Asher's Art Portfolio

(IDEA) My idea originated from my love for sharks and the moon. It was originally gonna be a full body shark with fish under it from the top view, but I didn't like that one as much so it slowly morphed into a shark fin in front of the moon.

(PROCESS) I started with the water first, painting it blue and adding details like the little ripples as I went, then I painted the shark fin, originally just being plain grey before I decided to add little scar marks, then came the moon, which I used light blues and purples to add more detail to it, then I painted the sky and the stars, I put yellow paint on my finger tips and wiped most of it off before dabbing my finger around each star to give them their own glow.

(SYMBOLISM & ICONOGRAPHY) There was no real meaning behind it, I just started painting and continued to add things when I wanted until I decided it was finished.

(ARTISTIC GROWTH) I originally struggled a lot with sketching the idea, I couldn't figure out how to make everything look right, I overcame that struggle by just stopping. I stopped sketching and just started painting, fixing things as I went instead of trying to make the sketch perfect. If I redid this painting, I'd change the way I painted the sharks fin and the moon, they are too close in color and almost blend together.

(VISUAL VOICE) It's painted in the style of surrealism, what I like about it is how I painted the water and the stars, I like how the stars glow and how the lines in the water try to show it moving.

(IDEA) My idea just kinda spawned in my head because I had to come up with one animal sketch with a reference for our 4 ideas assignment, and I just immediately knew I wanted to paint one of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtails that are always in my backyard, mostly because I thought it would be easier for me personally than trying to paint a dog or a cat, but I also just really like butterflies, they're very beautiful insects.

(PROCESS) I started with the green background, it started off very streaky but I eventually got it to it's solid different shades of green, then I used transfer paper and a printed out version of my reference photo to sketch on...the sketch. Then I started painting a white base color onto the areas of the butterfly that were gonna be white, as well as painting a white base layer for the flower too. I then started on painting the yellow areas of the butterfly, then the black. After that I started painting the flower, painting the center area then the petals, then I went back to the butterfly and started shading in each yellow section of the butterfly with different shades of orange and orange-reds. Then I worked on the flower more, making the center more brown instead of orange because there was already so much orange with the wings of the butterfly, I also worked on the stem of the flower, then finished it with a signature.

(SYMBOLISM & ICONOGRAPHY) Eastern Tiger Swallowtails are specifically known to symbolize happiness and pure joy.

(ARTISTIC GROWTH) At first my biggest struggle was just being able to stop messing with the green. I kept adding more and changing it until eventually I just had to force myself to pull away and stop. Now a struggle I had was black from me touching up the black lines on the wings smeared into a yellow section I was actively shading, but I fixed it as I went.

(VISUAL VOICE) Originally, I wasn't expecting to paint it so realistically, but then the petals of the flower got too much detail so the butterfly looked flat, so I had to add more detail to it to make it look less boring. I love everything about this painting so far, if I had to restart it I don't think I would change anything, everything looks perfectly find and just the way I want it too look right now.