The Emperor's Art

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Machai: Feb 21, 2013

I have always been a big fan of traditional paintings and sculpture and have recently had a chance to try my hand at it. I know I am a newbie but please don't hold back in your critiques, I want your honest opinions.

This is the first piece I made and as such is probably the roughest of the bunch. I made it with some old watercolor paints I had lying around for years and followed the instruction of a Bob Ross video I found on YouTube. I think I need to work on my happy little trees. At first, I couldn't really tell that they were happy so I had to add little smiley faces to them. Overall I think it was a decent first attempt.

This sculpture is my second piece. I made it when I attended a one day introductory sculpture class at my local art museum. We were given a stand with a wooden dowel on it and used old newspaper to create the basic shape of a head. We then added the clay and shaped the features. Can you tell whose face I made? It's Patrick Stewart. I think I made the nose too big and I had some trouble with the cheek and jaw area, but the hair was super easy :lol:

. Overall I think it is fairly recognizable if you know the subject's face and a decent first attempt at using clay.

front view

side view

This is my third and final piece. It is a Gyotaku print of an Isonade fish. Probably the most difficult part of the piece was actually catching the fish :cheeky:

. We were out in the boat for hours and I was being taunted by this guy. He kept eating my bait and very cleverly avoiding the hook the whole time. I got him in the end though. This was easily the most fun piece to make because I got to visit with my uncle (an actual certified Master Gyotaku Printer who studied under Master Mineo Ryuka Yamamoto) and take part in his favorite type of art. Overall I think I did pretty good for a first time Gyotaku printing.