Art I Final Portfolio

1.  In my opinion, my most successful project this semester was my giraffe print.It was a lot of fun learning to use the speedball cutters, and I loved how easily you could move them so the picture came to life. I've never done a project like this one before, but it is honestly one of my favorites. The giraffe is so cute and had so much detail in him that I was afraid I would mess up the picture and make it look unrecognizable. The giraffe has a lot of wrinkles on him, so I used some of the cutters that were different sizes to make sure the indents in the tile worked. I was glad that all of the details flowed and added to the print instead of messing it up. I wanted to make sure I did well on this, so I kept asking my friends during class if it looked okay and trying to get advice on how to improve it, I hope I didn't annoy them! It took a lot of detail and cutting, but I'm very proud of my finished product and I can honestly say I wouldn't change a thing!

2.  Out of all the project's we've done this semester, I think I learned from the contour shoe drawing lesson the most. It took a lot of time and I had to pay more attention to detail than usual with this particular project. We were supposed to try to use one continuous line and not leave out any detail, and doing that slowed me down and definitely made the shoe look better. I used some of the same tips we learned in this lesson for the self-portraits we made, and it helped a lot when we had to detail the eyes and smaller parts. When we started the unit, we couldn't even look at what we had drawn on the paper, only what we were drawing (also known as blind contour drawing), and that was tricky to do but it gave us a good idea of how well we paid attention to detail and followed our eyes. At times it would get a bit frustrating because it would feel like it was taking forever to draw but when I would finish one part, I'd take a step back and see how much better it looks because I took my time. I tried applying this technique to a lot of the projects we did, and it helped a lot when I had to draw details into the sand of a landscape sketch we did with another unit. This lesson definitely helped me improve how I handled my projects in numerous ways!

3.  I used some of my previously learned skills to do my landscape painting. This was one of the most creative projects we had to do because we haven't painted a lot in class.  When we were painting, we had to remember to take our time and be confident in what we made, which we primarily learned from the contour drawings. I had a lot of fun doing this because I remember my mom taking this picture and I always loved how the bike looked. We had to add shadows and different hues to the picture so it would have more dimension and not look flat and cartoon like. One of my favorite parts was figuring out what colors I needed for each part and mixing the primary colors to make something new. It took awhile to find the right sand color and find the right shade so the shadows didn't look out of place, but I just had to focus and keep mixing until it was how I imagined they would look. Painting is one of my favorite things about art and our previous projects helped a lot throughout the process.

4.  Honestly, I have to say we used the least technique out of all the units to do our stencil projects. I had a lot of fun making this project because I love using spray paints and it was cool seeing how each layer complemented each other. However, it didn't really take any special skill to create it. The only thing that we really had to remember during this project was to be careful when we painted, and make sure we did the right layer each time. The most difficult part was just figuring out how to edit the picture on the computer so we could figure out how to trace each layer. After tracing, we cut out the stencils and started painting the cardboard to make a blank canvas; when that was done all that was left was painting each layer. The project looked awesome when it was done, and it was hilarious seeing other people's pictures. Anyone could do this if they really wanted to, all it takes is a bit of tracing, an exact-o knife, cardboard, and some spray paint.

5.  I have a very special connection to the value scale drawings we did. I chose to do a picture of me and my old dog McKenzie on the beach, rather than a car like others chose to do. She passed away a little over a year ago along with our other dog, and they meant a lot to me because they were a big part of my life growing up. I always get a smile on my face when I look at this picture because I feel like it represents the relationship we had, and I love how it looked when I sketched it. I used to do drawings of them when I was younger because they always seemed so photogenic and I had fun drawing them in general. I wasn't that good at drawing when I was younger, but I still liked trying to fit their careless and happy expressions into my pictures whenever I could. They were one of the main reasons I signed up for art this year and enjoyed it as a child. They always made me feel better and helped me cheer up if I was ever upset, so they made a big impact on my life, and I felt like I was thanking them for all they've done for me when I did this project.