Foundations of art


My Foundations of Art Reflections

When I first started taking Foundations of Arts, I went into that class completely blind because I was really never that good at drawing or just art in general. I was never that confident with my work from past years just because of the way I was taught in previous art classes never really stuck with me through the years. Or the way I would compare my art with other people’s, seeing how theirs were better than mine, it just made me feel bad about myself. But then I met Ms. Medsker and saw how kind and supportive she is to her students and their art and that gave me a big confidence booster when I first started taking her art class.


I think when looking at my artwork from this year it has clearly shown what my strengths and weaknesses are. As time went on you can see that I have gotten better and more comfortable with my art skills over time. Some of my strengths that showed in my work was the creativity that I had with all of the pieces that I made. Such as my first assignment, the Beautiful Oops where we had to create a design that already had some ink drops on the paper. All the ink drops were different for everyone and I had a paper with 2 drops, one that looked like a fluffy ear and the other was just a small circular dot. So I thought of what I wanted to do and I knew that I wanted to draw an animal so I thought of a sheep. When I was done with the drawing of the brown sheep it looked a little plain for me so I decided that I would draw glasses on it because that's when the fun creative part of my mind kicked in. Some of my weaknesses when it comes to art is drawing people, especially when they are self-portraits of me. When I first heard about the assignment I complained so much because I hate drawing myself but Ms. Medsker taught me a way to make sure that the picture I was drawing was somewhat proportionate to the picture that I was using. She told me to divide the picture up into even squares (gridding the papers) and then to do the same with the paper that I was going to draw on and then carefully draw the picture line by line onto the paper and then shade it exactly like the picture as well.


I think my work has improved over the year because as I got use to doing a different project every day. I knew that when learning the techniques or what I needed to do for the project would take time and patience. When I first started drawing and doing art it showed that I wasn't that comfortable and didn't believe in myself that I could make or draw good art but as it went on I started gaining more confidence and it shows in my work. Take a look at the sheep drawing which was at the beginning of the year and then look at my cow drawing which I probably did from the end of December to the beginning of January. There is such a big difference because of the confidence that grew bigger in me and because I was supported by my parents and more comfortable with the friends that I made in school.


I think one of the most challenging projects that I did this year was the charcoal portrait because it was just so hard and complicated all at the same time. Before even starting the actual picture I had to make a zentangle strip that showed my understanding of how to use charcoal and to make it in different shades. Then onto the picture, first I had to pick out a picture which of course had to be a cow. Then I was taught by Ms. Medsker that we should grid the picture and the canvas that I would be drawing on. And then square by square I carefully looked at the picture and shaded the different shades into their own square and then tried to blend them together so when I was done you wouldn't be able to see the individual squares. It was difficult for me because just the process I had to go through was tough and it was hard to work on it because it took me so long to finish and to get to the right mindset to work on it for hours on end was difficult for me.


My most proudest art project of the year is my self-portrait because I have always hated drawing myself and in the past, they have always turned out so bad and unrealistic. With this self-portrait, I wasn't looking in a mirror and trying to draw the features of my present face like the ones I've done in the past. This time I took a picture of myself in school, that’s why I have a mask on because of still having the mandate. First I gridded the picture I was going to use and the paper I was going to draw on equally just as I did with my charcoal drawing and then I outlined my body, head, face, hair, and then the clothing that I was wearing and the mask on my face. I then started shading it all in and once again I made sure that each square would blend into the next so you wouldn't be able to see the individual squares after its finish. I'm most proud of how the portrait turned out because it actually looks like me, very realistic.



I don't know what my plans look like for doing art in the summer or future because as much as I do enjoy doing art it’s not really a hobby or something that I do often in my free time. But after taking Ms. Medsker’s class I will definitely be doing more painting now that I know how to paint properly.