A new assortment of paintings and drawings has been in the Dla Ludzi Gallery, including the self-portrait, cubism portrait, and origami painting projects from Swihart’s Art ⅞ and Advanced Art classes. The self-portraits focused on correct shading and proportions, the origami paintings emphasized blending and light logic, and the cubism portraits were about expression through outlandish dimensions and colors.

Katherine Kim of the self-portrait project was happy with the outcome of her art piece, so Kim stated, “I succeeded at the shading aspect of my portrait because it has realistic light logic.” In Swihart’s art class, Kim learned to draw ears, shade facial features, and draw the human face proportionately. Some beginner tips mentioned were closely observing a mirror or reference image, avoiding reliance on imagination to make a piece as realistic as possible, and using charcoal to draw easier.

Brooke Linkous of the cubism project included lots of vibrant colors in her portrait to express her current mood; The dominant color in Linkous’s piece was pink. Linkous found cubism intriguing and stated, “I did it by looking around and drawing [my surroundings] in a completely different form of shape.” Linkous’s thought process during the project was self-expression through and through; she finds mellow music helps her create cubist art. Linkous noted that cubism differs from realistic design since the artist sets their dimensions and decides whether they want the colors to match or contrast.

Both Ian MacRae and Hailey Hubert of the origami painting project struggled at first; Hubert appreciates origami as an art form because it is both challenging and fun when done right; Hubert required some help to make a simple origami piece. MacRae conveyed that he appreciates origami “because it is intricate, beautiful, and has [significant] meaning to a specific culture and now, myself.”

Hubert encountered challenges with painting the correct origami color and blending; MacRae found properly capturing the light logic of the art piece to be problematic. Some tips for beginning realistic painters from MacRae were experimenting with different techniques and going with the gut feeling to create what one believes will ultimately look best. Hubert mentioned the importance of matching the colors of one’s painting to their reference and using a ruler to keep the lines straight.

In short, some gallery projects, like the origami paintings and self-portraits, had a focus on realistic aesthetics, while the cubism portraits were about the artists utilizing their imagination to create a work of art based on self-expression; these contrasting design ideologies provided very intriguing additions to the Dla Ludzi Art Gallery.