Art 2 Final Exam
For the following questions Choose 1 or 2 pieces of artwork created this semester that reflect the question. You must answer each question using 8 – 10 sentences minimum and Art vocabulary. Your answers must justify your opinions and statements.
Look at your body of work over the semester and choose 2 pieces that show your growth as an artist. Discuss each piece and how you grew in the following areas: application of materials, techniques and skills, artistic vision, use of the principles and elements, creativity, intuition and subject matter.
While I don't think it looks at all like something Monet painted like it was meant to, I'm not a painter, so it even finishing my painting of the beach makes me proud of my growth. When painting by myself, I almost always start out with brushes and then it turns into a finger painting with something unrecognizable full of extra canvas space. I resisted resorting to my fingers and filled up everything this time! It was really fun and new to me to use a limited color pallet for something with so many different values. Probably my favorite thing I took away from this was painting what I saw rather than what I knew was there. I usually hate observational paintings, but this was fun and a good thing to practice. Even though it was an observational piece, I still got to be creative with the colors, mixing paint to get the right colors without black or brown. Because darker shades were limited, I also had to get creative with showing depth. There were a lot of times where I had to remind myself to paint what I saw, rather than applying what I already knew about creating depth, and instead giving the impression of it.
I really benefitted from doing my Baba Yaga house pen drawing. I love using pen, as it usually looks very sharp. We used lots of techniques and textures that I knew about but disliked using in all the practice pieces, but it was definitely a good thing we went through all of them, because there were areas in my drawing that could reflect them well. There were lots of benefits from learning how to apply different techniques. Besides the techniques I learned how to apply, something that was a challenge for me was the subject itself. I draw almost only people. I had been practicing different perspectives before this project, but not on structures or plantlife. I also struggle with backgrounds. I learned how to make a background without taking away from the subject, which is very important for full pieces. It's probably the main hurdle I face when I try to make full drawings. I think my drawing was very successful though, so I think I was really able to apply everything I learned.
Look over the portfolios of other students in our class. Choose a piece of artwork from one of your classmates that you feel is an exemplary showcase of what the project was to depict. Discuss how the artist used the medium, utilized the elements of art and design principles, was original with their ideas and went beyond their comfort zone or the realm of the requirements. Make sure you have the image of their artwork along with their name (first name only) posted with this response. Also include a link to their portfolio.
I couldn't pick just one, so hopefully two are okay. I only have one picture since Olivia's collage photo wasn't loading, but I know it's there because I saw it earlier, though I'm not sure if it was finished or not. It might load on the website [link], but at the moment I can't put the picture here. When it loads for me, I'll post the picture, but for now the website will have to do.
The first piece I thought was really amazingly done definitely has to be Olivia's collage. Even unfinished, it was amazing. I think that for a high school project that would only last a few weeks it was very ambitious, but what she got done was really, really well done. Olivia used really tiny pieces of solid colored paper to make a flower field. you can barely tell when one piece cuts off and another overlaps it, because it's so smoothly crafted. It looks more like a painting than a collage. She shows value and transitions really well in this piece. The colors are really smooth, and it feels like if I look at it long enough it'll be like I'm there. My favorite part of it is the gap of sunlight through the cloudy day.
The second piece I thought was worth putting here is Sean's Basquiat inspired painting. It looks like it was fun to do, and it was also very accurate in style. The strokes look hard, fast, and aggressively painted on. The colors also surprisingly go well together (which i find a lot of in Basquiat's art as well), and nothing looks out of place, scary faces over the flowers and all. The addition of the crown was also a pretty cool detail.
What medium was your favorite to work with? Explain why and how you were able to master the techniques associated with this medium.
My favorite medium this semester was pen. I mentioned it before that I'm a fan, but that what I know how to do with it is limited. It was really cool to learn how to do new things with something I've used for so long. The best part of the unit was either practicing with texture or the final project. I think it probably had the best outcome out of all the pieces I made this semester. I think I did a pretty good job with putting texture in and showing depth. Making the background nice without taking away from the main focus was the hardest part. I wanted to add a lot of detail in the trees, but after getting advice on how to do it, I was able to keep the focus where I wanted it to be.
Discuss one project where you felt you were the least successful. Explain why you felt this way. What would you do differently to change this piece? Explain .
My least successful piece was definitely the clay project. I found myself hoping that the piece that exploded had also destroyed mine. I liked my idea, but I'm not so great with clay, and wasn't able to apply what I do know all that well. I think I had a good idea, but it was executed poorly. The stem was probably the most major takeaway. I wish I either didn't include it or risked it breaking by making it much thinner. If it had broken off it wouldn't have been a big deal since i could either glue it back on or leave it off, as it would still be fine that way. I was okay with the colors I used, though. I think it was a good choice to glaze only the fruit part, and paint the rest. I wish that I could make the color of the exocarp of the lychee less saturated, but I think the coloring I went with was still fine.