Unity:
Uniting the Elements of Nature using the Elements of Design.

Students consider balance and harmony while connecting different parts of a piece to create a whole. 

After a discussion about the elements of nature; earth, air, water, and fire, students review symbolism.  Each student focuses on a personal and meaningful way to represents these elements in one piece of art work.  Using repetition of Elements of Design to unite these elements of nature students explore this choice based project.

Among the choices students make are.

Media - limited to any 2D options including mixed media, watercolor, color pencil, Prisma pro markers, graphite acrylic paint, etc. 
Students are encouraged to choose a media they feel inspired by, connected to or interested in exploring.

Composition - Including in the media choice, students consider composition uniting the elements into one cohesive illustration, or separating each to create a quadriptych. They then select size (this is a large scale project) and what material the want to work on, drawing paper, canvas, water color paper, etc.

Symbolism -  How are the elements represented.

Students then compose a written reflection about their Unity Project. 

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Sigils

My Unity piece is entitled “Sigils.” Upon hearing that we were embarking on this project my mind started to flood with ideas on what subject matter I should use to convey both the elements of nature and of art. While some of them were interesting to me, I did not particularly fall in love with any of the prompts I had come up with. Initially I was frustrated at my lack of decisiveness, and inability to find something in the vast amount of topics I had to choose from that spoke to me. However, it was during a conversation with my cat in which I realized what I wanted to do. As he sat there listening, I dumped out my brain into the space between us. As my stream of consciousness continued like swirling train tracks, and I soon found myself complaining that combining nature with art should feel more simple as nature itself is art. Maybe it was due to the strong belief in respect and nature in wicca, or the black cat sprawled in front of me, but I came to a swift and definite decision of wanting to incorporate wiccanism into my piece. I used wiccan sigils signifying peace, passion, strength, and groundedness to symbolize air, fire, water, and earth. This also satisfied my synesthesia, as the association between elements of nature and emotions felt so clear and so easily conveyed. This is both how and why I chose the subject matter that I did.

By: Alice M.

Synchronicity ​

In order to incorporate all the elements of earth, fire, water, and air, I decided to choose a mountain scene that molded into the shape of a triangle. I wanted to create the image of a floating piece of earth with a starry night sky with constellations in the background. I wanted this piece of art to have the surreal elements of floating inanimate objects like the chunk of earth and sailboat with water flowing out of the bottom of the image. I chose these subjects, because I wanted them to have a connection with myself, hiking and sailing are some of my favorite pastimes, and I wanted to use them in this project because I felt that it made it more meaningful to me. The sailboat represents the element of water and wind, because it is a vessel that requires both elements to function. I represented the water with a large blue wave flowing underneath the boat and under the floating piece of earth. The red flag on the top of the mast is wavy representing the movement of air. The element of earth is represented by the mountains that mold into a triangle shape, and the green landscape beneath it, with trees, and a log cabin with white smoke billowing from the chimney. The smoke coming from the chimney, represents the element of fire because smoke is a product of that very thing. I also represented the element of fire with the bright yellow sun that sits in the center of the mountains, with gold rays, and a sunset color in the shadows of the mountains. The medium that I used, was watercolor, and pen. I chose this medium because I find it a very easy medium for myself and watercolor gives a very natural feel for the setting that I was creating, with the blending of sunset colors on the mountains, the water for the wave, and the natural colors of the landscape. I utilized the elements of line, shape, color, and space. I mostly focused on line to create the mountains and the trees, and the boat. I also focused on the element of color to draw attention to certain points of the image, such as the sun, and the mountains. I used the element of shape with the triangle and the black lines from the pen. The most successful part of this project was creating the mountains and the sunset, and the floating shape. The one thing that might need revisions or could be redone, is the sun, I could match the color of the rays with the sun instead of having them as gold. I thoroughly enjoyed this project, because we had the freedom to choose what subject of matter we wanted to focus on, and could use any medium we wished, I found it a very involving project, and was a good way to represent what we have learned so far in this class.

By: Natalie R.

For my subject I chose to draw horses, mainly because they’re one of the only animals that are easy for me to draw. But after working on it they reminded me of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Horses are very expressive creatures as well, some are calm and unbothered by much while others can have a fiery temper so it’s easy to transfer those emotions through art, like for the fire and water horse I chose to draw Arabians because they tend to have a lot of personality. I’ve worked with horses for almost 13 years and I’ve seen a wide range of personality in many different breeds. At first I didn’t think horses would connect with the element theme, so I used watercolor to make each the colors of the element I thought was best. I think the best part of my projects are the outlines, although they did take me a while. I tried several rough drafts but I didn’t stick with any of them in the end. If I could redo any part of my projects it would probably be the watercolor. Some of the colors didn’t blend as well as I wanted but some parts of each one turned out fine.

By: Braley V.

Lightness and Darkness
​
I chose my subject matter because it reminds me of medieval times, and I like playing medieval games. I wanted to put the elements into one landscape, it represents a peaceful side and a side that has been destroyed. It's a little bit based on a game called Dark Souls. I tried to mainly focus on the fire, the destroyed side of the forest. Burning trees, ashes, smoke, a bonfire and dark clouds.

By: Kyle B.

La Piste est des ordures

The subject matter I chose for my unity project was track because I run in all four seasons. I felt that each element could represent a season. The fire represents the burning hot summers, the stalagmites and stalactites represent fall and the hard ground covered with obstacles (twigs, branches, and leaves), the riptide represents spring and the rain that makes the field muddy and every step heavier, and the strong winds represent winter where the cold hits me and feels as though it drives me back. I choose four things that are painful and would be hard to run in to represent the grind that running is. I colored the banner inside the track green because I believe that green represents nature. I did this because even though running might be grind it also has benefits like stress relief and staying in shape. I tried to add dark colors inside the four parts of the track to show my small hate for track. I used red to represent fire and heat, dark blue to represent water and the current, brown to represent rocks and earth, and yellow to represent the air flow. I chose to use color pencil because we haven’t used them this year and it’s the median I feel most comfortable with. I feel that the images on all four corner to represent track and cross country because of their clean look and cool design. The parts I would redo would be making the wind current bigger and switch the flame color to start with red in the middle and yellow on the outside (however adds a uniqueness to them).

By: Colby B.

Ingebjorg

​Victoria P.

The Four Elements

For my unity project, I drew the four elements in reverse triangles. The wave represents water, the clouds represent air, the mountain represents earth, and the flame represents fire. I chose to color the background of the main picture, I did dark and light blue for air and water, then faded it into red and green for fire and earth. This represents the elements for obvious reasons, water and the sky is blue; while fire is orangish-red, and the grass on earth is green. For my project I used watercolor because it shows the colors well and makes the overall drawing look better.

By: Kylie C.

Seeing Unity

I chose this subject because I wanted to show how we can all see unity in the elements within ourselves. The person has all four elements in their eyes to show how we see this unity in nature. I chose a rainbow color scheme to represent how all colors are present in the elements, mainly blues because it seems to be a prevalent color among almost all four. I chose acrylic paint because I felt it would show the most texture as opposed to graphite or colored pencils. I tried to use impressionist brush techniques to help give the person’s hair and the elements some direction. If I could revise this, I would add more detail into the hair and facial features.

By: Elizabeth A.

Mother Nature
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I choose to do a women cloaked in fire and water. I did branches that were during the fall season so that the leaves would be falling off the branches. My subject matter represents elements of nature by what the women has cloaked over her is fire and water, the branches represent another element of Earth the leaves are falling aff and you have the little wisps of wind to show air. I did not have a particular color scheme, but I did red, orange, and blue on the cloak because it wa fire and water. Everything else was earth tones like browns and tans. For mediums I used pencil and colored pencil. I used these because it is the medium I am most comfortable with and I knew depending on how saturated I wanted the colors to be. What I would have changed or redone on my project would have been maybe the branches, because I feel like the women with the fire and water is such a strong symbol and the branches just didn’t come out as good as I would have wanted it to. The most successful thing on my project was the woman with the fire and water because the way she is standing fits perfects and the way the fire and water draped over her looks so natural. This project was really fun to think of ideas for and I am happy with the overall finished product.

By: Erinn C.

Holding On

I chose to make the subject of my painting a young girl because I feel connected to it. A similar girl has appeared in some of my previous artwork. In my painting, the rainstorm represents the element water while the umbrella represents fire. I used color and the shape of flames to show the symbolism of fire in the umbrella. The air, or wind, element is shown in the way the girl’s hair and coat is flying back behind her. Also, the umbrella is flipped inside out which is the result of a strong gust of wind. The green vines that stand out on her arms and legs are supposed to show the element of earth. I used mostly cool colors with the exception of a couple objects, one being the umbrella. I wanted the fiery umbrella to stand out as to show the contrast between fire and water. The color scheme supported the elements because with fire comes the thought of warm colors and land, air, and water typically is associated with cool colors. I completed my painting using ink, watercolor, and colored pencils. I used these materials because it was something that was familiar to me. I also enjoy blending colors using the watercolor paint. The colored pencils added to the gradation and solidified the shadows and shading of my painting. I feel that I don’t have to be as precise when I use water color which is a style I like. These materials connected with the elements of nature because I associate watercolor with a sort of flow. This flow is also in water, air, and fire. The only element that may be an exception is earth, but I painted the vines very precisely because I did not think of this element to be flowy. I was successful in the way that I wanted to portray the background, a rainy, blurry scene. This was meant to give the impression that there is a bad storm happening around the girl. I think that I probably should’ve covered the subjects of my painting with some of that streaky rain because it seems as though the rain isn’t touching one side of the girl’s body. Overall, I am happy with my painting.

By: Emelia D.

I chose to represent the elements in a more cohesive composition rather than separating them as different images. I was inspired by the symbol of the Capricorn astrological sign (oddly most of my family is that sign) which is represented by a sea goat hybrid with a goat head and torso with a fish tail. I took artistic liberties and swapped the goat out for a sheep just because I think they’re much cuter. The sheep and the flowers in its wool represent earth while the fish tail represents water. The sun behind it represents fire and the spirals of varying blues and purples represent air. I chose to line the sheep in ink and color everything including the sun and spirals with marker. I went over the sheep with colored pencil to give it texture and value so it didn’t look so flat. Sketching was pretty frustrating because the first draft was so quick and beautiful but repeating it on a larger scale was a mess. I couldn’t get the size and shape of the head right and I wish I spent more time on it because I still feel like the head looks so big and awkward. I really like the color I used on the sun and I used colors on the lighter side for the flowers. The blue and green tail came out better than anticipated. The ghost lines around the flowers are hard to color over but it’s not a big deal. It’s probably the best thing I’ve made in art class for a long time even though it’s not exactly what I planned.

By: Julian T.

For my unity project, I wanted to incorporate line art in a more traditional style. By adding a splash of water color and allowing some splatters move into different sections to tie them together a little bit more. I took the project more literal to feature the line art that I incorporated, for example, I drew what I thought of when given the project. Also, I used the colors that reminded me of the elements as well, similar to everyone else’s ideas of them. One of the most successful sections of my work was the water portion. I was very happy with the result of my long and tedious work. The lines being so close together and flowing all together made the work more meticulous than I would have perfected, but it was worth it. One of my least favorite aspects of the project was my fire section. Compared to the rest of the piece, it felt under done.

​By: Emma F.

Unity

For this project, I had researched many different styles of water, fire, air, and nature images. I had gathered ideas from separate images and brought them together. I took different styles that I liked and combined them into one and chose to do this project in watercolor. I chose water color due to the fact that this project is about unity and watercolor reminds me of the word unity. Just by using water you can combine all of the colors together.


​By: Madison S.

Main de L'élémentaire

    I chose to do the subject matter of a hand because I believed that it would be a good way to incorporate all of the elements into a single connected image while at the same time keeping them separated. The rose in the palm of the hand is in place to add more detail and because I like to draw roses. I represented the elements of nature by having each finger on the hand correspond to the elements. The pointer finger is fire, the middle finger is made of water, the ring finger has a tornado around it to represent air, and the pinky is made of rocks in order to represent earth. I used orange, red, and yellow to create semi-realistic fire, green and blue to create water that looks like an ocean, grey to create a tornado around the finger, and brown to create the rocks. I used watercolor paint and canvas in order to be able to blend the colors together. This medium allowed me to better represent the elements because the watercolor was able to blend into the hand well, connected to the elements to the hand, and in turn, to each other. I think that if I was able to do this project again, I would have used the water aspect more because I think that it is the strongest piece, and I like the way that it looks. The watercolor there is the most controlled I believed, and I wish that I could’ve made more of the artwork like that. Next time, I would also try to make the water color more fine and controlled and less spread out over everything, more inside the lines and not so leaky.

By: Nicholas B.

8 - Bit

I chose the type of subject matter for my composition because I’m interested in video games so I made natural symbols of the four elements into pixel forms. The subject matter I chose relates to the four elements because I made dirt which relates to earth, a squid relating to water , a torch relating to fire and an arrow as if its flying through the sky to relate to air. Everything came out how I wanted in my project especially the dirt blocks I made that relate to earth because I depicted them in a pattern form that makes it look really appealing. All in all my project relates back toward pixels and old fashioned video game graphics which also together is brought back to being similar with the four elements of nature!

By: Corey S.

Namaste

    In my artwork, the subject matter I used was the concept of the four elements, earth, fire, water, and air, engaged in a bubble. Within the bubble the elements are all shown in color. Outside of the bubble, the elements are shown in black and white. In the center of my piece there is a silhouette of a person sitting in a zen position. The materials I used to create this art are water color. I chose water color because it seemed to be the best fit for the concept of what I was planning. I feel as if it made my art flow all together by this material of water color. The most successful part of my painting was the contrast between the color inside and the grey scale. A part of my work that could use some revision is the vine branches I painted around the circle. I didn’t really like how it came out, I think I should have came up with a new idea to draw around the circle.

By: Kelsey P.

Opposite Sides
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I chose a lush green landscape turning into a river of lava surrounded by desert because it was an idea that fascinated me. I wondered how water could suddenly turn into lava, and how a lush green land could exist so close to a dry desert. My subject matter represents all four elements of nature. The grassland and desert represent the earth. The river and waterfall represent water. The lava river represents fire. The mist rising from where the water meets the lava represents the air. I started with watercolors as a base, before going over everything in acrylic paint to make it more vivid and detailed. It was definitely a difficult piece for me. There were a lot of things I did not have experience creating before. I struggled a lot with the cliff face, the desert, the lava, and the waterfall. But overall, it came out fairly well, and I enjoyed the process.

By: Caitlyn F.

Earthly Beings 
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I chose the subject matter of a hot air balloon, mountains, a beach, and a volcano because these examples of air, earth, water, and fire intrigued me. I did a hot air balloon to include color. Mountains because of the simpleness of them. A beach because it brings peace. A volcano to have an eye catcher. My subject matters represent different aspects of nature. The hot air balloon represent air and how the breezes control the motion of it. The mountains represent earth. The beach scene represents water and the volcano represents fire with the explosion. In my project I did exactly use a color scheme. In my unity project i didn’t exactly use a color scheme. I just did the colors that went along with the picture and painted the things their real colors. For this project I used watercolor paint because of the simplicity of it. I don’t think I would change anything that I did in the project. However, if I got the chance to do more than one I would love to have tried a different technique and maybe with new or different materials.

By: Kate B. 

Flower Power

I chose the subject of flowers because I had to incorporate a sunflower since it is my totem. Therefore, I had the idea to do flowers uniting the elements through subject matter for the  four paintings. The subject of flowers represents the elements of nature by the four different types. The sunflowers represent fire, the orchids represent air, the water lily represents water, and the four leaf clover represents earth.  I didn’t focus on certain color scheme but all the backgrounds were the same light blue. Each flower had its own different color because they had distinct colors to make them the flower they are.My media choice was watercolor and colored pencils. The base of the paintings is watercolor but then I used colored pencils to add details and saturation and make it more interesting. The materials I used did help connect with nature in which I used water for my water color paint. For elements of design I used color, shape, texture, highlights, and form, it really helped making my paintings better.

By: Elyse R.

4 Elements

​Kelsey C.

Wonderland

I have four different subject matters for each of the four elements. I have a tree for earth, waves for water, a flame for fire, and clouds for air. Each subject is used to represent the elements of nature. I chose a color scheme that fits with each of the elements. Red, yellow and orange are used for fire, light blue, and white are used for air, dark blue, and lighter blue are used for water, and green and brown are used for earth. It supports the elements because it is the colors that go with each of the element. I used watercolors to be able to blend the colors better together. I used watercolor because it also relates with the theme of nature because it uses water. I used markers to create texture and patterns, line, color, shape, and space in my project. I focused most of patterns because it really made the project and added a lot of details to it that made it look a lot better. The most successful part of the project are the patterns in the project.  If I made any revisions I would focus more on the blending of the colors and designs. I would redo the middle part of the galaxy.

By: Olivia B.

Reaching Out

I chose a hand, a sun, a tree, and water because they are all simple things but I wanted to combine them and transform them into something more complex. The sun represents fire, the waterfall represents water, the hand represents earth and the tree with the flowers blowing represents wind. The majority of my project is made up of white, blue, yellow, brown. I chose these colors because they are very earthy and that reflects well with the elements. I chose acrylics for my medium, because I felt that that it is my strength, and a medium I enjoy using.  I think the sun was the most successful and the hand needs revisions.

By: Athena Xifaras

Boom Boom Big Boy: The Great Lightning Strike Off Kanagawa; Electric boogaloo

​    I chose this subject because I thought it would look cool and I was very correct. They represent the elements of nature because that’s literally what they are. The rocks are earth, the fire is fire, and the steam is a combination of water and air. I chose darker grimy colors for the fire and earth for the steam because the steam is the background and it makes the darker objects stand out a little more. I also used vibrant cool colors for the lightning bolt which looks super cool. I used both watercolor and acrylic paint for this. I used the acrylic for the pitch black and used watercolor and sharpie for everything else. Again, this makes is look cool. I made the focus of the painting the lightning bolt in the center of the black, but there’s more to look at around the bottom. Absolutely no revisions are necessary.

By: Andrew D.

Sight

​Alexandra D.

The Tour 

I chose the subject matter of a connected scene of mountains, water, forest, flowers and sky. I made the picture connect together but also be separated in seeing the different elements. I chose to split it into four sections and in each was a different element. These were chosen to represent how they are all related and connected to each other but different. Each section is different, the red/orange/yellow toned section represents fire, mostly the sun in the fire representation. The pink/purple/navy blue section represents the air, I added the moon, stars and mountains to also be a representation of air. The green and dull earthy toned section represents the Earth, I used the flowers and trees to represent the Earth. The blue toned sections represents water and I added the boat to also show that. I used different colors for each section, and different tones as well to create difference within the piece. It supports the elements by bringing out the tones in those specific elements. I used watercolor for the project which I believe was a very good choice for me because i believe it was one of the best ways for me to represent the elements. I drew out my whole idea and traced it over with black marker that would would work with the watercolor and wouldn’t bleed through. I mostly focused on the sunset and the flowers which are focal points. I believe the flowers and mountains were the most successful, and i would try to redo or blend the sunset more to make it look more clean. 

By: Ashley H.

For my unity project I decided to paint a scene of somebody playing hockey on a pond. I chose this because I love hockey, and it was a pretty easy way to incorporate ice. The ice is represented by the pond, the earth is represented by the trees, there is a fire going on in the background, and the sky represents the wind. I The color scheme was mostly blue because of the sky and the pond. The medium I chose was water color because I thought I could depict the elements adequately. The element of design I used most was blending. I was happy with the blending of the colors, but the painting as a whole could have been neater.

By: Gabe M.

Wonder

Jenna R