2D Design

Reflection:

The assignments that I liked the most were the beautiful oops, inclusion project, donate life design, and duck stamp. I liked the beautiful oops because I liked how much freedom you had to use your imagination and make the ink dots into whatever your heart desires. I love nature so for a majority of these projects I like to include nature if possible and this project made it easy to do so. I liked the inclusion project not only because of the idea that I had was fun to paint but because of the idea behind this piece. I chose to use animals and be creative with this project. But it represents including everyone in a community, people with and without disorders. I also liked the donate life design project. This project also had a really nice message behind because it was to send a message to others to make it possible to donate organ and tissue to others in need if you pass away. For this project, I got to make my own phrase which I am really proud of because it relates to the background/setting. My final favorite of all the projects was the duck stamp project. This piece I put the most time, effort, and critiques into. I wanted this project to look realistic so I used a variety of materials which made the process fun. This project was also for a good cause because it brought up the idea of conservation which I researched more about and became more fascinated and educated.

Towards the beginning of 2D design, I struggled with getting back into creating artwork that was made of clay. I took ceramics last year so this was a good way to get back into drawing and painting. I remembered all of the requirements for our artwork, having borders, material choices etc. Techniques from foundations also happened to stick in my brain when it came to being creative and creating a new piece of artwork. I struggled with what my art style was at first. I thought I liked cartoon styles but eventually, after some projects, I learned that's not for me. I eventually realized that I really enjoy soft realistic, or somewhat realistic artwork. For example, the donate life and duck stamp projects were my favorite. I used to struggle with timing and finishing my artwork inside of class. But I overcame this and I achieved so much in one class period. I learned a lot from my struggles but I overcame them and learned from them throughout the semester.

I not only learned from my struggles, but I also learned from my peers. I realized that critiques are way more important and helpful than I used to think. Now when I feel like I have finished a piece I will ask a teacher or peer what they think I would add to my work to make it stronger and meet my goal/requirements. I would use this advice and apply it to my work and future artwork as well. I learned that my desired art style is more of a soft, faded realistic and a sharp detailed realistic look. I learned that I enjoy spending a lot of time on my artwork and then getting feedback to make it even better than before. I also learned to appreciate all types of artwork more and look at them with multiple points of views. I like to think about the materials artists may have used when I'm admiring work, the story behind their work, and the process/struggles they may have had. There is so much more in artwork than many people realize and I've have learned this a lot over the years taking art.

I improved my own art by being inspired by others artwork or getting advice on my artwork. I can get inspired from either the design from a famous artist, the material, the colors. I can also get inspired from the same things in my peers work. I can use my inspirations to improve my artwork and make it be the desired work I wanted. As I've mentioned, the biggest way that I improve my work is from peer critiques. It's always nice to have a fresh set of eyes look at your work because they may see things or have an idea that you've never seen or thought of before. I also use the advice they gave me to incorporate it into my other art pieces and slowly improve each piece over time. I also improved because I spend more time adding more details to each piece and going back in making sure there is no unwanted white space.

If you look at my work overtime you will see not only that my art style has changed but also the number of materials and details I've added had changed. I used to only stick to one material because I was too afraid to try new things otherwise I thought I'd mess up. But once I started using multiple materials it widened the number of opportunities I had to be creative and unique. I started to add more details and making my art style more realistic. I enjoy all art styles but I have grown to mostly enjoy the project when it is more realistic or even somewhat realistic. I also learned that I love to use watercolor and pens to add soft gentle details and also small fine details. For example, I used these materials for the duck stamp project. I will continue to improve my techniques and the amount of detail I add in the future. I now know that I can use multiple materials and make my artwork beautiful. Overall, I have learned so much from this class but I think one important thing that I've taken away from this class is that there are no mistakes in art. You can only improve and grow from things and incorporate what you think is a "mistake" into your art to make it even better than before.