Foundations of Art

Last year, due to covid, I had to be an online student. Because of this, I was unable to take foundations of art last year which meant that I had to take it sophomore year. Even though this is a required class, I also knew that I wanted to take this class because art has always been a huge part of my life and I knew that it was something that I wanted to learn more about and get better at. I knew that through this class I would learn a lot of various topics about art, but I also came out of it with a better understanding of my capabilities and drive to want to create art on a more personal level.

My artwork illustrates my strengths as an artist and student through my scratchboard of my dog and mixed media design of my cat. Both of these pieces are the ones that I am most proud of creating this year. I felt that through making them I got to learn a lot about myself as an artist in terms of my capabilities with how I created the artwork, and I also discovered that I really enjoy creating art pieces of animals. With both of these art pieces, I had to use materials that I had never even thought of using before. With my mixed media drawing, I had to create an image of whatever I wanted using charcoal and ink. I found that both of these materials were extremely difficult to use due to how unforgiving they were, and I ended up having to restart the project a couple of times. However, through perseverance, I was able to fully finish the piece while also being left satisfied with the finished result. My scratchboard design of my dog wasn’t something that I found to be difficult to create, however, what took me a while to get used to was adding light rather than shadows. In many instances, it felt like my brain was working backward. Through the process of creating it, I was able to learn how to create something while working with adding light rather than taking it away. Another thing that I had to use to create both of these pieces was the gridding method. This is where you create a grid on the image that you are recreating and add a grid to the paper that you’re drawing on. This allowed me to focus on one area of the picture at a time, which allowed me to create a more realistic representation of the picture. Two art pieces of mine that illustrate my weaknesses as an artist are the linear perspective and wire sculptures. For the linear perspective drawing the goal was to pick a hallway or room and draw it using 1 point perspective. We did this by using a centered circle and drawing various horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines based on where that was placed. I struggled with this project because I had a hard time visualizing and figuring out where to draw the line from the centered circle in order to create the illusion at hand. The other thing that I really struggled with was the wire sculpture assignment. I found wire to be very difficult to work with and I also struggled with making the links between the wires. This affected how my work looked in terms of giving it a realistic look in relation to the object that inspired it. Throughout the course of this class, I improved my knowledge of various ways of creating art. I started out in foundations with only really knowing how to create something with pencils and paper, but by the end, I learned how to draw, paint, scratch, carve and sculpt various art pieces, and with that, I was able to expand my creative thinking and technical skills.

The most challenging project for me this year was wire sculpture. The assignment for this project was to create a 3D realistic sculpture made out of relatively small black wire by using fish hook connections. Since I had never used wire before, I found it to be really difficult to make the connections and then for the shapes that needed to be formed. Due to my struggle with the connections, it was very difficult to make my sculpture sturdy enough to stand up straight without any slouchy bends. Another thing that I struggled with that also affected my other struggles with this sculpture was the materials that I needed to use for this project. When it came to using the pliers for completing the fish hook connections, I found myself having to squeeze as hard as I could which made this project physically difficult. Throughout the course of the project, I would have to take breaks in order to let my hands have a break because of how bad they would hurt after applying so much pressure. Even though this project was extremely difficult I am happy that I now have experience with using wire and experience with creating sculptures. The project that I am most proud of from this class was my scratchboard of my dog. This project was my favorite piece that I have created all year because it was the most realistic and fun piece to create. It was also the art piece that I felt I learned the most from. With scratchboard, I was tasked with having to add in the light rather than take it away. With all of my projects leading up to this one, I was adding shadows and taking away light, so this project really made me have to switch my thinking around. It felt a lot like working backward which was hard to adjust to at first. I am particularly proud of this project because I think that it is the one that looks the most detailed and life-like compared to all of my other art pieces. I’m also proud of it because at first, I was really scared to start this piece because of how unforgiving scratchboard is, but the outcome really shows how much I persevered through it.

In terms of my artistic goals for the summer, I really want to keep creating art on a regular basis and apply the skills that I have learned throughout this year. Due to the fact that I have what feels like an endless amount of time to create art, I want to create pieces that have a lot of detail in them so that way I can really see what I am capable of. Some specific materials that I want to apply to my artwork over the summer are scratchboard as well as painting because those are my two favorite things to work with. In regards to my artistic goals for the future, I plan on taking more art classes throughout my last two years of high school. I have already signed up to take 2D design next year, and I’m still considering signing up to take 3D design as well, with the intention of taking AP art and design during my senior year of high school. Art is something that I really enjoy and something that I think is super important in everyone's academic lifestyle. I want to keep learning and growing as an artist so that way I can one day create art on my own and share it with others around me. Also, my mother is an artist and I’ve found that throughout my learning with art, we have grown closer in that part of our lives, and it’s really fun to talk about and create art with her.

To conclude, throughout foundations of art, I learned a lot about the history of art and the different genres, as well as many different ways of creating art such as pencil drawing, color drawing, painting, sculpting, scratching, carving, printing, drawing with charcoal, and using ink. With that, I also grew tremendously as an artist in terms of my creative and critical thinking, as well as my capabilities with materials and design. Aside from the artistic aspects of this course, I learned a lot about time management and preserving through difficult projects. I found myself many times at the beginning of the year getting really stressed out due to the lack of time that I felt I had to complete a project. By the end of the year, I was able to easily manage my time around completing my art projects so that they would not only be done on time, but so that they were also done well. Despite the obstacles I faced I was able to push through and end up with great experiences, new knowledge, and a great start to my art portfolio. I plan to continue to create art and apply my creative thinking skills to everyday life thanks to foundations of art.