I believe that my most successful project this year in art 2 was my clay food project. The assignment was to create a food, for my table it was a dessert food, and make it using clay. We had to come up with several ideas before we started to actually build our projects. Then we found references and came up with some sketches to base our designs on. Once I had chosen to do the donettes I started making small strips with the clay that I then used the score and slip technique on to join the ends and make them into the oval shape. Doing this made it about the right size and also gave it a good shape in the middle to look like the actual donettes do. After shaping them out we fired them in the kiln. Then I began the painting process. I knew that if I really wanted to make them look real I needed to make the paint job as realistic as possible. I started out wish a wash that I then let dry. I mixed up several colors to make a deep brown color. Then I painted on three layers of the brown to make it look dark and shiny like the donettes do in real life. I also mixed a yellow color for the inside of the donut that is split open. All these processes that I did made the project pop and really look like the product that it was supposed to be. I think this project was my best because the clay donettes came out looking extremely realistic. I even offered one to my friend while we were setting them up in the library and he didn't realize it was fake until he tried to take a bite out of it.
We did a project and a couple of mini projects based on collaging. I felt that these were my least successful projects. These projects did not work out. When we were assigned these, we were told to make a collage that fit together as a whole and worked to fit a certain list of topics that we were given. I struggled to come up with anything that would make sense. I was unable to come up with a good concept for any of the pieces. The final project, the alladin and the genie, was the only one that I felt came out ok. If I could go back and change something I would come up with better ideas and better ideas to fully use the materials we had and the techniques we learned. I tried to do picture transfers using tape in the middle and they didn't come out clear enough to be able to tell what it was. I had to go back with a sharpie and outline things to make them stand out. In the final project I painted a canvas to look like a magic carpet, then I covered it with a layer of gesso to make it appear faded. I think this worked well because it allows the rest of the layers to stand out and not be overpowered by the background. Overall I just did not like these projects. It was hard to understand what was expected of us then it was difficult to form a concept and carry it out using the supplies and time given.
These two drawings were done in colored pencil. The chickfila drawing was my first project and the dum dum drawing was done later on in the semester. I believe these demonstrate my growth well because they are easily comparable. It shows that over the semester I learned how to better use the material to show depth, color, and use proper shading. The first drawing looks as if it was done in a hurry so the colors are not done well and there is not much detail in the picture. The second one is much clearer showing a lot more of the detail that was in the object. My ability to look at something and pick up the small things and show those in my work is something that improved and helped to make my projects better. I was able to examine different things and not see just the big picture but the finer details as well. Throughout the semester I also started to pay more attention the instructions that Mrs. Rossi gave. I learned the techniques that she showed us and tried to implement them in my work. With each piece of art we did I improved greatly in using each medium and how to use it to achieve a better effect. Looking through the mini lessons then going into the actual final project there is a definite difference in how well I was able to apply the skills I learned from each lesson and improve my work.
I feel that these two mini lessons using acrylic and water color paint were very helpful. The acrylic painting helped me to first learn how to mix the paint to achieve the different shades and colors that I needed to make my picture look like the section of the actual painting I was assigned. I liked doing this because it also helped me to pay attention to all the small details that you might not see if you were to look at just the full scale drawing. It was interesting to then match up the several parts from the full painting with those of the people who had other sections from it. It was fun to see how they lined up and if the matched at all. I feel that this mini lesson was a good introduction to using the acrylic paint and helped me be able to use it much better when I did my final project with it. Even though we didn't do a real final project using the water color paint I enjoyed using the water color to paint the apples. I learned from the video tutorials the different techniques used with water color but I didn't really know how to implement them into an actual picture until we did the apple. I started it with a gradient shade of green that was lighter where I saw the highlights. I tried to use the resist but it didn't work out so well. I used several layers of the transparent red and yellow over the green layers to show all the different colors that are actually in the apple. Then to finish it off and give it a definite form I used the dry brush technique to put in the detail and outline of the apple. I think in both of these examples we had plenty of instruction in order to complete the assignments successfully.
My favorite medium to work with was definitely the prisma color colored pencils. I liked using them because they blended together very well in a way that I could still get the detail I like but also achieve the mixed colors that you get from paint. I enjoyed drawing my cat "Fuzz Bucket" with the colored pencils because I could do it in an interesting, non-normal color scheme and achieve a much deeper level of detail than I would have been able to with other mediums. The pencil was a perfect tool for getting all the fine fur that was visible in the pictures I had as references. Another reason I liked pencil/colored pencil is because it is much easier to do shading and use the light to show shape and definition than it is with other mediums. In the lollipop drawing i used the shading to show all the folds and odd angles in the wrapper where in the drawings of other things that we did using pastel and chalk it was much harder to get the colors right and the right intensities of light and dark to show the folds and creases in the wrapper. I feel like I have more control when I use the pencils than with materials such as paint. Overall I liked colored pencil the most because I believe that my projects with it came out looking the best and I enjoyed drawing much more than the other forms of art that we did such as painting, sculpting, or collaging. I had fun in this class and I'm very glad I took another it. I met some good friends and enjoyed having Mrs. Rossi as my teacher. I will miss going to art next semester. Who knows, maybe I'll take art 3 next year.