This is the first still life I've done with oil paint, and it was more of a challenge then I expected. I started with the foreground which Is part of the problem that I had with this piece, it ended up being super flat looking, and there's a weird contrast from the background because of the shading in the objects in the front compared to the lack there of in the background. Overall though this piece turned out pretty good and I liked the realism I was able to achieve in the pepper and the red onion.
Landscape Watercolor Project:
This project started with several different landscapes all with rivers and lakes, because I knew I wanted to do a river scene or something with water. I think my main success with this piece was the multiple textures I was able to achieve with the trees, rocks, grass, and clouds. The main problems I had with this piece was the bleeding together of the colors mainly in the sky, the clouds and sky colors bled into each other and kind of created a bizarre texture. Another issue I had with this piece was that the paper kept getting pulled up by the masking fluid, so I had some rolling of the damaged paper once water got on those parts. Overall I think this piece was a success though, and I learned a lot about creating natural colors with watercolor while doing it.
Hundertwasser/Klimt Painting Project
To start this project I did a paragraph on the two artists Hundertwasser and Klimt, so that I could learn a little but about the artists and get a background on the art style I was going to be inspired by. I then did 6 sketches to figure out the style that I wanted to do, which ended up leaning more towards the Hundertwasser style rather than the Klimt style. Then I did two colored sketches to figure out my composition.
This project was successful for me and was one of my favorite units in art class. I had a lot of fun with the style, because there is room for error and the childlike colors and patterns were really playful and fun to do. When doing the compositions in color, I knew I wanted to do lots of color and bright pastels. I made sure that when the sky was blue, to contrast it with warm colors in the buildings, trees and the pathway cutting through it. If there were any issues in this project, I would say that the border didn't come out the way I had imagined. I wanted the eyes to look very simple so that they would tie in with the rest of the piece, but they ended up looking a little bit childish and somewhat different in style as well. Some things that went well with this piece however, was that the sky had a really cool effect on the rest of the piece, and the colors I chose in this piece I feel tied well together and made it reminiscent of Hundertwasser. Though most of my inspiration came from Hundertwasser, I made sure to include some elements of Klimts' style with the gold and silver sharpie highlights throughout the whole piece. Overall this piece was very successful, and I learned a lot about the art style that inspires me the most.
Landscape Oil Painting
These are two progress pictures for my landscape oil painting.
Animal Portrait
This piece was my second animal portrait this semester, so I was a little too practiced in doing the fur texture with Prisma. I painted my friend Jill's dog, Luna. This piece took me a long time and it was very difficult to create the fur texture with the oil paint. But at the end I was able to get the proportions a little bit better to create a much more realistic portrait. I used several layers to create the depth and layered fur that I did, and I made sure to get the eyes as life like as possible before focusing on anything else in the piece. My favorite part about this piece is the background and how it makes the warm tones in the dog pop and contrasts with the blue. I learned a lot through the process of this piece because I hadn't done fur with paint before so I really focused on mastering this technique, and It was a super helpful skill to have. Overall I think this piece was a success and I'm really glad I chose the medium that I did.
Reflection:
Starting painting was intimidating for me because paint has always been the medium that I struggle with, and had what I felt like to be the least control of. I've always enjoyed drawing and I feel like I had better control of pencils and pens. However wanting to broaden my skill and challenge myself I decided to take this class. I ended up not having as much trouble as I thought and doing practice with small projects like the fruit and still life. I feel like I've improved in this class, and that was really important to me to be able to do before graduating this year. Some of the things I learned in this class were how to use brush strokes to convey fur texture with my dog portrait, I also was able to learn some more about watercolor which had always been the worst medium for me. I also had art 4 this semester so it was really helpful to be able to transfer some of my new skills from this class into that one and vice versa. The class environment in painting was so friendly and I was motivated to learn new techniques despite being a little bit burnt out throughout the day because of my first period art class. Overall this class was amazing and I learned so much about a subject that I've wanted to learn about for a long time. I absolutely loved coming to this class knowing that I was going to learn something new every day while still having a really great time socially with my friends. I wish I could take this class again and keep learning about painting.