Foundations of Art
Art is incorporated into many of our lives. Some more than others. For me, I occasionally did art. Whether it was for school or a once in a while home project. When I signed up for the Foundation of Art I never expected to find enjoyment in creating something that I like. I will always remember this single year, and try to keep aspects of art in my life.
To examine my art throughout the year, I’ll begin with my strengths and weaknesses as a learner and the way my art shows this. I have known for many years that when I’m tired and don’t have the motivation to complete work, my art severely suffers. This weakness of mine can be displayed with a couple of examples. For instance, my self-portrait. About halfway through, I got frustrated and tired. As a result, it was rushed and my cheekbone happened to jut out from the rest of my face. This, unfortunately, happened to a couple of other pieces, like Watchamadrawit or Linear perspective. The quality deteriorated. Although that may be one of my weaknesses, and strength that helps override that poor quality is my attention to detail. As a person, I enjoy it when everything looks good or is well made. With my art, I wanted to make it look good and get the small things right. You can see this in my work with aspects such as the Duck Stamp or Scratch Value Strip. The two qualities have helped my work greatly, but also lessen them too.
To elaborate on lesser work and quality, the most challenging project for the two semesters was the rolled ink. This was an incredibly repetitive and tedious task, as I quite frankly didn’t have the strength to follow through. I already had put in many hours and was failing to do the task. I tried multiple times but I personally was never satisfied. I managed to have two good outcomes and the others weren’t up to expectations to photograph. I think this most definitely was the hardest and I will never be doing that again.
The project I was most proud of was my independent project. I am very happy with the outcome and pleased with the way it looks. It was a charcoal drawing of two ducks. I wanted to symbolize friendship. I know that charcoal drawings have been successful in the past for me, as my rabbit Juniper did win an award. For this project, I wanted to see if I could make a better one because even though it won I feel as if it could be better. I tried to be very exact and try my best when creating this project. When I was finished I was relieved and happy with how it looked.
My artistic goals for the future include improving my skills by practicing on my own time. I like the aspect of using different medias. I also like how Foundations of Art kept on using new ideas and materials. I think in my own life I will try to make new things or revisit old ideas. I would like to draw with colored pencils or use some charcoal to make images. I definitely enjoyed the art year, and want to carry on some of the activities that we do. I really enjoyed the year, but it's something I won’t be continuing.