Painting Final Exam
During the process of this class the most successful piece that I created was this pet portfolio. There wasn’t too much preparation for this piece because all I needed to do was replicate the photo that I took. The whole preparation process was short and sweet. All I needed to do was take a 12” by 12” canvas and draw a grid on both the canvas and the reference photo to make sure that the proportions on the painting were correct. Then sketch each box one by one just like the photo. When sketching I needed to make sure that I laid down all of my values and set up for when I started painting. This artwork needed to be creative in making the fur look realistic and having texture in each individual piece of fur. I wanted to create this piece because I wanted to challenge myself on realism. Also this painting is of my best friends dog, so I wanted to give it to her parents. Boy, did I challenge myself on this. I have never made a piece that I am 100% proud of. This one though, I am. Usually I can’t get the angles and perspective right on the piece, but I tried a lot harder on this one.
1. My portfolio shows a lot about this semester and how much I have grown in this painting class. All of my first times with oil and water paints. I know if I continue to work on both of those mediums I would feel comfortable using them on any canvas. I love going back into my work to see my progress and how much I have learned about painting. I do think my portfolio shows how much I’ve progressed this semester. From my first little sketches with the prismacolors to my final piece.
2. My style of painting is very random and it doesn’t always have a complete thought to it. I just like to jump right into my artwork without having a planning process. Success comes to an artist when he/she is proud of their work. When they can step back from their piece and feel accomplished. As being an artist, the most rewarding feeling I have had is thinking “I did that.” To me, that is the best feeling you can ever get out of something. Knowing that you did that with your own two hands. Some of the skills that I turn to during the process of my work is trying to add little bits to make one big masterpiece. I never like to add too much to anything because it is likely to take away what you loved most about your work. Things I have learned about the process of art making is you need to be patient with yourself and your work. You can be working on a piece one day and not love it so much, but then you can come back in the morning and start to work with it a little better. Another thing is that your work not always come out the way you planned. You can plan all day long, but when it comes to acting upon your work things change. Things that you didn’t plan for. That is how you learn and grow as an artist.
3. One of the projects that we did in this class was the landscape done in watercolors. This is my first time actually using them to complete a piece. I did not like how my piece turned out at all. It’s because I went into the artwork disliking watercolor, so I didn’t put in my best effort. Me not liking the medium got in the way so much, the piece could’ve turned out so much better if I took my time and thought it out throughly. If I could go back and do it again I would practice with more watercolor and really get the feel of how it flows. I would also focus much more on the entirety of the piece and how I should have been layering the colors.
7. My favorite medium to work with throughout the semester was acrylic paints. I really enjoyed working with this medium because of how smoothly it goes onto the canvas, how quick it dries, how easy it is to mix and match the colors that you need, how you can simply paint right over it if you made a little mistake. I didn’t get to work with acrylic as much as I wanted to, but I knew how to use it when it needed to be used. It is the one I had the most experience with. I also always had the most fun working with acrylic paints.