Work of Art I am most proud of

    Of all of the in-class work we have done this year, I am most proud of my self-portrait that we did in the fall. Before the portrait unit, I had no experience in drawing people, especially portraits. I had done some abstract ones as a kid at a summer camp or class, but never a real self-portrait. I now feel that I definitely know more about drawing faces and the proportions. I know that before drawing, you have to break down the face so you know where each feature is. Also, this project taught me a lot about value and how important it is. Using value to create shadows gives the subject texture and shape, such as the shape of the head or the texture of the hair. This project made me feel more confident in my ability to draw a portrait, whether it is of myself or another person, and I am very proud of the outcome.

Final Watercolor Landscape

Purpose: To use and demonstrate what you learned from the watercolor exercises you did in class to create your own landscape painting

The four techniques I used in my painting were salt, gradient, masking fluid, and watercolor pencils. I used salt in the bottom left corner to give the sand texture. It didn't work as well as I had hoped, probably because my wash of paint wasn't dark enough for the salt to show up. My second technique worked much better. I used the gradient technique for the sky's reflection of the water and the mountain's reflection. Because I didn't want the darker wash to get into the white or lighter parts of the water, I used masking fluid to cover those parts. I also put it over places I wanted to paint yellow so I wouldn't paint trees onto that area. This technique worked well for me, especially when painting the water. The final technique was watercolored pencils and I thought that those worked ok. The pencils had limited colors so the green of the pencil didn't match my painting entirely. One thing I didn't like about the pencils was that you couldn't give it much texture like you could with stamping with a brush. It did work well for making the pine tree look like it has needles rather than leaves which would have been hard to get with a brush. Overall, I think the most important thing I learned from this unit is to be patient when painting because watercolors are very different from other mediums. If you make a mistake it is hard to correct it, you cannot paint over it or erase it. I think it's also important to not over work any area too much otherwise the paper gets soggy and it is even harder to correct. I enjoyed this unit very much and felt that I learned a lot about watercolor.

Watercolor exercises and techniques

Purpose:
To experiment with a variety of watercolor techniques;
To make connections between experimenting with watercolor techniques learned to creating your own landscape watercolor.

For this water color exercise I learned many different techniques that I had never tried before. I learned that using other objects in your painting, such as tissue paper or saran wrap, would create an interesting effect that you wouldn't be able to get with a brush. I also used many techniques when we first started watercolor in my larger painting that was divided into many different sections. For the small landscape, I tried different techniques to see what would work best for each texture, such as whisking for grass. Over all, I think these assignments have helped my understanding of watercolors and prepared me for my final painting.

Watercolor History

Purpose:

To become familiar with the history of watercolor;

To become familiar with various watercolor artists throughout time;

To make connections between watercolor purposes and techniques from long ago to its uses today.

    Water color painting was used for prehistoric cave paintings, in many Egyptian wall and funerary paintings, Chinese silk paintings Western medieval Europe monastery paintings. Albrecht Durer was considered the first watercolor master due to his sophisticated techniques. In Italy (1494-95) Durer worked with Giovianni Bellini and started landscape painting. One of his famous works Alpine Landscape/Welsch Pirg shows and example of his original style of the “wash technique”.

                                        Albrecht Durer “Alpine Landscape” 1495

Durer would layer transparent washes to create the forms (such as waves) through an “atmospheric space”. Other water color masters were Anthony Van Dyck and, who painted landscapes in watercolor as studies and backgrounds for his oil paintings and portraits, and Claude Lorraine, who was commissioned by the King and Pope for his landscapes of Rome. 

                                           Anthony Van Dyck, ‘Landscape’, 1632

                                        Claude Lorrain, View of the Acqua Acetosa, 1645

Watercolor began to peak during the 1700s and academies began to introduce painting to officers. Women also were able to take part and colored in black and white prints with watercolor and by the 1800s painting and sketching became the education of upper class women. In 1970s-80s, an interest in watercolor reemerged from academies and art collectors. Today, watercolor painting is more environmentally friendly with more “advanced” supplies, such as paints that are more light-fast/fade resistant and ongoing experiments with varnishes and glazes that will protect paintings. 

"History-Overview." Watercolor Watercolor Painting Watermedia History Contemporary Exhibitions. Web. 18 May 2014.

"HISTORY OF WATERCOLOUR." CSPWC English History of the Medium. Web. 18 May 2014.

Lino Prints

Purpose:

• To become familiar with basic printmaking history, processes, and artists
• To make connections between the Expressionist Art Movement and artists who worked in that style, including artists from our past and present;
• To respond visually to artists who work(ed) in the style of the Expressionist Art Movement, by creating a work of art in this style.
• To print 2 editions of 2 different drawings/designs, demonstrating understanding of the printmaking process.

Some difficulties I found most challenging throughout the process was balancing positive and negative space and getting a clean print. When sketching out my subject, I found it hard to show value when there was only two, no middle value. It was hard to clearly show where the subject ended and the background began and not just cut out a line to separate the two. I also thought trying to end up with a clean print was hard. It took many times to get one where there was the right amount of ink so it didn’t smudge or made it look blotchy.

One thing I am most proud of is my first print and how I balanced my positive and negative space. It was one of the harder aspects of the project and I think that I managed to plot out my space well. Another thing I am proud of would be how my prints of my second subject (the bike) turned out. The bike had a lot of smaller lines that could have easily blended together if they weren’t cut or printed carefully. Over all, I think my prints turned out fairly well, even if it took a few tries to get the hang of it.

Final Still-Life Painting

Purpose: • To communicate all of your knowledge about color and painting techniques to create a final, more complex, still-life painting (than your smaller still-life studies); •To use your knowledge about composition and placement to arrange your fruit and/or vegetable to create a strong composition.

Artist Studied: Georges Lemmen

With the still-life studies, the techniques I liked the most were the pallet knife and using contrasting colors. I like the way the pallet knife gives a certain style to the painting that you can't get with a paintbrush. I decided not to use the pallet knife though, because I thought it would be hard to get the colors, highlights, and values right for the fruits I was using. I did, however, use contrasting colors for my final. I thought the way the the greens and reds mixed together along with a blue background made the still life more interesting. Even though green, red, and blue aren't exactly complementary, they still looked good contrasting with each other on the final.

I learned that it is very important to really push your values. It gives the painting more depth. At the beginning, when I was just blocking out my colors and had very little detail, you can see what it would look like without a lot of value. You need shadows and highlights to give the painting a 3D look and show where that like is coming from, otherwise it looks just flat. The second would be to make sure your subject is grounded. Even if it has a reflection, the painting doesn’t look as good if the fruits and their reflections are “floating”. I struggled to make my fruits look like reflections and not just extensions of the fruit or a pile of fruit. Without showing that they are grounded though, it would look odd to have a floating pile of fruit. And finally, I think it is important to not pay too close attention to detail. If you keep painting over your subjects, they start to look overworked. I found it difficult trying to mix colors with the red to create highlights, so I ended up repainting my fruits quite a few times. All in all, I found that there are certain things you have to do when painting a still-life, such as color scheme or technique, and there are certain things you shouldn't, such as getting every single detail accurate.

Experimenting with Color & Painting Techniques

Purpose:
To review the meaning of color;
To practice mixing color and exploring a variety of brushstrokes

Still-life Studies

Purpose:
To use strong compositional skills to depict a fruit or vegetable,
To use knowledge of color and a variety of brush strokes to paint a still-life

What worked well for me was using the palette knife. It gave the painting an interesting texture and it made it more abstract looking, so there was less pressure to make it look realistic and detailed. I also liked for color schemes to using contrasting colors (even if they weren't 100% complimentary). It made the painting more interesting and vibrant when there were colors opposite each other on the color wheel. I will definitely use these techniques when I am painting my final still life since they worked best for me.

 

What is Still Life?

      Still life is painting or drawing inanimate objects that can be arranged a certain way. Artists create still lifes for many different reasons. They can be to show or reflect the ownership of the object and it's status, to show a symbolic meaning or tell a story, to capture the objects natural beauty, or to express its abstract element of the object's visual elements. Artists use still life as a way to show off their technical skill in painting and have dated back (though not exactly the same) to the time of Ancient Greece and Rome.

Orange

Interesting facts about the color orange:

• Orange is the only color of the spectrum whose name was taken from an object (the fruit orange)

• Orange symbolizes energy, vitality, cheer, excitement, adventure, warmth, and good health. But it can also been seen as lacking intellectual values, a bad taste in colors, and not a very serious color.

• Orange is both the name and symbolic color of the royal family.

• Orange is often used as a "safety color" (such as construction cones and vests) due to its contrast to surroundings, especially to the blue sky.

Realistic Self-Portrait

The feedback I received was to extend the mouth past the lips, to add in my ears, and to lower my hairline. To extend my mouth I created shadows past the shape of my mouth to show that it goes further than just my lips. I added my ears by starting with the outline and shape and then adding value and shadows. It was a little difficult to make the ear not look like the hair it was next to. Finally, for lowering my hairline, I made the shape of it more define instead of an actual line of hair.

One thing that has definitely changed in the proportions and shape. In the the first they are all wrong but in the second they are much more accurate. Another thing would be the features. In the pre-instructional the features are more outlines and although they look like eyes, nose, mouth, etc., they don’t look like mine. The final major difference would be the value. In the first there is little/none and looks 2D. In the second you can see where the light is coming from, the shadows and shapes, and the different values in my features. Over all, I think that I have made a lot of improvement when comparing the two portraits.

Eyes, Nose, and Mouth Exercises

Purpose: To demonstrate understanding of the structure for each feature: eyes, nose, & mouth;

To practice using black & white charcoal to render a drawing, using brown paper as the middle value.

Hopes and Aspirations

One thing that definitely motivates me would be to make sure I am proud of what I am making. If I feel that a project I am working on is not my best or I can't get it right, then I get discouraged and the final result is not what I had hoped. It is best for me to take my time so my work is something that I feel I succeeded in doing and am proud of. One thing that a teacher can do to help me be successful is encouraging. When a teacher encourages and supports me to do my best and helps me with ideas I feel motivated to do the best work I can.