1. Which project was your most successful? Describe the theme and or topic and the process you went through to complete the project. Were the choices you made regarding material, size, technique, etc beneficial to enhancing this project. Please explain.
I think my most successful project has to be either my landscape painting or my clay project in terms of how much I like the way they've turned out. Examining all variables -- I've never done a clay project I've actually liked before this one, this is my first time using copious amounts of glue in a project, I've never painted a landscape before, I prefer oil over acrylic, etc -- I would probably say my painting is the most successful out of the two, because it's a little cleaner in appearance than the clay project is. The painting is of the shallow part of a river in the mountains, with trees making up most of the background and rocks making up most of the foreground. I sketched everything out before I painted it, but I ended up changing a lot of things, such as the trees and the amount of rocks. I switched between painting the rocks and painting the trees at the beginning, because I was nervous to start painting the water. I spent the majority of my time fixing the reflections cast by the trees. It was the hardest part of the painting, and I ended up changing the colors of the water many times. I think the sizes of everything are pretty accurate, though, especially for my first time doing a landscape. I like the choices I made for this project, especially the inclusion of gold leaf and gold, red, and orange paints in the trees. Without the mentioned additions, I don't think my project would have turned out the same.
I think my most successful project has to be either my landscape painting or my clay project in terms of how much I like the way they've turned out. Examining all variables -- I've never done a clay project I've actually liked before this one, this is my first time using copious amounts of glue in a project, I've never painted a landscape before, I prefer oil over acrylic, etc -- I would probably say my painting is the most successful out of the two, because it's a little cleaner in appearance than the clay project is. The painting is of the shallow part of a river in the mountains, with trees making up most of the background and rocks making up most of the foreground. I sketched everything out before I painted it, but I ended up changing a lot of things, such as the trees and the amount of rocks. I switched between painting the rocks and painting the trees at the beginning, because I was nervous to start painting the water. I spent the majority of my time fixing the reflections cast by the trees. It was the hardest part of the painting, and I ended up changing the colors of the water many times. I think the sizes of everything are pretty accurate, though, especially for my first time doing a landscape. I like the choices I made for this project, especially the inclusion of gold leaf and gold, red, and orange paints in the trees. Without the mentioned additions, I don't think my project would have turned out the same.
2. Look at your body of work over the semester and choose 2 pieces that show your growth as an artist. Discuss each piece and how you grew in the following areas: application of materials, techniques and skills, artistic vision, use of the principles and elements, creativity, intuition and subject matter.
The pieces that I think show my growth as an artist are the pen & ink project and the clay project. These are the two mediums I hadn't really had much practice with, but after these projects I really grew to like pen drawings and clay. I even decided that over the summer I'm going to add more layers of fruit to my clay project. I want to do one for every color of the rainbow, starting with the already finished cherries and ending with blackberries. I used to hate clay, but now I think I've gotten a lot better at it. Doing this clay project really helped me. I learned new techniques and how to add texture to projects without it looking messy. I also learned that you're supposed to make sculptures hollow and not just blocks of clay, which I didn't know before.
The pen drawing was another thing that helped me improve. Before this project, I was nervous to use pen in big projects because I didn't know how to add value, but during this project I improved a lot. I've been drawing a lot in pen recently, and I think I've improved even more due to practice. Learning how to do hatching and stippling was very beneficial to me, and I was really happy with how my final pen drawing turned out. Looking at pen drawings I did during freshman year and comparing them to the ones I do now, I can definitely see a difference in skill.
4. Look over the blogs of other students in our class. Choose a piece of artwork from one of your classmates that you feel is an exemplary showcase of what the project was to depict. Think about how the artist used the medium, utilized the elements of art and design principles, was original with their ideas and went beyond their comfort zone or the realm of the requirements. Make sure you have the image of their artwork along with their name (first name only) posted with this response.
I really liked Tiffany's clay project. I think it looks super realistic, and her display was very creative. I liked her use of the glass bowl, and it really tied everything together and made it look even better. I think she got the shapes of the chocolate down perfectly. She didn't just make them perfect rectangles, but added in subtle dents and scratches. The colors of the chocolate are perfect, too. It really looks just like real chocolate.
4. Look over the blogs of other students in our class. Choose a piece of artwork from one of your classmates that you feel is an exemplary showcase of what the project was to depict. Think about how the artist used the medium, utilized the elements of art and design principles, was original with their ideas and went beyond their comfort zone or the realm of the requirements. Make sure you have the image of their artwork along with their name (first name only) posted with this response.
I really liked Tiffany's clay project. I think it looks super realistic, and her display was very creative. I liked her use of the glass bowl, and it really tied everything together and made it look even better. I think she got the shapes of the chocolate down perfectly. She didn't just make them perfect rectangles, but added in subtle dents and scratches. The colors of the chocolate are perfect, too. It really looks just like real chocolate.
I also like the way she painted the parts where the chocolate is "bitten into." There isn't just a clean break; you can see the chocolate smearing. There's a lot of detail in this project and it's really well done. The icing on the outside was a really nice touch. This project really looks like something you would see sitting out on someone's table. I haven't seen any other clay projects done by Tiffany, so I can't really tell if this was out of her comfort zone, but it's very good regardless.