Foundations of Art

Foundations Of Art Reflection

I think that this year in foundations of art has really brought out my strengths and weaknesses. One material that I think I struggled with this year was using wire. I found this very hard because I found all the structures that I made with this ended up lopsided. I think that this was because my connections were tighter in some places rather than in others, which made the wire different lengths. I also found it hard to write on wire sculptures. I found this hard because it was tough to connect the letters to the sculpture itself. Another area that I think I struggled in this year was making large drawings like self-portraits and our mixed media drawings. One area that I struggled with in this was taking that original image and transferring it into one cohesive drawing. For these two projects, we used the gridding method. I think that it was tough for me to mix all of the grids together. One area that I think I really excelled in was creating works using simple materials like colored pencils. One project that I was very proud of was part of my duck stamp with the sunset. For this sunset, I was able to create the ideal sunset using colored pencils. I think that this showed my skills with colored pencils because the color is very clear and very accurate while you cannot see individual marks. I think that I also showed how determined I was as a person. One project that I think I determined this was during the printmaking unit. I was able to show determination through working outside of class and accepting mistakes. For this unit, I think that I created forty or so prints and turned four of them into final prints. I also showed determination through painting. For my paintings, I think that I worked about five hours outside of class on each one. I think that this shows through the detail, pure color showing many layers, and the neatness and uniqueness of each and every one.

One way that I think you can see my work has improved is it has gotten more texturized because I have gone from making 2-D works to making 3-D works. This shows improvement because as you start to work with 3D art you start to take into account movement throughout the art. One example of this was during the assemblage project I needed to position my robot's arms in a strategic position so he was posing the way that I wanted him to pose. I think that my work also improved throughout the year because I was able to use more materials overall but also use more materials in individual projects. For example, at the beginning of the year, most of my things were basically all colored pencils but as the year progressed I was able to combine units like ink work and markers. This shows progression because in printmaking the unit's works already take quite a long time because you have to work the ink and smooth it out but then on top of that you also need to add things like marker or colored pencil. My work progressed tremendously because I was able to create different ranges of value. I think that this was especially apparent through my mixed media drawing because you saw different shades of graphite. At the beginning of the year, I was just using colored pencils with one smooth crisp color all the way through but I eventually saw improvement in this area because when I used colored pencils the whitespace between the color was eliminated.

I would say that the most challenging project was the wire sculpture project. I would say that this was the most challenging because it was tough to even get the sculpture to stand. I also would say that it was tough because mine kept coming out lopsided since when you squeezed the wire and got all the air out from the connections one piece of wire might end up longer than the other. Also, this project was tough because some of the air you just couldn’t get out between your connections and this led to the wire on the sides sliding around. Lastly, this project was very tough because I had trouble attaching the lettering of the sculpture. I found this challenging because I had so much writing and I knew I couldn’t bend wire that small so I ended up abbreviating most of the writing. Even though I did this it was tough to get the writing to fit because my sculpture was small and my letters were considerably larger.

One goal that I have for my art future comes in my junior year. During the next school year in either semester, I would like to take ceramics. I think that ceramics would be fun because I like making three-dimensional art. I found it fun to make my assemblage sculpture which I know is much different compared to clay work. I would also like to take ceramics because I didn’t really like the clay unit we did this year in sgraffito design. I think that the way I would like to work with clay is instead of carving it I would like to build things with it which I know can be accomplished in ceramics class. Another thing that I would like to continue to do is to make sketches of professional athletes. I would like to continue to do this because I have a passion for sports and drawing gives me a sense of relaxation. One ultimate goal associated with this might be to submit one of these sketches to a competition in final form. I would maybe consider submitting to the donate life competition again with a sports-themed work.