Art class has always been one of my favorite classes ever since I was in elementary school. I always loved making artwork and I would look forward to the class every day. That's what influenced my choice into joining the Foundations of Art class, and I'm extremely happy with my decision because I feel like I've grown so much as an artist. I came into this class knowing little about the artwork, I just knew I liked to paint and draw, but now I'm coming out of the class knowing so many different principals and styles of art.

Out of all of the artworks I've made in my year, I absolutely loved my self-portrait. That was definitely one of my proudest pieces of work that I ever made and I was super happy with the outcome. I used different types of charcoal to make my piece and I wasn't too familiar with this material. I had only just started using it because my class was introduced to it. At first, It was pretty difficult and hard to work with. Charcoal is way different from graphite and it can come in different forms. I mostly used black in the form of a pencil and white charcoal though. I actually really liked using white charcoal, because I used this for highlights and that strengthened my whole work altogether. I made a piece of artwork before my self-portrait that I wasn't that satisfied with. Using charcoal is time-consuming, and I guess towards the end, I sort of gave up. With my self-portrait, I was determined to put in the best work that I was satisfied with, and I never gave up. When I had questions, I asked my peers and teacher for help. I wanted to give charcoal another try because I first attempt was not my best work. I think the self-portrait was super accurate to the photo I was referencing it to, and to make sure, I asked some people who they thought the person in the artwork was and all of them said me.

I can confidently say that Quarter three was my least favorite Quarter out of the year. This was because the projects became very difficult for me to make. These projects include my Scratchboard, Sgraffito Tile, Linoleum Prints, and Representational Wire Sculpture. The first three projects mostly focused on carving out negative space, and I wasn't used to that. I wasn't satisfied with any of the work I made because they were very time-consuming and were super difficult to make. I was having a hard time scratching out areas and I wanted it to look the best it could, but that didn't happen. When making my tile, parts kept chipping out when I was carving and that got me very stressed out. The Linoleum Print was supposed to make an ink print that represented my friend and I, but carving out details was extremely difficult, so I had to alter my design and make it more simple, and I wasn't proud of the outcome because It wasn't what I was expecting. The scratchboard design was another project that was difficult for me. I had to carve out negative space, and my picture that was representing my scratchboard had lots of details making it hard for me to carve out. The wire sculpture was a nightmare for me. I was having a hard time connecting wire to each other because it would stand up straight, but fall if I moved it the slightest. I tried adding so much support, but the places where my wire was connecting just weren't strong enough, and I couldn't make them any stronger. I used lots of fish hook techniques using pliers, and my hands got super sore because of how hard I was trying to get a piece of wire to bend, or connect that I lost so much motivation. My project turned out to be lopsided, it wasn't that sturdy and it didn't have a pleasant presentation. Because these projects were challenging, I wasn't having really any fun making them and my motivation went down towards the end of the year.

I definitely think these experiences with working on projects that I was satisfied with and weren't strengthened me as a learner. I learned so much about art techniques and different types of artwork. I came into the class knowing I loved art, but not sure why. Now I know, what types of artwork I like to make and why I like it. One technique I used a lot throughout the class was patterning. I used it in almost every artwork I made. I loved how something so simple like circles and different types of shapes/symbols could make a piece of artwork stand out. I used materials that I wasn't familiar with before like Charcoal, Oil pastels, and Wire. Experimenting with different materials let me figure out what artwork I enjoy making and what I don't. Looking at my artwork, I can see that my strengths show when painting and drawing, and my weaknesses are towards the more 3D projects that take more time. When something takes too long, I don't want to do it anymore because I lose interest, and that can be shown with my Scratchboard, Sgraffito Tile, Linoleum Prints, and Representational Wire Sculpture projects. I also can see that in my Mixed Media project, I was just learning how to use charcoal and Ink so that influenced how my Self-Portrait (made with the same materials) came out because I was more familiar with the resources I used and became more comfortable with them.

Looking at the beginning of the year to now, I can tell that I grew as an artist because of how weak my art was because I wasn't too sure how to make it. Middle school was all about having fun while doing art but in high school, its more about learning new techniques and principals of art which can influence the fun that you can get while making art. I can see that my art became more strong with the more knowledge I learned over this year and overall, I'm super happy with how this class has changed me as an artist.