Art 2 Final Portfolio

I feel that my most successful art project was my Up Close and Personal project. I wanted to do a project with nature, because that was the first thing I thought of when I heard the theme, and it just fit.  I had the opportunity to capture a beautiful scene, a majestic animal, or an interesting environement.  I wanted to incorporate bright colors to catch the eye, so I decided to go with a tropical bird and jungle with a tropical fish.  I mixed ideas of wild and domestic by incorporating both the flowers, and the fishbowl in the drawing.  I used alot of contrast in this project; the light, white area of the top of the fishbowl contrasted well with the darkness and depth of the bird.  I worked with the water to add highlights, and dark areas so the fish and bird were the focal points of the piece. I was very light when coloring my piece, and used some hatching techniques in the drawing. My choice to use brown colored paper for the drawing really helped to enhance my drawing because the colors seemed to blend very well on it.  The brown did overly dramatize any bright colors I used, but I believe white paper might have.  I'm proud of this project, and it is one of the best drawings I've ever done.

I feel that my Sticky Situation project was the least successful.  I feel that the Ferris wheel is unbalanced, and the colors are much too bright, and didn't contrast well together. I did use repetition and pattern in this project, however my painting techniques faltered.  I put too much paint on the canvas, and didn't realize the importance of blending.  I also hurried a little because I was sick of the project, and this only made it worse.   I don't believe that my painting is bad, but if I could do it again, I'd be more careful with how much paint I use.  The biggest mistake I made was choosing to do a Ferris wheel over water instead of choosing something easier.  I wanted to try something interesting, and to do a Ferris wheel for my sticky situation since I'm terrified of them, but it was too difficult to add small details to such a large focal point.  Another issue I had was the ferris wheel seeming like it was sinking into the water.  For next time, I'd choose a more realistic idea and be cautious with the amount of paint I used.

 

I feel that these 2 projects show my growth the most.  In the first picture, my use of contrast really improved after doing the mini lessons.  I had new hatching and cross hatching techniques that helped me add value.  This project wasn't my best, but it certainly showed by improved use of shading. I had an issue with going too light during this project, and didn't shade enough in necessary areas. The theme was Scientific, and I immediatly thought of experiments gone wrong, diseases, and doom.  I then thought of nuclear booms and I decided to do a dark and dreary drawing of the aftermath of a bomb.  This idea was perfect for the black shading and contrast.
In the second picture, I feel that I grew so much as far as painting was concerned.  In the Multi Media project, I used watercolor, acrylic paint, gel pens, and puzzle pieces.  It was fun to think of ways to incooperate different medians into a project.  I chose the theme Fears and Fantasies, and began with an idea of a split world; half good, half bad.  I played around with this, and got an idea of showing the good, the evil, and the lonely in between.  The creepy baloons are just to add eeriness to the painting.  I used contrast in this project to distinctly show the difference of good and evil with dark and light colors.  This was a key part to my project.I used varaity by using the different medians, and by using the watercolor as background, and acrylic for the focal points, much more emphasis was on the chair, trees, and path, which is what I hoped for.

4.)In the first picture, I worked with a gel pen to draw and shade in a wine bottle.  I learned alot about contrast, shading, hatching, and crosshatching in this mini project.  I feel like I not only succeeded with this project, but I learned alot which then carried over to my next project with pencil shading, since I picked up new techniques.  I feel like I had been given enough instruction for this piece, and I could not ask for any other help.
In the second picture, I worked with colored pencils to draw a picture of a dum dum.  This may not have been the best project I've done, but I improved tremendously with drawing, and working with colored pencils.  I used to be terrible with colored pencils, but I learned techniques for shading, contrast, and adding value to the lollipop to make it look more lifelike, and to really pop and seem 3D. This really helped me improve so when I did my Up Close and Personal project, I really succeeded and new my way around with a box of colored pencils.  I learned how much to shade, and where highlights were necessary to make a drawing better.

5.) My favorite median to work with was acrylic paint.  I've always loved paint because I could mix and create any color I could dream of. It was also less precise than drawing, and mistakes I made weren't as obvious.  I loved mixing and blending colors, even though my Sticky Situation project didn't turn out the way I hoped.  I used paint again for my Mixed Media project because of how much fun it was to work with.  I felt that new oppertunities opened up with paint, because mistakes could be painted over again without too much of a problem.