Hand Drawing

1. What was it like using your hand as subject matter for a drawing?

I thought it was pretty cool using my hands as a subject. I was familiar with them, of course, so drawing them I thought would be pretty easy, especially considering we have been making hand tracings since third grade.

2. What media did you select - pencil or charcoal? Why?

I used pencil because it was less messy than charcoal. When I used charcoal on the value scale it ended up everywhere. It also smudges easy and does not erase as easy as pencil.

3. How did it feel to create a drawing with your non-dominant hand?

drawing my left hand was definitely harder than I thought it would be. simply creating the outline was far more difficult than my right hand. I had to erase and start over many times to get it to look like my right hand. 

4. Compare and contrast your final drawings. Do you think they are successful studies?

I think that my final drawing is definitely the best I can do but it is far from being a work of art. I could definitely learn how to shade more. My fingers are a little deformed and look silly in my drawing. I even tried to include my veins on my wrists but that didn't turn out like  masterpiece either. However, my final copy is the last of three drafts and is by far the best. I guess in general, Im not at all good at drawing. 

5. Would you consider using your non-dominant hand to create artwork in the future?

I would consider it only because I know with practice my work would get better. My less dominant hand would become more precise and less shaky the more I use it. 

Mod 9

1.    Explain why you selected each of the TWO videos you choose from the selection listed above.

I chose the video on El Greco because I was already very familiar with his work. I had taken a course on him through my former high school’s Spanish department. Additionally, I have visited Toledo, Spain and have been up close and person with many of his most famous works. I thought that it would be interesting to learn a little more about El Greco’s style of painting, how he was rediscovered and his personal background.

I selected the video on Leonardo da Vinci because I was very interested to learn about his work other than painting, especially in the field of math, science, medicine and engineering. Like El Greco, I have also seen Leonardo da Vinci’s work in person when I visited the Louvre in Paris. I thought it would be interesting to learn more about Leonardo’s life and work through this video.

The Disrobing of Christ by El Greco in Toledo, Spain. 

The Mona Lisa by da Vinci 

2.    For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

The first video I chose was El Greco: Rediscovering a Master. I learned that one of his most famous paintings The Disrobing of Christ was finished in 1579, afterwards the Catholic Church refused to pay El Greco what he was asking for his work on the objection of bad economic times as well as theological ethics. I also learned that in his work The Burial of the Count of Orgaz he managed to paint himself and his friends as funeral goers as well as included his own son in the corner of the painting. A key concept of this video was that after El Greco’s death in 1614 he was overlooked as the brilliant painter he was and forgotten. He was rediscovered, however, by the French romantic artist who thought that his paintings summed up the ideas and style of romanticism.

The second video I watched was Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance. I learned that in his early years he became the first person to make a landscape the complete subject of a drawing. I also learned that despite his mastering of painting, engineering and math, Leonardo considered himself an uneducated man. In his notebook he also has described and sketched a machine that in modern day would resemble an airplane. Leonardo is also the first person to dissect the body of human beings, which led to his obsession with creating the proportions of humans and animals perfectly.

3.    How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

The Leonardo da Vinci video most related to the chapter on the Renaissance. Both the text and the video discussed the effect of the Renaissance on Italy and the surrounding countries. Briefly, the video mentioned the rivalry between da Vinci and Michelangelo, the text was able to fill in gaps and questions I had on Michelangelo’s work and personal life. The text also briefly discussed da Vinci’s obsession with the proportions of the human body, the video expanded on this and added that he even would dissect human bodies to study their insides.

The chapter on

El Greco was not discussed in the text, however, Velazquez was featured heavily in the book. The two of these men are very prominent painters who worked in Spain. Although Velazquez worked after El Greco died, both are very famous and influential in Spain to this day.

4.    What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

I enjoyed both films, as the depth they added to the chapters in the book. The video on El Greco added most to the reading in the text because it gave me an entirely new perspective on a topic that was not heavily discussed in the text.

Mod 8 Video Review

1.    Explain why you selected the video you choose from the selection listed above.

I chose Beyond the Classical: Byzantine and Later Greek Art because I have always been intrigued by ancient Greek history and art. In fact, I am currently studying to become a history teacher so I often take any chance I get to learn more about different countries and cultures.

2.    For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

For More Human than Human I learned that cross-culturally and throughout history, humans have been inclined to make art that reflects their culture and brain wiring. In the case of The Venus of Willendorf, which is a small figure with exaggerated breasts, hips and sexual organs, the people who created her reflected their ideal body standards onto that statue. They lived in a barren ice age where food was scarce therefore their ideal human body was cubby which indicated being well fed. Dr Ramachandram, who we watched previously this semester, also explained that art needs to be exaggerated to be interesting.

I learned that this relates to our modern world because men who create statues of woman often also exaggerate a smaller waist and bigger breasts. Photo-shopped models are also used as a form of art, in every case these bodies are unrealistic for the everyday woman to achieve, but are created and viewed anyways because they reflect an aspect of our culture obsessed with sexualizing women.

For the second video I learned that during the Byzantine Period in ancient Greece the Catholic Church encouraged the destruction of many classical statues and works of art because it was seen as worshiping a different idol than god, especially in regards to art pertaining to Greek Gods like Zeus or Poseidon. I also learned that neoclassicism was the attempt to bring the classic style of art of ancient Greece to modern Europe. This neoclassicism is seen especially in architecture that is designed to look like ancient Greek buildings. 

3.    How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

Both the reading and the videos dealt with art being influenced by culture and historical time period. The first video I watched related most to chapter 14, the Ancient Mediterranean Worlds. It related to this chapter because it discussed ancient Egyptian, Greek and Italian art.

The video I chose myself related most to chapter 15, Christianity and the Formation of Europe. It related to this chapter because it discussed the rise of Christianity in Ancient Greece and the rise of the Byzantine Empire and the Middle ages and the affects it had on art styles.

4.    What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

I found the first video extremely interesting. I liked how the narrator went through multiple periods of history for multiple parts of the world and related it to how art reflected their culture. I also enjoyed the second video I watched. I liked how they went chronologically through the art history in Greece relating it to the different historic events and rulers that influenced the art as well.

Chapters 14 and 15 are all about art throughout time. The first video related to this because it was all about how art reflects the culture and values of the people who created it. Both the book and the video mention The Venus of Willendorf, however the video goes much more into depth onto why it looks the way it does. The book and the video also both mention Ancient Egypt and why the human body is often depicted with weird angles of the body, the video expanded on this by showing the narrator being turned into an Ancient Egypt figure. Also, the first video goes more into depth onto the positioning of the ancient Greek statues, including the background information on “Warrior A”.

            The second video related to the chapters because it talked about the influence of Christianity on ancient Greece. Specifically, the practice of icon painting and the Byzantine Empire. The video, however, expands on the effects of Ancient Christianity in the modern world.