Art 1 Final Portfolio

1.    Which project was your favorite or most successful this semester? Please explain.

      The landscape painting was my most successful project this semester.  I took a long time on it, but I think that the end product is very rewarding.  I'm proud of myself for taking the time to make it as perfect as it can be so that I'm happy with it.  For this project, I tried really hard to incorporate a lot of different shades and values.  The shadows in my reference picture were very difficult to replicate.  I tried doing extreme darks on the flowers, but it looked so unnatural that I decided to blend it with the yellow.  I love the flowers and the leaves in this painting.  I think the different colors create a cool effect, and I love the red edges on the petals.  The cool thing was that I took this picture in my front yard one day, and it was neat that I could take a pretty picture and then paint it to have a different and unique end result.  I am a little bit disappointed in the background leaves.  I didn't know exactly how to replicate the blurry background in the picture; I think what I ended up with is fine but I think my leaves are all going in the same direction and wish that could be fixed.  Overall, I think this was a great way to end the semester.  I was able to apply my knowledge of shades, tones, darks, lights, intensity, and focal point to this painting to create a pleasing final product.

2.    Regardless of whether you liked or disliked a project, which one did you learn, grow, or developed the most from? Please explain.

     I did not like the contour line unit.   I thought this was a very tedious and drawn out project.  I don't think that it was necessary to spend so long on this, but it did teach me a lot about something I have never done.  I learned how to draw things with better proportion and to draw exactly what I saw.  I thought it was cool to take different objects and draw them, and seeing what I could do before and after the unit showed how much I  grew and learned over the course of the drawings.  I learned how to draw something realistic right in front of me, and that was a good learning experiance.

3.    Choose 1 piece of Art that you used skills and techniques learned from previous projects. Discuss your growth as an artist and how you incorporated these skills and techniques to create the piece.

     For this particular project, we made clay tiles of a featured animal from a biome.  Our pieces were 3D, adding a really cool look.  We used knowledge from previous projects for this product.  Before we started painting, we learned about colors and color theories, and how the colors work together to create a specific atmosphere.  We painted a practice packet, and that gave us a lot of background help.  Also, before I painted my tile, I painted my landscape canvas.  I got to explore a lot with colors and shadows on that, and I was able to use that knowledge when I painted my tile afterwards.  I added some different colors to parts of the tile, and that was really exciting.  Unfortunately, the tile was smaller and simpler than the canvas, but I tried to add some colors and some darker areas for shading.  I've grown as an artist because I know much more about colors and how you can make something look realistic.

4.    Which project do you feel was the least important in learning the concepts taught in this course?  Please explain.

      I thought that the spray paint stencil was the least important in this course.  I feel like it was a neat thing to learn about, but the long and drawn out process wasn't really worth it.  It took long, excruciating precision to trace the picture so many times and then spray paint it numerous times, only to waste paint and time.  I think that all we learned with this was how to trace and use stencils, which is pretty much common sense, and how to spray paint, which as cool as it is, it's not a very practical thing to use outside of art class.  This was a fun thing to experiment with, but considering the time allotted for it and the process, it grew very draining and unnecessary.

5.    Choose a piece or artwork where the subject matter reflects you as an artist. One that you have a personal connection to. Please explain your choice.

     The self portrait reflects me as an artist- literally!  My personal connection is that I have done a few similar pieces to this.  For Christmas a couple of years ago, I got a book on how to draw dogs from photographs.  I have done a couple, and I did a lot of similar shading techniques as I used with this one.  I also like to draw realistic things, and this is one talent I am working on in Art.  I think that this was a pretty successful piece.  It looks somewhat like me, which is cool to see and also a good way to see what I need to improve.  I like all different kinds of art, and being creative is something that I love to do.  I also look forward to growing and learning more in the coming years!