Foundations of Art 

End-of-Year Foundations of Art Reflection

This year in Foundations of Art was an experience that I am most likely going to remember for a long, long time. I not only had a lot of fun personally, but also multiple of my friends happened to be in it as well. I gained a lot more knowledge than I ever knew in relation to modern-day art, art history, and general things, including specific materials. I remember first going into the class expecting that it would be easy, and I was just getting my art credit out of the way if I'm being honest. But I left with so much more than that. You see art was probably my favorite thing growing up, even though I was never amazing at it. Although as I progressed through the years it was seemingly getting less and less fun because the assignments weren’t my own choice. I sort of lost a spark that had once brightly kindled inside of me. I found this spark again, and my love of art came back this year. The variety of assignments, while still getting to decide what exactly you drew was just what I needed. It also pushed me more than I first assumed the class would, and it proved to be very beneficial. All in all, it was very fun, as well as informative, and had lots of fun! 

Along with many assignments also comes with failures, as well as many successes. I think that my work definitely showed this. For example, you can see this theme in my pure contour shoe drawings, as well as my first-ever art project in the class, whatchamaDRAWit. At first glance, unfortunately, the first thing you see in my shoe drawings is the MANY erase lines. Although it isn't appealing, it proves the theme of my artwork. I never went into this year having a great amount of technical art skill, and I was actually lacking it. But yet, I still proceed to work my hardest, spending hours on these even though my art skill was lacking. Even though it did get better throughout the year you can notice the theme in my earlier assignments. So I would consider a weakness in general art skills with a lack of previous experience, and my strength was working hard. Another one of my weaknesses is processing things a bit too much before the start of an art project. Even though it is good to plan stuff out before starting, I found that when I did start instead of thinking of it, it usually worked out. It not only saved a lot of planning time, but also the drawing would almost always be different from my original plan, so it didn’t matter as much anyway. I think another strength could be how I stayed on top of things. I felt like I always knew when assignments were to be done or needed work, and got callbacks, as well as came back in study hall and lunch accordingly. I think overall I showed multiple strengths but also worked on multiple weaknesses. After all not all art is perfect, and we can all learn from lessons like these.

I believe that my work over the course of this freshman year has shown tremendous improvement. If you compare some of my original drawings like my beautiful oops, time capsules, and Extended blind couture, to other drawings later in the year like my color design, sgraffito, as well as scratchboard, there is a huge difference. There is improvement in overall technical skill, not just a shape, but adding precise detail. This detail was especially shown in the scratchboard drawing, with each individual hare of my cat being drawn with the tool. I also was able to branch out into new territory for me, because I learned how to use those new materials, which made for better overall artwork. I would say the big shift is when I created my own realistic self-portrait, and to me, it meant more than just one assignment. I continued to share and brag about this one to my whole family, as well as showing some of my friends. I would consider the best one before this my candy drawing, but it doesn't even come close to the self-portrait. And after this, I began to create art of higher quality like the charcoal drawing of my cat. I have also improved timewise, because at the beginning it took me a while to do a good art piece for myself, but by the end, the art was better than ever and took a shorter amount of time. And this was partially because of the knowledge I had gained. I think it's true, since my last drawing titled Tripple Cat, was a combination of four different things that I had done this year. It was a very high-quality piece, and I completed it in about three hours, which is much faster than usual.

There were many very challenging projects throughout the year that consumed much time and effort. It is a close call to consider which the most challenging was for me. Between the three views of a shoe, the color design, or the wire sculpture. I think these are all difficult for multiple different reasons. The three views of a shoe were all difficult because they were very stressful. I kept having to erase line after line, and it was so tedious, and it sometimes took me over a span of an hour or two just to get one part of the shoe right. The color design was difficult because it required much detail, and was very messy and time-consuming. I included eighty-eight colors of my own mixed paints to make the lobster! I have to say the wire sculpture was so simple, yet probably the most challenging for me. I don’t have very strong grip strength, so it was very hard to make very secure fish hook loops. But like usually when I'm struggling with something, I have to adapt to make it better. I actually used the wire pair of needle nose pliers to secure the fishhooks, because with the two layers being pinched they didn’t break because they weren’t thin enough, and all they did was secure the fishhooks more, which proved to be very effective. So I would say that each was equally as hard in their own way, but if I had to pick one it would likely be the lobster that ended up being the most difficult. 

I am proud of many of my projects and like my previous paragraph deciding on which one was the most difficult, it is hard to pick just one. It's funny, each of my family members actually has a different opinion of their favorite one of my pieces, since they all visit my Artsonia. My mom likes the Lobster one, my dad likes the charcoal one, and my grandparents like my scratchboard. But with a surprising twist, I have to say my favorite is my Sgraffito owl, but my proudest is my lobster. For some reason, the sgraffito owl just holds a special place inside of me. It was very fun to make, but I love the perfect glazed final product, and I look at it in my room a lot. Although my proudest would have to be my color design lobster. As I already explained it did take the most effort, and was the most difficult to make. It took precise detail, and I could’ve messed it up with the slights of hand movements. I had to keep the paint within the lines or it would have ruined the already constructed paint pattern to its right or left. Since painting, like pencil lines, you cannot erase which makes it difficult. I had also never used paint too often, or been too good at it, so I would say that I was very impressed and surprised with myself. Because of all these reasons I have to say that it has to be the one I and my family, were the most proud of. 

My artistic goal for my summer/future is just to have fun with it. I have found my love for art again, and I want to keep enjoying it. I never thought I’d actually say this, but I really enjoy it! I am not doing an art class sophomore year, so I want to keep at it. I may even do one just for fun Junior year because of my great experience in foundations, even though I already have my credit. I also plan to do some fun projects on my own and teach my sister some of the things I learned, since she is an aspiring artist. She is only ten, but already loves art, and even claims she wants to go to an art school, so I think she will and has found interest in the stuff that I’ve done. In conclusion, my experiences freshman year in Foundations of Art were fantastic, and I honestly would not change a thing about it!