blue acrylic, and then painted a straight line of green. From there the mountains formed, and then the clouds, the grass, the flowers and the tree. The sky was given different hues. I used a fan brush to make the grass, sometimes pulling the color over new flowers. The flowers themselves were many tiny dots throughout with many different colors. Some of the darker rocks that are visible on the mountains were muted a little bit by very watered down white, that went over it but didn’t completely cover it. Some more dark was put over it so they looked different despite being the same hue. This artwork reminds me of my grandparents and how nice it is in North Carolina when we visit them. It is supposed to bring peace, and a sort of serenity to those looking at it. There's supposed to be a calm peace to this color. It’s a reminder that there is more than just the grey of the city and factories and machines. Some of the most beautiful colors exist in nature. The color itself is symbolic, because some of the bright color is exaggerated from the original image, like the darker purple of the shadow on the snow. It’s supposed to make just a happier place. It was really difficult to find the right color and way to paint on the snow for the mountain. I painted over the middle mountain so many times trying to get the angle of the snow and where it changed right. Eventually I got it, but it took a lot of experimenting and starting over. If I completely started over, I would make the small purple hill on the right and add more detail, something I missed while adding more color. This painting was going for a realistic look, though it didn’t quite achieve that. You can tell hat it is, and the details are many. However, it does look like most of the realistic painting I make. It doesn’t quite get there, but you see it as somewhere you would like to go just the same. It blends some of the worse features of the place and makes it seem, less real and more pretty. I love the way the tree turned out. I was worried at first that it was going to get lost in the chaos of everything else, but when I look at the painting it is one of the first things that get my attention. You can still see the mountain through it, and I really like that. It doesn’t stand out too much while still drawing in the eye.

I wanted to make a painting of one of my pets. My original idea was to paint my cat, because she does the most random things that would make a good photo. However, my dog who was sitting next to me looked especially cute, like he was posing, so I took a photo of it, and that evolved into my painting. I liked the idea of having a painting of one of my pets since one of my cats died recently. The other cat we have was his sister, and when he died it really showed her age. My dog is not nearly as old, but the thought of having a painting of him, especially when he was younger, made me happy. I started with a background color, and then got some paint in for the right half. It put a little bit of detail and a basic layout. I threw down a little bit of black paint where my dog would be, so that I could get an idea of the layout, but it wasn’t permanent. I went from there, adding more to the background and the dog. Some techniques I used were tapping, a lot actually, for detail in the carpet and couch. I also would put down some just black paint and grab another color with the brush and mix on the canvas, so that it would look more like fur. This artwork is supposed to be a captured moment of my dog choosing to be in the middle of everything and everyone. It just is a reminder of how funny it can be for a dog to be a dog. He was sitting in front of the couch in just the right place to be inconvenient to walk past or get off of the couch, which both my mom and sister were sitting on. It is supposed to just make you smile, make you happy because of the dog. The use of warm colors should help with that. It was difficult to get the balance of colors right, otherwise the dog would look more like a blob. I had to get all the angles right, like the way I was brushing,and to make sure I added enough colors to let texture show without making him look like he isn’t black, which he is. This is supposed to be a semi-realistic painting. The idea for the style was to capture the look of the dog with detail, but to also add some colors and things to make it pop. IMy own style is semi realistic where you get the concept and the detail, but it doesn't look enough like it’s real, but like it’s real enough that you can see it being a real subject. I absolutely love the way the couch blends in. It doesn't merge too much with his brown fur, but it still looks brown in similar shades. It also does look like a couch, something I was worried about because of a close up. I love the detail in it as well, it just looks like something that has the right amount of detail white not being the center of attention.