Foundations of Art

Reflection

Overall I think that my first art class went very well. I have learned many new things and gained more confidence about my ability to create artwork. I was also challenged in many different aspects of art which helped me get a lot better as well. I also liked the general environment of the art class.

One of the things that challenged me most was color. In the beginning we made a piece called “Beautiful oops” and looking back I notice that the colors I used I did not get the full effect out of. I used colored pencil and you can see all the lines and some white space. Although it is not the same material I saw a big improvement in the 84 creative color design because there is no brushstrokes and no white so that was a big improvement.The 84 creative color design also helped me realize that painting is one of my favorite materials to use, which is why I used that for my final project. I have learned the importance of color and how it can express something totally different when it is high-quality, with no white space, or lines/brush strokes. I think this has also helped me throughout the rest of the quarters to make my artwork to the best of my ability.

One of the most difficult and challenging things for me to create was the oil pastel color study. This was very challenging to me because of the pastel color mixing. The pastels were very difficult for me to mix color because I was so used to separately mixing paint colors then painting it on the project, but with the pastels you have to mix it right on the final project. Another thing that was frustrating to me about the oil pastels was that they would clump and sometimes the clumps would go into the other boxes and they might accidentally get mixed into completely different color. Something that I found difficult at the end was that depending on the color you could sometimes see the pencil underneath the pastel. Overall this project was very time consuming and although it taught me a new technique and got me better at mixing colors I have no interest in making another piece like this.

A few of the things I was most proud of making throughout the year are the wire sculpture, sgraffito, the organ and tissue donation, and one of my favorites was the scratch board. This was one of my favorites because I feel like it had the most meaning behind it because it was a picture I took, and skiing is also one of my favorite things to do. I liked this because it showed a different way to use color and shade since you scratch the black off to expose the white. It was also an overall different experience because we used almost none of the tools and techniques we use in all of our other art pieces except for the gridding.

Overall I think I have learned a lot of new things this year and I think it has made me want to take another art class sometime in the next 3 years in high school. I also think I am more interested in doing art on my own time at home. One of the most important things I think I learned was how to express different themes in all of my artwork even if I do not enjoy the overall project.