My Paintings
I actually haven't been painting as long as people probably think I have (I've just neve really had the supplies, time, or motivation), so I don't have that much to show here. I've just this past year gotten into painting with actual paint, and it's pretty much because my art teacher encouraged me to. And, even at that, I've been opting to finger-paint so.... Well, it still counts in my mind.
Actual colors may vary, depending on your monitor settings.
It upsets me that these look so poor on my computer (probably because its old), and yet look perfectly clear on the laptop. If you also have a poor computer monitor and/or graphics card, and these pictures appear small and blurry/fuzzy, I reccomend following the links to the photo on Artscad, where it loads to full size clearly. In the ones I checked. I tried making the ones that I do not have uploaded bigger. Well... atleast these don't look as blurry and fuzzy as the drawings and sketches.
Some of these may load weird. Be patient. If that doesnt work, try scrolling up and down the page, or refreshing.
Pastel
I enjoy doing pastel projects because of how you can build-up the color. I have several pastel projects started, but haven't really had the time or motivation to finish any of them. They're on poster colored poster papers, and usually take up at least half of the sheet. They're all under a stack of papers on my art table, where they will probably never see the light of day again. I did manage to finish a few though, which you can see here.
Hunter (4-29-08)
This is a photo of a picture I did of my cat for a contest I didn't win (but hey, rejection is a part of life, especially if you are Stephanie Taylor the not-porn star, though I wish I just could have gotten it back.). The cat in the picture is our cat, Hunter It's done in chalk pastel and I used charcoal pencil for the black and white parts. It was too big and delicate for the scanner so I had to take a photo of it with out crappy camera. 4-29-08. (For a better look, go to http://artscad.com/A.nsf/Opra/SRVV-7MM4GY or http://stephieeee13445.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2jvcjp )
Greek Culture Poster (4-25-08)
A poster I did for an ancient culures project in seventh grade. Done in chalk pastelon champagne-colored paper. You can find the draft to this under my My Drawings tab. Not only did I draw the picture at an angle, so the pot and man-skirt look slanty, but the photo was taken at an angle so they look extra slanty. My room (where it is now hanging) is not uber well-lit, and the camera isn't the best, so the photo came out pretty bad. I'll upload a better picture later. When I feel like it. (For a better look, go to http://artscad.com/A.nsf/Opra/SRVV-7MM4NK )
Acrylic Paint
My most recent adventure has been painting with Acrylic paint. I used to just get cheap little Walmart paints for small things, and I never really sat down and painted anything. Then, in school, the art teacher gave me some paint projects. (I leached off of the school's paint when working on the Lincoln and Leaf paintings.) Then, it was the summer time and it got to a point where I couldn't use the school's paint, so I went out to an actual craft store (Random thought: I heart AND lung Pat Catan's, an arts and crafts store chain thingy in Ohio and PA [last I checked]. I'm in there weekly when I can be.) and bought some actual paint (Studio 71) that (I hope) doesn't turn into squishy paint boogers after prolonged unuse. (Don't shoot me, I'm still learning.)
Savannah's Reflection (6-9-10)
"Savannah's Reflection" is an acyrlic painting on 36"x24" canvas of an elephant, as well as the sky, trees, grass, dirt, and water in the little world around her. I ask that you please look at it in full-view to see all of my hard work. It took me six months (1-15-10 to 6-9-10) to complete. What got me through those six months was my playlist and a lot of support from everyone around me. It took me 66 hours outside of school, as well as my study hall and lunch periods every day in school.. I'll work on estimating a total time. I have pictures of the entire process as well.
For a (much) more in-depth story of my elephant, please read under the "Savannah's Reflection" section of this journal entry: http://stephieeee13445.deviantart.com/journal/32902666/
One last note, Laura Thomson is going to be sponsoring me when I enter this into my next art show, whic h will be judged on October 24th. I'll be sure you keep you guys updated. In the meantime, Savannah is hanging above my bed, which you can see here.
(For a better look, go to http://stephieeee13445.deviantart.com/#/d2rrc0k )
Leaves
This is my leaf painting (18"x24"). It's done in acrylic paint. My art teacher gave me this project to challenge me. It took me an insane amount of time (an estimated 80 hours). I spent my lunch period every day of the school week for several weeks down in the art room working on this. The background definitely took the longest, and made me think the most. It's made up of 13% trial and error and 87% finger-painting like a confused two-year-old. Overall, we were both pretty proud of the result.
This painting is also award-winning. It won me first place at the 2010 Congressional Art Show. It will be desplayed in the US Capitol building for a year. I hope to be able to find the time to upload some more info about it soon, but unfortunately highschool is killing me slowly.. Keep checking back. ;)
(For a better look, go to http://artscad.com/A.nsf/Opra/SRVV-7TTU5M or http://stephieeee13445.deviantart.com/art/Leaves-153422908 )
.JPG)
Abraham Lincoln (2-12-09)
This is what happens when I attempt to do a style other than realism for the first time.
This is a painting I did in school. We did this thing for Lincoln's 200th birthday where a few people sketched a picture of Lincoln on different canvasses in different styles and went down to the different classrooms and had everyone paint one brush stroke on it. After that, we had to kind of fix them, so we each basically redid our paintings. My style was supposed to be impressionism but since it was my first attempt and I'm more of a realistic person, it kind of looks like what would happen if impressionism and realism had a baby and realism had all of the dominant genes. 2-12-09. (For a better look, go to http://artscad.com/A.nsf/Opra/SRVV-7Q448B )
Howling Siberian Husky Prop (1-6-09)
This is a picture of a thing I did for a school project the night before. It took maybe 1 1/2 to 3 hours. It's a painting of a howling Siberian Husky that I did on a piece of uber thin cardboard with some of my cheap Walmart paints (8" from nose to tail; 9" from nose to bottom. It would have been bigger but I lacked the cardboard and ended up running out of paint anywho). It was used for this thing in reading class where we had to act out a section from this one poem, and the teacher made us bring in props. There was a mini campfire that I did along with it, but it was ugly and I didnt like it so I gave it to someone. 1-6-09. (For a better look, go to http://artscad.com/A.nsf/Opra/SRVV-7UW5TR or http://stephieeee13445.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2jicr4 )
Curious George Kite (April 2009)
This was just so incredibly awesome I just HAD to put it on here so I could ramble on and on about it (but I plan on putting the story behind/with it underneath the picture, for those of you uninterested in EPICNESS). This is the kite I made for the kites festival we held at my highschool. The head and body have thin bamboo or whatever frames, and the rest is tail. I spent like a week or two on it in the art room working on it. It was huge! I just wish this wasn't the only picture I had of it. It was like as tall as I am with my shoes on! But then again.. I am a midget. Ok. Here's the pic, and under that, the story.
The Story Behind/With the Work
This has this huge but incredibly awesome story behind/with it. I can't tell you where the idea came from, it's a huge and involved inside joke, but basicly, because the kite was so tall (5'2"ish), I never expected it to fly.
My friends and I made a bet: if the kite flew for more than 5 seconds, I would have to go an entire day without saying anything sarcastic, cynical, or hateful to anyone/thing or about anyone/thing. If it didn't fly, they each had to bring me in a pudding cup.
When the day finally came to fly the kites, we (the kids who signed up) were all outside. It was a hot day, I don't remember it being that windy, but I was outside wearing my infamous (among my group of people at least) gray hoodie. My friends and I were struggling to get our kites going, especially since this was like a whole new thing to us. Some of the kites fell and ripped (or in my case, got tangled in itself), and mine was no exception. I really didn't think it was going to get going, but I fixed it up, and tried to get it going again.
We were out in the field running to try and start it up. Minutes after the reporter guy doing a story for it took a few pictures for the local newspaper, we managed to get George flying. I can't for the life of me remember how high, though I dont remember him going that high. I felt utter slightly proud, hillarious defeat. Not thirty seconds later, while the reporter guy was asking me questions about it, my nose starts bleeding. I plug my nose with my palm, shout "Oh screw you guys!" and then throw the controller thing on the ground, then run inside to the nurse's office (and then around the building twice when she wasn't there. Which I'm still bitter about.). I think I scared the reporter off as well.
Something between the heat, my weird close-to-the-surface blood vessels, and the utter feel of defeat caused my nose to just blow up.
I did have to go an entire day without sarcastic, cynical, angry, or crude comments, and I, Stephanie I-sold-my-soul-to-make-room-for-the-sarcasm Taylor, suceeded and in the end my friends brought me pudding cups for not killing them the next day.
Moral of the story: Never underestimate yourself, because it's really really hard to grin and say nothing but positive things for an entire day when your friends insist on taunting you.
