Art 1 Final Portfolio

1. Which project was your favorite or most successful this semester? Explain. My landscape painting was my favorite and most successful piece this semester. I changed the painting a lot from my reference picture and I think it turned out better because I did that. I used a lot layering and blending colors to create the sky and the hills in the background. The trees in the foreground were a little tough because I've always had trouble making anything look realistic. I used a lot of different browns and I even added some red-brown for a pop of color. I also used different sized brushes to create different thicknesses in the branches. I could have added a little more detail, but I like the way my painting turned out anyway. The highlights and low lights on the branches really make the trees stand out against the background. All in all, this piece was my favorite and most successful because I used a lot of techniques such as blending and using values to bring the painting to life.

2. Regardless of whether you liked or disliked a project, which one did you learn, grow, or developed the most from? Explain. I didn't necessarily like or dislike this project; I just thought it was really hard. I was never good at drawing people or faces so I was scared to do this project. By tracing values I actually got the different shapes in the face and that made it a lot easier to draw the person. I'm really proud of how this piece turned out because I didn't think I would be able to do it at first. This was one of my earlier projects, so I learned that I can do anything as long as I try. I grew by using different techniques. This helped because was able to use these same techniques in my later projects. I think I developed the most from this project because I learned the most from it.






3. Choose one piece of art that you used skills and techniques learned from previous projects. Discuss your growth as an artist and how you incorporated these skills and techniques to create the piece. My game drawing including skills such as drawing in perspective, using watercolor, using values, and blending colors. This was the final project for drawing in perspective, but we practiced using horizon lines and vanishing points in sketches in class. This was not the first time I used watercolor, but it was the first time I did washes. I used regular watercolor before on my landmark stencil. Doing washes of watercolor means adding water and making it really light. We also did washes later on in our clay tiles. Values is one of the most important things that we learned in this course. In this project we used different colors as different values. For example, in the castle game piece, I used light blue, dark blue, and purple instead of just using different shades of the same blue for values. This was not the first time we used different colors. We also used different colors as values in our anamorphosis drawing and in our oil pastel drawing. Blending is also very important. It makes the colors flow together and look less harsh. I blended every time we had different values, so almost in every project. As an artist, I feel like I still have room to grow, but this project used almost every skill I've learned in this class, and that helped me put everything together so now I know what I need to work on.



4. Which project do you feel was the least important in learning the concepts taught in this course? Explain. Although I liked this project, I felt like it didn't go along with what was being taught in the course as well as the other projects did. The project was made up of a collage, watercolor, and spray paint. The stencil used to spray paint was one of the only things that went along with the course because I had to use positive and negative space to create the landmark. The other thing was the color choice. I had to use colors that looked good together for the watercolor, the spray painted background, and the spray painted stencil. I ended up choosing green, purple, and white as my colors because they all contrast very well. I think this project is the least important in learning the concepts taught in the course because we used spray paint, and this is the only project that involved spray paint. The other projects could all be tied together with a similarity like using values.Overall, I just feel like this project didn't fit it with the others.

5. Choose a piece of artwork where the subject matter reflects you as an artist. One that you have a personal connection to. Explain. Many of my projects had similar themes and color schemes. My landscape painting used fall colors like the ones of the leaves of my tile. My print making composition was also a bird, but it was a parrot and not a cardinal like the one on my tile. I think these similar themes and color schemes reflect who I am as an artist. My personal connection to this is that I really like fall colors and being able to incorporate those colors into my artwork is really nice. It's nice to have something to tie all of your pieces together, and not just have a bunch of random projects. I probably worked the hardest on this project because it took so much time and effort to put in the little details. I like how the clay turned out after it was fired in the kiln and how using a burnt sienna wash made the colors stand out more. Overall, I'm really proud of how the piece turned out, and that's all you can really hope for.