For my free studio I decided to work with a canvas. When I first started to paint I wasn’t too sure of what I wanted to do. Each day I came into art class I began to get an idea of what I wanted to do. The first thing I had in mind was to make a black, gray and white picture. I wanted to see if I could get my ideas on the canvas without using any color. When most people see pictures the first thing they tend to talk about is the different color paint that is used.

            On day I walked into class and I was not having a good morning but to a surprise I did not want to make a picture with out color I had the sudden urge to make a colorful painting on a new background. There was not a way to paint over the canvas in all white and not see what was under it so I found a big paintbrush and painted the entire background black. As soon as I was finished an idea of what to do popped into my head. I wanted to make a big tear drop, that was all blue with green and yellow at the bottom. At the bottom of the teardrop is the water as the raindrop is falling. The bottom is my favorite part. When I first started at it I was not too sure what look I was going for but as I added more color to it I knew exactly.

            The rest of the background that was not covered by any other color but black was the easiest part of the painting to cover because I wanted to use the colors that gave off a bright essence coming off the back. After that was done I still felt as if something was missing from the painting. I then looked at my hands because there was paint on them, so I decided to put handprints on it. The only color I could think of was the white to make it pop. After looking at the white hands the painting still didn’t feel complete and the only color I could think off, of the top of my head that complements white was red. I did not want to paint the red on I wanted it to look any other way but painted. So I used my finger and scooped up large amounts of red paint on my finger and dripped it on the white hands. When I was finished I felt that my painting was complete.

          Before the second marking period was over my painting I did on the canvas was finished. I wanted to do another project with bottle caps because we had so many left over from the fist marking period project. So I then decided I wanted to make a big hand out of bottle caps.

            I brought some hot cut to put all the caps together. I had to pick out the caps I wanted to use and size them to one another. Anther way I kept track of them was to making different little marks on the bottoms of the caps I was using and going to use. When I began I started to stack all the caps on top of one another then as it became taller I got the idea to cover the entire thing with aluminum foil to make it shinny and shape all the things I felt did not come out right in the end.

            When my piece became a vase I wanted to add color to it and put flower in it. I painted different colors in strips and I add some colorful flower paper. The last class was when I finished the vase and started to add the flower because our art is due on Friday 1/14/11 I did not want to put a picture of my vase up wit the flowers. For some reason I do not like when my artwork is viewed when I do not feel as if it is finished. So I have picture of just the finished vase.

When you look at me

What do you see?

A copper colored girl

Soft and smooth like Barbie

The girl has hazel eyes

And long soft hair

Full bare lips

Boys can’t help but stare

A nice wide smile

And small chucky eyes

When wind is blown through her hair

It looks like it flies

She seems almost perfect

Always happy and smiling

But she’s hurting inside

So her true feelings stay hiding

When you look at me

What do you see

You can' always judge

People by how they loook

Get to know them

And read the pages of their storybook

They might surprise you

    I've always loved art, and I spend a lot of my life working on drawings and paintings. But this quarter, a lot of holidays and special occasions for someone special to me were coming up. So I decided to make them a present instead of buying one, and to make something different from the field I'm most used to.     I usually pick themes of emotions that are most dominant in my life. I take my time when it comes to my work, partly because I want it to be done right, but mostly because my motivation is just the satisfaction of seeing my drawing skills become more refined as time passes. This quarter I have found that when I have a more common goal of someone else's happiness as opposed to just a "good" grade, I am better motivated to take on creative projects and to spend every free minute I have to work on it.     My first piece is a bracelet with a personalized charm. It is based on the person it was made for. He has a signature of himself as a little cartoon that he likes to sign his drawings with. So I took a copy of that signature and made it from metal from a can. I had decided on a can because I wanted it to be more permanent than paper or foam. When I first thought of a charm, my mind automatically went to metal, and the next thought was that my resources could easily get me a can and scissors that could cut through metal. I used a cloth to cover the back of it so that it won't cut through the skin, and that became a birthday present.

My second piece was for the same person who happens to love video games and specifically Mario games.  So I made a personalized question block from cardboard paper using pictures from the internet and images from playing the game myself. I also cut out items that are usually found when a question block is hit: a star, a green/red mushroom, a feather, and a fire flower. After painting all of these items, I made it a little more personal inside the box, painting it my own way and making a story and picture. After glueing everything together, and putting all of the items inside the box, I added in chocolate coins. There were mess ups, and my biggest challenge was the time limit and the time the paint wanted to dry. But everything was finished the way my mind wanted it, and bringing joy to the person all of this was meant for brought a more accomplished and happy feeling inside me than any of my other work could have ever done.

For my fourth recipe I made Snicker doodle Cookie Bars. They are essentially the same thing as the cookie but in bar form. These were super easy to make, it took me a total of ten minutes to mix everything and get it in the oven. Overall they tasted very good. If I were to make these again I would use a different pan so that the bars were thinner. Because of the pan I used it took about an extra ten minutes to cook than the suggested time. 

Recipe Provided By: http://wiseanticsoflife.blogspot.com/2010/11/snickerdoodle-cookie-bars.html

Ingredients for Bars:

- 1 cup butter

- 1 1/2 cups sugar

- 3 eggs 

- 1/4 cups sour cream

- 2 cups flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1 tsp cream of tatar

- 1/2 tsp salt 

Ingredients for Sugar and Cinnamon Mix:

- 1/3 cup sugar

- 1 tbsp cinnamon

Step 1: Cream the sugar and butter

Step 2: Add the eggs one at a time

Step 3: Add the sour cream

Step 4: In a separate bowl combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Step 5: Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture

Step 6: Grease pan

Step 7: In small bowl combine the sugar and cinnamon to make sugar cinnamon mix

Step 8: Coat the bottom of the pan with the cinnamon and sugar mix

Step 9: Spread the dough in the pan

Step 10: Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until done

Step 11: Enjoy!

P.S. sorry for the bad picture quality. My camera was dead so I had to use an itouch. 

For my second quarter art project I did what I did naturally, draw. I love to sketch and especially sketch anime characters. Lately I've been really nerdy watching all my old cartoons from when I was younger and it gave me the inspiration to try drawing like the professionals. These pictures aren't very creative but I chose to do this type of assignment to test my skills as an artist. The pictures show something about myself as well. Each one is my favorite character from a specific show. The progress of my artwork is each individual picture. I found that it would simpler, instead of taking picture line by line, to take each picture and make a collage. 

For my third recipe I made Arroz Con Leche. This was the hardest recipe I made. I think that I may have messed up on the directions when I made it because the consistency was very liquidly, like soup, when was supposed to be thick, like pudding. I think it was like this because it didnt cool before I served it, if I had let it cool it might have thickened up more. I hope you enjoy my post!

Recipe provided by: http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/02/arroz-con-leche-rice-pudding/

Ingredients:

- 1 cup long grain rice

- 2 cinnamon sticks

- 2 strips lemon zest

- 3 whole cloves

- 4 cups water

- 1 egg

- 3 cups whole milk

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 1 tablespoon vanilla

-1 can condensed milk

Step 1: Soak rice, cinnamon sticks, lemon zest, cloves, and water in a sauce pan for an hour

Step 2: After one hour, heat the rice on high until it boils, then turn it to a simmer and let it cook for 10-12 more minutes.

Step 3: While the rice is cooking beat the egg in a bowl and add the milk. Mix well. 

Step 4: Add the milk and egg mixture, condensed milk, salt, and vanilla extract to the rice for 25-35 minutes or until desired consistency. 

Step 5: Enjoy!

P.S. I suggest going to the link I posted to see what the arroz con leche was supposed to look like. 

The second recipe I made was rice crispy treats. This recipe was not very advanced but my brother needed them for one of his classes so I volunteered to help him make them. The funnest part was cooking with my brother and the bars turned out well to. One mistake I made in this recipe was turning the stove on too high and burning the marshmallows so next time I make this I will make sure not to have the temperature too high. I hope you enjoy my blog post!

Ingredients: There are only three ingredients that you need for this recipe

-Rice Krispies 

-Butter

-Marshmallows

Step 1: Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan

Step 2: Add pack of Marshmallows

Step 3: Stir marshmallows over medium heat and add half a box of rice krispies

Step 4: Mix the rice krispies with the melted marshmallows and pour into pan

Step 5: Let cool and enjoy!