Final Exam for Painting
Required Question:
For my most challenging assignment I chose the animal portraits. Prior to this assignment I had never successfully painted an animal of any kind. I chose this piece because I feel it may have been one of my best. Drawing the picture of my dog onto the canvas was difficult and time consuming. I might've spent 2 class periods just sketching the picture, making sure it was neat and proportional (using the grid method made it a lot easier.) When begun painting I struggled a lot getting the colors right, because my dog has a very specific coat color, I spent a while mixing paints until I found a color close enough to her's. The color I mixed was a bit darker than the original color but I had already used up a lot of time sketching and painting the background. When I was adding value to my dog, I used a lot of water with the paints to thin them out and make them lighter. I used this "wash" method for most of my piece and added layers in areas that needed more value. I didn't do any sketches for this pieces besides the one I did on the canvas, but I was really proud of myself for doing a decent job at painting a "realistic" portrait of my dog. It's not perfect, but I like how it turned out, and I worked hard on it. I really enjoyed working on this piece even though parts of it were frustrating and difficult and I'll probably try to paint more animals on my own time, now that I have a finished piece that looks nice.
For my most challenging assignment I chose the animal portraits. Prior to this assignment I had never successfully painted an animal of any kind. I chose this piece because I feel it may have been one of my best. Drawing the picture of my dog onto the canvas was difficult and time consuming. I might've spent 2 class periods just sketching the picture, making sure it was neat and proportional (using the grid method made it a lot easier.) When begun painting I struggled a lot getting the colors right, because my dog has a very specific coat color, I spent a while mixing paints until I found a color close enough to her's. The color I mixed was a bit darker than the original color but I had already used up a lot of time sketching and painting the background. When I was adding value to my dog, I used a lot of water with the paints to thin them out and make them lighter. I used this "wash" method for most of my piece and added layers in areas that needed more value. I didn't do any sketches for this pieces besides the one I did on the canvas, but I was really proud of myself for doing a decent job at painting a "realistic" portrait of my dog. It's not perfect, but I like how it turned out, and I worked hard on it. I really enjoyed working on this piece even though parts of it were frustrating and difficult and I'll probably try to paint more animals on my own time, now that I have a finished piece that looks nice.
4 Questions
1. Reflect on your portfolio:
I feel like my portfolio is a good reflection on my progress in this class. At the beginning of the semester, painting was not my strong suit or my favorite art medium to work with, but I've grown to like it a lot during my time in this class. Being in the class has given me opportunities to practice painting and improve my skills while also letting me learn more about it. My portfolio really shows my progress throughout my time in this class. During the first few assignments we got I struggled, especially with the oil paints. My oil practice was pretty bad (the pumpkin,) I'm just glad it was practice. I feel I improved a lot when looking at our more recent projects. I improved with oil paints a lot too, my oil landscape was one of my favorite pieces we did even though it's not amazing.
2. Choose 2 mini lessons that were beneficial:
The watercolor practice and the fruit oil painting were both very helpful and contributed to my skill improvement in this class. I had worked with watercolor many times and it's one of my favorite mediums. The practice introduced me to a few different methods to consider working with in the future. I used a few of the methods we practiced in our watercolor landscape (wet on wet, dry brush, gradient.) With the fruit oil painting it was a good, short assignment that helped me when I was working on the oil landscape. I definitely needed the extra practice with oil looking back on my first experience with oil paints. If we had more practice with oil I may have done better on my landscape. During the practice I often caused my painting to become muddy from blending colors too much. Overall, the practices were very beneficial.
3. Favorite medium to work with:
My favorite medium we worked with in this class probably would've been the oil paints. Although I struggled with them in the beginning I eventually grew to love them after having to use them a lot more. Using the Liquin with the paints made them a lot smoother and easier to move around on a canvas. I also really love the textures you can create with the oil paints. My landscape (when it was fully dry) had a lot of texture and it just makes the piece nicer to look at. Cleaning your brushes after they've been used with oil paints can be a bit frustrating but it's worth it. If we had done more landscapes I would've probably chosen oil as my medium since I've already stocked up on my own personal oil paints and Liquin. In my opinion, oil paints are definitely a lot better to work with than acrylic paints.
4. Project where you felt least successful:
My least successful project in my opinion would have to be the Hundertwasser Paintings. I did not like how mine turned out and if I could redo it I definitely would. I did not like working with the acrylic paints for that piece because they dried very fast. Having the paints in a palette could be a pain because if air got through, all the leftover paint would dry up and become unusable. Also in my piece, my buildings were crooked and I didn't like the colors I chose. The crooked buildings may have passed as intentional since the piece was supposed to be abstract, but it wasn't. I would have done an entirely different piece if I had thought out my ideas more thoroughly. My original idea was to do an abstract beach scene, but I ended up scrapping that idea.
1. Reflect on your portfolio:
I feel like my portfolio is a good reflection on my progress in this class. At the beginning of the semester, painting was not my strong suit or my favorite art medium to work with, but I've grown to like it a lot during my time in this class. Being in the class has given me opportunities to practice painting and improve my skills while also letting me learn more about it. My portfolio really shows my progress throughout my time in this class. During the first few assignments we got I struggled, especially with the oil paints. My oil practice was pretty bad (the pumpkin,) I'm just glad it was practice. I feel I improved a lot when looking at our more recent projects. I improved with oil paints a lot too, my oil landscape was one of my favorite pieces we did even though it's not amazing.
2. Choose 2 mini lessons that were beneficial:
The watercolor practice and the fruit oil painting were both very helpful and contributed to my skill improvement in this class. I had worked with watercolor many times and it's one of my favorite mediums. The practice introduced me to a few different methods to consider working with in the future. I used a few of the methods we practiced in our watercolor landscape (wet on wet, dry brush, gradient.) With the fruit oil painting it was a good, short assignment that helped me when I was working on the oil landscape. I definitely needed the extra practice with oil looking back on my first experience with oil paints. If we had more practice with oil I may have done better on my landscape. During the practice I often caused my painting to become muddy from blending colors too much. Overall, the practices were very beneficial.
3. Favorite medium to work with:
My favorite medium we worked with in this class probably would've been the oil paints. Although I struggled with them in the beginning I eventually grew to love them after having to use them a lot more. Using the Liquin with the paints made them a lot smoother and easier to move around on a canvas. I also really love the textures you can create with the oil paints. My landscape (when it was fully dry) had a lot of texture and it just makes the piece nicer to look at. Cleaning your brushes after they've been used with oil paints can be a bit frustrating but it's worth it. If we had done more landscapes I would've probably chosen oil as my medium since I've already stocked up on my own personal oil paints and Liquin. In my opinion, oil paints are definitely a lot better to work with than acrylic paints.
4. Project where you felt least successful:
My least successful project in my opinion would have to be the Hundertwasser Paintings. I did not like how mine turned out and if I could redo it I definitely would. I did not like working with the acrylic paints for that piece because they dried very fast. Having the paints in a palette could be a pain because if air got through, all the leftover paint would dry up and become unusable. Also in my piece, my buildings were crooked and I didn't like the colors I chose. The crooked buildings may have passed as intentional since the piece was supposed to be abstract, but it wasn't. I would have done an entirely different piece if I had thought out my ideas more thoroughly. My original idea was to do an abstract beach scene, but I ended up scrapping that idea.
All my pictures are in the slideshow because it wouldn't let me place anymore photos near the text.