Art 1 Final

When working on your art in this course you had a range of choices in each project.  This was the first year Apex's art department used the "Open Art Room."  Do you feel that this range and choice encouraged you to grow as an artist?  Please explain how it did, if not, explain how it in.

I really enjoyed having an Open Art Room this semester.  I enjoyed being given a theme, because that gave me something to work with, to directly channel my energy into.  I also enjoyed being given a selection of mediums helped me explore what I liked to work in best, but it also allowed me to focus on a specified medium and get better at working with it.  For example, I got really into using pencil at the beginning of this semester, and though my first piece was absolute trash (well, not absolute, it was pretty near close), I tried pencil again, with a different objective, it looked about a bajagillion times better.  I was also able to play with oil pastels and charcoal in the Open Art Room arrangement, which I love almost as much as I love pencil.  I felt much more comfortable and productive when I was allowed to see a goal and work towards it using whatever I could lay my hands on.

This is one of my first pencil drawings.

This is one of my later pencil drawings, with ink over the pencil.

And, I also got to play around with oil pastels!

What was a technique you used in your artwork that worked well?  Explain what technique it was and why it was successful.

Ever since I was kid, I've wondered why there were lines around things in drawings.  I mean, there aren't black lines around objects and people in real life.  In fifth grade, I learned about smudging, drawing your finger over the paper to blend the lines, and in sixth grade I became aware, that some places on the human face are darker than others. I tried to use those principles in my drawing, with little success.  Then we were shown an video in class, something on how to draw noses, lips, and eyes.

      For, like, three days straight I would doodle noses, eyes, and lips everywhere.  In the margins of all my health notes, on my math homework . . . I had never actually tried to draw something with the use of only shadow, using lines only as a guiding tool. Well, other than my failure of a sea-monster project, which didnt' exhibit that principle to well.  

       Anyway, the technique I learned and applied was shading, as well as how to draw the parts of a human face. Now, I shade absolutely everything, even my doodles, and I'll complain when I see things that aren't shaded correctly in ads.  

This was a picture I did of my younger brother that was entered in several art shows.  Note the shading.

This is a doodle of the dragon Rheagal.  Note the shading.

Regardless of whether you liked or disliked a project, which one did you learn, grow, or develop the most from?  Please explain.

I believe I developed the most from the Sculpture project.  I enjoyed the outcome of book-carving, though little did I realize when I signed up for it just how tedious it was going to be. Previously, I have believed myself to be as patient as Mother Teresa herself, and this project gave me a better insight.  Or a slap in the face, whatever imagery you prefer.  The project also helped me to understand that I can just go with it and it will be okay, eventually, because you can go back and fix things, and also; taking a break from frustrating things will not mean the end of the world.  

      I will have to finish the Sculpture project over the summer, because I haven't finished telling the story, but when I do it will be with multiple breaths and the aroma of lavender. I can do this, self.  And things will be better, now that I have a clearer self-image.

This took three weeks for me to finish. But, now I have something to
proudly rest on my coffee table!

This squirrel was so bloody annoying. You have no idea.

Choose one piece of art that you used skills and techniques learned from previous projects.  Discuss your growth as an artist and how you incorporated these skills and techniques to create the piece.

Ha. Ha. I could talk about shading all day long.  The first 'professional' piece which I attempted to shade was the sea-dragon Color Project.  The second piece which I tried shading was the Portrait Project, using my brother's face.  Of course, there were multiple sketchbook pages in between the two attempts--Illustration Fridays and planning and whatnot--but I took some of what I learned from the sea-dragon and applied it to my brother. Such as the shading on the nose.  The sea-dragon doesn't have a nose so much as a ridge of bone in the middle of its face, but it's not a steep rise, it sort of blends into the face, much like a nose.  So, instead of using a line to define that bit of the face, I tried to use shadows and light.  When I tried this again, on a real nose, it turned out much better than it had on the sea-dragon.
         So, my growth as an artist over these two pieces was my increased ability to differentiate values and apply them to the structure with more precision.  With the sea-dragon, I was hesitant, not wanting to make the shadows too dark or the lights too light, but I learned my lesson, and with my brother's face let myself color as dark as needed and erased at my leisure.

As much as I tried to make shadows, not lines, the shadows would always blend into the other
oil pastels, making it really hard to tell that I'd shaded at all.

And, because my blog is acting all wonky, I cannot use the actual final portrait of my brother, but this is a planning sketch I did. the proportions are a bitoff,but the shading still looks correct,
especially around the cheeks.