The theme of this project was to create a watercolor painting using various watercolor techniques and both warm and cool colors. Before I created this project, I was unsure and nervous about the different techniques of watercolor, because I had never used watercolors in a project before. After drawing the image and learning many techniques including wet on wet, wet on flash, and oil pastel resists, I felt more confident in this painting. I learned that cool colors are colors of relaxation. I chose to draw my peace sign using cool colors because I wanted to represent peace with tranquility. My background uses warm colors and several interesting designs made to look like a soft quilt. I am proud of my final product because of how well the colors went together. It looks neater than I was expecting it to be. There are a few things I think could make this watercolor painting better though. I would like to make the peace sign in the middle more accurate with its proportions. I think that It gets too skinny on the top given its wider sides bottom. I think that my wet on wet technique could also be improved as a little bit may have smeared, particularly on the cool colors. I hope this painting represents peace and warmth to all.
The goal of this project was to use different pencils to shade from dark to light. At first, I struggled with this project because the darker to lighter shading was not very accurate. Sometimes I would go from lighter to darker rather than darker to lighter. However, as I worked through shading each fish, I became more confident. I chose to draw fish and a shark to represent my love of swimming. The swimming fish and shark also represent my capacity for persistence, since they swim on and on. I believe you should never give up, even in a hard situation. When I finished this project, I was pleased with the result. I thought that my darker to lighter shading improved from my practice work in my sketchbook. There are ways that I could improve on this pencil drawing. In general, I do not have shades of the same color touching, except for the shading on the two fish on the top right. As Dory from Finding Nemo says, "Just keep swimming."
The goal of this sketchbook assignment was to create a drawing or painting from life. My goal for myself was to work on drawing proportions more accurately. We were also asked to write a few sentences or find a few quotations about our topic and what it means to us. I chose the topic of food because I enjoy baking, cooking, and creating edible products. This assignment allowed me to practice drawing contour lines so that my final product would look more real and less cartoonish. I drew this ice cream sundae, because my favorite dessert is ice cream. I especially like hot fudge, which is why I spent the most time trying to make the hot fudge look as perfect as possible. I particularly like the hot fudge rolling down the side of the ice cream and into the bowl below. I do think that I could improve this drawing by making the cherry’s stem have less squiggle to it and more of a straight line. I also think that adding sprinkles inside the bowl would make it look like someone had been eating the sundae and that it was more delicious. I hope to draw a new type of ice cream in a bowl like that one in the future, such as strawberry. This drawing makes me hungry.
I had a really great experience throughout Art 1. From my first in-class project of drawing hands to my last in-class project of balance with acrylic paints, I believe I improved on every project. My favorite project from this class was the watercolor painting with warm and cool colors because it helped me realize that art has meaning. Art is more than just pencil lines or paints on a page. Each piece has symbolism and represents a part of the artist's personality. The hardest part of Art 1 was choosing an idea at the beginning of each project. I never knew which idea would give me the best product. I knew I was going to enjoy class from the very first day. I was so glad to Art 1 first block because it put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. Whenever I was anxious or stressed, I always felt like I could zone out and relax while drawing or painting something interesting. From the time I was in preschool, I have always enjoyed drawing and painting for fun. I missed art in middle school because I did not have a lot of time to draw or paint between homework, sports, and orchestra. When I was choosing my electives for my first year of high school, I saw this class and knew I wanted to take it. I realized that if I had the opportunity to get help on my art in a class, I could probably improve quite a bit. I have enjoyed how much I have learned and grown and I can’t wait to continue with art throughout high school and beyond.