The goal of the project was to create a warm and cool balance using watercolor. The first step was to draw a large photo in the middle of the paper. After the picture was in the center, we were instructed to make a grid filling the whole page with the squares being one inch. This project wasn’t exactly my favorite because I didn’t know how difficult watercolor would be to work with. I learned that if I used too much water the color would bleed in with others around more easily and it was very frustrating. It was also hard to find new designs to fill in the squares and I was finding myself getting upset because I would get stumped on what to draw. It took longer than I thought to finish but I’m glad I pushed myself to finish it. While I was creating this project, it took a lot of focus. I had to finish the project at home because I didn’t finish it in all the time given in class. When my project was finally finished, I was very happy with the final product. All the time and effort I put into it really paid off. I was very proud that I pushed myself to finish the painting even though it was very difficult and made me a little angry to work with sometimes.
This is the first drawing we did in class, contour line drawing. The goal of this project was to create at least five hands. The hands had to touch one end of the paper to the other. I was very excited but also nervous that this was the first drawing we were doing because it was something new to me. I learned that my biggest challenge was to get the hands large enough and fill the page from side to side. It took a lot of trial and error but in the end I was proud of the final result. Throughout the project I was having a lot of mixed emotions. I would get upset that I couldn't get the hand to scale the paper and had at least three practice tries until I got the perfect fit. I am proud of myself for the hard work I put into this project and I'm also proud I didn't give up. Art has helped me calm my nerves and it helps distract me from the real world. Art is therapy to me. I am very glad I worked so hard on this project because I thought to myself that as long as I keep going for something, keep pushing and working I am going to achieve that goal in the end.
For this project, the goal was to create a five object study. This meant everyone had to bring in an object to draw five times on a piece of 12 x 18 format. We had to include Contour Line Drawing, Value using Cross Hatching, Value using Stippling, Design a range of grays using the stippling technique to represent realistic value, and last was to design a range of grays using shading. Something I learned while working on this project was that it's very difficult to try and get all of the lipsticks to be the same shape. The drawings didn't all have to be the same size but that was just the goal I was going for. The process of this project was really fun for me. I really enjoyed drawing something of my choice because makeup is honestly a big part of my life and I have always been interested in it so I am glad I could make a piece of art showing what I have so much love for. I loved creating all the different values inside all of the lipsticks and got excited when I finally got to that part of the project. When I was done drawing I was very happy and impressed that I got the lipsticks to be the same size in the end.
Through the course I developed a lot of skills such as working with watercolor, using all kinds of different mediums and values in my work, drawing from life and keeping an open mind and not to overwhelm myself with stress too much about when the work was due. The parts of the course that were easiest for me was staying focused and not getting side tracked as often as I normally would. Art was a time for me to be calm and focus on something other than the outside world. While being in this class there have also been some things that weren’t so easy for me. I found it difficult to get ideas flowing in my head and sometimes it would take me twenty or thirty minutes to finally figure out what I wanted to do. I know I am not the only one that this happens to but it is frustrating because when I see other people starting their work and I don’t even have anything down it just makes me stressed and worries I will never finish. Sometimes I don’t finish and I have learned now that I am not the only person in the room who doesn’t finish every project fully. My perspective on art has definitely changed over the course of this semester. Mainly something I learned is that everyone works at their own pace and everyone finishes and starts at different times. I stopped comparing my work to other peoples because it’s not worth it to put myself down over that. As long as I know I am doing the best I can, that’s all I need.