Foundations of Art

My work shows my strengths as a learner because there is a clear improvement in artistic ability (excluding sculpting projects) over the year. Overall ability and skill in art definitely improved greatly and my art got a lot better as the year progressed. Another strength is I tried my best in every project, even if I hated the material or it was not coming out how I wanted. Weaknesses can be seen in some technical skills. Mistakes in value strips, late turn ins for artsonia or artist statements, and some messy pieces shows some inconsistency in my work, time management and responsibility.

My work shows how I have improved because my artistic ability became stronger and I was able to generate and execute better ideas overall. I also became more confident in art and was able to use materials that I never thought I would. For example, even something as simple as acrylic paint was something that I have never really used and it quickly became my favorite material from the whole year. There was also a clear improvement in techniques, ex. color pencils did not look as patchy and bad. Another example is the self portrait. The first self portrait was not very realistic and looked very sketchy, and the second was a look more realistic and looked a lot better.

The most challenging project was definitely the wire sculpture. I hated it for many reasons. It hurt my hands, the tools were hard to use, it was hard to mold the wire into the shape I wanted, hard to make it tight enough to stand, basically every aspect of that project was very difficult for me. I ended up using a softer wire which definitely helped a lot, but I still found it extremely challenging and the hat I made was nowhere near as good as I hoped. Another project I found difficult was the assemblage project. It seems like the more hands-on projects where you have to use different materials to build are what I struggle with. It is definitely hard to master being good at using your hands.

I am most proud of a couple projects so I will just write them all. First off, I really liked my space leaf project. It was the first project at the time that I really liked the result and I had a lot of fun making it. I really love how all the colors look together and the added element of the leaves just looks so cool. Next, I loved how my 84 color project came out. That was my first time using acrylic paint and I immediately loved it. After all the time spent mixing colors, adding layers, and designing what I wanted to make in the first place it was a very rewarding experience that came out exactly how I hoped. Lastly, I am proud of my final project. It is a simple sunset made of acrylic paint and canvas, but, as I said before, I love using acrylics and I love how nice and blended and textured you can make it. My painting is of a hill with a sunset and I like how seamlessly blending it looks and how relaxing it is.

My artistic goals for the future are to paint and paint and paint. I recently got some acrylics and canvases that I made a sunset with (similar to the one I painted for my final project) and I want to experiment with all sorts of colors and textures. Something I would like to do this summer is find a pretty lake or beach or landscape and stay there the whole day and just paint exactly what I see. I find painting to be therapeutic. I want my paintings to become more realistic and be able to add details while still looking soft.