AP Art Studio

Final Statement of AP Art Studio

Overall this year I’ve really enjoyed AP Studio Art. Though it followed many of the same parameters as Advanced Studio Art, I felt that I was able to explore more and develop a concentration that I was actually interested in this year. This year, I also really got back into watercolor and more illustration focus pieces. It was something that I dabbled with in past years, but this year I felt I really delved into it. Since my concentration was “What’s in the woods…?”, it left me a lot of room to explore different aspects of my concentration (the woods) and more personal memories that correlate to them (fairy tales, childhood memories of living in the woods…). Because I enjoyed my concentration so much this year, my favorite piece of the year actually came out of it. “Forest Creatures” (a piece I did back in March…) has become my favorite piece from this year. As mentioned above, I really got back into watercolor this year and this piece exhibits that material. I really like the layering I did with this piece along with the overall color tones and the placement of the main figures. I think it follows my prompt of “What’s in the woods…?” nicely; with its both realistic and fantastical portrayal of what's in the woods.

Personally, I like adding as much detail as I can to my artwork. But with watercolor, you cant always get that the same way you do with a pen. So even though I really enjoyed making "Forest Creatures" and how it came out, it was also a learning experience for me. If I'd been using just pen (or kept with the pen mindset...) I would've added a lot more detail to the piece. Something that I now think would be unnecessary (and if I did follow this thought process) would've destroyed the overall piece.

There were other things that I struggled with in AP Studio Art this year. Firstly, I didn’t decide on my concentration theme right away, and actually reverted back a few times as well. Originally I was bouncing back and forth between “Portraits” and “What’s in the Woods…?”. And because of that, technically my first concentration fell into the “Portraits” concentration (Blue Fish). But after doing some more brainstorming, I decided that “What’s in the Woods…?” would work better for me because I had more of a personal connection to it. Before I moved to Pownal, my family and I lived on the Sheepscot river in Midcoast. My parents were pretty open to just letting me wander around as a child, so I have fond memories of exploring the woods and riverbeds when I was a kid. There were also problems with deadlines but I really can't say that I overcame those.

I also delved into showing light sources and shades in my artwork this year. Partially inspired and motivated by my peer Leora (who I admire as an artist very much), I tried to incorporate those things into a few pieces of my artwork this year too. Something that I’m proud of doing but still know I have to improve upon.

AP Studio Art was a great ending to my visual art education here at FHS. The action of creating will always be dear to me and I hope to continue to make art as I enter college.