to create our name or initials. We went out in groups and so i went with Grace outside to the car park, the halls and the library to look for any letters in our names. I decided to make it more of a challenge by doing my whole name instead of just doing my initials. Another way that i made this activity more of a challenge was by looking for objects that formed the letters i needed, abstract art is what you could call it.

This is the monogram that i made of the photos i took yesterday. I pasted the pictures in the same order as my name, Samantha. 

This is a collage i made on photoshop that combines all the pictures i took that creates both my first and last name, Samantha Sailiata. I actually found this assignment to be my favorite one because of the fact that it makes you look at the common objects of the world closely to see what else they can form. Another reason why i found this assignment to be my favorite is because i love photography just as much as i love drawing and being able to use photography in our assignment made it interesting especially using Photoshop to enhance most of the pictures i took.

I actually learned a lot through out this term from both Learning Success and Drawing From Nature. Not only was it a good opportunity to meet new people but it was also a great opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and try new things. The main learning experience that i found the most interesting through this course would have to be Photoshop. I never used Photoshop before until i started this course and come to find out i am actually good at working with it. I think the main reason why i found Photoshop interesting the most is because of the fact that we got to use the computer for these assignments. when i first started thinking about what i wanted to be career wise i thought about becoming a computer technician because i get into building things more then drawing them. Also because i like learning and trying new things and with computers and the technology of the world it changes everyday meaning you have to learn something new everyday.

Learning Success Week 7

This week we mostly talked about Crests, Logos, and Monograms. I searched up the definition for 'family crest' on Google and the definition that i received was, "A crest is a component of an heraldic display, so called because it stands on top of a helmet, as the crest of a jay stands on the bird's head" but in my own definition i would describe a crest as a symbolic piece that represents your family's story or history."A symbol or other small design adopted by an organisation to identify its products, uniform, vehicles, etc: "the Olympic logo" this is the definition that i received off of Google when i looked up the word "Logo". Monogram to me is just a combination of two or more letters almost portraying an image with just those letters. 

I added this picture to my blog because i wanted to show the Logo's that are well known to me. The "Poly Movement" is basically a joining of the different polynesian islands to work together without any conflict whatsoever. The "TokoUso" logo that is on the hoodie that Chris Brown is wearing is basically another movement it's the joining of the Tongans and the Samoans. Back then the Tongans and the Samoans always had conflicts with one another and even to this day there are still many conflicts going around between Samoans and Tongans. The TokoUso logo is supposed to represent the collaboration of them, everyone basically started knowing about the TokoUso movement when a Polynesian artist came out with his album "The Poly Tape" which was one of the only albums that involved both the Tongans and the Samoans collaborating together to make music. 

The pictures on the left are just some Monograms that i created using Photoshop. On all three of them i kept the letter F the same because i liked the way that it looked and because the F was the first letter that i experimented on using the 3D tool. Making monograms on photoshop seemed to be easier than drawing them with pen and string. I found the string activity difficult because i wasn't able to get it the way that i wanted to but just left it as it was. Even though my string drawing of the monogram didn't come out as i had hoped i still had fun working on it, i find making objects a little more entertaining and challenging then drawing sometimes.

Learning Success Week 5

This week we talked about lines again but in a different way. Instead of drawing lines and learning the different types of lines there are we started making sculptures by rolling up newspapers to form lines. I wanted to challenge myself this time so I decided to make a turtle out my rolled up newspapers. Although it was a difficult task i found this assignment entertaining because when you look at newspapers you don't think about the different objects that you can create out of them. In the picture i placed below my reflection it shows the turtle i created with a man on the turtle's shoulder, a cellphone next to it and a snapback that the other people in my class have created. It amazes me to not only see the different creations that everyone comes up with but also the process of those creations.

Drawing From Nature Week 4

This week we were supposed to look up a plant that can be used medically. The plant that i chose was cannabis. I picked cannabis because according to some of the researchers cannabis actually helps kill cancer cells. I grew up around cancer and the damage that the disease causes so cancer is definitely not a stranger to me. Which is why i wanted to draw cannabis because it seems to be the only thing in the world that researchers have found that can help fight cancer cells.

Drawing From Nature Week 2

This week the class went out to Papakura to work on the mural that everyone drew sketches for. At first i sketched out a superman and batman symbol but then changed it to a koi fish so it can blend in with the other drawings that were incorporated.

It was hard for me to get started at first because im not used to having to work together with strangers. However i did eventually get over that fear and finally got started on my piece in the mural. There were two other guys that were there to help me as well, i only remember one name because the other one was too difficult for me to pronounce. After i got used to working with everyone and working with paint i began to just go straight into work and not worrying about anyone else. I even came back on a saturday just to finish off my koi fish and all though i was the only one there to work on it i still managed to finish it off and felt satisfied with the work that i and the others have done.