foundations of art

Foundations of art reflection

I didn't really know what my experience with this class was going to be at the beginning of the year. In Spain school is more about learning with hardcover textbooks and we don't have any creative subjects like art, music, theatre... But I've always loved drawing and art. Before this school year I had never taken an art class before. I like drawing and painting on my own, and painting what I want, so I wasn't sure that I'd like this class because I would have to do the assignments the teacher gives me instead of doing what I want, but I was really surprised with how much freedom we had in our drawing and how we could make it our own every single time. School in the US is more open to new things, and that's not what I'm used to. I thought that in the class we would all have to be doing the same thing and that I'd feel like I was not a good artist compared to others, but in foundations of art I've learnt that everyone does it differently and that our paintings shouldn't look the same, we should make it our own. I really liked how we can tell someone how we feel through art, sometimes it's easier than words.

My favorite project was the gelli prints. When I signed up for the class I thought that we would just draw and paint, but we did more than that. I had never used any kind of printing tools before. I really liked the project because it was very fun to make. We all went outside as a group to pick up leaves, for me that was crazy. I had never gone outside during a classroom. Going out and picking leaves made me realise how different school was and how I liked this system so much better. I liked that we used natural objects, like the leaves for the project. I also really enjoyed the process of making prints. It's just something I never thought I would do but I really enjoyed it and I think that the result was pretty cool.

I can definitely see a change in my artwork since the beginning of the year. I didn't know any techniques before and I felt like my work was always missing something. Now I'm more confident with the materials I use and now I'm happier with my art work. Before I only used pencil most of the time because I didn't know how to use any other material and I wasn't comfortable using anything else. I feel like this year has helped me develop as an artist and try new things.

The most challenging project for me was the self portrait. The self portrait had to look like the picture, so we couldn't change it. I didn't like drawing myself because you have to look very carefully and draw what we see, but I didn't like what I was looking at. I had a hard time doing the square by square technique. My squares didn't add up and it looked very messy. I wasn't very happy with the result, because it didn't really look like me.

During this year we've made a lot of art using various techniques, tools and material. I think that my best art pieces were the ones made with coloring pencils and oil pastels. I feel more confident with those as I've used them for many years prior to this class. My projects with different materials didn't come out as good as this was my first time using them. But I think that my projects can come out good if I want them to. The Gelli prints came out really well and I had never used that material before. I think they came out awesome because I was really excited and really liked the project. On the other hand, when we had a project that I didn't particularly like, I'd pay less attention and spend less time on it so they didn't come out as good as they should have. I am always happy to learn new things and techniques, but when I don't like something then it's very hard for me to really focus and try my best, because I'm always going to be thinking that it will not turn out good.