Final Thoughts

       In this semester of art, I have learned a lot. I have learned a lot about art, and also my own art style. I have found what kinds of art I like, and would like to pursue, and ones that I don't like. I love painting with watercolor; which I will continue this summer. Acrylic is fun, but it has less practicality and I may pursue it in the future. I will continue with charcoal and improve with it before I continue to AP art in my senior year of high school. I am passionate about art and will continue improving because it is a lifelong skill that I have.

Work of Art That I am Most Proud of

        This work is my final acrylic painting. I am most proud of this mostly because I feel that it turned out the best but also because I spent the most time on it. I spent more than five class periods along with out of class time to finish this piece. It was difficult to paint due to the amount of lighting and shadowing because of the numerous subjects of this piece. I love how this turned out and I think that it captures the fruit very well. When I continue art out of school, acrylic will be a medium that I may focus on.

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. 

Reflection: In our final painting, we were asked to use at least four techniques that we learned during this unit. The first that I used was saran wrap; this creates some darker areas in the waves. The second technique that I used was drawing with the back end of my brush, this added texture to rocks. The third technique I used was wet on wet painting, I used this to blend the sky and give it gradation. The fourth, but not final, technique I used, was whisking and stamping, which I used to give the trees texture. These techniques worked well in my painting and added a nice touch. The most important piece of watercolor that I learned during this unit is that watercolor is unlike acrylic paint in the way that once a mark is made, it is almost impossible to undo. 

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.

Response:
Throughout the practice I have learned much. Water color is so different from acrylic in the sense that less is sometimes more. In both of the paints, layering is a necessary technique, but in watercolor, if you layer too much the paper becomes distorted and it will ruin the painting. In the uppermost picture I practiced different techniques, in the second I practiced layering and in the third I learned a few more.

Colored Pencil Perspective Drawing

Purpose:

To review the perspective strategies that you learned;

To make connections between what you learned and demonstrating your understanding by creating a drawing using one of the perspective strategies.

Response:
In creating this perspective drawing i used arial perspective. This perspective shows depth by making the background hazier and bluer along with making the front crisper and more saturated. I showed a broken-down farm and a dead tree in the foreground and rolling hills and mountains in the middle and backgrounds. I tried to make this colored pencil drawing dark and finished, and it worked well.

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.

History:

Watercolor was first used in egyptian cave paintings by mixing pigments with water. These primitive paintings can date back as far as 15,000 BCE.

Albrecht Durer is considered the man we give credit to for the modern day watercolor. He has many amazing pieces and mastered the ways of watercolor. He painted detailed landscapes as well as still lives. One piece that I found Incredible is this:

Albrecht Durer

The Wing of a Roller

1512

Two other noteworthy watercolor artists are Anthony Van Dyck, 1599-1641, and  Claude Lorraine, a 17th century artist. Anthony’s work is colorful and sort of minimal but has a very whimsical look to it. this piece shows depth even though it is a fairly close viewed painting.

Anthony Van Dyck

Landscape

1632

Claude’s work is blotchy and simple yet shows detail and the viewer is able to see a scene. Most of his other work is highly detailed.

Claude Lorraine

Landscape with River, View of the Tiber from Monte Mario, Rome

1640

In the 1800s and early 1900s the art form became very much in demand and there were many exhibitions . National academies of watercolor artists were formed in most western nations. The Canadian Society of Painters in Water Color was founded in 1925. At this point watercolor was at its peak.

In the 1700s women were coloring black and white prints with watercolor for fun. In the 1800s it became a very serious art form for women, especially in Europe. It became a tutor based art form that even Queen Victoria took up.

In the late 1970s and 80s there was a revival of interest in old watercolor paintings. The ones that survived from the old academies were cherished. There are a few types of  watercolors used today most of them are earth-friendly, but there are also many high quality watercolors with some experimentation on glazes to protect the art.

Perspective Homework

Definitions:

Linear Perspective- A mathematical system for creating the illusion of space and distance on a flat surface such as a canvas or wall.

Horizon Line- In perspective this line is drawn across the canvas at the viewer's eye 

level. It represents the line in nature where the sky appears to meet the ground.

Vanishing point- The single point in a picture where all parallel lines that run from the viewer to the horizon line appear to come together. The vanishing point is generally placed at the viewer's eye level.

Orthogonal Lines- Straight diagonal lines drawn to connect points around the edges of a picture to the vanishing point. They represent parallel lines receding into the distance and help draw the viewer's eye into the depth of the picture.

Transversal Lines- a line that connects two orthogonal lines.

One point perspective- It is a perspective in which all parallel lines meet at a single point on the horizon.

Two point perspective- It is a perspective in which all parallel lines meet at two different points on the horizon, both 90˚ from the object.

Practices:

1. One Point Perspective:

One point perspective shows all of the orthogonal lines going back to one point shown with cubes

2. Perspective of a Circle:

This is showing the perspective of a circle as an ellipse in a one point perspective 

3. Showing Depth:

This shows depth using a one point perspective with a subject of trees 

4. Showing Depth:

This shows depth using a one point perspective and color: Another way to make the paper seem like it has depth is by making the background blue and hazy

5. Two Point Perspective:

Two point perspective is shown by looking at a cube from an edge and having all orthogonal lines lead to two points on the horizon line.