FINAL REFLECTION

I took this class to try to expand my art skills and knowledge, which I think I succeeded in. My favorite projects were the Abstract and the Find Your Voice. I liked the abstract project because you could go in so many directions with it (most of our project were like that, but there were a few exceptions). I love drawing animals realistically, so this was a chance to improve on my detail and graphite work, but also enhance my creativity by doing all of the little designs and patterns. It was fun to create patterns that were totally different and unique; some that probably have never been made before. I liked the find your voice project because again, you could do anything you wanted with it. Abortion is something I feel strongly about and it's hard to say how I feel about it, especially in our school, especially because there are so many liberals and hard core feminists. But it was so much easier to express myself and my beliefs in this project; I'm surprised that it didn't get any negative feedback (at least upfront). I think this is a good project because it gives people the chance to show how they feel about something, instead of saying how they feel, which can be a lot harder.

The projects I struggled the most with were the Donate Life and the Duck Stamp. For the Donate Life project the requirements were very specific, so I think that's why I had trouble coming up with an idea. Not only did I have trouble with the idea, I didn't know what materials to use and I got annoyed with how it was turning out, so I eventually started over again and used a different material. The duck stamp project was difficult because we had to create a whole new image using several reference pictures, which is something I'm not really used to, but I think it was definitely a good experience. When I finally compiled the pictures into one, I colored it with colored pencil (big mistake) and it turned out to be really nasty and unskilled.

I learned how to use magazine pieces to create a piece of art. Even though this was something I experimented with last year with my lion sculpture, I didn't try it on paper. I found that I could get really creative and use many different shades to create one blob of color. I also learned how to use a grid effectively, something we had to do last year but I never really mastered. Gridding my paper and reference image really strengthened my work and made it look better. I think that freed hand drawing is still a great skill to have, so I want to do more with that and move away from the grids.

I improved on my watercolor technique. I really like working with watercolor but I'm not the greatest at it; it never really turns out to be "aesthetic". I used watercolor in three of my projects and I feel like I improved on my mark making and painting a large area. I also think I improved on my work with graphite; many of my projects used graphite and I learned how to balance the darks and lights to make it looks nice.

You can definitely see the growth in my magazine art. I used that style more than once and I really got to experiment with it and I learned how to use the pieces to make my work clear and defined. My last piece with magazine, the Donate Life project, the glue wasn't visible at all and the colors were varied and lines were clean. My work with graphite has also improved and you can that especially in my abstract pieces, where I did three graphite cats. I can continue to improve on my skill with watercolor and pen (sharpie, micron, etc). I need to learn how to make my lines more clear and unhurried and I want to work on my overall skill with watercolor.

Overall, I learned a lot and I'm glad that I improved my skills.