Painting 1

Sunset Mountain

Jack Butler "Sunset Mountain" - Baseline

5inx8in, Watercolor on Paper, 2025

Originally, I just wanted to create a sunset. I started with that idea and worked from the top down. I realized it wouldn't make sense just to have the sky, so I added mountains and trees at the bottom. I kept adding details to make my idea come to life, and I'm proud of how the hills turned out. I used watercolor for this whole painting. Mainly using a small fine tip brush along with a square brush to get the larger spaces. I tried to do a lot of blending and laying of colors to get different effects. Added harsher outfits and highlights to the hills to really give them dimension. Not much thought went into this besides doing a sunset, so I just want someone to view it as how amazing nature is. The hardest part of this painting was the clouds. I don't hate how they turned out, but I definitely want to continue to work on them in the future. This style is realism, but also very cartoon-ish. It is based on a real thing, but is painted in a way to have fun and not worry about every detail.

Sunset Mountain Recreation

Jack Butler "Sunset Mountain Recreation" - Finish Line

5inx5in, Watercolor on Canvas, 2026

I would say I’ve definitely improved over the semester. In my original work, it looks splotchy and bland; however, in my recreation, it truly has a focus point and more details to fill the majority of the space. Also, although I experimented with a new style, I feel more comfortable doing that and think it was a good change. In the future, I just want to be more confident in what I can do and really take the time to complete all of the details and small things I want to. I also want to grow and find my style more. Throughout the semester, I learned more about mixing colors and shading in certain paintings. I also learned that when painting, you can mix it with water to create a new consistency, making different textures and looks. I’m still working on many things, but mostly just patience and mistakes. Most of the time, I don’t want to take the time to do all of the tiny details, but when I do, it turns out really well, and I like it a lot. I also need to keep working on realizing that not all mistakes are bad and can most likely be undone. Instead of a mistake ruining my mood, I need to embrace it and work it into the piece.

Car Sunset

Jack Butler "Car Sunset"

12inx10in, Acrylic Paint on Canvas, 2025

My Idea for this painting came after I took a picture of the sunrise one morning on my way to church. At first I wanted to make it look darker like the actual but picture but I changed all of the colors to be brighter to make the painting pop more instead of looking dull. I really just used my photo for reference and tried to make it look pretty realistic. I started off with painting the canvas a base color of white and used transfer paper to trace my photo to get all of the dimensions correct. I used many different colors of paint but making sure I custom mixed different colors to get everything exactly how I wanted them. I used several brushed ranging from larger to very fine tip. I used lots of layer mainly on the sunrise to blend the colors together starting from the darker bottom and turning it blue by the time we reached the top of the painting. This painting just shows us the beauty that is all around us and to never ignore what God has made for us. This piece is realistic but also has some pop in it. The shading on the car is more dull but she you get to the mirror it pops out of the page because that is the main focus.

Disney Castle

Jackson Butler "Disney Castle"

10inx12in, Acrylic Paint on Canvas, 2025

The idea for this painting came from many photos in my camera. As a family, we go to Disney a lot, and I knew I wanted to make a painting of it. At first, I was just going to do the castle, but I decided to also add the hand to give it some dimension and make it a challenge for me. It was originally supposed to just be the castle and the hand/phone, but as I went on, I decided to add fireworks and a concrete base to fill all of the space. I started by recycling a used canvas and painting the base color of blue. Once dry, I used transfer paper to trace the printed-out photo onto the canvas. I went color by color, starting with gold, and painted several layers everywhere it went. Once I got to blue, I realized it looked very dull, so I mixed white with the blue and used it as shading to add dimension to the work. I did the same for the white and gray. Once I was done with the main castle, I started on the hand. This was the hardest part as I've never painted a body part. I once again started with a base color and then mixed many colors to create shading and highlighting effects. Throughout this whole process, I really just used a small fine-point brush due to the size and detail I needed in this painting. This painting really just symbolizes that we are always looking at things through our phones and not living in life. You would've had a good painting of a castle, but instead, you have a low-quality picture through the phone. The most difficult part was the hand. I've never painted something that had to look realistic, but with enough shading, I really like how it turned out. This artwork is realistic/abstract, but also just my style. You can tell what it is and why it's realism, but also it's not, it's my style, where you can tell it's a painting. It's also abstract, though, because I didn't do every detail, and it's colorblocked.

Sabrina Carpenter Altered-Moment

Jackson Butler "Sabrina Carpenter Altered-Moment"

2inx6in, Acrylic on Porcelin, 2025

I saw this precious moment sitting on the table and immediately picked it up and saw Sabrina Carpenter. I would say I had this idea right away, and it never evolved. I added a couple of details, such as the SC on the mirror, but that's it. I really just used a fine-tip brush and went section by section, starting at the bottom and working my way up. I added all of the details last, however, so I added the hearts on the boots, the sc, and the face very last. This artwork was really just for fun, and I would say it doesn't have much significance. I want the viewer to see this and think of the singer and have fun with it. This whole piece was difficult because everything looked off. However, when I realized that it wasn't the end of the world, I just kept working, and I came out to like it. If I started over, I would've used more pastel colors instead of vibrant ones because they would've matched her vibe more than the bright colors. I would say this just has a crafty style. It isn't amazing, but you can tell it's handmade, and that's what makes it special.

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