Circle Project

For this assignment, we were asked to create any piece of art we wanted, as long as it incorporated circles or dots. I was inspired by the tree of life, and wanted to create something similar and fit it into a circle. I knew that just one painting of a tree wouldn't take very long, so I decided to make a series of the year-long cycle of a tree, including all seasons. I started by cutting bristol paper into four pieces, each 6 in x 6 in. Then I traced a circle on one using a roll of masking tape, which fit very well into the size of the paper. I sketched a tree into the first piece of paper, making the roots form to the bottom of the circle and the leaves forming to the top of the circle. After sketching the whole tree, leaves and all, I used the light board to trace the exact same tree two more times on the other pieces of paper (I didn't trace the whole tree on the fourth paper because it was going to be cut down and only be the stump). I used a fine-tip pen to outline the tree and its details, including the leaves, however, I didn't outline the actual circle as I wanted the tree to look like it was almost stuck in a circular shape. After erasing the pencil lines, I used watercolor paints to paint each one according to the season and giving each a different background color. Finally, on the last one, I just traced the stump and added an ax in the stump and painted the background color to look like nighttime. I am very happy with how my project came out because although it wasn't exactly what I was picturing, I like it even better. I'm very glad I ended up doing a series because it feels like the paintings have a story behind them, and they can be interpreted in many different ways. If I could go back and change anything in my project, I would probably try to make the leaves a different, more intricate and realistic shape. Overall, I am very happy with my circle project.