With this project I created a tile featuring a large flower and a blue stripe for contrast. I chose this for my design because flowers hold many happy memories for me. Chemistry that takes place is notably in the glaze. It contains silicon dioxide which helps to lower the melting point of the hard glass-like material. I faced difficulty when I was trying to create a pattern within the stripe, as you can see the glazed covered it so it is almost completely un-noticeable. Next time I will use less glaze on patterned areas. 

For PBL this semester we focused on trees and their symbolism. To tie art into this topic we created our own symbols and made them out of paper and crystals. We made the paper completely on our own from scratch along with the crystals. This way we also incorporated chemistry and the design process. I liked it a lot because nature is very beautiful and I actually learned a lot. I also always like using the design process in project because of how it keeps things organized. All in all, the project was very interesting and hands on, and really allowed us to show our creativity.

The principals of design that are used in my piece of artwork consist of variety, pattern, proportion, and emphasis. Variety is shown using the colors, there are many different colors in use to make the flowers. Every flower is also completely unique due to the use of organic free hand drawn shapes. Next, you can see pattern in the smaller flowers. They cover the whole page and create a repeating pattern. Proportion is seen when you compare the large flower to the many smaller ones. Proportionally, the orange flower is much larger than the rest. Lastly and most importantly, emphasis is the main focus of this piece. The emphasis is clearly on the larger flower because of not only its drastic difference in size, but also the difference in color. The biggest flower is also the only orange flower. 

We practiced drawing from a reference using charcoal. It proved to be fairly challenging considering the uniqueness of the material and our lack of experience. Overtime we were able to get the hang of it and display our skills in shading and accuracy drawing from a reference. In our first assignment we had someone pose for us while we had a few minutes each to draw them. We repeated this process many times and got many drawings in. The second project was to 'complete the face', or draw the missing half of the photo based on the half given to us. Lastly, we drew landscapes based off of a reference of another charcoal drawing. All in all, I deeply enjoyed taking time and focusing on drawing with and getting used to using charcoal.

In class we took time to learn about the history and artistry of tattoos. Not only did we realize how much cultural meaning a tattoo can hold, but we also learned how to design tattoos that had personal meaning to us. My design was a Lotus flower because it symbolizes peace and tranquility, and is a common symbol in Buddhism.