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.

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.

Lino Prints

Purpose:

• To become familiar with basic printmaking history, processes, and artists
• To make connections between the Expressionist Art Movement and artists who worked in that style, including artists from our past and present;
• To respond visually to artists who work(ed) in the style of the Expressionist Art Movement, by creating a work of art in this style.
• To print 2 editions of 2 different drawings/designs, demonstrating understanding of the printmaking process.

Response:

Throughout this process of creating prints I ran into a few problems. The first being: making a design. In making a design I had to balance the positive and negative space and at first that proved challenging. The next problem that I ran into was having too much or not enough ink, both turn out poorly. To fix this it is a lot of trial and error. Overall the problems that I encountered were overcome.

I am most proud of a few of my final prints (shown below) mostly because the contrast, sharpness, and composition overall are, in my mind, my best. I love the contrast of the white sailboat on the purple paper. The dog is an interesting design but I really love how it turned out on most of my prints.

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.

Artists Studied:

Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, and Paul Signac


Reflection:

In my final still life painting I used a loose rendition of the reality that I saw. I like this loose style because it is aesthetically pleasing to my eye. This is the same technique that I used on my second small still life. I used this technique because I felt that it would personalize my style and improve the painting as a whole. The imperfection in my painting was purposeful and improved the painting as a whole.
There are a few important things that I learned during this unit. Firstly, I learned that the first time you lay down paint It won’t look finished, or even close to perfect. I also learned that there are many steps to painting in order to get different effects. Lastly, I learned that it takes time and effort to create a finished piece. These are all very important to my art career and will help me paint better in the future. I look forward to painting another piece and seeing the development of my artwork over time.

Still-Life Studies

Purpose:

To use strong compositional skills to depict a fruit or vegetable,

To use knowledge of color and a variety of brush strokes to paint a still-life

As I begin my final still life I will remember to be careful not to get too picky about the details until I finish the painting. I think that the complimentary color scheme worked especially well when the background was dark and the subject bright. In my final piece I think I will paint a looser painting style and a complimentary color scheme.

Experimenting with Color and Painting Techniques

Purpose:

To review the meaning of color;

To practice mixing color and exploring a variety of brushstrokes

What is Still-Life?

         The art of still life is capturing a group or single inanimate object to represent different things. Throughout history the meanings of still lives have varied. They can reflect the status of the owner; for their symbolic meaning; to capture the natural beauty of the object; or as a controlled structure to express the abstract elements of the visual elements.
         Still lives have been drawn and painted since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Although there aren't many accounts of art history of that time we have one book by Pliny. This tells the stories of still lives of that time using them as competitions to fool your opponent. In that time the Romans used still lives to show off their technical skills of painting. Still lives were not seen as a way of expression.
         Before the 17th century many fruits had different meanings or symbols; for example the cherry heaven, and the pomegranate represented the resurrection of christ. However, during the Reformation, the demand of still lives shot up because of the increase in collectors. At this time still lives depicted lavish styles of living along with banquets. Another popular subject of a still life of that time were objects warning us of our mortality such as hour glasses, skulls, the burning candle, exc.
         It was not until the 18th century that still lives became a major art form. These were made famous by the work of Chardin.

The Color Red

Red is one of the top two favorite colors of all people

Red is the most popular color used on flags in the world. Approximately 77% of all flags include red.

In Russia, the word for "red" means beautiful.

Red is the color of good luck in Asia and is the most popular color in China.

Realistic Self Portrait

                Pre-Instructional Self-Portrait:

                        Final Self-Portrait:

   Through the drawing of the final self portrait we each got midpoint feedback. The three pieces of feedback that I got were: shorten the nose, bring down the eyebrows, and narrow the jawline. I included these pieces of feedback in my final work by using them and they improved my work a lot. 

      Looking at my pre-instructional self portrait and my self portrait I see that I have improved greatly over a short amount of time. I have improved the overall look of my portrait. my first portrait was very sketchy and my second was well defined. I have also improved in the realism of my facial features. I have made them look very close to my own where as before I was very off. Thirdly, I have improved in the proportions of my face. 

Eyes, Nose, and Mouth Exercise

Purpose:

To demonstrate understanding of the structure for each feature: eyes, nose, & mouth;

To practice using black & white charcoal to render a drawing, using brown paper as the middle value

Hopes and Aspirations

In art and other things in life many things can motivate me to be successful. One thing that helps is if other people around me are interested in their work. Another thing that helps is if I am interested in the project. I find that if a teacher is enthusiastic the work is easier for me. If the teacher explains thoroughly and demonstrates necessary parts of work it can become much easier. In this class I hope to learn how to further my skills in drawing and painting. I also hope to get some inspiration for my art career outside of school. I hope to get better at still lives and drawing from my mind. I hope that this class will go well and i will improve my artwork.