I had a strong love for art as a child especially since my mom was very much into art and went to school in the art industry. I attended many art classes as a kid and eventually had my mom teach me when she opened her art classes for kids and paint bars for adults. When I moved my mom got a new job and I never attended any art classes after and as I got older I lost interest in art and didn’t really look at it as important anymore and stopped putting it as priority. I decided that when I started high school I would try art again, and I couldn’t be happier that I did. I definitely had my ups and downs with the different projects but most of the time it was so much fun and I learned so many new things including the history behind artists and their art.

This year in Foundations of Art I learned so many new techniques and ways of art that I didn't know before. Whether it was sketching or making sculptures out of wire, I became a stronger and better artist. Not only did I learn new skills during this year's class but I also learned how to use new tools and tools I’ve never heard of or worked with before. Some of the tools I really enjoyed were the scratch board and the sculpting tools we used to carve with, I enjoyed these because it really made you think and focus carefully on what you were doing especially on the scratch board. When doing the scratch board you really couldn’t go back and “erase” since you’re carving a thin layer of black ink off, you had to be very careful and steady. Although I definitely had my struggles while doing the scratch board, I later found while carving the clay tile that having the experience with the scratch board helped. I knew how to use the tools since they were similar to each other and knew the different techniques.

When looking at my Art portfolio cover page you can definitely see the change of style and improvement in my artwork. Although these changes may not be large, a little improvement takes a while to accomplish especially when doing art. The more you do something the better you’ll become at it. One thing I noticed was that I switched from using watercolor often to acrylic paint. I remember liking the style of watercolor and the way you could easily blend colors but towards the middle of the year I found acrylic paint much better and the art definitely came a lot neater and brighter. You can also see the difference in the way I drew and sketched, although the change isn’t big. I changed some of my techniques after our self portrait piece.

One of the most challenging projects in my opinion was the scratch board although I enjoyed doing it I had a hard time with the work, and figuring out how the different tools worked. I chose to do a picture of my cat, and you would never know there was even a cat in the picture because of how much I struggled with the light scratching and getting the tones correct. This project was definitely a learning experience and when I finally did get the hang of it, the project was due, and there wasn’t much I could have done to improve it anymore. Even though this project was a challenge I think it was a great learning experience and a great start to learning how to use different tools and strategies.

I definitely have more then one project I’m proud of this year. My color design, Linoleum prints, sgraffito tile, and assemblage animal. These were definitely my favorites, but since I feel the need to choose one I'm most proud of, I’ll choose my assemblage animal. For my assemblage animal I chose to do a humming bird, the reason I chose a humming bird was for no specific reason except for the fact I could do my assemblage animal an accurate size and not have it too large. I also chose it because of the colors and of the beauty. I’m proud of this piece because I took my time and used it wisely. I was also very patient and made sure everything on the bird looked somewhat accurate to the real one. I used newspaper, hot glue, paint paper samples, wire, and painters tape. The finished product was better than I had honestly planned it to be. Everything was on spot. My favorite part about the bird was the wire because I used the wire to give the humming bird feet and a long pointy nose, it looks so amazing. This is the project that I am most proud of.

For my future art I definitely want to use some of the same techniques and strategies I’ve learned this year. Over the summer I will definitely be painting, I’ve always painted and it's something that I really enjoy doing for fun. I had so much fun continuing art this year and learning more about art then I ever have. I Can’t wait to see what new techniques I’ll learn next year.