Follow Your Own Path (Collage)

      For the collage project, I created a nature themed background with a road leading to infinity. This work is intending to show that you are the one who decides your future and anything can happen on the way. I used several pictures as my background and used gesso to soften them and make them blend together more. I used paint to write the quote on the road that I cut out of paper. 

     I had trouble deciding on a good way to portray my thoughts and had to try several different things. I chose to do a waged out background so that the path and shadow would be the main focus. I wasn't sure how the gesso would turn out because I had never used it before but I think it was a good choice after seeing the results. 

     I appreciated the help and opinions I got from others because it helped me see my work from another point of view. I also took the time to step back and look at my work for a moment before continuing a couples times. This helps to adjust some items that were not placed in the best way possible and take off or add other items. For example, my first idea was to have the background a sky blue as you can see below: 

I was also planning on creating the path with the pictures but after testing out different ways to place everything, I realized that this wasn't the best way to do this project. I decided to paint the background black and add pictures on top of that.

     The path that I was originally going to do is still there but it is made out of different materials than I had imagined with the quote written on the path. And the shadow walking away from you. 

Macaroons

     For my clay piece, my theme was to make desserts and I chose to make macaroons. I chose to make three macaroons of various colors and flavors, a yellow one, a pink one, and a green macaroon to make the plate look more appetizing. I decided to use acrylic paint for the macaroons to allow me to mix colors and create different shades and tints. I feel that I was able to create a more realistic piece than if I had used glaze. I also made a small white plate out of clay to place the macaroons, which I painted with glaze to create the shiny finish of a glass plate. 

     This project allowed me to work more with a median that I have struggled with before. I used techniques that I had already learned but I was able to gain more skill with those techniques and try them for different types of projects. 

     I was glad to have the opinions of other people with this project because it allows for a different perspective on the project that I could not see myself because I had been working on the pieces the entire time. It also let me take a minute to step back and try and see what I was missing or what needed to be improved and I was able to create my final piece to the best of my abilities. 

Clock Hands

      For this project, I drew close ups of clock hands in colored pencil. My first idea was to do one particular area of the clock blown up but after a few sketches, I realized that when I put all the views together like a puzzle, it makes the drawing more interesting. After I finished drawing the clocks in pencil, I chose to use colored pencil as my median. I used various blues and golds as the main color, which was unique compared to other clocks. I also used grey, as my background, and black, for some the details such as the numbers. 

     Throughout this project, I was able to try new techniques with the colored pencils that include shading and layering. As I was working, I changed my first ideas with the colors after testing out different options. I decided to go with blue and gold for the clock hands because those are two colors that I love and that represent me. 

     At various points in this project I had to take a step back to see where I needed to work more and what seemed finished. It also helped me what needed to be changed completely or altered a little bit. I also appreciated the help I got from others because it brought other opinions and ideas to make the final product look better. 

     

     

Chalk, Oil Pastel, and Colored Pencil

Chalk

This was the first time that I used chalk and I had difficulties blending the different colors to create  smooth, realistic surface. I had trouble creating values and colors I wanted. I learned how to gain control of the chalk better and blend the colors to make a realistic drawing. Overall, I think that I could have done better on my final chalk project by paying more attention to details and adding more values. 

Colored Pencil

I liked using colored pencil because it was easier for me than the other materials we experienced with for these projects. Also, I like the different shades and colors I can create with pencil and I was able to create a more realistic drawing. I learned how to using lights and darks to create shadows and highlights in the drawing. My final product is not what I was hoping it would turn out to be but I think the lollipop itself is not bad with the highlights but I should of added more details on the background.

Oil Pastel 

I had used oil pastels before but I never really like it before. I like more now that I have gotten to practice it with this project. I learned how to use the different colors overlapping to create a more realistic drawing and add highlights. I like how the oil pastels easily overlapped and mixed together on its own. I believe this project  was my most successful out of the three we did. 

Bottles

 My painting is in the style of Wayne Thiebaud who is still alive and painting to this day. Wayne painted simple items the way he remembered them and without looking at pictures or examples of the item he was painting. His work is very colorful with plain backgrounds. Thiebaud painted a lot of foods such as cakes and candies and drinks, which he would create a pattern with. For example, he did a painting of gumball machines, but instead of only painting one machinf he painted three of them. He also painted landscapes later on on his career. 

   A painting by Waybe Thiebaud:

 I decided to paint three colorful coke bottles next to each other on a gray background to represent his simple but colorful work. I decided to paint one bottle that was blue at the top and pink at the bottom, another bottle that was yellow at the top and green at the bottom, and the last bottle is orange at the top and red on the bottom. All of these bottles have a purple shadow because Wayne always used blue or purple shadows on his paintings. 

 I changed my project as I was sketching and after asking others what they thought. My first idea was one huge coke bottle with more details on it but I decided that having more than one bottle represented Wayne's style of art more. I really like this project and I had fun with it even though I have always struggled with paint. I learned how to create smoother strokes and add make brighter, nicer colors with what I had. I think my project turned out pretty good but I believe that I could have done a better job with it and could had added more details to it. 

My final painting:

Perspective Project: Rose and Keys

   My idea for this project was to portray one of my hobbies, playing the piano, in a unique and different way. My piece uses my own ideas because I took pictures of my keyboard at home in different perspectives and compositions to help me throughout this project. Also, I added something different to create a new composition; I added a colorful rose to a black and white drawing to add a pop to the piece and make it more interesting. 

   Throughout this unit, I learned new ways to shade with pencil, apply values to colored drawings, and create more realistic perspective drawings. The first technique I was able to learn more on and improve in was drawing in perspective. I got to test out new tricks and draw out many objects from small to large and objects that are close up and father away. I practiced looking carefully at an object and drawing what I see instead of what I thought that object should look like and add shading correctly. Shading was another huge part in the process of this project and I am now able to create the different values from light to dark better than what I did before. Using pencil as a main media was not completely new to me and was always one of my favorites but now I am much more familiar with it than I was and can make objects more realistic and three dimension using the correct values and shading techniques. The last technique I learned was adding value to colored drawings. I was not familiar with this media and did not know how to create shadows and values to make an object more realistic using colored pencil. This project allowed me to explore that media more. 

   Before starting to draw my piece, I planned out what I was going to do by taking photos of a piano in the perspective I wanted to draw the keys. I also created different compositions to take pictures of and this helped me see how it would all look on paper. My first idea was to create many keys in perspective but after my first sketch I noticed that this idea did not look as good as I would have like it to. After doing a few more sketches, I decided my best option was to draw a few keys up close. I felt this looked nicer and neater. I drew a larger version of this idea but it was very interesting and that is why I came up with the idea to add an object with the keys, which ended up being the rose. As I was working on my final piece, I would often to a break to step back and look at how my drawing looked and see what needed improvement. Taking a step back to look at it helped to analyze what really needed to be improved and see how others would be looking at my work.  

    This project turned out to be fun in my opinion because I got to somewhat challenge myself and use one of my favorite medias. I also found nice to be able to ask others around me about what they thought of my work and give me feedback on what they thought should be improved or what already looked good. Overall, I found my piece to be a success.