The theme of this piece was the ways to say no through the gesture's of the hand. There's a lot I could critic about this piece mainly the abundance of white space. The viewer of the piece can see that as the red light passes through the different hands it changes color according to what would happen if you mixed the two colors together. The top left and top right hands of the center-piece when put together form an "x". All the gestures on the piece signal no, or something bad that one shouldn't do. But, the colors betray this more downtrodden aspect of the piece. The colors are vibrant and joyful. This also reveals a larger criticism, there is simply too much conflict. There's no balance through the piece, and it is simply too much for the eyes to take in even with all the white space.
A reccouring issue in my pieces is the sheer amount of unused space. There is so much whitespace in this piece. This piece is still probably one of my better art pieces this year despite it missing a lot of the contrast that was required for the final grade. On some of the branches the viewer could see that there is a lot of contrast between the acorns and the pine needles, but on others they just get absorbed. The branches have little to no texture, and they feel unnatural. Some things that were could be considered good about this piece is that i used some background. Even though there isn't a lot of background it provides some sense of depth. This piece is wildly unfinished but I think if i had put more effort into the skyline it could have turned out well.
Out of all of my pieces this semester this piece is most likely my favorite. I enjoy the color scheme in both the cold and hot aspects. The circles in panels 1 and 2 transition well into one another. I really enjoy that there has been no white space left, except for the clouds which are meant to be white. Some gripes about this piece is the third panel. The third panel has nothing that can transition it into the other parts of the piece. If there was some form of transition between the all three it would improve the piece a lot. But, there are also many good aspects of the third panel. Thin lines vs. thicker lines, which provide a sense of boundary. A seperation from the outside of the circles to the inside where eyes of the viewer are drawn to. The olives in the piece that turn into explosions, the rainy sky that transitions to a starry night. It reminds me most of a mood ring, with the lava like colors to cold sheens of blue hues.
My over all feeling of the class is a mixed experience. I feel like a can of worms after my experience with my first semester of High-School. I really enjoy this class, honestly I really do. I wish I were better at time managment, and just generally a faster sketcher. I feel like I've had an experience that has taught me that I can't slack off anymore, and that I will have to get serious about what I want during the second quarter. I think that this class gave me time each day to look inwards, and to try and comprehend myself. I'm obviously not the most talented artist but I really do think that this class has helped my develope something. I'm not sure what thing yet but it's something. I've learned a few things about myself in this class, mainly that I have very little time to mess around. I wish that i had learned how to make myself do things earlier in the year, and that I could have been more proactive about what I really wanted. This class helped me realize that procrastination doesn't lead to the greatest outcomes, and I hope that I can force myself to adjust to the next 3 1/2 years of Highschool.