Semester 1 Reflection.

During this class I have learned a lot concerning my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to certain media and compositions. I have been most successful with the execution of works with mediums I am rather familiar with and improved my skills in throughout the course. My most successful improvements have been in Watercolours, Acrylics, and Coloured Pencils, mediums which I intend to improve and continue to perfect my skill with in the future. I have struggled with working with unfamiliar mediums and experimenting with different backgrounds. Oils and working on canvas posed great challenges for me and didn’t produce my desired results. Also, it was quite challenging to work with landscape instead of flat backgrounds because I had to pay close attention to small detail and was often shy with the bush or pencil so I ended up with rather bland, washed out backgrounds. My artistic goals for second semester are to practise working on my strengths in order to further develop them as well as identifying and working strategically towards my weaknesses so that I could execute my desired piece. I will also further work on developing my investigation so that I can truly convey the depth of culture and history behind my portraits.

Final Reflection.

Throughout the duration of this class, I have learned a lot about composition, different materials, and a lot about myself in terms of how I approach art. I always struggled with backgrounds and how to make the rest of the piece support the subject and add to the painting as a whole. However, in the second half of this year I decided to turn my focus towards the whole piece and managed to make scenes that contributed to my works and made a stronger composition overall. Throughout this course I also experimented with several different materials and discovered a lot that, where very difficult and frustrating for me at first, but with further work I grew more familiar with and actually love. My first couple times working with oils were disappointing and challenging to say the least, but as I kept practicing I finally found a way to work with them and they have quickly become one of my favorite mediums. Through endless experimenting, I think I have been pretty successful in finding ways to make mediums work for me and using them in ways to capture what I need for the painting. One of the most important things I took away from this year was an understanding of how I approach my art. Throughout the year I have struggled with deadlines and turning work in. I have always taken a sort of perfectionists approach when it comes to art even though I know my skills are still developing. I would restart and restart until I ended up tired and with a product I was only somewhat satisfied with. It has taken me a long time to realise this, but as I reflected back on certain works I discovered a new approach to art. My favorite pieces this year have been the ones where I just started and simply didn't stop, no erasing and no restarting. I learned that art is about development and not getting it perfect right off the bat. My strongest pieces were the ones with the most layers, building on each aspect until I reached a point I was happy with. I've realized that this whole time I've been trying to start at the finished product and completely ignore the process- which is the heart of art itself. For this summer and the future I want to continue working on pieces, but this time I will take my time to analyze the process and learn as I go. I will take my time to start at the very beginning without expecting anything, learning from and enjoying every layer that adds to my artwork and gives it the emotion and character that makes art so enchanting.