Melanie Reisner  "The Happy Sunflower"

(8.5 × 11 inches), Realistic, 2023

I have always enjoyed drawing and painting flowers but sunflowers were always my favorite. When I decided to paint a sunflower I looked through many pictures until I came across the perfect one and decided to paint it. The first thing I did was sketch out the middle of the flower and then add all of the pedals one by one. When I was finished with the petals I sketched a stem and some leaves on the side. After I was happy with how the flower looked I decided I needed something more so I started drawing the butterfly. When I was done drawing I went in with brown and yellow paint for the core of the flower then I moved on to the yellow petals. With the yellow I liked to add dimension within the pedals so they didn't all look the exact same color all over. When I was finished with the pedals and I painted the leaves, butterfly , and blue sky background. I think this painting should give peace and just something very simple and easy to look at theres not a lot going on and its very calm. The most difficult part of this painting was drawing the pedals simply because of how they all need to be the same size, length and shape. When doing this I erased lots of times because I was not happy with it at first but then I started to love it and was proud This is a realistic art peice because its based off a real photo and the objects are real objects I think it is very unique to me because of how I did everything and added my own things like the leaf placement and the butterfly. The thing I like most about this artwork is the flower itself I think I did a good job of making it dimensional and keeping it simple. 

Melanie Reisner "Headphones"

(6 x 4 inches), Object, 2023

When we were picking out cards to look at for our paintings I wanted something that was super simple but would challenge me a little bit and this did the job. To do this I used watercolor pencils which was new for me and something  I had never done. It was challenging because I didn't know how it would turn out, especially with the background. I decided I would treat it exactly like a colored pencil and just draw what I thought was good and then add the water to only the background to add that wood effect. I don't think this piece has any symbolism behind it it's just a simple drawing/painting of headphones. The thing that was most difficult for me was getting the headphones right. It took me a long time to get it just how I wanted and I still think I could do better. I also wanted the background to be browner so it would look more like wood. I think this is an Objective painting I love that it's so simple and there is not a lot going on in the background or anything and it just focuses on the headphones themselves. Overall I think that this painting is not my best work and if I had another shot at it I could do better but other than that I think it's a cool piece and I am happy I picked this one.  

Melanie Reisner "Headphones"

(6 x 4 inches), Object, 2023

When we were picking out cards to look at for our paintings I wanted something that was super simple but would challenge me a little bit and this did the job. To do this I used watercolor pencils which was new for me and something  I had never done. It was challenging because I didn't know how it would turn out, especially with the background. I decided I would treat it exactly like a colored pencil and just draw what I thought was good and then add the water to only the background to add that wood effect. I don't think this piece has any symbolism behind it it's just a simple drawing/painting of headphones. The thing that was most difficult for me was getting the headphones right. It took me a long time to get it just how I wanted and I still think I could do better. I also wanted the background to be browner so it would look more like wood. I think this is an Objective painting I love that it's so simple and there is not a lot going on in the background or anything and it just focuses on the headphones themselves. Overall I think that this painting is not my best work and if I had another shot at it I could do better but other than that I think it's a cool piece and I am happy I picked this one.  

Melanie Reisner "The Sunset Palm Tree"

(12in x 12in), Object, 2023

I have always enjoyed sunsets and palm trees, so I painted them together. I looked through many photos to get a good idea of what I wanted to paint. When I finally decided how I wanted to do it the first step was getting all my colors right starting with the dark and blending it down then starting the next color and blending it through to create the sunset look. When I finished the sunset I started with the palm tree. I wanted it to look more like a silhouette so I painted it in black. When people look at this painting I want it to be a calm feeling because when looking at the sunset I think it can create a calm feeling and just bring peace. This painting was very challenging for me because of the palm tree, I thought I could not do it and it would not look how I wanted but I liked how it turned out and I'm glad I did it. The most difficult part of this painting for me was getting the blending right with the sunset and getting the shape of the palm tree right. This is a realistic painting because it is based on a real sunset and a palm tree I really like this painting and I'm really happy with how it all came together and how it came out.