Kylee Postell's Advanced Studio Art Portfolio

Kylee Postell "Midnight"

10”x 8, Canvas Painting, 2020

I got the idea to paint my cat from myself. My cat is a big part of my life and I knew it was going to be tricky to get the textures of the fur down but I challenged myself anyway. I did a project of my cat when I was in elementary school and I wanted to see myself evolve to where I am now, as a senior.

To start I painted the base of the canvas a cream color that resembles my bed, which is where he is laying in the painting. To do everything else I mixed colors to get the colors I wanted and all different sizes of brushes and just went in after sketching it out on the canvas first. To get the texture of the blanket I actually used cotton balls and dabbed it into the canvas to get the wool texture. I used small brushes for the fur and a paint marker in areas.

This painting is quite simple, it’s just my cat laying on my bed. It symbols my love for my cat and a moment in time I took a picture of and wanted to paint to remember just in case anything ever happened to the photo, or my cat himself.

The most difficult thing for me was the fur of the cat and painting it. I feel like I would try and add more colors and different sizes of brushes to get a more fur-like look because I am not quite happy with how it turned out, but I know what I can do better next time.

This is a realistic painting. The thing I love most about it is that It is my cat and it is noticeable that it’s him and that even my three-year-old nephew saw it and went “Mid” right away. That reassures me that he recognized that it was Midnight on the painting. My style is unique because I used other things other than just paintbrushes, I used paint markers and cotton balls as well.

Kylee Postell "More To What Meets The Eye"

12”x 12", Canvas Oil Pastel, 2020

When brainstorming on what project to do next, I quickly thought of oil pastels. I have always had curiosity and leaned towards them ever since using them for the first time in elementary school. I never worked with them since, until now, so it was something I needed to take on. I really wanted this piece to be something different and nothing typical so I went the route of going out of my comfort zone and using supplies I am not familiar with and went straight onto a canvas.

I jumped into this artwork with nothing more than a simple idea to make lips. It quickly evolved into something more as it came to life and as I let my hand take away. I started with just sketching the lips out in the center of the canvas, added color, and realized that there needed to be more. I then started adding a black border for a little something more and it soon became a whole story. "more to what meets the eye". I named it that because thats exactly what it looks like to me. I look at this and see someone who has a story to tell, something that got her into some type of trouble. Even after the first color was added, I noted that it was looking blotchy and not blending well. To help smooth it out somewhat (because I actually love the cluster and blotchy of the colors) I used my fingers and a paper towel.

Like I kind of said above, this artwork has a story. It started off simple but with the finished product there is clearly something going on with the female in the piece. Something that got her into deep trouble. The audience would hopefully notice that there is some type of mystery behind this artwork and use their own minds to create that story.

The most difficult thing for me while progressing in this artwork would have to be figuring out if I like how it was working out or not. As I went along and had to figure out if the blending was okay, I told myself that It doesn't matter what other people think about it, I like the way that It looks and I like that its not perfect. It has character and meaning. I would probably change the teeth, I accidentally added too much black and it almost ruined them. It was a once you do it its hard to fix situation but I think it turned out decent, next time I would be more careful.

If I had to give this piece a label, I would call it realistic. It is supposed to be a person with a story behind them. Like I have said above, it is unique because oil pastels on canvas is not very common and something I was not familiar with. I typically stay with paints but I stepped outside of my comfort zone and I am very happy I did. I really enjoy the finished product and the messy kind of look it gives.