Foundations of Art

Final Written Reflection: 

My work over the course of this year definitely illustrates my strengths and weaknesses as a learner. I learned that I struggle with projects when given less instruction and more freedom. For example, when creating the art history-inspired project I had trouble with creating a project that was more open-ended and had less structure. I found it difficult to come up with an idea and learned that I prefer projects when I'm told specifically what to do instead of having to come up with a completely unique idea myself.  My work over the course of this year also illustrates that in general, I do well with deadlines and manage my time well.  I very rarely turned work in late and almost always had my project done by the deadline. There were many times when I had to take my work home to finish it and spent a lot of time on it at home. This was a big commitment and I didn't always feel like putting in the extra time at home to finish something but I was always glad I did. I learned a lot about myself as a learner from this class as well as myself as an artist. 

I think my art very clearly shows how I have improved this year. Looking at our first projects from the year compared to the last ones you can tell that my art improved immensely. You can tell that I started spending more time on my art and putting in more effort. Throughout the year I learned that rushing your art will not benefit you and it's best to take your time, especially since I'm not the most naturally talented at art in general. I also learned and practiced basic skills like shading, and blending, and learned how to make my art look balanced. I learned a lot over the course of the year and my art definitely reflects that. The projects I did at the beginning of the year look rushed, incomplete, and simple. While my projects towards the end of the year are more creative and look more complete. 

For me, the most challenging project was the candy still life. I struggled with this because I hadn't done very much realistic drawing so I kind of had to figure out how to best do that. Because it was so realistic and I hadn't done very much of that before, this project took me FOREVER and I ended up taking it home and working on it for an extra 10 hours outside of class. It was also difficult because it was with colored pencils, which made this project take me even longer and I had to learn how to blend and shade with them which I struggled with. The labels on the candy also turned into quite a bump in the road.  Matching the fonts exactly to what they looked like on the wrapper was quite a struggle. I erased and redrew things so many times and pushed too hard with my pencil, which led to you being able to see lines from where I was pushing too hard. I definitely learned a lot about myself and realistic art during this project, for example, I know that realism is not my strong suit, especially when using colored pencils, but I also learned a lot about how to draw realistically and was pushed outside of my comfort zone quite a bit which I'm grateful for.

I'm most proud of my mixed-media drawing because it was a project that put me very far out of my comfort zone. I had never worked with charcoal before, especially on this large of a scale. This project took me a long time and it was very difficult at first when I was figuring out how to use charcoal. I struggled with smudging, and blending the sections I did together, especially in the sky, resulting in each individual square being visible.  As I mentioned, the scale of this project also made things difficult, It took me a long time to complete mainly just because of how large it was. I was working in small sections and it was very tedious to complete while making sure things looked realistic. This brings me to my next point, which is, that I found it very difficult to make my art look realistic with the charcoal. It was a material I had never worked with before and it was definitely a learning experience as I figured out how to use the material. Therefore, this project was very new and difficult for me but I'm proud of how it turned out and I think I was pushed very far outside of my comfort zone. 

 My artistic goals for the summer/future are pretty bleak. I don't plan on doing any large art projects over the summer but I will probably continue my small hobbies like watercolor over the course of the summer because that is something I enjoy.  Next year I plan on taking art history which I'm sure will be a challenge but also really interesting. In junior year I plan on taking ceramics 1 and 2 because in general ceramics is something I really enjoy doing.  After high school, I don't really see art being something that's a huge part of my life career-wise but I think it will continue to be something I do as a hobby.