Final Thoughts

     One highlight was the still-life. At first I didn't like using acrylics or capturing the likeness of objects, but by the end of the unit I felt more confident with the paints and felt like I was getting the objects on the canvas fairly accurately.
     Another highlight was the imaginative self portrait. I loved the fact that not everything was set in stone, and that it was me, so I could fill my head in the way I am and the way I feel. It looked like everyone had fun with this unit and came out proud of their work. I was pretty proud of my work, but it didn't really come out how I imagined it.
     The last highlight was the watercolors. The painting that I am working on will probably end up being my favorite. Even when we just started working with the watercolors, I felt it kind of click, I really like the way that watercolors don't give second chances, and that if you make a mistake you have to take that mistake and try to turn it into something beautiful.
     These experiences impacted my learning because they made me like art more, and looking back, they have taught me important life lessons as well. Like when something doesn't turn out the way I imagine it, I have to look at it in a different light, and accept it and take it in for the way it is. Also, if you make a mistake, there won't be second chances, the only hope is to approve upon the mistake, or take the mistake and make it into something worth being proud of. They taught me things about my life that I didn't even realize at the time, and they helped me look inside. They have given me a different outlook on the outside world and the way things work.

Work of Art I am Most Proud Of

I am most proud of the still-life painting. At first I wasn't good with the acrylic paint or capturing the likeness of objects. But after a long while spent on the struggle bus I started to enter a flow. Mixing the paints and putting them on the canvas became easier. This impacted my learning because it's made me realize that even if something is hard, if you stick at it, there's a possibility of improving the quality of my work. I feel like I really pulled through on this painting, and it's one of my favorites of the year.

Watercolor Techniques

Purpose: To experiment and learn a variety of watercolor techniques

The most important concepts I learned from the watercolor practice techniques is to start light, how to layer on paint, and how unforgiving watercolors are. Layering on color after color will make the color darker, but too much water and paint will break down the paper. The thing about watercolors is that once you put paint down, you can never get the white back, so before painting use masking fluid or tape to cover the parts you want to keep white. Also, if you put a dark color on the paper, you can not make it lighter. Watercolors are so unforgiving that if you so much as let a drop of water land on your painting where you don't want it, the whole painting could be ruined. This could be bad but it's also good. It teached me to be careful what I do because there aren't second chances.

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.

Responses:
I said that I wanted to work with yellows, reds, oranges, and browns. I used a blue/purple/green background, but besides that most of the colors I used were the ones I wanted to practice with such as in the starfish, the seashell, the wood, and the blocks. I also wanted to use a textured background which I got by mixing paints on the canvas I was using, while painting it.
 I felt like the background was the easiest part, I just layered on paint then mixed. It was a time to let the part of me that likes abstract peek through in my painting. I also learned how to mix colors much better. One of my challenges was shadows. I overcame my inability to make the shadows seem right by just trying something and going with it until it looked decent then going back and glossing over it.

Perspective Strategies

1. Linear perspective is the organization of shapes in space using straight lines to create an idea of an object's size and 3D shape.

2. Aerial perspective is the organization of the atmospheric effects on tones and colours and the way colors change depending on their distance from the eye.

3A, Horizon Line: It is a point of reference used to judge the scale and distance of objects in relation to us. In perspective drawing, the horizon happens to be the viewer's eye-level. In art, the term 'eye level', is used rather than 'horizon' because in many pictures, the horizon is hidden by walls, buildings, trees, hills etc.

3B, Vanishing Point: The point at which receding parallel lines viewed in perspective appear to converge.

3C, Orthogonal Lines: Lines pointing to the vanishing point. The lines are parallel to the ground plane and move back from the picture plane and they set the varying heights or widths of a rectangular plane and always appear to meet at a vanishing point on the eye level.

3D, Transversal Lines: Lines that establish a fixed height or width between two orthogonal lines, and lines that form the nearest and furthest edges of a rectangle as it recedes from view.

Still-Life Studies

When I start my final still-life I want to remember to start with the background and slowly layer on paints. I also want to be less cautious and remember that acrylic paints are forgiving. I can make a mistake and fix it by layering more paint on. The orange scheme worked better for me than the blues, so I want to work with yellows, reds, oranges, and browns. The only thing about that is that I have a hard time creating a shade for orange, but that will be a good thing to learn. I also want to use a slightly textured background of one color, or one color and different shades of it.

What is Still-life?

     Still-life is the showing of an everyday object depicted in a painting or drawing or sculpture. More importantly it helps an artist understand lighting and shading. Still-life can be tracked back to Egyptian art, but it is still used in the modern world. Some artists like to make still-life portraits traditionally, but some have taken a new approach to it.
     I chose this image, Made in China Blue painted by Gigi Boyle because I really like how the color of the white and blue stood out from the brown background. I also liked the amount of extreme, careful detail. I liked the way Boyle shaded it, it looks like the sunlight is shining into a darker room from a window. The bright blue and the stacked bowls drew my attention. I love the way Boyle shows the precarious balance of the stack of bowls. This could influence my work by making me want to use more detail, but still concentrate on the bigger picture and create a beautiful painting.

How might any aspect of this influence your work?