Hello TALONS students and families! My name is Jazmine Cabaluna and thank you for coming to my 2021 In-Depth post for tonight! For this year, much like last. my In-Depth is coloured pencil drawing. Despite having to juggle more work than last year, I’ve had a ton of fun improving and working with the medium. Below showcases a few of the pieces I made that I feel exhibits my growth throughout my journey , along with some short background information behind them! Note that some of these have already been showcased in previous posts; however, I felt that it was important they’d be shown again to add more background on the pieces. I hope you like it!

 

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This was drawn for an art competition focusing on the theme of empowerment of specially abled people. The subject is a complex one, so I did not want to focus on one disability. I ended up drawing this piece, with different disabilities and colours to represent variety. I ended up becoming a winner in the “Country Representative” Category and had this piece showcased in an online gallery.

Though already shown in a previous post, I wanted to re-highlight this image as I believe it shows the growth I exhibited this year in terms of blending colours together. This was something that I struggled a lot with last year, and so I’m happy to be able to showcase a piece that is composed entirely of it!

 

The main challenge I set for myself when beginning In-Depth this year was to be able to draw a realistic human face by the end of it. This was my attempt, a portrait of my grandparents. Though I wouldn’t call it realistic by any definition of the word, I would consider it a pretty good, truly-first attempt!

 

Though I did show this piece in my first 2021 post that featured drawings, I wanted to showcase it again one final time. This was my first finished drawing of In-Depth 2021, signaling the start of my final year in the project. Though I would not call this piece my best, it definitely was one of my favorite to draw. More information on this drawing can be found here. In-Depth was an incredibly fun project to work on, and I am so happy to have been able to work on it these past couple years.

 

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Thank you so much for having a look through my In-Depth for 2021! This project is very near and dear to my heart, so I had a lot of fun working on it! Feel free to ask any questions about my art or the project as a whole in the comments below. Have a good night!

Hello again everyone! Happy Friday!

Well, this is my last In-Depth post before the final showcase post! Before I show what I’ve finished this past month, I will first talk about what I did with my mentor as well as how I believe my learning center will be going!

Over the past few weeks, my mentor and I have been meeting to continue working on my art. During our meetings, and after comparing them to De Bono’s book, I found that there were some “concepts” that were noted. For instance, when choosing what kind of topics I should draw, we come up with concepts. An example of this is the concept of “adventure”. The word itself is not a “practical idea,” like De Bono states (P.108). It is a concept. From the word “adventure,” I come up with practical ideas like “biking” or “nature.” Now that I have a few key practical ideas, I can make an art piece from it! This piece will be below, but next I’ll be moving onto another topic that De Bono states: alternatives!

Alternatives, are, as the name suggests, a different possibility that you could work into your project. As De Bono states, they “are the opposite of rigidity” as being unwilling to look for alternatives “indicates a very rigid mind that does not seek a […] better way of doing things” (P. 121).  He also states that alternatives provide “progress, energy, change, improvement, and simplification” (P. 122). In terms of my In-Depth, my mentor provided many different alternatives when it came to my art. One example, as seen in my art below, I was struggling with drawing trees. More specifically, tree leaves. As my mentor understood that I was getting tired of my art, he suggested the alternative of just making simple circles and blending them into the drawing for the leaves. Of course, it would decrease the overall detail in the plants, however, it would be a viable alternative to instead learning about drawing details in the short amount of time that I have. I took his alternative in, and I made it work to the best of my ability in the drawing!

Finally, I’ll be moving onto my idea for my learning center. I believe I will be doing what I did last year: a museum-style blog where I will showcase my different artworks along with some background on each of the pieces. I felt this worked quite well last year, as not only was it more simple than my other ideas, but it was also much easier for a reader to go through! I’m going to focus on the different topics that my mentor taught me throughout the past months. In order to display this, I want to be able to give a brief description of the technique/topic with one of my art pieces which I feel shows it the best (if applicable). I hope the audience will be able to learn from my posts and, hopefully, apply the techniques to my their own art. Finally, I believe that the museum-style blog post gives the audience enough interactivity. They have the ability to scroll through as quickly or as slowly as they wish when moving through my blog.

Well, thank you all for following me on my 2021 In-Depth journey! I hope to see you all for the final post of 2021!

 

Here is the piece that I decided to make after using the concept of “adventure.” I also, like mentioned above, tried my mentor’s alternative of drawing the trees using simple circles.

Since I felt unsatisfied with the way I drew the previous drawing’s trees, I decided to try and make a drawing where the trees still look, at the very least, more realistic in comparison! This is what I came up with!

Happy Friday everyone! Since there hasn’t been too much homework these last few weeks, I have been able to work on In-Depth quite a bit! In addition to this, I have been meeting with my mentor a lot as well!

My mentor, due to his experience, has given me a lot of advice regarding my art. As such, I’ve had a few questions. Like De Bono states, “[questions] allow for further exploration” and “clarification of any misunderstandings”, and so I try to ask questions when I feel confused or want to dive deeper into his content (p. 72). For instance, my mentor gave me the advice to “try and use more complimentary colours in your work”. I had forgotten what the complimentary colours were, and so I asked for some clarification in the advice. He then proceeded to educate me on how different pairs and shades of colours will make the artwork more “pleasing to look at”, and afterwards I implemented it into my work. After asking the question and executing it into my work, I can fully agree that the use of these colours really help the piece pop. I also took some time to ask questions like “what piece of advice regarding art do you think is most important?”, which gave me the opportunity to get a truly opinion-based answer that I can use on my work. As for the answer, my mentor told me that “the first layer of the artwork is the most important as every other layer is based off it”, and so I decided to spend more time working on bases rather than rushing through.

Although I did have questions, they were few and far between. I am more of a listener, and so I pay attention to his lessons rather than interrupt them with questions. After all, I can ask the questions after the lecture, so I might as well let him speak just in case he answers it in his presentations. Like De Bono mentions in his book, “if you listen carefully and attentively you will get more value from listening than from talking”, which I fully agree with (p. 69). For instance, during a meeting, my mentor told me how “the outlines [in your art] are just as important as the parts inside of them”. I knew what he meant and agreed with him on his stance, and so I attempted to implement it more into a future piece.

Thank you for reading my post and I hope you enjoy the art I’ve made! See you next week!

 

 

 

 

Hello again everyone! For the past few weeks, I finally managed to finish up one of my projects and start blending together another. But, before I get to that, I want to talk about why I chose coloured pencils to be my In-Depth again for this year.

For my whole life, despite me enjoying art, I never really enjoyed working with the majority of mediums I tried. My interest with charcoal never grew past the initial trying phase, and painting didn’t really stick with me. However, through all these mediums, coloured pencils stood out from the rest. I loved the colour they managed to put on the page, and unlike painting, you didn’t need to spend time waiting for the art to dry to continue. As such, they became my favourite medium to work with. My only main dislike with coloured pencils is how long they take to layer and blend, but I got used to it overtime.

My mentor, on the other hand, found painting to be his preferred medium when it comes to art. He was actually who got me into painting when I was younger. However, like I said, I grew out of it and ended up favouring coloured pencils overall. He gave me some tips when it came to blending or just colouring in general and I talked about about the medium in general. Nevertheless, art was what connected the two of us together, and my dad’s passion for it rubbed off on me.

I have been asked by some peers about coloured pencil tips and whether or not they should try it out. In my opinion, if you’re looking into getting more versed in art, I really suggest trying coloured pencils out, even if just for a short while. A good set of pencils (I suggest Prismacolour) can really make your art pop. Again, just be mindful about how long you’re willing to spend on your art, as they do take quite a while to successfully blend together.

Thank you for reading my post and here’s the art I’ve been working on!

 

I wanted to make a piece that focused on environmental activism and how by incorporating small changes in our lives, we can drastically reduce pollution levels all around the globe. For instance, this drawing talks about how by simply using a reusable waterbottle, we can lessen the amount of plastic pollution in oceans.

 

I’m currently working on a piece focusing on frontline workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Hopefully, I can finish this for next post!

 

Happy Friday everyone! Despite the massive influx of homework due to the ending quarter, I still managed to find time to work on In-Depth. As of right now, my art is still in its layering/blending phase. I hope to be able to get final pictures out for next blog post!

While working on my art at home, my mentor, my father, has given me many tips on how to improve. Much of this advice I accepted, or at the very least, managed find a compromise with him. However, there were times where I disagreed with him. For instance, while in the process of colouring a sunset, I was told to spend more time blending in the colours for a cleaner picture before moving on. At the time, I was already quickly moving into colouring in other parts of the picture. I took his advice, albeit I was not looking forward to spending more time on the art as I was getting tired of it (that tends to happen after working on a singular piece for a while). However, while it did take more time to layer and blend the colours for the sunset, I am finding that adding that extra smoothness to the picture really helps make it pop. In another instance, I found that the perspective in the piece was off. I asked my mentor for help, to which he sat down with me to help figure out the problem. He gave me a few tips on how to remedy incorrect angles, such as using rulers to find converging points and taking real world objects and rotating them for reference. However, I still thought that the picture was off. After debating with him for a while, in addition to using the tools he gave me, we managed to find a compromise that satisfied both of our thoughts! Finally, there was a moment where my mentor told me to add another subject to a picture. He noted how it would help give the picture more depth and keep the viewer interested for longer. Despite his points, I still had to disagree with him due to the previously mentioned large amount of homework coming in; I just did not have the time.

Overall, I found the last few weeks to have been quite successful! I hope to be able to make more art once homework decreases. Right now, I just want to have a break from art to spend some time doing other tasks. Thank you for reading!

 

Hello there!

My name is Jazmine and my In-Depth project for this year will be about Visual Arts! Specifically, I chose to focus on improving my coloured pencil drawing skills. I chose this because I want to improve on my art skills as well as learn new techniques and get more variety when it comes to the materials that I use. However, that said, I specifically chose this medium as it has been a long-standing passion of mine. Though I did choose the same topic as last year, I want to continue to diversify my knowledge on different materials.

Due to Covid, I decided my mentor will be my father, Eugene Cabaluna. He has had experience in many mediums and styles in visual arts throughout his non-professional career. For instance, currently, he is focused on sculpting. Even though it may not be the same medium as me, watching what he does can be very beneficial to my project. For example, by closely examining his sculptures, I can gain a better understanding of proportions as well as working with perspective in general (as his sculptures are a physical item that I can rotate around in any way I wish). I hope, by the end of this year, I will have applied some of his techniques and advice to my art for the long run. Fortunately, he frequently changes whatever medium he works with, so I will be able to see and apply a multitude of different techniques and styles.

I will be doing the whole In-Depth project throughout the months of January to May. Throughout this span of time, I will be having weekly meetings with my mentor accompanied with the mandatory biweekly blog posts. I cannot wait to start work on my In-Depth for this year and I hope to see you all throughout my journey!