Art 1 Final Portfolio

second attempt -letter U

first attempt -letter U

QA) This semester I've grown as an artist and these pictures show it. The first one is my first attempt of the Letter U. I thought I'd done a pretty good job on the first attempt and that my shading made the drawing seem realistic.I decided to redo this drawing because I wanted to get more details in my drawing and different values in my shading.In my second drawing, the fingers look  more realistic and for the first time this semester, I actually tried to get the details of the palm.I also included different values like the highlights on the thumb and top two fingers.I also tried to include a bounce light on the knuckle of  the 4th finger.Over the semester I've learnt how important it is to include all the detail you can, and to pay more attention to following the detail not what you think the detail should be like.Also if you want to include a specific perspective  its important to include highlights and darker shades in the right way.I think I payed more attention to all this in the second drawing than in the first.

My JFK portrait

The JFK picture I used

Q4from part B)
If I were to redo any project I did this semester it would be my sculpture project, which was the cardboard relief portrait of JFK. The idea for this project came from a Pinterest picture of a cardboard relief of someone's face. I wanted to do a similar portrait of  a famous person and I liked the challenge associated with having to make my relief portrait recognizable to my audience.When I started by simply projecting a picture I'd chosen of JFK and drawing it, that turned out well and you could kind of recognize him. I think when I actually started carving the cardboard I realized a couple of mistakes I'd made. Firstly, I hadn't planned what parts I was going to carve out, so I mis-carved somethings. For example, in the picture I chose JFK is resting his head on his hands which are both crossed together. I should've carved the outline of his hands and fingers and made one hand darker than the other but I carved in between the fingers and it looked pretty awkward. To cover up this mistake I decided to paint over it, but it didn't work. Another mistake was with the overall proportion and positioning. His head was wide and beneath his ear there should've been a neck. I also should've used a color picture of him if I was going to make a portrait of him in color; the picture I'd chosen of him had was black and white with a lot value which I should've maintained. If I could do this again I'd chose a black and white picture of him that clearly shows his face, I would plan my carving out before I did it, I would carve more than I've done in this picture, the only paint I would use would be to add value, highlights and maybe even dark brown for his hair.



Q6 from part B)

This semester taking risks allowed me to improve as an artist.In one of my first projects we were supposed to draw an object, and I chose to draw an apple. I challenged myself by drawing it from a different perspective and every now and then I had to step back and analyze my work to see if it was still recognizable. Another risk was including a yellowish gleam that blended in with the local color. I wasn't sure if it would blend in that well and look natural but I decided to try out it out.By taking these risk I saw how it payed off to take them in the first place and how they made my art more realistic.In the style project I also challenged myself by making an optical illusion of my own. Dali makes it seem easy, but it took a lot of thinking and planning to get it right. I'm glad to have tried it out because I saw how forced perspective makes a difference in your artwork. In my second sculpture, I also challenged myself. The word I was carving was long in width and height, I didn't see how it could stand up on the thin base. I finally decided to make the base wide and it worked out because the sculpture could stand in the end.Taking risks and challenging myself helped me be more creative with my art, incorporate forced perspective, try out making something new and different like an optical illusion, and it encouraged me to find a solution when problems arose.

Q7 from section B)

This semester the medium I enjoyed working with the most was oil pastels. Although they can make your hands pretty dirty I enjoyed working with it because of the many techniques it allows. For example in the Space-theme project I used oil pastels.For the planet on which the aliens are standing, I used the scumbling technique, and by applying it many layers, it gave the planet a unique texture and let it seem more realistic. For the Saturn planet I used techniques like burnishing and added highlights to make it seem like the light from the spaceship was falling upon it.
For the 2 in 1 project I also used oil pastels which stood out and contrasted well with the black and white text background. I liked how oil pastels burnish when you apply it in layers to create a vibrant color and unique texture. Using this technique I colored the flamingoes with peach red yellow and white oil pastels.it burnished well and the flamingoes had a natural color.Overall I like how vibrant oil pastels can be on paper because it helps produce a contrast in your artwork. I like how if you make a mistake, you can simply add more layers of oil pastel to cover it up.I also enjoyed exploring highlights,core shadows and cast shadows in one of our warmups with oil  pastels.


Q8from part B)
With my artwork I got to chose what direction I wanted to take and what materials I was going to use and overall this helped me enhance my art skills. The biggest example was the identity project because you could do whatever you wanted with your artwork. Without an exact direction I spent a couple of days trying out new ideas but I didn't like any of them. Finally I started doodling on my coffee cup and liking the result I decided I would turn this into my identity project. Thus not having exact directions on what to do and how to do it helped me find a more creative and unique approach and take risks.I worked on a unfamiliar medium like the coffee cup and used dried paint flakes to make the balloons. Similarly in the style project, choices were pretty open; you could chose whatever artist you wanted and imitate his style however you wanted. This was efficient for me because I could explore art history and chose an artist based on artwork that I liked. I would have been less enthusiastic about imitating someone's style if the artist had been assigned to me. It also encouraged me to take a risk  and try to make an optical illusion similar to that of Salvador Dali. I liked having open choices with my artwork because it encouraged me to take risks and explore unique ideas and mediums.

  

art 1 fleet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THanks for the cookies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111