artist Victoria Florio

I stumbled upon Victoria Florio's blog with Ms. Smith, and a lot of her stuff really interested me. She's incredibly talented at drawing, painting, and print making. I'm very impressed with her work, and she's my age! Portraits seem to be a common theme in her portfolio, which drew me to her because I like making portraits as well. Her inspiration may come from expressions or emotions because most of her paintings or drawings have a close-up expression very different from the next. The detail, shading, composition, and line come together very nicely, pulling the viewer in. Her work is really inspirational to me, and quite humbling to be honest. I definitely know I'm not the greatest artists, but shit! (Sorry for swearing smitty, and I'm scared for college now). My favorite piece of hers is her monochromatic self-portrait because not only do I love self-portraits but I also love the color choice here. I'm not sure where she got the idea to draw her lips blue, but it reminds me of eating a blue lollipop or costume makeup. She continues to use blue as a form of shading and skin tone, and it pulls everything together nicely. This girl must be interested by expression. Maybe now I should try painting or drawing faces that display a variety of emotions, it might help me develop as an artist. If you want to check her out, here's her blog: 

http://vickysportfolio.deviantart.com/art/scrunch-212440902​

concentration piece

As I stated in my last blog post, my concentration piece is Unicorns. I've been out of school with the flu, Headmaster's weekend, Caribbean studies, and my grandmother's funeral. My work has been put on hold during this, but I've been trying to work quickly and efficiently since I've returned. A few of my pieces aren't turning out as well as I thought, but I've had this problem before. I have faith that somehow I'll work it out and actually enjoy my work. When I came up with this idea, I wanted to paint a unicorn like "really cheesy van art" as smitty would say. I literally just let my hands work without thinking too much about it, and now I have the issue of not liking what I created. However, I started a black and white painting of a unicorn yesterday after school. I'm really enjoying it so far, and it will probably be my favorite of the four. The background is subtle and gray, drawing attention to the white unicorn. There's something about it that reminds me of a mix between a photograph and a dream. Hopefully I can do this last one quickly and move on to the next project ready to work uninterupted and motivated.