I had a wonderful time working on this project. For someone who usually has difficulty staying focused, I was shocked that day after day of shading this portrait I remained excited and intrigued. When we were just practicing shading, I was timid about going super dark or light but this project taught me that being dramatic with the darks and lights is what makes an impressive portrait. I really enjoyed the process of my self portrait and I also couldn't be happier with the end result.

Painting was much more difficult for me than the self portrait. From the very beginning I felt lost. I searched food pictures on Pinterest hoping to find some form of inspiration and found this picture of persimmons. My grandpa's sister-in-law lives up in Walnut Creek. We went up to visit her once when I was younger. One night on this trip, we went out into her backyard and picked persimmons which she used in the most delicious salad. This painting is my attempt at preserving a memory of my sweet Aunt Lynn and considering how much I initially disliked the project, I couldn't be happier with the final result.

I really liked scratch art! My first try I really struggled with making the lines look natural and not forced but on this one I think Ranger's fur makes him look very realistic. I am extremely happy with the result of this project and Andrew is excited about it too which is good because it's his dog.