What three skills or techniques have improved the most for you this semester?

This semester, I improved on drawing people/figures/facial features, creating depth, and achieving accurate proportions. I spent a lot of time drawing figures in my sketchbook assignments, in my portrait, and in my final acrylic painting. It used to be one of my weak points, but I think I’m much stronger at it now. I also used to struggle with creating depth, especially without blending. The pastel was a good practice for me and helped me to understand how to use the values themselves to achieve depth and dimension. I also had some difficulty in all my work with getting accurate proportions, but over time, I think I improved a lot, especially in my self-portrait. 

Which project pushed you outside your comfort zone and what did you learn from that challenge?

The project that pushed me the most was the pulled self portrait. I have always struggled so much with faces. Last year, my self portrait looked nothing like me, so I was definitely not too excited to start this one. It was challenging to use the eraser instead of a pencil/charcoal stick in the beginning, and I had to restart many features many, many times. However, I think that it actually ended up looking pretty good, and helped me to practice patience and improve a lot.

How did your planning and revision process change over the semester?

Over time, my planning got a lot more detailed as I realized how much you needed to plan for before starting. You have to take into consideration the colors, arrangement, background, and materials. In my self portrait, as I mentioned previously, I had to start over on the eyes a ton of times. While frustrating in the moment, I think it really paid off. (Photo 3 Progress Photo)

Analyze one peer’s piece that influenced you. What specific visual elements or ideas did you take from it?

I really like how she painted the hands and soil, because you can really see the depth of them. It really looks like the hands are holding a pile of soil. 

Identify a technical weakness you still notice across your work (e.g., perspective, edges, proportion, color mixing). How might you address this in the future?

I think she could’ve used a background of some point to emphasize the hands and make them pop. Since the hands and background are light, they kind of get washed together. I will make sure to always put thought into the background, because it can always tie a piece together. 

I am most proud of my self portrait and my large pastel. I made the most improvement on self-portrait drawing from last year, and I think my pastel looks very pretty.  People who looked at my portrait knew it was me right away before they knew it was actually me. I worked really hard on making the highlights, lowlights, and midlights contrast in the correct places, and I think it was effective. I paid attention to the little details, especially in the eyes and ears, I think. I used the medium well, using the eraser and powder for the bigger values, and the deeper vine charcoal for the places like the eyebrows, which I also think was effective. In my pastel, I think the colors look really good, especially because I emphasized it as an underpainting. The color contributed to the 3D effect because the orange and blue combinations helped to make a deeper color for the depth and the white made nice highlights. This piece really helped me to grow as an artist because I learned about color theory, dimension, line work, and new medium!When people see my art, I want them to feel happy. I like using bright colors and happy moments, like ones from childhood, to make the art feel warm and joyful. I think a lot of my art achieved that, like my teatime one, my Big Ben one, my acrylic painting, the flowers, and me as a kid.